The restored person sings for joy as he tell others of his recovery. And he sings before men, and says: sings translates a verb regarded as having an unusual form. It may also be rendered “tell, declare, make known,” so “He begins to sing and tell everyone.” And says serves in Hebrew as a kind of verbal opening quotation mark, and so many translations will leave it implicit.

I sinned, and perverted what was right, together with the following line and verse 28, are the words of his song or hymn. Perverted translates a verb in the causative form meaning “to cause to deviate” and is well translated by Good News Translation: “I did not do what was right.” New Jerusalem Bible says “I … left the path of right,” which is clearer if rendered as “and wandered away from the right path.”

And it was not requited to me: requited translates a verb not found elsewhere with that meaning. It does carry the meaning “to be equal,” but “it was not equal to me” does not make clear sense. However, the expression may be taken in the sense that “the sin did not receive a penalty corresponding to the wrong,” and this appears to be the meaning which Revised Standard Version intends. Good News Translation focuses on the result, “but God spared me,” which is an active construction with God as the subject. Bible en français courant is better: “But God spared me the pain I deserved.” This line may be rendered negatively; for example, “but God did not punish me as I deserved” or “but God did not make me suffer as I should have.”

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 .