Job 10:10-12 New English Translation
10 Did you not pour[a] me out like milk,
and curdle[b] me like cheese?[c]
11 You clothed[d] me with skin and flesh
and knit me together[e] with bones and sinews.
12 You gave me[f] life and favor,[g]
and your intervention[h] watched over my spirit.
Footnotes
- Job 10:10 tn The verb נָתַךְ (natakh) means “to flow,” and in the Hiphil, “to cause to flow.”
- Job 10:10 tn This verb קָפָא (qafaʾ) means “to coagulate.” In the Hiphil it means “to stiffen; to congeal.”
- Job 10:10 tn The verbs in v. 10 are prefixed conjugations; since the reference is to the womb, these would need to be classified as preterites. sn These verses figuratively describe the formation of the embryo in the womb.
- Job 10:11 tn The skin and flesh form the exterior of the body and so the image of “clothing” is appropriate. Once again the verb is the prefixed conjugation, expressing what God did.
- Job 10:11 tn This verb is found only here (related nouns are common) and in the parallel passage of Ps 139:13. The word סָכַךְ (sakhakh), here a Poel prefixed conjugation (preterite), means “to knit together.” The implied comparison is that the bones and sinews form the tapestry of the person (compare other images of weaving the life).
- Job 10:12 tn Heb “you made with me.”
- Job 10:12 tn E. Dhorme (Job, 150) suggests that the relation between these two words is like a hendiadys. In other words, “life,” which he says is made prominent by the shift of the copula, specifies the nature of the grace. He renders it “the favor of life.” D. J. A. Clines at least acknowledges that the expression “you showed loyal love with me” is primary. There are many other attempts to improve the translation of this unusual combination.
- Job 10:12 tn The noun פְּקֻדָּה (pequddah), originally translated “visitation,” actually refers to any divine intervention for blessing on the life. Here it would include the care and overseeing of the life of Job. “Providence” may be too general for the translation, but it is not far from the meaning of this line. The LXX has “your oversight.”
New English Translation (NET)
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