Verse 18 describes the misfortune of the wicked person, and verse 19 gives the reason for his disaster. These two verses are linked in Hebrew by the connective meaning “because.” In some languages it may be necessary to transpose verses 18 and 19 so that the reason clauses of verse 19 come before the consequences of verse 18.
He will give back the fruit of his toil: verse 18 is similar in meaning to verse 15, whose thought is giving back his wrongly acquired wealth to the poor. The noun translated fruit of his toil is not found elsewhere, but the verb form meaning “to toil or labor” gives another noun form in 10.3 rendered “the work of thy hands.” The parallelism in the second line profit of his trading gives fruit of his toil the more specific meaning of “gains, profits, acquisitions,” which is more specific than Good News Translation “all he has worked for.” This first line may be translated “He has to give back all he has gained” or “He has to return all the money he has acquired.”
And will not swallow it down: swallow translates the same verb used in verse 15. Here swallow is again used figuratively. Good News Translation considers not swallow to repeat give back and does not translate it separately: “He will have to give up all he has worked for.” New English Bible and others keep swallow, but do not give it a clear sense, “He must give back his gains without swallowing them.” Bible en français courant is clearer: “He will give back his gains before being able to use them.” This gives a good model for translation.
From the profit of his trading he will get no enjoyment: from the profit is based on a change in the Hebrew text. Otherwise the text would mean “according to the profit,” which does not seem to make sense. Trading or “exchange” presupposes that the wicked person has been engaged in business, but even here he will not be able to enjoy the wealth he acquired from it. These lines may also be expressed, for example, “he will have no happiness from the wealth he has earned” or “the money he has earned from his business will give him no joy.”
For he has crushed and abandoned the poor: although interpreters have suggested various changes in this first line of verse 19, the Hebrew is not obscure. The wicked man has done two things to the poor: “oppressed” and “neglected” them, as in Good News Translation, and this is the reason why he has to do the things required in verse 18. In some languages it may be necessary to adjust the reason clause of verse 19 by saying, for example, “The reason is that he has done nothing to help the poor and has treated them badly” or “Because he has treated the poor badly and paid no attention to their needs.”
He has seized a house which he did not build: the sense here is “he has taken over houses instead of building them.” Hebrew speaks in the singular, as in Revised Standard Version. Bible en français courant refers to the house of the poor in the previous line: “He has seized their house instead of building them one.” However, this appears to be the wicked person’s regular practice and not an individual case. Good News Translation and others therefore shift to the plural: “and seized houses someone else (not necessarily the poor) had built.” This line may also be expressed, for example, “he has also taken people’s houses away from them” or “he has also put people out of their own houses.”
It was suggested above that it may be more natural in some languages to switch verses 18 and 19 so that the reason the wicked person will have to give up his wealth is stated first. We may translate, for example, “[18] Because he has done nothing to help the poor, has treated them badly, and has thrown people out of their homes, [19] he will have to give back all the money he has obtained before he ever has a chance to benefit from it.”
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 .