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Journey of a Passage

Job 31:35–37

"Here is my mark"

"Behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me" (KJV) renders hen tavi, "here is my tav (mark, signature)." Job signs his oath and asks his adversary to write the charge.

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).

      Quis mihi tribuat auditorem, ut desiderium meum audiat Omnipotens, et librum scribat ipse qui judicat, ut in humero meo portem illum, et circumdem illum quasi coronam mihi? Per singulos gradus meos pronuntiabo illum, et quasi principi offeram eum.

    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.

      מִ֤י יִתֶּן־לִ֨י ׀ שֹׁ֘מֵ֤עַֽ לִ֗י הֶן־תָּ֭וִי שַׁדַּ֣י יַעֲנֵ֑נִי וְסֵ֥פֶר כָּ֝תַ֗ב אִ֣ישׁ רִיבִֽי׃ אִם־לֹ֣א עַל־שִׁ֭כְמִי אֶשָּׂאֶ֑נּוּ אֶֽעֶנְדֶ֖נּוּ עֲטָר֣וֹת לִֽי׃ מִסְפַּ֣ר צְ֭עָדַי אַגִּידֶ֑נּוּ כְּמוֹ־נָ֝גִ֗יד אֲקָרֲבֶֽנּוּ׃

    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).

      Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book. Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me. I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.

    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.

      Qui me donnera quelqu’un qui m’écoute? Si je n’ai point eu crainte de la main du Seigneur; Si, pour lire le titre que j’avais contre autrui, j’en ai ceint mes épaules comme d’une couronne; Si je ne l’ai point remis après l’avoir déchiré, sans rien exiger de mon débiteur;

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

    What changed, and why

    The tav, last letter of the alphabet, was written as a cross in the old script (compare Ezekiel 9:4). The courtroom image climaxes here; God answers in 38:1.

    What the evidence shows

    • Strongly supportedHen tavi means "here is my mark/signature."

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Behold My Signature →Job's final speech is an oath of clearance, a list of sins each followed by a curse on himself if he has done it: looking lustfully at a young woman; falsehood; adultery; denying justice to his servants ("Did not he that made me in the womb make him?"); refusing the poor, the widow and the orphan; trusting gold; kissing his hand to the sun and moon; rejoicing at an enemy's ruin; refusing hospitality; hiding sin; abusing the land. "Behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me." He signs his case. "The words of Job are ended."
      • Investigation: Job's Lawsuit Against God →Job's speeches use the language of an ancient lawsuit: contend, case, answer, be in the right, summon, witness, indictment. He wishes for an arbiter (9:33), prepares his case (13:18), appeals to a witness in heaven (16:19), asks God to stand surety for him (17:3), declares that his redeemer lives (19:25), seeks God's judgment seat (23:3) and signs his oath demanding a written charge (31:35). God answers (38:1) but turns the courtroom into a cosmos. The verdict (42:7) goes to Job.