In verse 19 God throws Job to the ground. Now he is picked up by the wind and helplessly tossed about.

Thou liftest me up on the wind: the poet depicts more variety of movement than is suggested by Good News Translation “You let the wind blow me away.” Revised Standard Version expresses these movements through the translation of the Hebrew verbs translated liftest me up and makest me ride. This may be translated, for example, “You cause the wind to pick me up and make me ride away on it.”

And thou tossest me about in the roar of the storm: the verb translated tossest can mean “melt” and is translated “soften” in Psalm 65.10. That sense does not seem to be appropriate in the context of this verse. In Amos 9.5 Good News Translation renders it as “the whole world rises and falls like the Nile river.” A similar word in Arabic is used of the surging of the ocean, and this is the sense of tossest, meaning to throw up and down. Good News Translation has “You toss me about.” The roar of the storm: there are two alternatives for the word translated storm in the Hebrew. The one means “success” as found in 5.12; see there for comments. The other form is a variant of the word meaning “crash” and is used in Isaiah 22.2 as “shoutings.” Pope interprets the word as “noise,” and in this context it refers to that which makes the noise, namely, the storm. There are numerous other suggestions, but Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, which are supported by many other modern translations, are as good if not better than most and so are recommended to translators. This line may also be expressed “and you cause the storm to pitch me up and down” or “you cause the storm to throw me here and there.”

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 .