Remember that thou hast made me of clay: both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation follow the Septuagint. Job addresses God with an imperative. Made me is repeated as it is in verse 8. The picture is that of the potter fashioning pots from clay, as in Isaiah 45.9 and Jeremiah 18.1-12. Job is here asking God to remember that he has made Job with great care, and he asks how such a labor of love can be reduced to nothing. Job recognized in 1.21 that he would return naked to his starting point, but here his complaint is that God is arbitrary in the way he discards his work of creation. In some languages the command to remember is more effectively expressed as “Don’t forget”: “Don’t forget, God, that you made me from a piece of clay.” In languages in which clay utensils are unknown, one may say, for example, “Don’t forget that you created me from a bit of mud.”

Wilt thou turn me to dust again?: although this line may be read as a statement or a question, it seems in the context to be understood best as a question. Job does not question that he will eventually return to dust, but rather asks why God is grinding him down to nothing. The Hebrew word translated dust is the same word translated “soil” by Good News Translation in Genesis 3.19: “You will have to work hard and sweat to make the soil produce anything.”

Turn me … again translates the Hebrew for “to turn,” in the sense of transforming, converting. However, the verb is in the causative mood, and Good News Translation‘s “crush” fits the context well. This line may sometimes be expressed “Are you going to grind me into dust?” or “Are you going to smash me into dust?”

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 .