Job 12:5

The complacent lack respect for calamity,

   But disaster awaits any who stumble.

 

I went through Job 26:6 today and have come away with five viable alternatives. The only difference is the main word in each of the two stitches. All five are right, but I have to pick one. It will be interesting to see what I pick when I absolutely have to. Today’s verse has a gap of time between this blog and the last one. My notes are as much as I have had for any verse and I had no solution written for this one either. Days like this I understand this is a process God is leading me through.

‘Calamity’ was also ‘misfortune’, ‘slip’, ‘the unfortunate’, ‘disaster’, and (at odds with the rest) ‘lamp’. ‘Complacent’ was also ‘at ease’, ‘smug’, and ‘safe and secure”. ‘Lack respect’ was also ‘have contempt’, ‘despise’, and ‘hold scorn’.

‘Disaster’ was ‘it’, ‘slipping’, ‘fate’ and ‘beating’. I picked disaster from the first stitch list. ‘Awaits’ was ‘is ready’, ‘is the (fate)’, ‘is made ready’, ‘readied’, and ‘is proper’. ‘Any who stumble’ was also ‘those whose feet are unstable’ and ‘those whose feet are slipping’.

The use of lamp actually presented an option of

‘A lamp is despised in the mind of one who is at ease,

   but it is ready for those whose feet are unstable.’

I really liked this option as I think it captures the message with an example. Only the King James version used lamp, and all the Jewish options had another word, so while this may be the best option, I chose one more towards the consensus.

My favorite source actually had three stitches and read something like this:

The unfortunate deserve only contempt,

   In the opinion of the safe and secure,

      A beating is proper for those who stumble.

I like the part about this planting opinions on people. I like that it is from Job about his ‘friends’ and how they are looking at Him and saying he deserves what he got. But I think my rendition captures this adequately and while it does not use the lamp at all, I feel it carries the message a little clearer. Since this is for me to use in a future study, I think it important that I am comfortable with the answer.

I may not have shared this before, but in my mind, my whole reason for creating this amalgamation is that I use it to go back and do a detailed study of the book as a whole. I wanted to make sure that I was understanding the individual verse by verse sentiments before going bigger. As I have learned, if the little bits are not all headed in the same direction, the big path is hard to follow, lamp or no lamp.

(Written 4/22/23, Posted 4/30, Job 257)