Greenstein, Edward L. Job: A New Translation. New Haven: Yale UP, 2019.
From the publisher’s website:
The book of Job has often been called the greatest poem ever written. The book, in Edward Greenstein’s characterization, is “a Wunderkind, a genius emerging out of the confluence of two literary streams” which “dazzles like Shakespeare with unrivaled vocabulary and a penchant for linguistic innovation.” Despite the text’s literary prestige and cultural prominence, no English translation has come close to conveying the proper sense of the original. The book has consequently been misunderstood in innumerable details and in its main themes.
Edward Greenstein’s new translation of Job is the culmination of decades of intensive research and painstaking philological and literary analysis, offering a major reinterpretation of this canonical text. Through his beautifully rendered translation and insightful introduction and commentary, Greenstein presents a new perspective: Job, he shows, was defiant of God until the end. The book is more about speaking truth to power than the problem of unjust suffering.
Edward L. Greenstein is professor emeritus of Bible at Bar-Ilan University and a prolific, world-renowned scholar in many areas of biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies.
The Hebrew in Job 13:27 that typically is translated as “you put my feet in the stocks” or similar in English is translated in the English translation by E.L. Greenstein (2019) as “and mark my feet with lime.” Greenstein (p. 59) explains: “Reading be-sid for ba-sad ‘in stocks,’ which makes no sense: fettered feet cannot go anywhere, so they cannot be followed. Job develops the same point in 14:16.”
See also stocks.
The Hebrew in Job 14:17 that typically is translated as “bag” in English is translated in the English translation by E.L. Greenstein (2019) as “pouch.” Greenstein explains (p. 62): “If the evidencer aggawqinst Job is kept in aw pouch — asw was the ancient practive preceding a trial — Job cannot be convicted. For the image, compare Job 7:1 that typically is translated as “hard service” or similar in English is translated in the English[/tip_languaghttps://tips.translation.bible/tip_verse/hos-1312/”>Hosea 13:12.
The Hebrew in Job 6:6 that typically is translated as “juice of mallows” or similar in English is translated in the English translation by E.L. Greenstein (2019) as “juice of chubeza .” Greenstein (p. 27) explains: “A Middle Eastern herb, lacking in taste. The Hebrew word (read halamit) is known from ancient Syria (Alalakh). The term for ‘taste’ is polysemous, denoting ‘reason’ as well; see also Job 12:11 and Job 34:3. Job is telling Eliphaz that his argument is lacking in reason and that he will have none of it.”
The Hebrew in Job 1:3 that is translated as “people of the East” in English might present an obstacle to translations for people living east of Israel and that have different associations what place this refers to.
There are a at least two kinds of strategies dealing with this:
The English translation by E.L. Greenstein (2019) translates it as sons of Qedem and explains: “Qedem, ‘the East,’ is identified with the area of Harran, the Hebrew patriarchs’ homeland, in Genesis 29:1-4; see also Numbers 23:7; but here it may refer to the entire Transjordan .”
The Hebrew in Job 7:1 that typically is translated as “hard service” or similar in English is translated in the English translation by E.L. Greenstein (2019) as “fixed sentence.”
See Isaiah 40:2.
The Hebrew in Job 11:1^3 that typically is translated as “stretch out your hands toward him” or similar in English is translated in the English translation by E.L. Greenstein (2019) as “raise your palms in prayer.”