Why are we counted as cattle?: the reason for Bildad’s question probably arises from Job having said in 12.7 “Ask the beasts and they will teach you.” There Job declared that even dumb animals know as much as his friends. The two lines of this verse are parallel rhetorical questions which Good News Translation reduces to one. The thought of the verse is echoed in Psalm 73.22: “I was stupid and ignorant, I was like a beast toward thee” (Revised Standard Version). Counted does not refer to numbering but rather translates a verb meaning “consider, look upon, think of as”: “Why do you think of us as animals?” Cattle translates a collective noun meaning animals in general, including wild and domestic animals as well as cows, but in the present context the reference is to a dumb beast symbolizing stupidity. Cattle is perhaps more specific than the context requires, unless the translator’s language uses “cattle” in that rhetorical manner. So the question of this line is “Why do you consider us like beasts?” or “What makes you think of us as dumb animals?”

Why are we stupid in your sight?: the meaning of the Hebrew word translated stupid is uncertain, and some interpreters connect it with a root meaning “to be unclean.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says the word may have either meaning, and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch gives both meanings by adding a line: “Are we dumb as cattle, as he (Job) asserts? Is he of the opinion that we are unclean?” It is better to select one meaning and to place the other in a footnote, as in New Jerusalem Bible. In your sight translates the Hebrew “in your (plural) eyes.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project suggests that in your sight refers to the other two friends, and so Bildad is asking “Are we (all three of us friends of Job) stupid like animals in your (you two others’) eyes?” or, Bildad addressing the two friends, “Friends, do you think we are stupid as cattle, as Job has said?” In your sight implies “in Job’s sight” but does not make it specifically so. Bible en français courant follows Hebrew Old Testament Text Project “Do you (plural) have the impression that we (all three friends of Job) are stupid?” In languages in which “we” and “us” must be either inclusive or exclusive, translators should use the form of we that means the speaker and others, but excludes Job, the one addressed. In some languages this may have to be expressed differently; for example, “Job, why do you think of us, who are your friends, as dumb animals? Why do you consider us stupid?”

It is also possible that Bildad addresses Job in the plural as a respectful or honorific way of speaking to him. In this case there is probably a strong note of irony, that is, meaning to be less than respectful. In that case we may translate “Job, do you, sir, really think we are stupid as cattle?” or “Job, your honor, …?”

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 .