Job 15:3

Should he dispute against useless speeches,

   Or words that have no value?

I ended work yesterday happy. I had spent two days trying to get an analysis to report 1.01 instead of 1.00. I doubt I have ever worked so hard for such a little change. I defined it as a sensitivity study because so many things I tried had no impact one way or the other. In the end, it probably had no real added value, but it gave me a ton of confidence in my words.

‘Dispute’ was also ‘argue’, ‘reason with’, and ‘instruct’. ‘Useless’ was also ‘unprofitable’ or an alternate for the whole stitch that said arguing at all would not work. ‘Speech’ was also ‘talk’ and ‘words’.

‘Words’ was also ‘speeches’ and always different from the first stitch that used a similar word. ‘No value’ was also ‘no good’, ‘no worth, and ‘no profit’, again always different from the first stitch.

My first thought was that the speaker was not downplaying the person, only the words he spoke. This seems a little different than a lot of other places where they simply slam Job. I remember growing up and everyone called each other stupid or some similar word instead of the more accurate ignorant. When people do stupid stuff, I am trying to think of them as ignorant or careless rather than plain old stupid.

I am now working through chapter 38 where God is actually responding to Job and doing so in a subtle yet very direct manner that addresses many of his complaints. Details about stars and mornings and swaddling babies: I find it fascinating and am reminded of how ignorant of language and subtlety of language that I simply have no capacity for myself. It reminds me that my efforts to be exact with my words often over complicate the communication that isn’t happening.

I have been watching how the Tampa Bay Rays stadium issues are playing out as the hurricane damaged the old stadium and politics and money are playing out in the attempt to get a new stadium built while the current one is unusable. The county officials postponed a vote required to pay for the new stadium that basically moved the project out a year. The added costs from that move alone will probably kill the project based on interest rates. The owner is now again talking about leaving the area for somewhere more friendly. The county officials are also mad the team is playing next year in the county over in a bigger, better stadium than the small, old one in the county; the adjacent county that is still in the Tampa Bay area that is. I hope they do leave for somewhere else as I am tired of all the drama around the team, its low payroll, and its super low attendance to begin with. The Astros average like 30,000 a night and Tampa is half that and will have to get by next year in a 10,000-seat stadium. Everything the county said sounds like useless speech and words that have no value. Why should the rest of us even worry about it? We should not.

Written 11/20/24, Posted 12/11/24, Job 341