Since thou hast closed their minds to understanding: in this line Job seems to say that God has hidden the truth from the friends. Their minds, in Hebrew “their hearts,” does not actually say that the minds are the minds of the friends. Nevertheless, in this context it is best to assume it. Bible en français courant has “You have removed all reason from my friends.” They are not qualified to serve as Job’s guarantor. Understanding has its seat in the “heart,” and in Isaiah 44.18 the Hebrew for “heart” is the organ of mental activity, usually rendered “mind” in English. This line may also be rendered, for example, “You have shut their minds so they cannot think,” “You have made my friends so they cannot understand,” or “You have deadened my friends’ minds and they cannot think.”

Therefore thou wilt not let them triumph: therefore expresses the consequence of the previous line and can be translated “that is why, for that reason, due to that.” Good News Translation expresses the line as a plea, but this seems unnecessary. In Hebrew the verb translated let … triumph has no object, and so one is supplied by most translators. Triumph here has the sense of “conquer, win, be successful.” The thought is the same as that of the psalmist who pleads that his enemies should not “triumph over him,” Psalm 13.3-5; 30.2; 38.19; 41.11. The line may be rendered, for example, “stop them from defeating me” or “keep them from conquering me.”

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 .