The steppe for his home names the place God has given the wild donkey to live. In 24.5 the wild donkey is associated with the desert and the wilderness. Both terms emphasize the uninhabited and uncultivated nature of such a place. The term rendered steppe here is the same as the one translated as “wilderness” in 24.5. In the second line salt land, which matches steppe in the first line, refers to ground that is infertile, an area that will not produce grass or food. In Judges 9.45 the land was sown with salt to make it infertile. The “salt plains” near the Dead Sea were known to lack vegetation. See also Jeremiah 17.6; Psalm 107.34. Good News Translation translates “salt plains.” In some languages the word translated as steppe will be translated as “desert” or “place where no one lives or cultivates,” and salt land as “a place where no grass grows.” Verse 6 may then be translated as “I gave them a place to live where people do not live or farm, and a place where the grass does not grow.”

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 .