The Anchor Yale Bible: Job (AYB)
Overview
This third edition on the book of Job contains numerous new, revised, or augmented notes. Of special interest is the inclusion of readings from the earliest translation of the book of Job, the recently published Targum (Aramaic translation) recovered from Cave XI of Khirbet Qumran, in the Judean wilderness near the Dead Sea, perhaps the version which was suppressed by Rabbi Gamaliel.
The book of Job is one of the indisputably great works of world literature. The story is well-known: a prosperous and happy man, distinguished for rectitude and piety, falls victim to a series of catastrophes. And the occasion (if not the reason) for these undeserved calamities: Satan’s challenge to Yahweh to test the sincerity of Job’s faith.
It is by now proverbial to refer to the patience of Job. Yet this traditional image derives only from the prologue and the epilogue of the book. The Job who confronts us in the long middle section is anything but patient. His outcries against God raise the question of theodicy, or divine justice, which occupies the greater portion of Job’s dialogue with his comforters.
But it is inevitable, as literature, that Job must be read and enjoyed. This translation is marked by a concerted effort to capture as much as possible the poetic and metrical characteristics of the original Hebrew: the result is a version notable for its accuracy and directness. The experience of reading the book of Job in this translation, then, is to rediscover an exceedingly eloquent masterpiece. In the terse, rhythmic quality of the translation, the incisive comprehensiveness of the introduction and notes, Job maintains a high standard of scholarship, literateness, and readability.
Logos Bible Software gives you the tools you need to use this volume effectively and efficiently. With your digital library, you can search for verses, find Scripture references and citations instantly, and perform word studies. Along with your English translations, all Scripture passages are linked to Greek and Hebrew texts. What’s more, hovering over a Scripture reference will instantly display your verse! The advanced tools in your digital library free you to dig deeper into one of the most important contributions to biblical scholarship in the past century!
- Offers original translations, including alternative translations, annotations, and variants
- Provides verse-by-verse commentary on the text
- Presents the reader with historical background, including analysis of authorship and dating
- Features an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary literature
Top Highlights
“Yahweh apparently knows that the Satan takes a dim view of mankind and is convinced that every man has his price or his breaking point. There is something of taunt and provocation in Yahweh’s query; he appears confident that in Job he has a winner, one who will prove the Satan wrong. What would be the value of such a victory?” (Page 11)
“The basic meaning is ‘correct.’ The almost identical expression occurs in 1 Sam 23:23 where RSV renders ‘sure information.’ Delitzsch notes that objective truth and subjective truthfulness are blended in the notion of what is ‘correct’; he suggests that the correct elements of Job’s speeches were his denying that sin is always punished with affliction and his holding fast to his innocence despite his friends’ attack. God approved this sort of truthfulness rather than the dissembling of the friends who could not admit Job’s innocence without upsetting their neat system of doctrine.” (Page 350)
“The term ‘Watcher’ (ʿîr) applied to certain members of the heavenly court in Dan 4:13(10), 17(14), 23(20), may also reflect the royal spy system. In Dan 4:17 the Watchers and Holy Ones give the decree against Nebuchadnezzar, but it is made clear, Dan 4:24, that they are only acting as agents of the Most High. Here their function is not that of spies or vigilantes, but as prosecutors, as is the Satan in Zech 3:1; cf. Ps 109:6.” (Page 11)
“New Year’s Day is the time of the preliminary judgment, when the good are immediately inscribed in the book of life and the wicked are blotted out. For those who are in-between, neither good nor bad, there is a period of grace until the Day of Atonement and then in a final judgment those fates previously undecided are fixed in accordance with each one’s repentance.” (Page 9)
- Title: Job
- Author: Marvin H. Pope
- Edition: Third
- Series: Anchor Yale Bible (AYB)
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication Date: 1965
- Pages: 504
