by Stephen Mitchell, 1979, with Introduction 1987
A translation of the book of Job, but he doesn’t include Elihu, saying that it was a later addition and of inferior writing. He also leaves out Chapter 28, the Hymn to Wisdom.
He calls God the “Voice in the Whirlwind.” In his Introduction, he talks about the prologue where God talks with Satan (the Accuser), that “Compared to Job’s laments (not to mention the Voice from the Whirlwind), the world of the prologue is two-dimensional, and its divinities are very small potatoes.” And, “No, the god of the prologue is left behind as utterly as the never-again-mentioned Accuser, swallowed in the depths of human suffering into which the poem plunges us next.” About Job’s asking God to hear him, he says in the Introduction: “God will not hear Job, but Job will see God.” About Job’s response after God speaks: “Job’s response will not accommodate such whimpering. He has received his answer, and can only remain awe-stricken in the face of overwhelming beauty and dread.” Here’s some deep philosophy: “Once the personal will is surrendered, future and past disappear, the morning stars burst out singing, and the deep will, contemplating the world it has created, says, “Behold, it is very good.”‘…”He has let go of everything, and surrendered into the light.”
He also says of the children restored to Job, “Here the new children are the old children: even though Job’s possessions are doubled, he is given seven sons and three daughters, as before, all of them instantaneously grown up…” He talks about the significance of the daughters – that they are named while the sons remain anonymous: “The names themselves–Dove, Cinnamon, and Eye-shadow–symbolize peace, abundance, and a specifically female kind of grace.”
My favorite verse in Job is 19:25 from the NIV: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.” Here’s how Mitchell translates it although he says in his notes: “25-27 These famous verses are so filled with obscurities and corruptions that they are “impossible of textual solution on any theory” (Orlinsky, HUCA xxxii 248). I have had to omit them and improvise drastically.” But this may be his improvisation of 19:25: “Someday my witness would come; my avenger would read those words. He would plead for me in God’s court; he would stand up and vindicate my name.” I love the NIV: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.” Yes, Jesus – come, Lord Jesus, come!
Another of my favorite verses of Job is 13:15a “Though He slay me, yet will I hope in him…” Mitchell translates this as: “He may kill me, but I won’t stop…” The NIV does have a footnote for 15a: “Or He will surely slay me; I have no hope…“
Also, Job 1:21 in the NIV: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” Mitchell translates it the same: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken; may the name of the Lord be blessed.”
Wayne’s antennae went up when I told him about this book and the bit in the prologue about God and Satan perhaps being constructs of Job’s imagination (or something like that – the bit about the divinities of the prologue being small potatoes). I love Wayne’s interpretation of the ending of Job when God shows up – God was not talking to Job, He was talking to Satan. That just seems right.