In these two verses Zophar sets out four conditions required for Job to be accepted by God. If you set your heart aright: this advice is similar to that given by Bildad in 8.5-7. Zophar’s advice is shallow, and the poetic language used to express it should be appropriate. You is emphatic and in contrast with the stupid person referred to in verse 12. This may require translators to say something like “As for you, Job” or “But if you, Job….” Set your heart aright means “repent, change your heart, live in the right way.” Good News Translation has expressed the conditions as commands, which may be a good model for some languages to follow. Expressing it as an “if” clause, we may translate “If you, Job, change your heart…” or “Job, if you will repent….”

You will stretch out your hands toward him: the same expression is used in Isaiah 1.15. It refers to the attitude and gesture of addressing prayer to God, as New English Bible makes clear, “and spread out your hands to pray to him!” Good News Translation “Reach out to God” implies the gesture of extending the hands but leaves the purpose unclear. A better rendering would be “Reach out to God in prayer” or “Extend your hands to God in prayer.”

If iniquity is in your hand: in your hand is the expression of a part for the whole person and means “if you have sinned.” Put it far away: it refers to the sin or iniquity said in the first line to be in Job’s hand. The sense of put it far away is “stop sinning!” Revised Standard Version has rendered this line as a command, which has the effect of interrupting the conditions before reaching the consequences in verse 15. Put it far away can also be understood as a condition in Hebrew, so that the meaning would be as in New International Version, “If you put away the sin that is in your hand….” A translator may use either a series of commands as in Good News Translation or a series of “if” clauses. Both ways are preferable to Revised Standard Version.

And let not wickedness dwell in your tents: this is the fourth condition set down by Zophar and the second to be stated in the negative. Wickedness is pictured as a person living in Job’s tents or home. Bildad used the expression “tent of the wicked” in 8.22, where Good News Translation translates “home” as here. Zophar is saying “You must stop sinning and not allow anyone in your house to sin.”

Verse 14 uses figurative expressions, iniquity is in your hand and wickedness dwell in your tents, so that the poetic intensification does not build up from line a to line b. Good News Translation considers line a as being contained in line b and does not translate it. However, the author is no doubt making a distinction between Job’s personal sin and that of his family, and this distinction should be reflected in the translation. Verse 14 may be expressed, for example, “If you have done evil things, stop them, and let justice be done at home.” Bible en français courant translates “If your hands are soiled by evil, clean them, and do not give place to injustice in your house,” which is a good model for those who can retain the image of the 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 .