In all this Job did not sin: Job has passed Satan’s first test without sinning. Some (including the Septuagint) take In all this to refer to the statement Job has just made in verse 21. Others take it to refer to all the events reported by the messengers; so Good News Translation “everything that had happened.” In all this marks the end of the episode by way of summing up. Translators should make certain that the reader knows he has reached a point which will tie together the author’s conclusion with Yahweh’s confident evaluation of his servant Job. Furthermore, in some languages it will be necessary to identify the story teller as the one offering this affirmation; for example, “I tell you this, although Job lost everything he owned….”

Or charge God with wrong: wrong translates a word meaning “insipid, empty, unsteady” (Holladay). It occurs in Jeremiah 23.13 with the meaning of “unseemly” (Revised Standard Version “unsavory”). In the present verse it is used to mean that Job did not accuse Yahweh of doing something that was unworthy. Good News Translation relates the second clause to the first as the naming of the sin: “Job did not sin by blaming God.” New English Bible retains the separate clauses as coordinate: “Throughout all this Job did not sin; he did not charge God with unreason,” meaning he did not claim that God had done something foolish. In some languages it may be better to shift here to direct address and say, for example, “Job did not sin and say to God, ‘You are the one I blame.’ ” The author’s defense of Job marks the conclusion of the episode.

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 .