In the next two verses the speaker shifts from the family of the wicked to his wealth. These two verses form a chiastic structure in which the first line is balanced by the fourth and the second by the third. Verse 16 is conditional and verse 17 the consequence. Accordingly the two are handled here as a unit.
Though he heap up silver like dust: heap up is used in Genesis 41.49; Psalm 39.6. In Zechariah 9.3 it is used as here, referring to silver, and with the same simile “like dust.” Good News Translation has dropped the similes of heap … like dust and pile up … like clay and expressed abundance in a nonfigurative way: “too much to count” and “more than anyone needs.” The translator must decide if heaping or piling up silver is a natural way to speak of having it in great quantities, and furthermore, if comparing great quantities to dust gives the sense of it being common and plentiful. If these images give another sense, or no sense at all, adjustments must be made. For example, it may be more natural to say “Although the wicked pile up silver like dirt” or “like sand.”
And pile up clothing like clay: the verb here is different than the one in the previous line, but it is used commonly with the sense of “prepare, arrange, put in a pile.” When pile up is used with clay, it refers to heaping the clay in a mound in preparation for shaping it into a vessel. A verb that is parallel to the one in line a, but which can be used with clothing, is desirable. Clothing is a general term and refers to any kind of clothing that is worn on the body. Clothing was a symbol of wealth and so is used in parallel with silver. Clay and dust are used in parallel in 4.19; 10.9; 30.19. Clay and dust may not be appropriate as images for quantity in some languages. Bible en français courant says “and piles of clothing like mud,” and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy avoids the image, “and may have clothes in large quantities.”
He may pile it up, but the just will wear it: this refers to the clothing in verse 16b. Pile it up repeats the same verb used of clothing there. New Jerusalem Bible, which translates pile up in verse 16b as “gather,” translates it here as “let him gather!” Good News Translation does not repeat the verb. Just refers to a person who is the opposite of the wicked, often translated “righteous,” as in New Jerusalem Bible and New International Version. The sense is “a good, honorable, upright person,” and so Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, and others have “some good man.” Wear it translates the Hebrew verb from which the noun clothing is derived. It refers to the clothing and will often be translated by a plural pronoun. This line may also be rendered, for example, “The wicked person may have great amounts of clothing, but the good person will wear those clothes.” In some languages the failure of the rich to keep his own possessions may not be clear without further information. In such cases it may be necessary to say, for example, “The wicked person may have lots of clothes, but he will not live to wear them; some good person will wear them instead.”
And the innocent will divide the silver: in 17.8 the “upright” and “the innocent” are used in parallel. See also 22.19. For comments on innocent see 4.7. Divide the silver may be understood as sharing it as one would an inheritance, and so New English Bible “His silver will be shared among the innocent,” or as in Good News Translation, “some honest man will get the silver.”
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 .