(Vol. ix., p. 303.)
Perhaps the best mode in which I can comply with MR. C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY'S
request, is to send for insertion in the "N. & Q." my MS. note on the text
in question:
[Hebrew: W'CHR `WRY NQPW Z'T]
[Hebrew: WMBSHRY 'CHZH 'LWH:]
The difficulties which the reader experiences, on reading the authorised
version of this passage, are by no means trifling. Every one knows that the
words printed in _Italics_ are not to be found in the original; the
strictly literal rendering, according to the construction put upon the
verse by our translators, would therefore run thus:
"And after my skin, destroy this,
Yet in my flesh shall I see God."
To say the least of it, "it is hard to be understood." The three words in
Italics, arbitrarily introduced, make the passage by no means more
intelligible.
The erudite author of the marginal readings (see "N. & Q.," Vol. ix., p.
108.) felt the difficulty, and therefore proposed another translation,
which is,--
"After I shall awake, though this _body_ be destroyed,
Yet out of my flesh shall I see God."
By an effort of violent criticism, [Hebrew: `WRY] might be translated _my
awaking_; but it will require an extraordinary critical mind to turn
[Hebrew: NQPW Z'T] into _though this body be destroyed_.
The difficulties seem to have originated with the misapprehension of the
proper meaning of the verb [Hebrew: NQP] here. Instead of translating it
according to its primitive signification, viz. _to surround_ {429} a
foreign sense has been palmed upon it, viz. _to destroy_. Job, no doubt,
meant to say thus:
"And after my skin has returned, this shall be;
And out of my flesh shall I see God."
Thus the literal meaning demonstrates a connecting link between verses 25
and 26. The authorised version and the marginal reading seem to lack that
link:
"And I know that my Redeemer liveth,
And He shall at length abide upon the earth."
But would you know when this _at length_ is to take place? It will come to
pass when a shaking of the dry bones shall take place, when bone to bone
shall be joined, when sinews and flesh shall come upon them, and skin cover
them above; that is, when the skeleton of my mutilated body shall be raised
a glorified body. In other words,--
"And after my skin returned, this shall be;
And out of my flesh shall I see God."
The most ancient translators have evidently put this construction upon the
verse under consideration. The Chaldee paraphrase runs thus:
[Chaldee: WMN BTR D'TPCH MSHKY TH' D']
[Chaldee: WMBSRY 'CHMY TWB 'LH'::]
"And after my skin is healed, this shall be;
And out of my flesh shall I see the return of God."
[Chaldee: 'TPCH] does not mean here _inflated_, as some suppose. The Syriac
version translates the word [Hebrew: NQPW] by the word [Syriac: 'TKRK],
which means _surround_, _wind round_. The Vulgate has the following version
of the patriarch's prophetic exclamation:
"Et rursum circumdabor pelle mea,
Et in carne mea videbo Deum meum."
Jerome evidently knew not what to do with the word [Hebrew: Z'T], and
therefore omitted it. He might have turned it to good account by
translating it _erit hoc_.
The above note has been penned upwards of five years ago, and I transcribe
it now, without a single alteration, for the benefit of MR. C. MANSFIELD
INGLEBY and his friends.