They go about naked, without clothing: the subject is again the poor, and so Good News Translation makes this clear “But the poor….” This line closely resembles verse 7a, differing only in the verb go about. Good News Translation “go out” seems to imply leaving a dwelling, which they do not have. The sense is as in Revised Standard Version, which suggests “wander here and there.” Without clothing may be taken as an explanation for why they are naked. “They wander about naked because they have no clothes to wear.”

Hungry, they carry the sheaves: this line emphasizes their misery as they carry sheaves (bundles of grain in the stalks), probably to the threshing floor where they will beat out the grain. The paradox is that the people who harvest the grain do so for the owners’ benefit while the workers go hungry. Good News Translation generalizes the picture with “while harvesting wheat.” The line may also be expressed “they go hungry while they thresh out the grain,” “while their backs are loaded with grain their stomachs pain from hunger,” or “they carry another’s grain on their backs and emptiness in their stomachs.”

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 .