I smiled on them when they had no confidence: most interpreters agree that Job’s gesture is to be understood as favorable. King James Version has “If I laughed on them…,” which mistakenly gives the idea of ridicule. Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation agree in the translation when they had no confidence. The Hebrew of this clause is a negative followed by the verb “believe.” Dhorme argues that the Hebrew verb is regularly used with the negative in 4.18; 9.16; 15.15, 22, 31; 24.22 (“despair”); 39.24 (“cannot stand still”), and that the meaning here is “they would not believe it”; that is, “If I smiled on them, they could not believe it.” This is the thought expressed by Pope, Habel, Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, New International Version. Following this line of interpretation, we may have to make some adjustment that will make clear that the smile was an unexpected reward. Accordingly we may sometimes translate “If I smiled at them, they could hardly believe it because they did not expect it.”

And the light of my countenance they did not cast down: Revised Standard Version gives a literal rendering of the Hebrew. Light of my countenance expresses a happy, cheerful, smiling face, as in Psalm 4.6 “Lift up the light of thy countenance upon us, O LORD.” See also Proverbs 16.15. They did not cast down translates the causative form of the Hebrew verb “to fall.” Revised Standard Version takes light of my countenance to be the object of the verb, but parallelism between the two lines suggests a meaning closer to Good News Translation, in which “the light of my face” (“my cheerful face”) is the subject and did not cast down is taken in the positive sense, meaning “encouraged them.” The line may then be rendered positively as in Good News Translation, “my cheerful face encouraged them,” or “I gave them strength with my cheerful face,” or negatively, “my cheerful face did not discourage them.”

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 .