Why does Job use “bless” to mean “curse” in Job 1-2?

Contronyms (or “Janus words”) are words with two opposite meanings. For example, you can cleave to someone, or cleave from someone. You can dust off the countertop, or dust a cake with icing sugar. Lease a house out, or lease it from someone. It’s not limited to English either – I recently learned that in …

Job 23-24: Looking for God

Here’s a translation of Job 23-24 from Hebrew, with sporadic comments. Previously: 1:1-5 | 1:6-12 | 1:13-22 | 2:1-6 | 2:7-13 | 3:1-10 | 3:11-26 | 4 | 5:1-7 | 5:8-27 | 6 | 7 | 8:1-7 | 8:8-22 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13:1-16 | 13:17-14:22 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | Translation: 23:1 And Job answered, saying:2 “Surely today bitter [is] my complaint,My hand [is] heavy from my groaning.3 O that I knew [where] I would find him (God), and come to His seat.4 I would lay before Him judgement,And my …

Job 20: the joy of the godless is for a moment

Here’s a rough translation of Job 20, with comments. As background, during our Level 4 lockdown last year I tried to lock down some reading to hold on to my Hebrew. You can see them here (helpful insights are thanks to God: typos and mistranslations wholly my fault):  1:1-5  |  1:6-12  |  1:13-22  |  2:1-6 …