They lie all night naked, without clothing: this verse describes the poor people as being inadequately dressed and suffering from the cold. Lie all night translates a verb meaning “spend the night,” which may be with or without sleep. Good News Translation has “sleep,” which is used generally for spending the night, and in English does not imply necessarily that the person actually sleeps. Revised Standard Version naked, without clothing is repetitive. The idea is that “Being without clothes they spend the night naked,” or “Because they have no clothing they pass the night naked,” or “They spend the night naked because they lack clothing.”

And have no covering in the cold: the first line does not necessarily depict miserable conditions in the heat of summer, but this line draws attention to times that are cold. Covering may refer to a blanket, or to the outer garment a person normally would have to use as a covering at night. In some languages it may be necessary to reduce the two lines of verse 7 to one and say “They spend the cold night naked because they have nothing to cover themselves.”

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 .