Christopher Hays, «What Sort of Friends? A New Proposal Regarding (M)y)pr and (M)ylp+ in Job 13,4», Vol. 90 (2009) 394-399
Most translations of Job 13,4 have Job calling his companions something like “smearers of a lie” and “worthless physicians”. Instead, in light of philological and comparative data, he seems to be comparing his friends to the Rephaim, and false gods. In this way, he complains that they have spoken falsely as sources of
wisdom and would mislead their hearers — just as the spirits of the dead were so often said to have done. The verse might thus be translated in this way: “You, however, are blatherers of lies, and false oracles, all of you.
What Sort of Friends?
A New Proposal Regarding (μ)yapr and (μ)ylpf in Job 13,4 (*)
rqvAylpf μta μlwaw
μklk lla yapr
In Job 13,4, most translations have Job calling his companions something like
“smearers of a lie†and “worthless physiciansâ€. Upon closer inspection, both of
those translations appear to be incorrect, and his reproaches are certainly more
difficult to understand than many commentators would have the reader believe.
To his credit, David J.A. Clines calls attention to the problem: “What exactly is
Job’s criticism of the friends? The imagery of the verse is not clearâ€(1).
1. Doctors or Rephaim?
To begin with the second charge of the indictment, lla yapr rewards
closer scrutiny. Modern commentaries (2) overwhelmingly accept the reading
of the MT (yaep]ro) and LXX (ijatai; kakw'n) (3). Most recent translations go the
same route, including the NRSV, NIV (both: “worthless physiciansâ€), and
NJPS (“quacksâ€). But this seems to be an uncritical acceptance; neither Job
commentators nor the participants in the recent discussion about Rephaim in
the Hebrew Bible have given this verse much philological attention at all. I
contend that μyaip]ro here is either an emendation or a misunderstanding of μyaipr]
(Rephaim), referring to the spirits of the dead who are known to have been
consulted for knowledge in other biblical texts, as the dead commonly were in
the ancient Near East (4). The verse’s context is full of references to death and
(*) I would like to thank Carol Newsom, David Petersen, Joel LeMon, and Matthew
Schlimm for reading and commenting on this article. Any remaining errors are entirely my
own.
(1) D.J.A. CLINES, Job 1–20 (Waco, TX 1989) 306.
(2) A representative sampling of commentaries that assume the translation “doctorsâ€
includes: S.R. DRIVER – G.B. GRAY, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of
Job (Edinburgh 1921) 121; S. TERRIEN, Job (Neuchâtel 1963) 114; G. FOHRER, Das Buch
Hiob (Gütersloh 1963) 168; M.H. POPE, Job (Garden City, NY 1965) 94; F. HESSE, Hiob
(Zürich 1978) 98; A. de WILDE, Das Buch Hiob (Leiden 1981) 238, 247; N.C. HABEL, The
Book of Job. A Commentary (Philadelphia, PA 1985) 223; J.G. JANZEN, Job (Atlanta, GA
1985) 106; J.E. HARTLEY, The Book of Job (Grand Rapids, MI 1987) 219; R.L. ALDEN, Job
(Nashville, TN 1993) 156-157; C. NEWSOM, “Jobâ€, The New Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville,
TN 1996) IV, 433; N. WHYBRAY, Job (Sheffield 1998) 74; S.E. BALENTINE, Job (Macon,
GA 2006) 208-209.
(3) The LXX’s translation of the whole phrase is quite loose: “ijatroi; a[dikoi kai; ijatai;
kakwnâ€. Some doubt is cast on the LXX’s understanding here by the fact that ijatroiv is also
'
used to translate μyapr in Isa 26,14 and Ps 88,11 (LXX 87,11), where the Rephaim are
clearly meant (see below). The Vulgate, in an obvious exegetical move, alters the phrase to
cultores perversorum dogmatum, “cultivators of perverse doctrinesâ€.
(4) In the Hebrew Bible, when the dead are invoked for necromantic purposes, they go
by specialized terminology such as μyfa (Isa 19,3) and twbwa (Lev 19,31, etc.). The term
μyapr is typically employed in instances of polemic against the power of the dead (cf. Ps
88,11.13), as here. The locus classicus for Israelite necromancy is, of course, Saul’s
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