Then Job arose, and rent his robe: Job had been seated (like Eli in 1 Sam 4.13) as he listened to the reports of the messengers. Now he “stood up and tore his clothes in grief” (Good News Translation). David reacts to the sad news of the death of his son by standing up and tearing his clothes (2 Sam 13.31). In some languages the transition Then suggested by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation may have to be recast as a clause; for example, “When Job had finished hearing the messengers” or “Job listened to the last messenger and then….”
Tearing the clothing was the custom used to display grief (Gen 37.34; Josh 7.6; 1 Sam 1.11; 3.31; 13.31; Ezra 9.3, 5; Est 4.1). The robe which Job tore was the outer garment. Good News Translation makes clear the purpose of this gesture by adding “in grief”; so also Biblia Dios Habla Hoy. Translators should follow some such model as Good News Translation here. It is also possible to translate the meaning of the gesture only; for example, “Job stood up full of grief” or “Job got to his feet, his heart broken.” It is also possible, where there is a common local custom used to display grief, to translate the biblical custom in the text and to compare it to the local custom in a note; for example, “This is equivalent to the practice of painting the face to show that one is in mourning.”
Shaved his head: shaving the head and beard were likewise signs of mourning (see Isa 22.12; Jer 7.29; 16.6; 41.5; Ezek 7.18; Amos 8.10). These mourning rites, which were commonly practiced in Middle Eastern cultures, were forbidden in the Law of Moses (Lev 19.27-28; Deut 14.1). It will be important in some languages to link the shaving of the head with the tearing of the robe as part of the same expression of sorrow. For example, “Job stood up (from sitting). He tore his clothes, then shaved his head to show how much he grieved for his children.”
Fell upon the ground, and worshiped translates the Hebrew “fell on the ground and bowed down.” The second verb is the same one used of Abraham, who in Genesis 23.7 bowed before the Hittites; see also Exodus 17.7; 1 Kings 2.19. The act involved lying or kneeling, and touching the forehead on the ground, very much as in Muslim prayer position. Bowing to the ground was not a gesture of despair but of reverence (2 Sam 1.2; 9.6; 14.4). Job humbly bows in submission to Yahweh. Good News Translation “threw himself face downward on the ground” fails to express this attitude of reverence. Revised Standard Version, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible use some form of worship. Better is “he knelt down on the ground to honor God” or “Job bowed himself to the ground in prayer to God.”
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 .