Verse 5 consists of two vivid statements describing Job’s body in terms of his flesh and skin. My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt: My flesh means “my body” and is the poetic use of a part of the body to represent the whole body. The figure of clothing is used to indicate that the entire body is covered with disease. The term translated worms is found only in Exodus 16.24, where it refers to worms that destroy food, and in Isaiah 14.11, where it is associated with the dead body. In 17.14 and 21.26 worms are also associated with the dead body, and so the term has the sense of “maggots.” The word translated worm here is related to a verb meaning to grow rotten. In 25.6 the same word is used to symbolize human insignificance and is used in parallel with another word for worm. The choice of a term to translate worm should be appropriate to the context. Dirt translates “clod of dust” and may suggest dirt caked on the skin. Dust as well as worms is a symbol of death, as seen in 17.16 “descend together into the dust.” The particular expression used here may mean scabs, and Good News Translation and some others take it in that sense.

In some languages translators must avoid speaking of flesh and skin and must thus perhaps modify the parallelism. However, it is often possible to substitute “body” for flesh, or even for both terms. It may not be possible in translation to keep the metaphor clothed with worms and dirt, but it may be possible to employ a different figure. “Full of worms” may give the wrong idea, and in such cases we can often say, for example, “Worms crawl all over my body,” “Worms and dirt are everywhere on my body,” or “I have worms and scabs from head to foot.”

In line b Job extends the description of his body as having dried skin running with pus from open sores. My skin hardens: translators render this line in various ways. The Hebrew says “My skin is broken and it runs.” The word “runs” is derived from a verb meaning to melt or flow, and Hebrew Old Testament Text Project thinks it has that meaning here, and so Job’s skin is covered with festering running sores. In translation it is best to keep this as a general description and not identify it as a particular disease, such as yaws.

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 .