Job 14:12

so man lies down and does not rise; until the heavens are no more, ¹  they ²  will not awake nor arise from their sleep.

so man lies down and does not rise; till the heavens are no more, men will not awake or be roused from their sleep.

So man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens are no longer, He will not awake nor be aroused out of his sleep.

people lie down and do not rise again. Until the heavens are no more, they will not wake up nor be roused from their sleep.

So mortals lie down and never get up, never wake up again--never.

So man goes down to his last resting-place and comes not again: till the heavens come to an end, they will not be awake or come out of their sleep.

so mortals lie down and do not rise again; until the heavens are no more, they will not awake or be roused out of their sleep.

So man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no more, They will not awake Nor be roused from their sleep.

so man lies down and does not rise; until the heavens are no more, ¹  they ²  will not awake nor arise from their sleep.

¹ tc The Hebrew construction is “until not,” which is unusual if not impossible; it is found in only one other type of context. In its six other occurrences (Num 21:35; Deut 3:3; Josh 8:22; 10:33; 11:8; 2 Kgs 10:11) the context refers to the absence of survivors. Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, Syriac, and Vulgate all have “till the heavens wear out.” Most would emend the text just slightly from עַד־בִּלְתִּי (’ad-bilti, “are no more”) to עַד בְּלוֹת (’ad bÿlot, “until the wearing out of,” see Ps 102:26 [27]; Isa 51:6). Gray rejects emendation here, finding the unusual form of the MT in its favor. Orlinsky (p. 57) finds a cognate Arabic word meaning “will not awake” and translates it “so long as the heavens are not rent asunder” (H. M. Orlinsky, “The Hebrew and Greek Texts of Job 14:12,” JQR 28 [1937/38]: 57-68). He then deletes the last line of the verse as a later gloss.

² tn The verb is plural because the subject, אִישׁ (’ish), is viewed as a collective: “mankind.” The verb means “to wake up; to awake”; another root, קוּץ (quts, “to split open”) cognate to Arabic qada and Akkadian kasu, was put forward by H. M. Orlinsky (“The Hebrew and Greek Texts of Job 14:12,” JQR 28 [1937-38]: 57-68) and G. R. Driver (“Problems in the Hebrew Text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 72-93).