His harvest the hungry eat: in Hebrew this line begins with the pronoun “whose,” which refers back to the fool in verse 3. Good News Translation has “Hungry people will eat the fool’s crops.” The meaning is that the fool (and his sons in verse 4) is so helpless that the poor and hungry can help themselves to his crops. If verse 4 has been translated as a petition, verse 5 should be also, as New Jerusalem Bible “May the hungry devour his harvest.” Harvest must be expressed in some languages as, for example, “the food he grows” or “the plants he has hoed.”

The next two lines are difficult to interpret, and numerous changes in the text have been suggested. And he takes it even out of thorns: the Hebrew says literally “and to from thorns he takes it.” The word translated thorns is found only here and in Proverbs 22.5. Some interpreters simply delete the line, feeling it is too unclear to bother with, but such a decision should be avoided. Others have proposed changes in the text that permit “and their sheaf the poor take it,” or “all their substance he takes,” or “a strong man snatches it from baskets.” The latter refers to baskets of grain being taken to the threshing floor, which is the rendering followed in part by New English Bible, “The stronger man seizes it from the panniers,” meaning large baskets. Dhorme changes one consonant in the Hebrew word thorns and gets “and carry it away to hiding places.” Still others change thorns to “teeth,” with the meaning “from their mouths.” New Jerusalem Bible has “God snatches it from their mouths.” In spite of the variety of interpretations, New International Version, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translate similarly to Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. The thought is “The hungry gather and eat the crops grown by the fool, even that part that grows among thorns” or “… even that part that is protected by thorns.”

And the thirsty pant after his wealth renders what is literally “and inhales the snare their wealth.” The word “snare” is found only here and in 18.9. In Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation thirsty translates the ancient versions. (See Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation footnotes.) This same text is followed by many other modern translations, although Hebrew Old Testament Text Project finds “snare” the more likely text. Most modern translations use some form of greed, envy, or thirst. New Jerusalem Bible takes verse 5b to be a continuation of the curse petition and says “May the thirsty swallow their wealth,” with a note saying the Hebrew is uncertain. Many languages express consuming, destruction, and spending with the verbs swallow or eat. Translators must make certain that the verb is used naturally with the subject. If the “thirsty” do not eat, it will be better to say, for example, “greedy people eat his wealth,” or as a curse, “may greedy people eat, take away, use up his wealth.”

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 .