Verse 3 is an inventory of Job’s animals and servants, and concludes that having so much livestock and so many servants made him “the richest man in the East” (Good News Translation). As with his seven sons and three daughters, he owns seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels. The Hebrew term miqneh, which is translated sheep, includes sheep, goats, and cattle, the animals of a grazing culture. Five hundred yoke of oxen is translated by Good News Translation as “one thousand head of cattle.” The text, however, suggests pairs of working animals and not ordinary cattle. Five hundred she-asses emphasizes the large number of females, which were valuable for milk and breeding, and superior to males for riding. Only a small number of males would be required for breeding.
In areas where these animals are unknown, the translator may have to borrow terms from a major language. In such cases it is often helpful to add a classifying word or phrase; for example, “burden-carrying animals called camels” and “work animals called oxen,” or “animals called oxen that pull loads.” Translators are cautioned in the use of descriptive phrases such as “long-eared animal” for donkey, since the only long-eared animal the people may know is the rabbit. In most cases in which these animals are unknown, publications should contain illustrations.
Very many servants translates a term which includes both male and female workers as used in Genesis 12.16. Servants must often be rendered by a descriptive phrase; for example, “work-people” or “people who work for the owner.”
So that in the Hebrew text marks a consequence; because of Job’s great wealth and his religious character, he was known as the greatest of all the people of the east. In some languages the consequence will have to be more explicitly marked; for example, “because Job had so much wealth, the people knew him as the richest man.”
Greatest of all: Job is called “greatest” by comparing his wealth with others. Accordingly Good News Translation, the Spanish common language version (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy), and Pope say that he was “the richest man” (see Gen 26.13 for a similar description of Isaac). In some languages the greatest or richest man is said to be “the man with the most loads” or “the big owner man.” The translation of comparatives and superlatives differs greatly from language to language. In the present superlative one must sometimes say “No person had wealth like Job’s wealth,” “Many people had wealth; Job surpassed all in wealth,” or “Job was rich; everyone else was poor.”
People of the east is literally “sons of the east” and was used to designate various ethnic groups living to the east of the Jordan valley: Arameans along the northern Euphrates (Gen 29.1); the people of Edom, Moab, and Ammon, who were Israel’s enemies (Isa 11.14); the nomadic Midianites and Amalekites who raided Israel’s eastern borders during the rule of the Judges (Judges 6.3, 33). The east does not help to locate Job’s country with any exactness.
The author assumes his readers know that the east is a general geographical area in a particular part of the world. However, a local rendering of the direction “east” may not designate for modern readers the area the author has in mind. Therefore it may be preferable to avoid speaking of “east” as a direction and say, for example, “he was the richest man in his part of the world.” If the translator keeps the expression, it may be expressed as “east of Israel” or “east of where the people of Israel live.” East may be translated in some languages in reference to local geography; for example, “where the headwaters of the river are” or “beyond the mountain.” A common designation is “where the sun rises.”
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 .