Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’: for Behold see 4.18; 13.15. As Revised Standard Version translates, Job cries out or shouts the word Violence which is used also in 16.17. Here Violence is used as in Jeremiah 20.8, “For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, ‘Violence and destruction!’ ” In verse 7 Job’s shout is equivalent to the cry “Help!” New English Bible translates “Murder!” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “They are killing me!” Good News Translation‘s statement “I protest his violence” is subdued and lacking in impact. The line may also be expressed, for example, “ ‘Look,’ I shout, ‘Save me!’ ” or as a condition: “If I cry out ‘Stop!’ ” “Even if I cry out ‘I’m being attacked!’ ” But I am not answered translates the passive, which must often be expressed as in Good News Translation “No one is listening,” or Bible en français courant “Nobody answers me.”

I call aloud, but there is no justice: Good News Translation does not repeat the words I call. Aloud emphasizes the parallel I cry in line a, but it may be better rendered by being more specific, as New English Bible “If I appeal for help,” or “If I shout for help.” No justice is poetically compressed to say that there is no one to do justice, to do the right thing for Job. There is no justice may be rendered, for example, “nobody treats me fairly,” “nobody does what is right for me,” “there is no one to judge what is right,” or “no one stands up to decide what is fair.”

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 .