Verses 2-3 are closely linked, in that verse 2 is a condition which is beyond fulfillment, and verse 3 is the hypothetical result. The images used are poetic kinds of reality in which anger and misfortune are depicted as solid objects and therefore capable of being weighed like sand.

O that my vexation were weighed: Job complains that his circumstances have not been understood by Eliphaz. Job’s bitter complaints in chapter 3, which his visitors heard, must be judged in the light of his agony. Vexation, which was used by Eliphaz in a proverbial saying in 5.2, is now picked up by Job, and means the same as in 5.2. It is matched in the next line by calamity, meaning resentment, anger, anguish. It appears that Job has taken Eliphaz’s proverb and applied it to himself, and he rejects being labeled as a “fool.” If his misfortune could be properly understood, Eliphaz would not have suggested that “vexation kills the fool.” Were weighed is a poetic way of saying “could be understood, evaluated, appreciated.” Job does not suggest that his anguish could be weighed, but rather “if only it were possible,” since he says in verse 3 that it would have an impossible weight, more than the sand of the sea.

All of my calamity laid in the balances: this is line b of a pair of lines, and it is parallel to line a, with step-up of feeling through the use of the more specific laid in the balances. This expression matches the more general term weighed in line a. Calamity translates a word found in the margin of the Hebrew text. The fact that the two lines of this verse show some intensification in the second line can be expressed in English by “If it were possible to weigh my anger, or rather, if someone were able to lay all my misfortune on a scale….” If the translator is forced to abandon figurative expressions, the verse can be translated as prose: “If it were possible for others to understand how angry I am and how much misfortune I’ve been through….” Good News Translation manages to retain the metaphor of weighing Job’s feelings with “If my troubles and griefs were weighed on the scales.”

Would be heavier than the sand of the sea: this line is the first result of verse 2, and the next line is the second result. The two lines are not parallel in this case. If Job’s suffering could be placed on one scale pan and all the sand of the sea placed on another, the scale would tip down on the side of Job’s suffering. Sand is most often used in Old Testament comparisons to indicate an uncountable number, usually offspring or soldiers (see Gen 22.17; 32.12). The Hebrew says literally “sands of the seas,” implying all the sand from all seas, and so New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New International Version, and others. In some language areas this imagery will not be meaningful, and it may be necessary to substitute “rivers” and “deserts,” or even to change sand to a different figure which is more natural in this context.

Therefore my words have been rash: in this line Job explains or justifies the “wild words” which he used in chapter 3, which his friends sat through in silence. He wishes to establish that his outburst does not make him a “fool” (5.2). This line is the conclusion to be drawn from verses 2 and 3a combined. Verses 4-7 will expand the reason, which is the intolerable treatment Job has received at the hands of Almighty God. Rash translates a Hebrew verb which may rest on a root meaning to stammer or stutter, and is used in this sense by Dhorme; but the context does not seem to support this meaning. A better equivalent would be reckless, impetuous, unrestrained. Bible en français courant says “This is why I spoke without rhyme or reason.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “It is no wonder that I carry on muddled talk.” New English Bible translates “What wonder if my words are wild?” In order to show clearly that verse 3b is a consequence of verses 2 and 3a, it may be necessary to say, for example, “That is the reason why I spoke so wildly.”

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 .