ON THE MEANING OF JOB 26:9

Abstract

This study suggests that the difficulties in understanding Job 26:9 in context stem from a transcriber’s erroneous transposition of the two words כסה and פרשז . It is argued that the original reading was מְ×Ö·×—Öµ×– פְ × Öµ×™ פַר־־עוֹז ×›Ö¼Ö´ סה ×¢ ליו ×¢Ö²×  נוֹ , “He holds the face of a mighty ox, His cloud covers himâ€. This can be paraphrased: “God puts a constraint on the face of the mighty bull (Behemot) and covers him with His cloud so that he would not be affected by the drying sunâ€. The verse does not admit a celestial or cosmographic interpretation, but a mythological understanding. It depicts typical divine behaviour, which exhibits control and concern. Mentioning Behemot in v. 9 complements the reference to the sea monsters (רהב and נחש בריח ) in the following verses with a land monster.