Old Testament Essays (Dec 2018)

The Problem of the Potsherd: Job 2:8 in a New Perspective

  • Ellen van Wolde

DOI
https://doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2018/v31n3a16
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 31, no. 3
pp. 692 – 704

Abstract

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The famous verse in the prologue of the book of Job, which is commonly translated with “Job took a potsherd to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes,” is the object of study here. In this analysis of Job 2:8, three components are extensively discussed; (1) The syntactic structure that shows that the subject of the action of “taking” is the satan and not Job; (2) The semantic analysis of the occurrences of the noun חרש, which demonstrates that this word does not designate “potsherd,” but “pot”; and (3) The semantic analysis of the infinitive hitpael התגרד, which explains the satan’s goal in bringing Job a pot, namely to squeeze out his inflamed boils that cover him from head to toe.

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