Deep things out of darkness : the book of Job : essays and a new English translation /
David Wolfers.
- Kampen, Netherlands : Grand Rapids, Mich. : Pharos ; Wm. B. Eerdmans, Pub., 1995.
- 549 p. : ill., map ; 24 cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
The Art of Mistranslation -- Some Aspects of the Provenance of the Book of Job -- The Identity of Job -- Job and the Deuteronomic Covenant -- The Nature of Job's Illness and the Fate of his Children -- The Identity of 'The wicked' -- The Identities of Behemoth & Leviathan -- The Identity of Job's Comforters -- The Identity of The Satan -- God's First Speech -- The Speech Cycles of Job -- Elihu's Last Words -- Misidentified Referents -- Footnotes to Introduction, Chapters 1-3 -- Footnotes to First Cycle, Chapters 4-15:16 -- Footnotes to Second Cycle, Chapters 15:17-22 -- Footnotes to Chapters 23-31, Job's Monologue -- Footnotes to Chapters 32-37, Elihu -- Footnotes to Conclusion, Chapters 38-42 -- Lexicographical Anomalies -- Index of Biblical References.
In this radically new interpretation by David Wolfers, the Book of Job emerges as one of the most important religious documents of all time. Wolfers's literal translation, uncompromisingly based on the Masoretic text, has uncovered a coherent allegory in which Job and his travails represent the people of Judah at the time of the Assyrian conquests and the exile of the ten lost tribes. The Book of Job tackles the most perplexing religious issue of its time - and of all time: Why do good people suffer? Who, asks the author of Job, broke the sacred Covenant - God or his people? These questions and their answers make the Book of Job as momentous as the Ten Commandments, containing innovations so far in advance of their time that neither Judaism nor Christianity has yet been willing to fully absorb them.