As the notes of Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation indicate, verse 11 is unclear in Hebrew. The basic problem is whether the verse is speaking about God or about Leviathan.

According to Hebrew Old Testament Text Project the verb translated as has given means “to advance,” that is, “to come before with gifts” or else “to challenge.” In the first sense the committee suggests “Who has preceded me (with his gifts),” and in the second sense “Who has challenged me.” It is the first of these which supports Revised Standard Version‘s rendering. Good News Translation on the other hand follows changes proposed by Dhorme and others which change the Hebrew for me to “him” in the first line and change Whatever to “No one” in the second. So the sense of “challenge” or “confront” in line a is translated in Good News Translation as “attack,” and the object of “attack” is “him,” Leviathan. Furthermore, Good News Translation follows the Septuagint, which changes the word translated as repay him to get “remain safe.”

The second line in Hebrew is literally “under the whole heavens it is mine,” which Hebrew Old Testament Text Project understands as “everything under the heavens is mine” and so supports Revised Standard Version. New English Bible, whose first line refers to an attack on Leviathan, as in Good News Translation, changes to “not a man under the wide heaven.” This is a reply to the question in line a. Good News Translation is similar, with “no one in all the world can do it.” The translation of verse 11 is determined in part by the choice in verse 10b, either to follow the Hebrew text as is or to accept a change. Revised Standard Version does the former and Good News Translation the latter. Both are possible. The advantage of Revised Standard Version is that it changes the text less and still gives a clear translation. The advantage of Good News Translation is that, aside from verses 10b and 11, all the other verses in chapter 41 speak only of Leviathan and never of God. Therefore, in the interest of the whole context, Good News Translation has an even greater advantage.

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 .