If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand: Revised Standard Version translates verse 23 as an “if” clause, with the consequence of verses 23 and 24 coming in verse 26. Good News Translation, which has shorter sentences, uses quite different sentence relations. The wording of Revised Standard Version is rather literal and may be expressed “If an angel comes to him.” In 5.1 a different word for angel was used, where Good News Translation translated “Is there any angel to whom you can turn?” In both cases the reference is to someone who comes to help in a difficult situation. In apposition with angel is a second term, mediator, which translates a Hebrew word referring to one who interprets or comes between opposing parties to resolve their differences. Good News Translation avoids mediator as a technical term and says “comes to his aid.” One of the thousand makes it appear that there are exactly one thousand such beings. Good News Translation is clearer with “One of God’s thousands of angels.” Daniel 7.10 refers to the vast numbers of heavenly servants as “a thousand thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand.”

To declare to man what is right for him is literally “to declare for man his uprightness.” The purpose of the angel is to recall to the person what he should do, and so Good News Translation “remind men of their duty.” Bible en français courant may serve as a translation model for verse 23: “But an angel, one of the thousands of God’s mediators close to this man, is enough to make him know the right way.” This may also be expressed “But one of the thousands of God’s messengers (or, persons) who come to help someone is enough to show him what is right.”

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 .