Job 33:17

33:17 to turn a person from his sin,

and to cover a person’s pride.


tc The MT simply has מַעֲשֶׂה (maaseh, “deed”). The LXX has “from his iniquity” which would have been מֵעַוְלָה (meavlah). The two letters may have dropped out by haplography. The MT is workable, but would have to mean “[evil] deeds.”

tc Here too the sense of the MT is difficult to recover. Some translations took it to mean that God hides pride from man. Many commentators changed יְכַסֶּה (yÿkhasseh, “covers”) to יְכַסֵּחַ (yÿkhasseakh, “he cuts away”), or יְכַלֶּה (yÿkhalleh, “he puts an end to”). The various emendations are not all that convincing.