I wasn't saying it is just poetry. I was saying that poetry is harder to translate than prose.

When I said "(and they had never seen dinosaurs)" I was referring to the translators, not to Job.

Actually, the modern versions agree with the KJV (as do the other older English translations) against the Geneva in rendering these as statements rather than questions, so the Geneva rendering is overwhelmingly in the minority. But I wasn't suggesting the text of the KJV should be changed. I was baiting for an explanation. "Maybe you have never been duck hunting,..." Good point, a dinosaur under water would fit under the reeds. You achieved what I hoped you would--you explained why the KJV rendering is right.

I agree. But are you saying you can't make heads or tales of it either?

Job 12:5 KJV "He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease."

The Geneva agrees with the KJV here. Coverdale has a paraphrase "Godliness is a light despised in the hearts of the rich, and is set for them to stumble upon" which I certainly do not think is what the passage is saying!

The perplexing thing is that Job is clearly talking about himself. Job 12:4-5 KJV "I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn. He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease."

Is Job sincerely referring to himself as "He that is ready to slip with his feet"? That seems unlikely. Secondly, it seems unlikely to call a man who is slipping "a lamp." But I suppose you could say that those who slip and fall are ignored as a person at ease ignores a lamp. That statement makes sense, but how does it apply to Job? They are not ignoring Job, but pestering the fire out of him, and he is not ready to slip, but maintains his innocency and claims that he is righteous. So then, it makes more sense to think that Job would say here something more like "A lamp is despised in the thought of one who is at ease; [...] made ready for those whose feet slip" referring to himself as a lamp, his friends as those who are at ease, and explaining also that he is made ready not for them (not for those Phariseeical Calvinistists at ease) but for those who are slipping who may observe Job's example and rather than despise him as they do, use him as a lamp to lighten the path of their feet. That makes more sense. Does that mean it is right? You tell me. What is certainly wrong is the NIV "Men at ease have contempt for misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping" because the word lamp is gone altogether in this...I don't even know what to call it since it goes way beyond paraphrase in the way it mangles the text. The NKJV and YLT seem the most sensical and they achieve it without changing the words (they merely arrange them in different order than the KJV, but he words are the same base words), YLT is "A torch -- despised in the thoughts of the secure Is prepared for those sliding with the feet." KJV is "He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease." Again, in the YLT it makes sense that Job would say this of himself. But what the KJV has could hardly be said by Job of himself but seems more or less to be a proverb that no man can decipher. I sure wish someone would help me out in deciphering it.