Thick clouds enwrap him, so that he does not see: this is the description of the hidden God. Revised Standard Version and others include the whole of verse 14 in the quotation which began in verse 13a. Good News Translation closes the quoted question at the end of 13b and begins verse 14 with “You think….” It also makes statements in both lines. This arrangement makes a clearer translation than Revised Standard Version and is recommended to translators. Thick clouds translates “clouds that veil,” suggesting a face veil, a cloth used to cover the face. (See 24.15c.) These are Thick clouds in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. New English Bible has “His eyes cannot pierce the curtain of the clouds,” and New Jerusalem Bible “The clouds, to him, are an impenetrable veil,” that is, a veil that cannot be seen through. Bible en français courant translates “Their (the clouds from verse 13b) veil is too thick; God distinguishes nothing.” This line may also be rendered, for example, “He can see nothing through such dark clouds” or “The dark clouds that hide him prevent him from seeing anything.”

And he walks on the vault of heaven: this line describes an event happening at the same time as the main clause, which is in verse 14a. Vault of heaven is not an expression that is currently used in English. Vault is sometimes used to refer to an arched ceiling or roof, and as applied to heaven it suggests the dome-like appearance of the sky rising above the horizons. The term translated vault is used only here and in Proverbs 8.27; Isaiah 40.22. In the Proverbs reference Good News Translation translates “horizon.” The Good News Translation footnote in the British edition has “Boundary between earth and sky: the horizon was regarded as a great circle where the earth met the sky and where God inspected the earth by walking around it.” Modern translations use a variety of terms which have no clarifying note and often remain obscure; for example, New Jerusalem Bible “rim of the heavens,” New Jerusalem Bible “circuit of heaven,” and Dhorme “circle of the heavens.” Good News Translation has attempted to give an accurate rendering which conveys the idea, and translators will be helped by following it. This line may have to be rendered, for example, “He walks around the earth where the sky meets the ground” or “He walks where the sky and earth meet.” It may also be necessary to provide readers with a footnote modeled on the Good News Translation edition cited above.

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 .