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Journey of a Passage

Job 27:13–23

Job, or Zophar?

"This is the portion of a wicked man with God" repeats Zophar's words in 20:29 almost exactly. The manuscripts give it to Job; many scholars think it is Zophar's missing third speech.

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

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 it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ 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).

      Hæc est pars hominis impii apud Deum, et hæreditas violentorum, quam ob Omnipotente suscipient.

    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.

      זֶ֤ה ׀ חֵֽלֶק־אָדָ֖ם רָשָׁ֥ע ׀ עִם־אֵ֑ל וְֽנַחֲלַ֥ת עָ֝רִיצִ֗ים מִשַׁדַּ֥י יִקָּֽחוּ׃

    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).

      This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty.

    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.

      Voici le partage que le Seigneur réserve aux impies; voici l’héritage que les puissants de la terre recevront du Tout-Puissant.

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

    What changed, and why

    The proposal explains the third cycle's symmetry but rests on content, not manuscripts. Alternatives: Job quoting the friends, or Job agreeing that the wicked are judged while denying he is one.

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documented27:13 echoes 20:29.
    • Disputed27:13–23 is Zophar's lost speech.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Till I Die I Will Not Remove Mine Integrity →Job swears by the living God who has taken away his right: as long as he lives he will not speak falsehood or admit the friends are right; he holds fast his righteousness. Let his enemy be as the wicked. Then the speech describes the wicked's fate: his children for the sword, his silver piled up for the just to wear, his house like a moth's, the east wind sweeping him away. Many scholars think 27:13–23 is the missing third speech of Zophar.