Therefore opens Job’s final statement. It introduces verse 6 as a consequence of verse 5: “that is why,” “because I have seen you.” Despise is the same word used in 7.5, 16 with the meaning “melt away, sink down,” according to Dhorme. Pope, on the other hand, argues that the object of despise is what Job has said about God, and so he translates “I recant and repent.” “Recant” means to withdraw what has previously been claimed to be true. This translation is followed by New Jerusalem Bible. New American Bible has “I disown what I have said,” Habel “I retract,” and Bible en français courant “I withdraw that which I affirmed.” Good News Translation expresses more adequately the attitude of repentance, with “I am ashamed of all I have said.” Myself is not in the Hebrew but is supplied by Revised Standard Version, which follows the Septuagint.

Job’s second act is to repent in dust and ashes. In 2.8 Job is depicted as sitting among the ashes. In 2.12 Job’s friends see his condition, and to express their grief they sprinkle dust on their heads. In 30.19 Job compares his misery to dust and ashes. Sitting in dust and ashes and putting them on the head were rituals of mourning and repentance. See 2 Samuel 13.19; Isaiah 58.5; Jeremiah 6.26.

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 .