And you will have confidence, because there is hope: the verb translated have confidence occurs in 6.20, “they were confident” (Revised Standard Version). The expression means “have a sense of security, live confidently, securely, without fear.” In 7.6 Job complained that he was “without hope,” but Zophar promises him a life full of hope in the future. For a discussion of hope see 4.6. Line 18a may also be expressed “You will gain new confidence and new hope,” “You will look to the future without fear and with confidence,” or “You will have no more fear and will be filled with hope.”

You will be protected and take your rest in safety: protected translates a verb which normally has the sense of “dig or search for something,” and Revised Standard Version has “you will look around” in a footnote. However, these more common meanings do not fit the context. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project gives three suggestions: (1) “and you will be ashamed,” (2) “and you will dig,” and (3) “you will protect.” BDB (Brown, Driver, and Briggs Hebrew-English lexicon) explains the usage here as “search or look carefully about before going to rest.” New International Version follows this with “You will look about you and take your rest in safety.” Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and others accept a change in the Hebrew text to get “protect,” as in Hebrew Old Testament Text Project‘s third suggestion. However, the implied subject of “protect” is God, as in Good News Translation, “God will protect you.” This seems the best solution and is the one followed by Dhorme and other interpreters. “God will guard you and you will rest without fear,” or “God will keep anyone from harming you, and you will rest securely.”

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 .