Or with princes who had gold again expresses a consequence which would have followed if, as in Good News Translation verse 13, Job had died. Accordingly Good News Translation again says “Then I would be sleeping….” Hebrew lacks a verb in line 15a; Revised Standard Version supplies had. The Hebrew term translated princes never really refers to sons of kings but rather to some of the highest leaders in the Israelite system of government. The princes who had gold are said to have filled their houses with silver. Some understand these houses to refer to the tombs or burial places of the rich. However, 22.18a expresses nearly the same form, where it refers to the riches of the living, and most probably it does also here. Good News Translation and others make both gold and silver the object of “filled their palaces.” Very often a literal translation of filled their houses will mean to fill them as with a liquid. In such cases it may be necessary to say, for example, “they put great amounts of gold and silver in their houses” or, more likely, “… objects made from gold and silver….” If the names of these metals are not familiar, they may have to be borrowed from a major language, or referred to generically as “valuable metals” or a combination of these. Alternatively we may simply say “wealth.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .