Job 5:27
Behold, this we have studied, it is true,
Hear it, and you – You know it.
The end of the chapter is always an opportunity for completion or getting to the next part of the plot. I bought a new book recently and I waited a while before I started it, but once I was started, I seemed to keep reading until I was done. Each chapter was not a point to put the book down, but a chance to see what happened next. The book is the 25th in a series and I must admit, the reading was easy, but the twists in the plot were a mix of easy to see and blindsiding. This last verse in chapter 5 was a real dig at Job, and Eliphaz was seemingly happy to have stuck it to him.
“Studied” this was also presented as “searched”, “examined”, and “inquired about”. I must admit a bias about wisdom that if one person asks questions or searches or examines, the truth is therefore limited to their own abilities, or those they ask of. “Studied” carried the idea that the person used their own mind and experiences to determine what was true. “It is true” was also presented as “so it is” and “It is so”. I like the sound of it is so, but I felt the need to include the claim that “it is true” for the grandiose feel I have for the verse.
The second stitch had a number of arrangements and the one I used is the oddest of the lot. The basic form was “Hear it and accept it for yourself”. One concept was that by hearing it, one could know it for themselves. Another was hear it and then apply it to yourself. King James went further and said, “Hear it and know it for your own good.” One phrase was simply “Hear it and accept it”. Another was not simple and was “Think it over, take it to heart”. One was “Hear it, and you, you should know”. And finally, we had “We have heard it, now you take it to heart.”
I did not like King James versions addition of “for your own good”. It seems out of place. I did not like the one that had “we hear it” as it seems the noun needs to be Job and not those around him. I did not like “apply it to yourself” as I felt the goal was to have Job admit his error. “Take it to heart” has a sense of the accept it feel to the phrase, but I did not think a reference to the heart was needed. I like the sound of “accept”, but I feel it falls short of the “knowing” that seems to be the goal of the studying. I want to include the “should” in the phrase as then it would be Eliphaz reminding Job that he knows all this is true as well as they do. But I think Eliphaz is making some of this up as he goes and beyond some of it is just wrong, He wants to show he is better than Job, not the same. This left me with know and my question was how to present it.
The easiest case would be “Hear it and know it yourself”, but no one used this form exactly, and it seems to fall short as an end to the speech. I read the last option as “We have heard it, now you, take it to heart.” And the one before had “Hear it, and you, you should know.” This three-part form seemed to fit the need to wrap up the speech more than the two-part forms used by the other verses. Forcing my terms into three parts, I came out with the final version. It brings me a vision of a teacher pointing at the student and focusing on that one person and no one else.
Eliphaz is trying to add strength to his argument saying he took the time to research it and he knows it is true. It comes across as the fake reinforcement of “trust me” or “honestly”. If someone was confident and honest, they would never need to resort to such a retort. The whole of the statement rests on the respect the hearer has for Eliphaz, and his claim falls short of making it more believable. Trying to insist that just by hearing it, that Job should know it is true, goes against the whole idea that Eliphaz had to study it to know it was true. The further I get into this study the more I am convinced that the book was meant to be a theater production and that the author was brilliant and witty. Almost makes me want to go figure out how to enjoy Shakespeare. But my English has never been that good.