Its crashing declares concerning him is literally “Its noise declares concerning him.” In the light of the literal rendering, it is not surprising that a very great number of changes have been proposed. Revised Standard Version sees the storm as the instrument of God’s anger. Rather than deal with the many kinds of proposals for change and translations this verse has produced, in the interest of brevity and clarity it will be better to eliminate nearly all of these and follow the recommendations of Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, which are basically in agreement with Good News Translation. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project defends the Hebrew text as it stands, saying that the consonantal text is certain because all the ancient versions are based on that form of the text. The vowel marking that has been added implies a different understanding of the consonantal text from that of the early versions. The suggested rendering of Hebrew Old Testament Text Project can be adapted as follows: “The noise of the thunder warns that a storm is coming.” This agrees basically with Good News Translation‘s “Thunder announces the approaching storm.” Either of these may serve as a translation model. In some languages it may be necessary to say “When people hear the noise of thunder they know a storm is coming.”

Who is jealous with anger against iniquity represents a form that is changed from the literal text “cattle also concerning what rises.” Revised Standard Version follows a change from “cattle” to get “one who incites passion,” and another change from “concerning what rises” to a word meaning “evil.” In this way Revised Standard Version accepts two changes proposed by Pope. Here again Hebrew Old Testament Text Project suggests the Hebrew text can yield an appropriate sense: “the cattle too (announce) the rising (storm).” In other words “and the cattle also show that a storm is coming” or “and the cattle too know a storm is blowing up.” This agrees with Good News Translation “and the cattle know it is coming.”

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 .