Since verses 28 and 29 form a separate subject, translators may wish to consider placing a subdivision heading before them, although the Handbook has not done so. Some suggestions are: “Job warns the friends,” “God will judge you,” or “You should be afraid of God’s anger.”
Verses 28 and 29 go together and are translated by Revised Standard Version so that the conditions expressed in 28 are followed by the consequences in 29.
If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’: Revised Standard Version and others express this line as an exclamation, Good News Translation as a question. The Hebrew seems to favor the question form. Say is not natural before a question, and Bible en français courant translates “You ask yourselves.” Pursue translates the same verb used in verse 22; see comments there. If the translator follows Good News Translation, as suggested above, verse 28, or at least verse 28a, is understood as Job quoting the friends. The line may also be expressed “How can we make him suffer most?” or “What is the best way to injure him?”
And, ‘The root of the matter is found in him’: Revised Standard Version now switches to a statement and makes this line a second quotation from the friends. Revised Standard Version translates the Hebrew literally, except in him, which in Hebrew is “in me.” The Hebrew has switched in this line to indirect speech. Most interpreters and translators, including the ancient versions, change the Hebrew “in me” to “in him.” Root of the matter or the Hebrew “root of the word” means “ground, basis, reason,” or “excuse” (Good News Translation). They look for an excuse to accuse Job. Bible en français courant, which continues the question form as in the first line, translates “What pretext can we find in order to charge him?” There is considerable manuscript support for keeping verse 28b as part of the quotation. This line may be rendered, for example, “The root of the trouble lies in himself,” “The basis for his suffering is in him,” “The cause of his troubles is himself,” or “No one is to blame for his suffering but Job himself.”
Job now sounds a stern warning to the friends. Be afraid of the sword: the sword is the instrument of God’s vengeance in Deuteronomy 32.41; Isaiah 34.5-8, and of his anger in Zechariah 13.7. In Romans 13.4 it is the symbol of authority. In some languages this line will have to be adjusted to say, for example, “You should fear the sword,” or more fully, “When God uses the sword, you should be afraid for your lives.” In many languages the identification of sword with God’s anger will not be made without further adjustments. Accordingly we may translate “You should fear God’s judgment,” “God will judge people, so you should fear him,” or “You should fear the anger of God, who judges people.”
For wrath brings the punishment of the sword: from this point onward verse 29 becomes obscure and is regarded by some interpreters as untranslatable. Nevertheless modern translations do show general agreement as to the essential thought expressed in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. Some editors take wrath to mean “these things,” referring to the thoughts expressed in verse 28. Good News Translation and others understand wrath to be “God’s wrath.” Dhorme suggests a slight change in the Hebrew to get “wrath is kindled as against iniquities,” and this is followed by New Jerusalem Bible “since the wrath bursts into flame at wicked deeds.” (A note on “bursts into flame” says “Hebrew unintelligible.”) Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “Because such crime merits the death sentence,” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “The sword with which God punishes evil,” and New International Version “Wrath will bring punishment by the sword.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project supports Revised Standard Version with “wrath deserves or brings punishments of the sword,” or, similar to Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, “crimes liable to the sword.” If sword has not been mentioned in the previous line, this clause may be rendered, for example, “God’s anger will cause him to punish sin” or “God will be angry and punish sinners.”
That you may know there is a judgment: most arguments on this line center on the word translated judgment. Some interpreters believe this word is a misspelling of the name for God, Shaddai, which is used frequently in Job, but the spelling never varies. Gordis points out that knowing God is always used in a favorable sense and refers to worshiping God and obeying the law. Job’s thought is a warning to the friends, and therefore it is better to understand this line as in Revised Standard Version. Good News Translation expresses the noun judgment as “one who judges.” In many languages the verb “to judge” requires an object; for example, “So that you will know there is one who judges the affairs of people” or “one who judges sinners.” In some cases this may be rendered idiomatically, “So you will know that God cuts the affairs among people who do evil.”
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 .