God gives me up to the ungodly: the two lines of verse 11 are parallel, with the figurative expression occurring in line b, and this gives line b an increase in poetic intensity. Job clearly blames God for causing him to suffer. The verb in line a means “to hand over, deliver, give up.” Ungodly translates a Hebrew noun meaning “child” and is used with that sense in 19.18; 21.11. However, “child” does not fit the context, and so most interpreters accept a change of vowels to give a similar sounding noun meaning “unrighteous,” as in 27.7. The parallelism in line b requires this change. Therefore ungodly (Good News Translation “evil men”) is a common rendering. Although some translators follow the Hebrew text and translate “youth, child” (see Bible en français courant, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation are recommended. The line may be rendered, for example, “God hands me over to evil people,” “God turns me over to people who do evil things,” or “God gives me away to wicked people.”

And casts me into the hands of the wicked: line b is without a verb, and depends on the verb in line a. Good News Translation, which does not often attempt to show poetic heightening in the second line, here also reduces the two lines to one. If poetic heightening is to be kept, the translator must express it in a poetic manner which is acceptable in his or her language. In English this may be said “God hands me over to evil people, right into their hands” or “God turns me over to the ungodly, turns me over to them right into their hands.”

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 .