As through a wide breach they come: the figure of an assault on a besieged city continues. The enemy is depicted as making a hole in the city wall and pouring in, wave upon wave. The Revised Standard Version footnote implies that there has been a textual change, but this is a translational matter. Through a wide breach translates the same expression found in Amos 4.3. They come refers to soldiers or enemies entering the city. The action is seen from Job’s point of view inside the besieged city, or as Good News Translation says, “in my defenses.” This line may be more clearly translated as a simile; for example, “They attack me like soldiers breaking through a wall” or “They break through the wall that defends me.”

Amid the crash they roll on: the subject is the same as in the first line, an indefinite they. The Hebrew has “under the crash,” probably giving the picture that the invaders rush in while the stones of the wall are still falling. New English Bible expresses this as “at the moment of the crash.” The word translated roll on has the same root as in Amos 5.24, “Let justice roll down like waters.” The noun form of this verb means “wave,” and the succession of troops pouring through the gap in the wall is described as being like a series of ocean waves. On the whole, Revised Standard Version is a clear rendering of this verse, closer to the Hebrew form, and to be recommended to translators rather than Good News Translation.

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 .