“If He should set His heart on it, If He should gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath, All flesh would perish together, And man would return to dust.” (Job 34:14-15)
According to the United Bible Societies’ translators handbook, “There are two problems here.” First, the verb phrase translated “set his heart” can mean “pay attention, notice.” Second, upon him may be taken to refer to God or to man”.1 Hartley2 suggests omitting “his heart” altogether, arguing that it came in by accident to form a Hebrew idiom for “pay attention”. The Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin have y-s-m “he places” (שוּם Strong’s #7760) whilst the Greek and Syriac clearly had y-s-b “he returns” (שוּב Strong’s #7725), before them.
UBS and NICOT both notice the possible textual problems and fail to examine a deeper theological problem, namely, that spirit and breath return to God upon death or should God will it, at an earlier occasion. Actually, this is not a biblical problem, the Old Testament is quite consistent on this matter:
To continue reading this Bible article, click here.
Author: K. J. Went
Keywords: Man's spirit, Man's breath, Breath of man, Spirit of man, Immaterial spirit, Immaterial soul, Immortal spirit, Immortal soul, Life after death, Does the soul live with the body, Soul departing the body, No spirit, No breath, Breath of God, God's breath, Eternal spirit, Eternal soul, Afterlife, After life
Bible reference(s): Genesis 3:19, Psalm 104:29-30, Ecclesiastes 12:7, Job 34:14-15
Source: Difficult Sayings.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.