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Journey of a Passage

Job 2:3

"Without cause"

God says the satan moved him "to destroy him without cause (hinnam)." The same word was the satan's question in 1:9: "Doth Job fear God for nought (hinnam)?" The Greek and Latin keep the sense.

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original JobPoem often dated 6th–4th century BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Job
Aramaic
    Greek and its daughters
    1. Greek Job, filled-out text (library: Giguet's French)Printed Septuagint; translated 1872Translated from the Greek text as filled out after Origen
    Latin
    1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 390s, from HebrewTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
    English
    1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    Every witness, in order

    1. Poem often dated 6th–4th century BC (debated)

      Original Job

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. Small Hebrew fragments of Job are known from Qumran (2Q15, 4Q99–101).

    2. c. AD 390s, from Hebrew

      Jerome's Vulgate

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

      Et dixit Dominus ad Satan: Numquid considerasti servum meum Job, quod non sit ei similis in terra, vir simplex et rectus, ac timens Deum, et recedens a malo, et adhuc retinens innocentiam? tu autem commovisti me adversus eum, ut affligerem eum frustra.

    3. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Job

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהוָ֜ה אֶל־הַשָּׂטָ֗ן הֲשַׂ֣מְתָּ לִבְּךָ֮ אֶל־עַבְדִּ֣י אִיּוֹב֒ כִּי֩ אֵ֨ין כָּמֹ֜הוּ בָּאָ֗רֶץ אִ֣ישׁ תָּ֧ם וְיָשָׁ֛ר יְרֵ֥א אֱלֹהִ֖ים וְסָ֣ר מֵרָ֑ע וְעֹדֶ֙נּוּ֙ מַחֲזִ֣יק בְּתֻמָּת֔וֹ וַתְּסִיתֵ֥נִי ב֖וֹ לְבַלְּע֥וֹ חִנָּֽם׃

      …and he still holds fast his integrity, though you incited me against him to swallow him up for nothing

    4. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.

    5. Printed Septuagint; translated 1872

      Greek Job, filled-out text (library: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek text as filled out after Origen

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      Et le Seigneur dit au diable: As-tu fait bien attention à Job mon serviteur? as-tu vu qu’il n’a point son pareil sur la terre? C’est un homme exempt de méchanceté, sincère, irréprochable, craignant Dieu, s’abstenant de tout mal. Il a gardé son innocence; et toi, tu t’étais vainement proposé de détruire tout ce qu’il possédait.

      Greek via Giguet's French (filled-out printed text); not checked against Ziegler's critical edition.

    What changed, and why

    The frame of the book depends on this word: Job's suffering is not punishment. The friends' theories fail because the narrator has told the reader the cause.

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documentedGod says Job's suffering was "without cause."

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Skin for Skin, and Seven Days of Silence →In a second heavenly scene the LORD says Job still holds his integrity "although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause." The accuser answers "Skin for skin" and is allowed to strike Job's body, sparing his life. Job sits among the ashes scraping his sores with a broken piece of pottery. His wife says, "Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die." He refuses. Three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, come to comfort him, weep, and sit with him seven days and nights without a word.