He has made me a byword of the peoples: Hebrew uses an impersonal construction “one has made me,” which can be expressed as singular or plural. Revised Standard Version has supplied He, and Good News Translation “people.” The Septuagint refers to God as the one who has made Job a byword: “You have made me….” Dhorme takes it as the equivalent of a passive in English: “I have been made….” New International Version is more specific than Revised Standard Version: “God has made me….” The preferred solution is to consider the construction as intending to be impersonal, and use something like “they,” “one,” or “people.” Byword translates a word meaning “proverb, parable, wise saying.” In Psalm 44.14 and elsewhere it has the meaning of “object of contempt” (Good News Translation “a joke among the nations”), or “laughingstock.” In this line the reference is to Job as someone to be ridiculed, laughed at. Good News Translation “people use this proverb” refers to the proverb in verse 5, which is not explicitly called a proverb in the Hebrew of verse 5. In some languages a special name is given to shaming songs which are sung to ridicule someone. The name for these songs is appropriate here. “He has made the people sing ridicule songs to me” or “He has made the people sing songs that make fun of me.”

And I am one before whom men spit is literally “I am a spitting in the faces.” Revised Standard Version, which follows the ancient versions here, intends to give the meaning of being an object of contempt. Spitting in the face is a most serious insult (Deut 25.9; Isa 50.6; Matt 26.67). Job expresses this thought again in 30.10b. However, spitting in the face has different meanings in different cultures. In some places and contexts this gesture is used to confer a blessing from a father to his son. It is important in translation that the gesture, if used, means “to insult, reject, despise.” If the gesture does not, it is better to use a nonfigurative expression, “they insult me” or “they despise me.” It may be possible to retain the gesture and say “they spit on the ground in front of me to show their hatred” or “they spit at me because they reject me.”

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 .