Well, I have finished reading the first two chapters of Job in the MT and the LXX with some spot readings from the Peshitta along the way. I’m struck by differences between the LXX and MT, particularly the plus in LXX Job 2:9, which I will comment on later. However, the differences do strike me as differences on the translation level not the textual level, which has already been observed by many (cf. the NETS translation and Cox’s introduction to Job).
However, I’m more impressed with the simplicity of the Greek translation of the difficult Hebrew text. Job 3:3b offers a short example. The Hebrew poetry commences in chapter 3 and with it comes a whole host of syntactical difficulties. In 3:3b alone, the Hebrew text reads: והלילה אמר הרה גבר. The text is translated as follows: and the night [which] he said a man was conceived. There are two verbs in the stichos with no conjunctions to define their relationship to one another. However, this is a common construction in Hebrew poetry called an asyndetic relative clause. But how do we know to read the text in this way? Read the rest of this entry »
