Job 27:3 “All the while my breath is in me but the Spirit of God is in my nostrils.”
Translators have really played around with this verse. No one seems to know for sure whether to render this as the breath of God is in my nostrils or the Spirit of God is in my nostrils. Taking this literally Job seems to say that the Spirit of God is in his nose.
The most common and logical interpretation of this is that Job is saying that the living soul was breathed by God into man. This is consistent with the context and our theology but not really consistent with the Hebrew words used here. The word for my breath that we assume means his soul is nasham not nephesh which is the common Hebrew word for soul. You can render nasham as soul because soul is a very subjective word, no one knows what it really is so we can apply the word soul to nasham and pretty well get away with it. However nasham is often rendered as the mind or one’s capacity to reason. Breath can be a rendering for nasham but this is very rare. In Hebrew the context is often your best tool of translation when you have such an ambiguous word like nasham. I suggest we just take this word to its Semitic root and use the word reasoning for nasham.
The first three words in this verse form a very interesting syntax. They are ki kal ‘od all in a construct state. It is literally rendered as still all of that. Most translations will ignore the word ki that because you would have to say, still all of that my breath is within me. Grammatically it is proper to forget about ki that when converting this to English and say still all of my breath is with in me. But ki can also be rendered as because and we could play around with the syntax and say, I still have all my reasoning within me because the Spirit of God is in my nostrils. Most Hebrew teachers would jump all over me for misplacing the ki (because) that way and rightly so as the Masoretic text did put this ki kal ‘od in a construct state, although the Masoretic text is not the inspired Word of God, I will play it safe and render this as: “Because all my reasoning is still within me, the Spirit or breath of God is in my nostrils.” Hebrew teachers may still frown but I can get away that.
Really the difficulty in understanding this verse lies in what we will do with the word ’anef. With very few exceptions, all our English translations renders this as nostrils. ‘Aneph is an old Canaanite word that comes from a camel snorting. It even sounds like the snort of a camel. As it passed into the Hebrew language it began to take on the use of the expression of a strong emotion. Many times it is rendered as anger. Actually, anger is a hard word to understand in the Hebrew and in the English. Where do you cross the line between anger, frustration, disappointment, confusion or even fear? Why does a camel snort? The Bedouins wished they knew they just called it ‘aneph. A camel may snort when being forced to do something against his will, it is then a cry of rebellion. A camel will snort when it is in heat, it is an expression of a longing. So you can see how complex this word ‘aneph is and yet we simply call it nostrils when we have a whole basket full of options to play around with. Again we must go to the context to see which word we pull out of this basket. Considering Job’s frustration at this point I would suggest that ‘aneph here is speaking of his inability to act, or to control a matter in such a way that is favorable to his desires.
Job is in the midst of suffering. He has lived a righteous life, he has always tried to serve God faithfully. God has always blessed him and answered his prayers and now all of a sudden the roof falls in and where is God? Why is God doing this to him, where are the miracles? Where is the answer to prayer? Job is saying: “While I still have my reasoning, I still understand that God is control and His will is being done, yet, I am totally frustrated over what the Spirit of God is doing. I don’t get it. All I want is to understand what God is up to. Give me a good reason for my suffering and I will be fine, I will accept it.” Yet, God tells Job in no uncertain words in later chapters. “Job, I can explain it to you but even then in your current physical realm you won’t understand. When you get to heaven you will see things differently, then we can sit on some street corner and just talk about it, then you will understand.”
I think we can really understand Job’s dilemma, We may face health issues, deadlines, job issues, relationship issues and so many other issues of life, yet we can still say: “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” We can also say: “Though He slay, yet I will trust in Him.” But yet the Spirit of God is in our nostrils. What God is doing has us totally frustrated, sometimes with aneph running to its extreme and we find what God is doing in my life is making us angry. Yes, we even find ourselves getting angry with God, Oh, gasp, slay you malefactor. Is it right to be angry or mad at God? Of course not, but dog gone it, sometimes we just can’t help it, so we may as well be honest with Him about it. He knows it anyways. If I am translating Job 27:3 halfway correct, Job was getting a little miffed at God at this point and he is just being honest about it, to the horror of his friends. I mean how dare anyone be angry with God? Well, if that is the way you feel, you might as well own up to it. You are not helping yourself or God by pretending to be patient and understanding.
The name Job means patience, and he was patient in his faith. He never wavered in his faith. He was married to God that was that. Still, like Ruth Graham (wife of Billy Graham) once commented about her marriage to Billy Graham: “Divorce never crossed my mind, murder – yes, but not divorce.” So to, the idea of giving up his faith never crossed Job’s mind, frustration, anger over what God was doing, yes, but he was never going to give up on God.
I have to admit that I have been embracing Job 27:3 lately. All this time my breath is within me, my reasoning is telling me the life of Jesus Christ is within me and that He has my best interest at heart, but the Spirit of God is in my nostrils. What God is doing with me lately has me a little more than frustrated maybe even angry. Yet, I am like that little child who is angry over being forced to eat his vegetables rather than allowed to eat his ice cream. He doesn’t understand the long term effects of too much sugar and the danger developing obesity, diabetes and all those other horrible things that happen when you get older and pay little attention to your diet. All he sees is the here and now and now he wants ice cream and not brussels sprouts. I don’t understand the long term effects of my circumstances, nor am I happy about it, but one thing for sure, the Spirit of God may be on my nostrils, but my breath, my understanding is telling me that the life of Jesus Christ will always remain in me, no matter what the circumstance. Like Paul said he learned to be content in whatever state he was in. I too am learning to be content in whatever State I am in, even if it is the State of Illinois where they are talking about raising our income tax.
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