Job 19:23-27a

23 τίς γὰρ ἂν δοίη γραφῆναι τὰ ρήματά μου, τεθῆναι δὲ αὐτὰ ἐν βιβλίῳ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα;

24 ἐν γραφείῳ σιδηρῷ καὶ μολίβῳ ἢ ἐν πέτραις ἐγγλυφῆναι;

25 οἶδα γὰρ ὅτι ἀένναός ἐστιν ὁ ἐκλύειν με μέλλων ἐπὶ γῆς,

26 ἀναστήσει δὲ τὸ δέρμα μου τὸ ἀναντλοῦν ταῦτα· παρὰ γὰρ Κυρίου ταῦτά μοι συνετελέσθη,

 27 ἃ ἐγὼ ἐμαυτῷ συνεπίσταμαι, ἃ ὁ ὀφθαλμός μου ἑώρακε καὶ οὐκ ἄλλος, πάντα δέ μοι συντετέλεσθαι ἐν κόλπῳ.

 

²³  ‘O that my words were written down!
    O that they were inscribed in a book!
²⁴ O that with an iron pen and with lead
    they were engraved on a rock forever!
²⁵ For I know that my vindicator lives
    and that in the end he will stand upon the earth;
²⁶ and after my skin has been destroyed,
    then in my flesh I shall see God,
²⁷ whom I shall see on my side
    and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
    My heart faints within me!’

NRSV (updated edn)

Comments

Τhe vocabulary is largely classical Greek. The LXX text diverges considerably from the NRSV.

23 τίς γὰρ ἂν δοίη γραφῆναι τὰ ρήματά μου: δοίη = 3^rd person sg., aor. optative < δίδωμι, ‘I give’; here, ‘grant, concede’.  The opt. + ἄν is a potential optative, meaning ‘might grant’. δίδωμι + acc pers. + infinitive = ‘grant that, bring about that’, and as LSJ note, is common in prayers (already in Homer).

The  infinitive γραφῆναι (passive voice, aor. < γράφομαι, ‘I am scratched, inscribed’ [cf. M.]) depends on ἂν δοίη.

The question introduced by the interrogative pronoun τίς (‘Who might grant that my words are inscribed?’) is rhetorical, and amounts to a wish, ‘Would that my words (ῥήματα) were inscribed!’

τεθῆναι δὲ: the infinitive (pass. voice, aor. < τίθεμαι, ‘I am set, placed’, cf. LSJ) is linked by the connective postpositive δέ to the verb of the question, ἂν δοίη. So the meaning is in effect, ‘Would that my words were inscribed and set in a book (ἐν βιβλίῳ)…’

εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα: ‘for eternity’.  ὁ  αἰών = ‘eternity’; Plato uses it in this sense (Timaeus 37d, see EDNT, s.v.). The nearly identical phrase εἰς  ἅπαντα τὸν αἰῶνα (‘for all eternity’) is attested in the early 4^th c. BC (M.).

24 ἐν γραφείῳ σιδηρῷ καὶ μολίβῳ: γραφεῖον = stylus (for writing). σιδηρῷ: dat. sg. of the adj. σιδηροῦς- ᾶ- οῦν = ‘iron, of iron’. μολίβῳ: ὁ μόλιβος = ‘lead’; μ. is a poetic form found already in Homer.

ἐγγλυφῆναι: aor.infinitive, passive voice < ἐγγλύφομαι; the active form = ἐγγλύφω (ἐν + γλύφω), ‘I engrave, carve, sculpt’ (M.). (ἐνεγλύφην, 1^st pers. sg., aor. pass.). Cf. Engl. ‘hieroglyphics’.  

25 οἶδα γὰρ ὅτι ἀένναός ἐστιν ὁ ἐκλύειν με μέλλων ἐπὶ γῆς: ἀένναος = ‘perpetual, inexhaustible, eternal’ (M.). (The adj. occurs in this sense in class. poetry & prose.)

ὁ ἐκλύειν με μέλλων: ἐκλύω = ‘I set free, release’. The infinitive ἐκλύειν (present tense) depends on the participle μέλλων < μέλλω, ‘I intend to do’. Μέλλω governs a present or future infinitive, forming a periphrastic future (Goodwin & Gulick, Greek Grammar [henceforth G&G] 1254).

ὁ μέλλων is used as a substantive in the sense ‘he who will release/ redeem me/ set me free’.

26 ἀναστήσει δὲ τὸ δέρμα μου τὸ ἀναντλοῦν ταῦτα: ἀναντλοῦν =  neuter, present participle < ἀναντλῶ (έω), ‘bear with resignation’ (M.).

Here the participle qualifies τὸ δέρμα μου (‘my skin’, cf. Engl. dermatology) like an adj.; it is ‘attributive’. Hence: ‘He will raise up my skin which patiently suffers these things.’

παρὰ γὰρ Κυρίου ταῦτά μοι συνετελέσθη: the preposition παρά  + genitive = ‘from someone/ something’.

συνετελέσθη (aorist) < συντελοῦμαι (έομαι), pass., ‘I am accomplished, brought about’ (class. prose).

μοι: ‘for me, to me’ = dat. of disadvantage.

27 ἃ ἐγὼ ἐμαυτῷ συνεπίσταμαι, ἃ ὁ ὀφθαλμός μου ἑώρακε καὶ οὐκ ἄλλος, πάντα δέ μοι συντετέλεσθαι ἐν κόλπῳ: συνεπίσταμαι (συν + ἐπίσταμαι, ‘I understand, know, am acquainted with’) is combined with the dat. reflexive pronoun ἐμαυτῷ, recalling the roughly synonymous σύνοιδα + dat. reflex. pron. 

 ἐμαυτῷ συνεπίσταμαι implies full knowledge of something from personal, first hand experience (cf. ἐμαυτῷ).

ἃ ἐγὼ ἐμαυτῷ συνεπίσταμαι, ἃ ὁ ὀφθαλμός μου ἑώρακε καὶ οὐκ ἄλλος: ταῦτά (v. 26) is qualified by two relative clauses in v. 27; καὶ οὐκ ἄλλος has an implied verb, ἑώρακε (‘has seen’).  

πάντα δέ μοι συντετέλεσθαι ἐν κόλπῳ: this phrase is linked to the preceding relative clauses by connective δέ. Generalising πάντα (‘everything’) picks up the things Job has knowledge of and seen.

The perfect infinitive συντετέλεσθαι (‘to have been brought about, to have occurred’) may depend on the implied συνεπίσταμαι. But this syntax is unusual; it would be more natural for συνεπίσταμαι to govern a supplementary participle in the dative (συνεπίσταμαι/ σύνοιδα πᾶσι μοι συντετελεσμένοις…) instead of an infinitive. It may be better to take συντετέλεσθαι as an infinitive of result, ‘so that everything has been accomplished in my bosom’. Cf. Christ’s last words (or rather word) on the Cross, τετέλεσται (‘It is finished’), John 19:30.

ἐν κόλπῳ: <  ὁ κόλπος, ‘bosom’, here in the sense ‘inner being’. See Μuraoka, in his LXX Dict., s.v. κόλπος: ‘metaph., of personal, inner being’. Cf. Ps. 88.51.