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Journey of a Passage

Job 42:6

Repent, retract, or be comforted?

Hebrew: 'al ken em'as ve-nihamti 'al 'afar va-efer. KJV: "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." The library's Greek (Giguet): "I despise myself; I am confounded; I feel that I am but dust and ash." The Vulgate: "I reprove myself and do penance in ashes." The Aramaic Targum is reported to read "I am poured out and dissolved, and I shall become dust and ashes."

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
  1. Aramaic Targum of Job (11Q10)1st century BC – 1st century ADTranslated from a Hebrew text of Job
Greek and its daughters
  1. Church Slavonic (Elizabeth Bible)1751, from GreekTranslated from the Greek text
  2. 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. 1st century BC – 1st century AD

    Aramaic Targum of Job (11Q10)

    ⓘ Reports what manuscripts containedTranslated from a Hebrew text of Job

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Reported to read something like "therefore I am poured out and dissolved, and I shall become dust and ashes" (to be checked in DJD).

    Source: Israel Antiquities Authority, Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, 11Q10 (11QtgJob), image B-285219 ↗; F. García Martínez and E. J. C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Brill, 1997–98)

  3. 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).

    Idcirco ipse me reprehendo, et ago pœnitentiam in favilla et cinere.

  4. 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.

    עַל־כֵּ֭ן אֶמְאַ֣ס וְנִחַ֑מְתִּי עַל־עָפָ֥ר וָאֵֽפֶר׃

    therefore I reject/despise [—] and I repent/am comforted upon/concerning dust and ashes

  5. 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).

    Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

  6. 1751, from Greek

    Church Slavonic (Elizabeth Bible)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek text

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    темже укорих себе сам, и истаях, и мню себе землю и пепел.

  7. 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.

    C’est pourquoi je me méprise moi-même; je me confonds, et je sens que je ne suis que cendre et poussière.

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

What changed, and why

Em'as has no object ("myself" is supplied); nihamti can mean repent, regret, relent or be comforted; "on dust and ashes" can mean in mourning or concerning human mortality. Each ancient version made a choice. See the NET Bible notes and the lesson.

What the evidence shows

  • Disputed42:6 means "I despise myself and repent."
  • Independently documentedThe ancient versions render 42:6 differently.

Sources

Related lessons

  • Now Mine Eye Seeth Thee →Job answers: God can do everything; Job spoke of things too wonderful for him. "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes," a verse with several possible meanings. Then God tells Eliphaz his anger burns against the three friends, "for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath." They must offer sacrifices and Job must pray for them. God restores Job twice over; his family comforts him; he has seven sons and three beautiful daughters, Jemimah, Keziah and Keren-happuch, who inherit with their brothers. Job lives 140 more years and dies "old and full of days." The Greek adds that he will rise again, and that he was Jobab, king of Edom.
  • Investigation: Why Ancient Jobs Differ →There is no single ancient Job. The Hebrew survives in fragments from Qumran and complete in medieval Masoretic codices. An Aramaic translation (11Q10) from Cave 11 preserves large parts of chapters 17–42. The Old Greek translation was about one-sixth shorter than the Hebrew; in the 3rd century Origen filled the gaps from Theodotion's Greek and marked the additions with asterisks. Later Greek manuscripts and printed Septuagints often keep the filled-out text without the marks. The Sahidic Coptic version preserves the shorter Greek. The library lets you see some of these differences.