Norman C. Habel (Job in the OTL Series) remarks that the Hebrew word or can be translated "Sun" but it is literally "light," which he maintains refers to "the light par excellence (cf. [Job] 37:21" (Habel, page 426). Also compare Isaiah 18:4. When explaining the hand gesture that Job mentions, Habel says "the precise liturgical actions intended is obscure" (Ibid.). Maybe Job is talking about throwing a kiss with his hand, we just don't know for sure, but it likely involved some type of homage.
I will post Habel's commentary in full for Job 31:26-28:
David J.A. Clines (Job 21-37 in the WBC Series):
Sunday, July 24, 2022
Some Thoughts Concerning Job 31:26
Hebrew: אִם־אֶרְאֶ֣ה אֹ֖ור כִּ֣י יָהֵ֑ל וְ֝יָרֵ֗חַ יָקָ֥ר הֹלֵֽךְ׃
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14 comments:
The context and understanding of job 37:21 - the wind clearing the air. One does not have to be talking about vertical light but can also mean the distance that one can see to the horizon. The term here is also light, not sun.
The term Kiss in Jobs Hebrew may just mean to cover ones mouth with the hand. There is a wealth of concrete possibilities.
We might say - When parking my car I kissed the bumper of the car next to me.
NIV footnote for Hos 13:2 - Or “Men who sacrifice / kiss"
Hosea 9:1-2 does not mention kissing.
https://biblehub.com/text/job/37-11.htm
Continue with 12 & make of it what you will!
when cloud clears like dust it gets brighter but does that mean that sun is a good translation?
The verb προσκύνεω literally means “to fall down and kiss” but is defined by the LSJ as “to make obeisance to the gods or their images” and “to fall down and worship.” This meaning is attested as early as the classical period (e.g., Pl. Resp. 469a; Xen. Cyr. 5.3.18; Hdt. 2.121).
https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_etd/send_file/send?accession=osu1606754016335887&disposition=inline
The Birth of Sacrifice: Ritualized Deities in Eastern Mediterranean Mythology Dissertation
1) For Job 37:21, I wouldn't be dogmatic about it, but translators/scholars know the Hebrew says "light," but that doesn't mean light can't refer to the sun (Genesis 1:16). Verse 22 might shed a little "or" on the matter, and see https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2037%3A21&version=NET
2) Job's use of the kiss language seems to be highly obscure: it stumps many scholars. That was my impression from checking several commentaries and dictionaries.
"The Greeks and Romans had the practice of throwing a kiss with the hand to their idols, if these were inaccessible, and in this way they also greeted the rising sun. Job 31:27 may allude to a similar idolatrous practice" (Insight on the Scriptures, page 2:177).
"And had my heart been secretly enticed to blow them a kiss with my hand" (NABRE)
The only place I see agreement is that the act was idolatrous, whatever it entailed.
3) Also interesting notes for Hosea 13:1-2 in NET.
4) I don't think Habel cited Hosea 9:1-2 to establish/back up the practice of kissing as an idolatrous act. Rather, he was showing how the Israelites stoked Jehovah's anger when they worshiped other deities: the verses compare their idolatrous acts to sexual unfaithfulness. Right before Habel cites the verse, he mentions the idolatrous "deed as a whole" and criminality of the act. So I think his use of Hosea 9:1-2 was more about idolatry = sexual unfaithfulness in a figurative sense.
I have no major quibble with the LSJ treatment of the verb, but see our past discussion: https://fosterheologicalreflections.blogspot.com/2009/08/lily-ross-taylor-on-proskunhsis.html
The verb could have encompassed the act of kissing. See the Cambridge Greek Lexicon entry for προσκύνεω--here's part of what it states:
προσ-κυνέω contr.vb. | fut. προσκυνήσω | aor. προσεκύνησα, also προσέκυσα, ptcpl. προσκΰσας, imperatv. πρόσκυσον, inf. προσκύσαι || The vb. connotes worship, usu. w. no indication of the form which it takes, but oft. assoc.w. kneeling or prostration (esp. by orientals before their rulers). It sts. also connotes a reverential kiss. |
John Gray (The Book of Job, page 388) on Job 31:26ff:
MT wavyi t libbî might be better read wayyippa…libbî; cf. v. 9a. In the
phrase wattiššaq y î le î the rst word means ‘kiss’ as it usually does in
Classical Heb., but we should expect rather ‘my mouth kisses my hand’. But if
we take the verb as the Niphal in the passive sense, the meaning in normal
Heb. idiom would be ‘my hand is kissed by my mouth’, as in ‘throwing a
kiss’, doubtless a reference to a well-known superstitious rite.
https://biblehub.com/text/job/37-21.htm
I see no necessity that this is focusing on the sun per se.
as in ‘throwing a kiss’, - this needs backing up with something?
https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/1891/sacrificing-and-kissing-calves-in-hosea-132
"It should also be noted that nashak 'kiss' has a close pun nasak which means 'burn'. In which case the verse says "Let the men that sacrifice burn the calves."
The authority of the priests was challenged early in their wandering the desert. This statement using nasak appears to be a challenge to to that authority. Rather than the priests acting as intermediaries, let the people burn their own sacrifices.
The close association of lay sacrifices and the practice of kissing a calf in rouge sacrifices makes the association between the literal and pun likely."
Another option.
I agree that Job 37:21 is not necessarily talking about the sun, but there is precedent for or being used this way plus we have to ask what point the writer was trying to make within the verse's immediate context.
It's good to make sure things are accurate, but I don't see the need to get hung up on throwing a kiss versus kissing the hand, etc. The act would be idolatrous either way, pure and simple. But see the Job commentary by Driver and Gray, page 269.
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