They lie down alike in the dust: death treats all men alike. In 3.19 Job said that all kinds of people, the small and the great, the slave and the free, are all alike in death. Good News Translation translates the expression lie down … in the dust as “die and are buried.” In some languages it will be inappropriate to speak of the dead lying down, and so this must be expressed as in Good News Translation, “They die and are buried” or “They die and people bury them.”

And the worms cover them: in 17.14-16 Job called the worms in death “my mother and my sister.” The portrayal of the worms as a covering in death is found in Isaiah 14.11: “Maggots are the bed beneath you, and worms are your covering.” The worms referred to in this verse are the same as in 17.14 and refer to maggots that eat rotting flesh. This line may be rendered as “they all are eaten by worms” or “worms eat their bodies.”

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 .