Job 4:21 and Job 17:11 and desires of my heart and my plans are shattered and plans snapped

In the previous essay I showed the way that Eliphaz's image of a tent-peg (yeter) being pulled out (4:21) connects with the bowstrings (yeter) securing Samson's limbs which connects with the verb "snap" (nataq) in Jud. 16. Then, nataq is used twice in the Book of Job, once to describe how the wicked will be "torn" from their tents (18:14) and once to describe the depth of Job's grief (17:11). The purpose of this essay is to look at the context in which Job uses the word nataq. I will conclude that Job has himself been influenced by Eliphaz's ambiguous speaking when Job speaks in 17:11.

Job 17:11

This essay assumes that the author of the Book of Job was aware of the biblical tradition reflected in the Samson story. When Job hears Eliphaz saying that the fate of humans is to have their tent-pegs (yeter) pulled out from inside them, he thinks naturally of that only other place in the Bible where yeter is used--the Samson story. Samson was bound by the bowstrings (yeter), but he snapped them (nataq) when the Philistines came upon him. Though the word nataq can also be translated "to draw away" or "pull off," the violence of the Philistines' entry requires a more violent translation of the verb--"snap," like the way fibers crackle and snap when touching the fire. The image of Samson snapping the yeter is vivid; we can almost see, in the mind's eye, the captors pouncing on him and Samson surprising and confounding them by bursting up out of the bed to confront them. It is a picture that would stay with Job. When the pressure is on, Samson snaps the cords that confined him.

Job 17:11 is the only place in the book where Job uses the verb nataq, and he uses it in a context of grief. It may be translated:

"My days have passed by. My plans (?) have snapped, the very possessions of my heart."

It is a verse of incredible pain and grief. Job has already spoken about the grief he felt earlier in ch.17:

"My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me" (17:1).

But now, in 17:11, he uses the verb used to describe Samson's experience. Job's plans have "snapped." The NRSV uses the translation "broken off," but this doesn't communicate the violent irruption that nataq carries with it. Good's translation ("my purposes shattered") gets a little closer to the meaning, but the word "shatters" assumes the notion of ceramic pot or mirror or other object capable of being broken. What Job is trying to communicate through nataq is the sense that his life force (his heart) has snapped as violently as the bowstrings that Samson snapped when the Philistines were upon him. His heart has exploded, burst, snapped. No longer can it be confined it to his chest. Job's grief could scarcely be more irreversible.

Job's Ambiguities in 17:11

But my point is also that Job has not simply heard Eliphaz use the word yeter and has let his mind wander with the word, but that when Job comes back to his situation, by using another word in the Samson narrative, he speaks with "Eliphaz-like" ambiguity. Job 17:11 consists of six Hebrew words. The first two are clear. Job's days are over. He feels that he is ready to die. He has said this repeatedly. But then the next two words are difficult. What is it, actually, that "snaps?" The Hebrew word zimotai in Job 17:11 is usually translated "plans" or "purposes," but the word is normally, in the rest of its appearances, rendered "infamous action" or "evil deed." It is associated with whoring and lewd action in Ezekiel 23. As a matter of fact, the only place in the Bible where scholars suggest that zima/zimotai should be translated "plans" is in Job 17:11. Thirty other times where it appears it has a negative moral connotation. But, of course, we cannot imagine Job using the word in such a way to describe himself. What indeed would it mean for Job to say, "My days are passed by, my whorings utterly snapped.."? And so, scholars have imagined that zima means "plan" and have translated 17:11 accordingly. But what if Job is, like Eliphaz in ch. 4, speaking ambiguously, either deliberately or out of some kind of fear or pain? Maybe in the depth of his grief he is recognizing, if only for a split second, not simply the vanity but the deeply perverse nature of his life.

The last two words of 17:11 are usually translated the "desires of my heart. The Hebrew words are morashe lebabiy. Unquestionably the second word is "of my heart," but the first is derived from the verb yarash, which means to take possession of. Thus one's morashe are the "possessions" of the heart. Actually, the dictionaries are not quite sure what to do with this. One I consulted has the word morash, only occurring once in the Bible (here), translated as "desire," while the word morashah appears about nine times, mostly in Ezekiel, to mean "posssession." Usually it is used to connote an enemy taking possession of Israel or a portion of Israel's land. If we render morashe in Job 17:11 consistently with the way it appears elsewhere in the Bible, we have "the possessions of my heart." These "possessions," then, point to something that currently belongs to Job rather than something for which he longs or desires. Everything has been stripped from Job. This fits better with the general tone of the Book of Job than the notion of "desires." The word "desires" communicates something regarding the future, but Job is emphasizing that the possessions he has right now have been snapped. Maybe the last four words in Job 17:11 should be read: "my whorings snapped, as well as the possessions of my heart," to emphasize that the full panoply of Job's potential endowments has been violently snapped. But we can only get to this point if we are able to see Job speaking with some levels of ambiguity, just like Eliphaz. Ah, the delicious imprecision of language!

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