Then I thought ‘I shall die in my nest: in my nest translates the Hebrew phrase “with my nest.” In Isaiah 16.2 the word rendered nest here has the meaning of the contents of the nest and is translated “nestlings,” that is, “baby birds.” Moffatt translates “I shall grow old among my brood.” That is to say, Job expected to grow old, with his children at home with him. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project translates “in my nest,” which probably means “I shall die at home.” Nest is a figure of the comfort and security of home. The Septuagint has “my age will grow old,” which Dhorme adjusts to “I shall die in a ripe old age.” Good News Translation has reversed the two lines of verse 18 to put the two thoughts into a more logical order, and says in its second line “(I always expected) to die at home in comfort.” “In comfort” is added to give the connotation of being “in the nest.” Bible en français courant has “then I said to myself ‘I will die in my nest.’ ” There appears to be no good reason why the Hebrew text cannot be translated as it stands. If “die in the nest” cannot be used as a suitable figure of dying at home where a person is comfortable, then another figure may be used, or we may translate as in Good News Translation.

And I shall multiply my days as the sand: translations differ greatly in the interpretation of this line. Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation understand as the sand to mean that Job will live a long life. Sand is used in Genesis 22.17 as a way of expressing numerous descendants, but there is no place in the Old Testament in which sand is used to signify long life. Nevertheless sand as “grains of sand” expresses in figurative terms a great number. The Septuagint makes a change from sand to get “like the palm tree.” The Greek word for “palm tree” is phoinix, a word which means, among other things, the “Phoenix bird,” a mythical bird which burned itself in its nest, and renewed itself from the ashes, and so was a symbol of immortality. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Bible en français courant, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New American Bible, Gordis, New Jerusalem Bible, and Habel follow the Greek. On the other hand Dhorme, Pope, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, New International Version, and, by implication, Good News Translation prefer sand. The interpretation of the former group of translations gives a good parallel between the two lines. For example, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “I had hoped to grow old like the phoenix, and to die like it in the nest.” However, there is no certainty that the legend of the phoenix was known in Palestine at the time Job was written. Taken on the whole it seems preferable to recommend that translators follow Revised Standard Version or, if the image of sand is not used, to follow Good News Translation. In many languages the inverted order of the lines will produce better logic and clearness of thought. Verse 18 may also be rendered, for example, “I said to myself, ‘I will live a long life and die at home’ ” or “I said, ‘I will live to be a very old man and then die peacefully with my own people.’ ”

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 .