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Journey of a Passage

Job 33:23–24

A messenger and a ransom

Hebrew: "If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand… I have found a ransom." The library's Greek reads very differently: "even if there were a thousand angels of death, not one would wound him, if he resolves to turn to the Lord."

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

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).

      Si fuerit pro eo angelus loquens, unus de millibus, ut annuntiet hominis æquitatem, miserebitur ejus, et dicet: Libera eum, ut non descendat in corruptionem: inveni in quo ei propitier.

    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.

      אִם־יֵ֤שׁ עָלָ֨יו ׀ מַלְאָ֗ךְ מֵלִ֗יץ אֶחָ֥ד מִנִּי־אָ֑לֶף לְהַגִּ֖יד לְאָדָ֣ם יָשְׁרֽוֹ׃ וַיְחֻנֶּ֗נּוּ וַיֹּ֗אמֶר פְּ֭דָעֵהוּ מֵרֶ֥דֶת שָׁ֗חַת מָצָ֥אתִי כֹֽפֶר׃

    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).

      If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness: Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.

    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.

      Mais y eût-il là mille anges exterminateurs, pas un seul ne le blessera, si son cœur songe à se convertir au Seigneur, s’il confesse à un autre homme son crime, et découvre sa folie. Et Dieu l’empêchera de tomber dans la mort; il renouvellera son corps comme l’enduit d’un mur; il remplira ses os de moelle.

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

    What changed, and why

    The Hebrew mal'akh melits may be an intercessory angel or a human teacher. The Greek interprets the thousand as angels of death. Later doctrinal identifications (a redeeming mediator) are reception, not the plain sense.

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documentedThe library's Greek has "a thousand angels of death."
    • DisputedThe messenger can be identified.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • A Messenger, One Among a Thousand →Elihu addresses Job by name: he too was formed from clay. Job has said, "I am clean… God finds occasions against me." Elihu answers that God is greater than man and speaks in more than one way: in dreams and night visions, to turn a man from pride; and through pain on his bed, until his soul draws near the pit. If there is a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to declare what is right for him, God will be gracious: "Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom."