Verse 5 has three lines, all being positive wishes expressed against the day of Job’s birth. These expand to six the number of curses Job speaks against the day he came into existence.

Let gloom and deep darkness claim it: gloom translates the same Hebrew noun translated “darkness” in verse 4. Deep darkness translates a noun which has been variously understood. Some scholars take it to be a compound word made up of “shadow” and “death” (see King James Version). Dhorme understands it to mean “be dark.” Others would keep the original word but read it as two words with an intensive sense meaning “very dark” or “deep darkness.” Some translations make an explicit association between darkness and death; for example, New Jerusalem Bible “shadow dark as death”; others like Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation speak of “thick” or “deep” darkness.

The verb translated claim is the Hebrew verb usually translated “redeem,” used of a relative’s right to claim the property of a next of kin who has died (see Ruth 4.4). In the use of this figure of speech, the day is to be thought of as a dead relative. The author is drawing an analogy in which darkness lays claim to what the day would have produced, namely Job. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch personifies by saying “it was the property of darkness.” Some interpreters feel this analogy is too forced. Another view is that the verb may be read as meaning “to pollute” (Dhorme, Tur-Sinai). King James Version has “Let darkness … stain it” (similarly New English Bible). Others take it to mean “to protect,” which may explain Good News Translation “cover” in the following line. Modern translations are quite divided. It is not possible to advise translators with high degree of certainty. However, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Moffatt, New International Version, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch all prefer something meaning “to claim” or “possess.” In translation, if it is possible to use the metaphor of claiming rights, one may say, for example, “Let darkness claim the day of my birth as its own property.” In cases where such personalization of nonliving things is inappropriate, or where the image would not apply, we may follow Good News Translation, which makes no attempt to use the metaphor; or we may say “May the day I was born be like a very dark night.”

Let clouds dwell upon it: the second parallel line carries the thought of darkness to a more specific image, clouds dwell, and thus focuses the picture of darkness in a still and passive manner. Good News Translation “cover” is applied to clouds more naturally than dwell. The verb is literally dwell, as in Revised Standard Version, and this calls to mind the cloud of God’s presence settling over the sacred tent in Numbers 9.15-22.

Let the blackness of the day terrify it: blackness translates a Hebrew word used only here in the Bible, and so its meaning is somewhat doubtful. Some interpret the Hebrew to mean “the bitterness (plural) of the day.” In Amos 8.10 the expression “bitter day” is associated with the eclipse of the sun, and some translations prefer that rendering (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, New English Bible, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible de Jérusalem). Terrifying darkness is associated with the Day of the LORD in Joel 2.2 and Zephaniah 1.15. The sense of fear which Job invokes is not reflected in Good News Translation. Here it is the day of Job’s birth that is to be terrified by the eclipse. The three lines are clearly a case of stepped-up intensity, which may or may not be retained in translation. For example, “May it be a day of gloom and deep darkness; may it be covered over with clouds, and may the day I was born be terrified by that darkness.” Many languages require a model with personal subjects and active verbs. For example, “I call upon God to make the day I was born to be very dark, to cover it all over with dark clouds, and to terrify that day with darkness in the same way that darkness in the day frightens people.”

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 .