Job 31:34 | KD | STEP | Job 31:33-34 33 If I have hidden my wickedness like Adam, Concealing my guilt in my bosom, 34 Because I feared the great multitude And the contempt of families affrighted me, So that I acted secretly, went not out of the door. - Most expositors translate כּאדם: after the manner of men; but appropriate as this meaning of the expression is in , in accordance with the antithesis and the parallelism (which see), it would be as tame here, and altogether expressionless in the parallel passage Hos 6:7 - the passage which comes mainly under consideration here - since the force of the prophetic utterance: “they have כאדם transgressed the covenant,” consists in this, “that Israel is accused of a transgression which is only to be compared to that of the first man created: here, as there, a like transgression of the expressed will of God” (von Hofmann, Schriftbeweis , i. 412f.); as also, according to , Israel’s transgression is that fact in the historical development of redemption which stands by the side of Adam’s transgression. And the mention of Adam in Hosea cannot surprise one, since he also shows himself in other respects to be familiar with the contents of Genesis, and to refer back to it (vid., Genesis , S. 11-13). Still much less surprising is such a reference to primeval history in a book that belongs to the literature of the Chokma (vid., Introduction, §2). The descent of the human race from a single pair, and the fall of those first created, are, moreover, elements in all the ancient traditions; and it is questionable whether the designation of men by beni Adama (children of Adam), among the Moslems, first sprang from the contact of Judaism and Christianity, or whether it was not rather an old Arabic expression. Therefore we translate with Targ., Schult., Boullier, Rosenm., Hitz., Kurtz, and von Hofm.: if I have hidden (disowned) like Adam my transgression. The point of comparison is only the sinner’s dread of the light, which became prominent as the prototype for every succeeding age in Adam’s hiding himself. The לטמון which follows is meant not so much as indicating the aim, as gerundive ( abscondendo ); on this use of the inf. constr. with ל, vid., Ew. §280, d . חב, bosom, is ἁπ. γεγρ.; Ges. connects it with the Arab. habba , to love; it is, however, to be derived from the חב, occulere, whence chabı̂be , that which is deep within, a deep valley (comp. חבא, chabaa , with their derivatives); in Aramaic it is the common word for the Hebr. חיק.

‏ Job 31:34

Job 31:33-34 33 If I have hidden my wickedness like Adam,

Concealing my guilt in my bosom, 34 Because I feared the great multitude

And the contempt of families affrighted me,

So that I acted secretly, went not out of the door. -

Most expositors translate כּאדם: after the manner of men; but appropriate as this meaning of the expression is in Psa 82:7, in accordance with the antithesis and the parallelism (which see), it would be as tame here, and altogether expressionless in the parallel passage Hos 6:7 - ^{▼▼Pusey also (The Minor Prophets with Commentary, P. i. 1861) improves “like men” by translating “like Adam.”} the passage which comes mainly under consideration here - since the force of the prophetic utterance: “they have כאדם transgressed the covenant,” consists in this, “that Israel is accused of a transgression which is only to be compared to that of the first man created: here, as there, a like transgression of the expressed will of God” (von Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, i. 412f.); as also, according to Rom 5:14, Israel’s transgression is that fact in the historical development of redemption which stands by the side of Adam’s transgression. And the mention of Adam in Hosea cannot surprise one, since he also shows himself in other respects to be familiar with the contents of Genesis, and to refer back to it (vid., Genesis, S. 11-13). Still much less surprising is such a reference to primeval history in a book that belongs to the literature of the Chokma (vid., Introduction, §2). The descent of the human race from a single pair, and the fall of those first created, are, moreover, elements in all the ancient traditions; and it is questionable whether the designation of men by beni Adama (children of Adam), among the Moslems, first sprang from the contact of Judaism and Christianity, or whether it was not rather an old Arabic expression. Therefore we translate with Targ., Schult., Boullier, Rosenm., Hitz., Kurtz, and von Hofm.: if I have hidden (disowned) like Adam my transgression. The point of comparison is only the sinner’s dread of the light, which became prominent as the prototype for every succeeding age in Adam’s hiding himself. The לטמון which follows is meant not so much as indicating the aim, as gerundive (abscondendo); on this use of the inf. constr. with ל, vid., Ew. §280, d. חב, bosom, is ἁπ. γεγρ.; Ges. connects it with the Arab. habba , to love; it is, however, to be derived from the חב, occulere, whence chabı̂be , that which is deep within, a deep valley (comp. חבא, chabaa, with their derivatives); in Aramaic it is the common word for the Hebr. חיק.