He will shake off his unripe grape, like the vine: shake off translates a verb meaning “to use violence.” Good News Translation avoids the active verb and says “He will be like a vine that loses its unripe grapes.” In both lines of the verse the thought is that the person is like a tree that will fail to bring its fruit to maturity. Unripe grape is used in Jeremiah 31.29; Ezekiel 18.2, where Revised Standard Version translates “sour grapes.” In languages in which grapes are unknown, it may be necessary to substitute another fruit, especially one that grows on a vine. The line may also be expressed “He will be like a vine whose fruit does not ripen, but drops to the ground while green” or “He will be like a vine whose fruit falls to the ground before it is ripe.”

And cast off his blossom, like the olive tree: Rowley quotes Wetzstein (in Delitzsch): “In order to appreciate the point of comparison, it is needful to know that the Syrian olive tree bears fruit plentifully the first, third and fifth years, but rests during the second, fourth, and sixth. It blossoms in these years also, but the blossoms fall off almost entirely without any berries being formed.” In languages in which the vine does not cast off its blossom, it may be necessary to change this expression to say, for example, “and like the blossom that falls from the olive tree” or “and like the olive tree whose blossom falls to the ground.” In areas where the olive tree is unknown, another fruit tree may be substituted.

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 .