At this also my heart trembles continues without interruption from 36.33. This refers to the thunderstorm in the previous verse, which Good News Translation makes clear by saying “The storm.” Also establishes the connection structurally. The Septuagint has “your heart,” but the Hebrew “my heart,” referring to Elihu’s heart, is to be followed. The word translated trembles is used in the causative form in 11.19, where it is translated “make you afraid” (Revised Standard Version). The sense here is “quiver, shake” and, in relation to the heart, suggests the spasms of the heart at moments of fear and excitement.

And leaps out of its place refers to the action of the heart, which now goes beyond what it did in line a. The heart is described as “leaping, jumping,” and out of its place means “out of the chest.” The use of the metaphor in the second line intensifies the image of the trembling heart in line a. The intensification in the second line along with the figurative expression may be expressed in English, for example, as “My heart trembles, in fact it beats wildly.” Good News Translation, as is frequently the case, disregards intensification in parallelism, reduces the two lines to one, and uses a single verb, “makes my heart beat wildly.” In translation it will normally be necessary to make clear that it is the storm in the previous verse that causes the heart to tremble. In some languages other figures express the idea of fear; for example, “The storm makes my liver move” or “… my innermost to rebel.” Translators must follow the devices of their own language to show intensification when it is appropriate.

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 .