My appetite refuses to touch them: My appetite translates the Hebrew term which is literally “my soul” but which can also mean “my throat.” More commonly it is translated “I,” as in Good News Translation, “I have no appetite for food like that,” referring to the tasteless food in verse 5. Touch them: the Septuagint has “to rest,” which means “my soul refuses to be quiet.” Most translators, however, follow a form similar to Revised Standard Version or Good News Translation in this line.

The next line is more problematic, and the translations of it appear to have little in common. Literally the line says, “they like sickness of my bread.” It is not clear what “they” refers to, and so some interpreters change “they” to another word which means loathes or hates. The second Hebrew word may be modified slightly to give “my palate,” “my life,” or “my heart.” In this way the line is similar to 33.20a, “so that his life loathes bread.” Using “palate” the expression reads “My palate loathes my food.” Finally, by changing two consonants the Hebrew can yield the meaning “my bowels resound with suffering.” Modern translations vary greatly in the way they relate bread or food to sickness. New Jerusalem Bible says “They are like food when I am sick,” which could mean either that the food is undesirable due to his sickness, or that sickness makes him desire the food. Bible en français courant has “My suffering is a bread which I find nauseating.” Traduction œcuménique de la Bible translates “They are unclean foods,” and New English Bible “My bowels rumble with an echoing sound.” There is no note to clarify. Most modern translations offer a note giving the literal form, which is of little help, or say “Hebrew unclear.”

In many languages there are special terms used to speak of different tastes; for example, sweet, sour, bitter, salty, saltless, and the like. Line a can sometimes be rendered “I do not eat saltless foods.” For line b the translator is advised to follow the model of a major language known to many of the people, if there is one. Otherwise the models of Revised Standard Version or Good News Translation may be followed.

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 .