He has walled up my way: this line is similar to Lamentations 3.7 “He has walled me about so that I cannot escape.” Job has expressed similar thoughts in 3.23; 13.27; 14.5. In 1.10 Satan spoke of God having placed protective walls around Job. Walled up translates a verb meaning to enclose with a wall or fence. It can be translated “He has blocked my way so that I can’t get through” or, as Bible en français courant says, “God bars my way, preventing me from getting through.” This line may also be rendered, for example, “He has cut off my path,” “He has thrown up a barrier on my path,” or “He has put up a wall so I can’t get by.”

And he has set darkness upon my paths translates literally the Hebrew of line b. Some scholars change the word translated darkness to get “thorn hedge,” and so New English Bible “He has hedged in the road before me.” But no change is required, since the Hebrew as it stands can be rendered, for example, “he has left me in the dark to find my way.”

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 .