`What is my strength, that I continue?' (LXX).

The Hebrew word yachal combines the two thoughts `to wait with hope'. It is used of Noah when he `stayed' for

seven days, awaiting deliverance from the deluge, and it is found eight times in Job, where it is translated `wait',

`hope' and `trust'. Job 14:14 which is one of these occurrences, and which is also rendered in the LXX by

hupomeno, is so to the point of our enquiry that we give it separate mention `all the days of my appointed time will I

wait, till my change come' (A.V.). `I will wait until I exist, or am made, again' (LXX).

Job 7:3

`So am I made to possess months of vanity' (A. V.).

`So have I also endured months of vanity' (LXX).

The Hebrew word here translated by the LXX hupomeno is nachal `to inherit, or possess'.

Job 9:4

`Who hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered?' (A.V.).

`Who has hardened himself against Him and endured?' (LXX).

Here, hupomeno is the translation of the Hebrew word shalam, the word which gives us the word shalom `peace',

the root idea of which is completeness. In Job 9:4 the idea seems to be `who that hath hardened himself against the

Lord, ever lasted out to finish?' an intensive form of the thought `endure'. This example should be compared with:

`be at peace' (Job 22:21), and `repay' (Job 41:11).

Job 15:31

`Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity' (A.V.).

`Let not him think that he shall endure, for his end shall be vanity' (LXX).

Here the Hebrew word taah `to deceive' is translated by the LXX hupomeno but it is beyond present day knowledge

to explain how the Septuagint translators could use the word `patiently endure' to translate `deceived' or `to be led

astray'. We can but record the fact, and pass on.

Job 20:26

`All darkness shall be hid in his secret places' (A.V.).

`Let all darkness wait for him' (LXX).

Here the Hebrew word taman, followed by `secret places' is rendered hupomeno, and there is some affinity between

the idea of being hid in secret and `remaining under', which is the literal meaning of the word translated `patience'.

Job 32:4 `Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken' (margin, Heb. expected Job in words) (A.V.).

`But Elihu had forborne to give an answer to Job' (LXX).

Here the Hebrew word is chakah `to wait earnestly', and is used by Job in 3:21, when he speaks of those who `long

for' death, and by Habakkuk in 2:3, in the injunction `though it tarry wait for it'.

Job 33:5 `If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up' (A.V.).

`If thou canst: give an answer: wait therefore, stand against me and I will stand against thee' (LXX).

The LXX evidently felt a need to interpose the idea of waiting with patience here, because the Hebrew word arak `to

order' or `to set in order' implies the absence of all heat in argument (see Job 13:18; 23:4; 32:14). This exhausts the

references to hupomeno in the Septuagint translation of the book of Job, and requires but the record and examination

of the one occurrence of hupomone to complete the analysis.

Job 14:19

`Thou destroyest the hope of man' (A.V.).

`Thou destroyest the hope of man' (margin, patience or endurance) (LXX).

This Hebrew word is tiqvah, and one that has a most interesting and suggestive connection with redemption.

The examination of the references, while it may have tested our `patience', has shown that the governing idea is

`patient and expectant waiting for the fulfilment and completion of something hoped for'. In Job, as in the New

Testament it is `the patience of hope'. Now, it is true, that however exasperated Job may have been by the counsels

of his three friends, or however bitterly he may have complained against the apparently insensate afflictions that fell