Job 19:23

“O that ¹  my words were written down, O that they were written on a scroll, ² 

"Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll,

"Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

"Oh, that my words could be written. Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument,

"If only my words were written in a book--

If only my words might be recorded! if they might be put in writing in a book!

"O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book!

"Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!

“O that ¹  my words were written down, O that they were written on a scroll, ² 

¹ tn The optative is again expressed with the interrogative clause “Who will give that they be written?” Job wishes that his words be preserved long after his death.

² tn While the sense of this line is clear, there is a small problem and a plausible solution. The last word is indeed סֶפֶר (sefer, “book”), usually understood here to mean “scroll.” But the verb that follows it in the verse is יֻחָקוּ (yukhaqu), from חָקַק (khaqaq, “to engrave; to carve”). While the meaning is clearly that Job wants his words to be retained, the idea of engraving in a book, although not impossible, is unusual. And so many have suggested that the Akkadian word siparru, “copper; brass,” is what is meant here (see Isa 30:8; Judg 5:14). The consonants are the same, and the vowel pattern is close to the original vowel pattern of this segholate noun. Writing on copper or bronze sheets has been attested from the 12th to the 2nd centuries, notably in the copper scroll, which would allow the translation “scroll” in our text (for more bibliography see D. J. A. Clines, Job [WBC], 432). But H. S. Gehman notes that in Phoenician our word can mean “inscription” (“SEÝFER, an inscription, in the book of Job,” JBL 63 [1944]: 303-7), making the proposed substitution unnecessary.