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Journey of a Passage

Job 7:17–18

"What is man?"

Job asks, "What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him?… that thou shouldest visit him every morning?", turning Psalm 8's wonder into a plea to be left alone. The versions agree.

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).

      Quid est homo, quia magnificas eum? aut quid apponis erga eum cor tuum? Visitas eum diluculo, et subito probas illum.

    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.

      מָֽה־אֱ֭נוֹשׁ כִּ֣י תְגַדְּלֶ֑נּוּ וְכִי־תָשִׁ֖ית אֵלָ֣יו לִבֶּֽךָ׃ וַתִּפְקְדֶ֥נּוּ לִבְקָרִ֑ים לִ֝רְגָעִ֗ים תִּבְחָנֶֽנּוּ׃

    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).

      What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?

    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.

      Qu’est-ce donc que l’homme pour que vous l’honoriez, pour que vous attachiez sur lui votre pensée? quoique sa volonté demeurât toujours soumise. Ainsi, Job se laisse aller à des plaintes qui n’affectent en lui que la partie inférieure et sensible de la nature. Ne le visiterez-vous pas avant le jour? et le jugerez-vous pendant les heures du repos?

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

    What changed, and why

    Psalm 8:4 marvels that God remembers and visits humanity; Job 7 uses the same verbs (paqad, "visit") as surveillance. The contrast is deliberate, though which text came first is debated.

    What the evidence shows

    • Strongly supportedJob 7:17–18 echoes Psalm 8:4.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • What Is Man, That Thou Shouldest Magnify Him? →Job compares human life to a hired labourer's hard service and a slave longing for shade. His nights are long, his days swift as a weaver's shuttle, his flesh clothed with worms. He speaks to God directly: am I the sea, or a sea-monster, that you set a guard over me? "What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him?… that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?" Why not pardon me, since I will soon be dust?