Job 23:12
Never departing from the commands of His lips,
As my law, treasuring the words of His mouth.
My sources gave many thoughts to the translation of the word law. The traditional rendering was “daily bread” and alluded to what Christ told us to pray for, and we learned in Proverbs 30:8 (depending on the translation, haha). The “modern” rendering takes the phrase “as my law” and makes it “In my bosom” and alludes to holding it close to our heart, or lap (again depending on translation). Another option was “more than my necessary food” that comes from the word law being translated as daily portion. One other idea that no one actually used was “over my own inclination” which really fits well, but does not seem a translation in the strict sense of the word. I do like the use of “As my daily portion, treasuring the words of His mouth”. When I come back to this I need to decide on which I like better. I like that the Hebrew word used means both.
“Departing” was also “gone back”, “deviating”, “turning”, or “failed”. Most of those seemed to aligned with the previous verse and swerving, so I picked the most different. “Commands” was also “commandments” or “bidding”. Bidding seemed more personal, but does not match the lack of an intimate dialogue required for that. “Commands of His lips” was also “His commands” but I preferred the lips to align with the next stitch.
“Treasured” was esteemed” or “stored”, but neither have the dual meaning. “Words” was also “dictates” and while I liked dictates, the broader meaning of words won out. “Mouth” was left out once, but I felt the poet used lips and mouth on purpose.
My youngest wrote a letter to her mom to convince her that buying a game console was worth it. The logic was a little light, but the form was good. I later learned she used a go by. I knew she was a smart kid, but she is becoming more resourceful. One of the things I know she did not do is use the new AI chat thing to do it. There was this big uproar about a new AI program writing perfect papers and passing big tests with no user input. It quickly died down when the company that made it started charging $20 a month for it. At that point, the market can decide if it has value. As with most technology, this program’s best use is working with a human.
One of the concepts I work with as a structural engineer is earthquakes, and early in my career there was a big earthquake in Turkey that exposed the impacts of poor use of modern technology in building buildings. Many people died, and the blame was laid at the feet of the buildings. Many years later, we had a new earthquake in the area, and even more people died. The fault can no longer lie with the buildings as everyone knew things needed to change. Only the changes that needed to happen were with the people involved and not the buildings. The many issues with the buildings are that the people involved did not do the right thing somewhere along the way.
Trusting people trust that others will do the right thing. Whether it is design of a building, selection of materials, installation of materials, construction of a roof, or the correct roof repair paperwork, we all have to trust someone to do the right thing or we do it all ourselves. I love figuring out what God might have meant that does not come across in the one translation I might be reading. But there is no way I could be productive for the world around me if all I did was study each verse one by one. The 500 or so in Job that I have done has taken many years now and I have several more to go. We have to trust. The only thing we can really trust in is God and His words. Everything else will eventually fail us, and we need to be prepared to address those failures as they come to light. The common people in Turkey have been failed by their government, and many have died and many have been left behind injured, destitute, or both. This will not be an easy recovery for them. The shear magnitude of the issue may be as world altering as the war in Ukraine. The blame is seemingly the same: a failed government state. Oh how history repeats.
(Written 2/11/23, Posted 10/8/26, Job 560/~1070)