Having cited his wise sayings, Eliphaz now formulates the principle he draws from them. In his view misfortune does not just spring out of the ground. However, as he continues into verse 7, he seems to contradict himself by implying that misfortune is the result of having been born.

Affliction does not come from the dust: affliction translates the Hebrew ʾawen. In 4.8 this term and ʿamal meaning “trouble” are in parallel, where the former was rendered by Revised Standard Version as “iniquity”: “plow iniquity and sow trouble.” Affliction is better rendered “evil,” as in Good News Translation and others. This negative thought prepares for the positive one that follows in 5.7. The two words translated dust and ground are matched in lines a and b. In Hebrew dust means not only the fine powder called “dust” in English, but the ground in general. It is used in the most general sense of ground in 8.19b. In line b of this verse the word for ground is ʾadamah, as found in 14.8, which represents a shift to a more literary-level word and a resultant step-up of poetic effect. The heightening of poetic effect may be illustrated in English by rendering these lines with something like “Evil is not something that comes from the ground, and even less do troubles grow out of the soil.” If the poetic expression of evil growing in the ground is not possible, the translator should find another poetic way to phrase this, or to say it in prose fashion; for example, “evil is not something that just happens,” or “people are not evil just because they happen to touch the ground,” or as a simile, “evil does not grow out of the ground like a plant.”

Nor does trouble sprout from the ground: this line is parallel to the previous line. In languages in which trouble must be associated with people, it may be necessary to employ a simile; for example, “and the trouble people have does not spring up like a weed from the ground.”

But man is born to trouble: man translates the Hebrew ʾadam, which relates to the word for ground, ʾadamah, in verse 6b. The word translated is born may be read with different vowels to form the word for “begets,” which would mean that “man is the source of his own troubles,” and so Good News Translation “Man brings troubles on himself.” Modern translations are divided between those which follow Good News Translation and those similar to Revised Standard Version. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project prefers “man is born.” In many languages is born to trouble will have to be expressed by saying, for example, “people will always have troubles from the time they are born,” “trouble will always bother people from their birth,” or “people are certain to have misery.” If the translator follows Good News Translation, he may say, for example, “people are the cause of their own unhappiness,” as does also Biblia Dios Habla Hoy.

As the sparks fly upward: there are two main interpretations of this line. According to Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation the comparison is made to the sparks flying upward from a fire. New English Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, and some others speak of birds or eagles soaring. Sparks translates the Hebrew “sons of reshef.” Reshef, according to Dhorme, was the name of the Phoenician god of lightning. The bird associated with lightning was the eagle, and according to this interpretation, “sons of reshef” means “sons of lightning,” which is taken to be eagles. Fly upward translates a verb phrase which means literally “raise their flight” and is taken by some interpreters to mean to “fly high” or “soar aloft,” which is descriptive of eagles and other large birds, but not of sparks. Nevertheless many modern translations prefer to follow the rendering of Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. Some provide an alternative rendering. No matter which image the translator follows, the meaning is clear, that “people create their own troubles (or, are bound to have trouble) just as surely as sparks fly upward from a fire” or “… just as surely as eagles soar in the sky.”

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 .