In verse 8 Yahweh asks Satan a second question, Have you considered my servant Job…? which is literally “Have you set your heart (meaning, mind) on my servant Job?” (For a similar usage see “consider” in Isa 41.42; Hag 1.5.) The question means “Have you paid attention and thought about?” Yahweh’s question is directed to Satan’s powers of observation and good judgment, in this case his ability to pick out a man with such character as Job displays. Yahweh takes the initiative in drawing Satan’s attention to Job, who might otherwise have been left in peace. Good News Translation “Did you notice” is somewhat casual for this context. Bible en français courant, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, and New Jerusalem Bible translate “Have you observed,” and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “paid attention to.” In some languages this question will be rendered through another figure; for example, “Have you put your good eye on my servant named Job?” Now that Job has been identified in his role as “servant,” “faithful one,” or “obedient one,” in some languages it will be appropriate to refer to him by his role rather than by his name.

Yahweh calls Job my servant, which in the Bible is a title of respect. Others to whom this title is given include Abraham (Psa 105.42), Moses (Num 12.7, 8), and the unnamed Servant of the LORD (Isa 42.1). Prophets are often referred to as servants of the LORD (Amos 3.7). Assuming that Job is a non-Israelite, this seems to be the only example of this title being given to a foreigner, aside from Nebuchadnezzar in Jeremiah 43.10, where the emphasis is on the foreign king who is used as an instrument in the hand of Yahweh. In many languages the term “servant” suggests a person who performs menial tasks for an employer. If “servant” in the present context carries a wrong meaning, it may be better to translate with a verb phrase; for example, “Job, the man who serves me,” “Job, the one who is faithful to me,” or “Job, the man who obeys me faithfully.”

The second part of verse 8 is linked with the first part (the question) by the use of a Hebrew particle translated that by Revised Standard Version. Here the linking word serves to introduce a statement which is an expansion of a preceding remark or question. Hence Good News Translation, New English Bible, and New International Version (New International Version) all begin the expansion as a separate sentence.

There is none like him on the earth summarizes Yahweh’s opinion of his servant, Job, and indirectly informs Satan that Job is a unique case for Satan’s secret operations. Yahweh then repeats the pair of doublets used by the author in verse 1, one of which Satan will take up again in verse 9. Good News Translation maintains the order of the two pairs of descriptions in verse 8.

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 .

In this verse Job turns his attention to That night, referred to in verse 3 as the time when he was conceived. This verse again has three lines in which a positive curse is followed by two negative ones. Typical of heightening poetic effect is the step up from a limited time, days of the year in line 6b, to a larger unit of time, months. This process is similar to number parallelism, in which line b always goes beyond the number in line a. For example, Psalm 91.7, “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand.” The intensification occurs in lines b and c.

That night—let thick darkness seize it!: in verse 4 Job asked that the day of his birth be darkness, and now he invokes the same upon the night he was conceived. The word “darkness” in the two passages represents two different words in Hebrew. The author uses another word of similar meaning here to enrich the poetic effect. Although the night is by its nature dark, Job calls upon it to be darker still, a thought translated by New English Bible, “blind darkness swallow up that night.” In translation it will often be necessary to make That night refer explicitly to the night Job was conceived, since the last reference was in verse 3b. In some languages it is necessary to employ euphemisms concerning conception, particularly when the Bible is to be read in public. Sometimes we must say “make disappear the night when my mother knew she carried me in her belly” or “remove the night when my mother knew that she was pregnant with me.”

Let it not rejoice among the days of the year: this rendering follows the Masoretic text. A change of vowels permits the rendering of King James Version, “let it not be joined unto the days of the year.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says the verb has three meanings: “to unite or integrate,” “to rejoice,” or “to see,” and gives no preference of one meaning over the others. However, “rejoice” and “see” could only be used metaphorically as parallel with the verb in line 6c, and therefore Good News Translation “be counted again” offers a good model (see similar renderings in Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Moffatt, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Bible en français courant, New American Bible, New International Version, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New Jerusalem Bible). Good News Translation has switched “the year” to the first line and does not repeat it in the second. Only Revised Standard Version among modern translations consulted has “rejoice.” So Job is saying that the night of his conception should be dropped from the calendar.

In terms of the parallelism, the poet here raises the level of intensification. He is repeating line 6b, but repeating it with heightening effect, which now says “Let it not be counted as one of the days of the year; don’t even let it find its way into the months of the year.” Good News Translation has combined and shortened lines b and c into one. This, however, has been done on the basis of the apparent repetition, and at the expense of the poetic intensification that occurs between the two lines. As a general rule, before combining and shortening parallel lines, translators should determine if there is movement between the lines, and then seek to represent it in their translations. This may or may not permit the parallel line structures.

In languages in which an impersonal agent cannot be used, it may be necessary to address the command to God, as in Good News Translation verses 2-3.

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 .

Eliphaz describes the presence of the mysterious form as being silent and hidden. Verse 16 has two sets of two lines in which only the first lines of each pair are parallel in meaning.

It stood still translates the Hebrew “It stood.” The subject It is a prefix on the Hebrew verb that requires a masculine antecedent, which may eliminate “spirit” from the previous verse, since this noun is normally feminine. It is no doubt the intention of the author to leave the reader wondering, because a visible visit from God would, in Old Testament terms, result in the death of the viewer. For this reason Eliphaz is kept from recognizing the form it took. Translators will not always be able to use ambiguity to get around this point. Good News Translation renders the indefinite subject as “something,” “I could see something standing there,” and does this by incorporating line a of the second pair of lines into line a of the first pair.

I could not discern its appearance: the word translated appearance and also the word form in the next line are used only of God’s appearance to Moses in Numbers 12.8. A form was before my eyes: the poet is using repetition to create suspense before coming to the message that was spoken. The form is something visible, but it represents something other than itself. The Hebrew word is tamuna, and Israelites were forbidden to make tamuna of their deity in Exodus 20.4. Moses alone was allowed to see the tamuna of God. In some languages it may be necessary to reverse the two lines to say, for example, “I could see a shape but could not tell what it was” or “I could make out a form but could not see clearly to know what it was.”

There was silence: the silence before the voice spoke is used in Psalm 107.29 as the silence before a storm breaks. The idea is that a hush precedes and at the same time prepares for the frightening words that will be spoken. In translation it may be necessary to say, for example, “everything became silent” or “there was no noise anywhere.”

Then I heard a voice: Eliphaz’s description of his vision began in verse 12 with something audible, “a word was brought to me.” Now the vision will close with the hearing of the actual words. So the poetic effect has been moved from the abstract “word” in verse 12 to the concrete voice in verse 16. The voice finally comes as the climax of a series of images: nightmare, terror, stupor, a breeze against the face, vague shapes, and then at last a speaking voice. Eliphaz makes no claim as to whose voice it is. Translators who are translating this Hebrew poetry as prose will do well to follow the model of Good News Translation. Those who are translating it as poetry should try to avoid creating more ambiguity than the author did. A compromise solution may be something like this: “Something was standing there, but I could not tell what it was. I could see a shape; then, everything was hushed and I heard a voice ask:….”

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 .

Verses 5-13, which form a doxology, or expression of praise to God, begin with a particle implying God as the subject, and in translation this should be made clear. In verses 1-12 God is actually named as the subject only in verse 2. In these verses of praise to God, Job shows that he knows as much theology as his friends. In Revised Standard Version verses 4-10 make up one long sentence. Because verse 5 begins a new subdivision of the text, it is important to begin verse 5 with a new sentence.

He who removes mountains: the picture is that of an earthquake, with the shaking of the pillars upon which the earth rests. In Psalm 75.3 the earth is shaken when God judges. Removes mountains may have to be expressed differently in some languages to say, for example, “shakes mountains,” “causes mountains to fall down,” “shakes down the mountains with an earthquake.” They know it not: in Revised Standard Version the literal rendering gives the meaning that the mountains do not know when they are moved or shaken by God. Good News Translation understands the verb know in an impersonal sense, implying “nobody knew what would happen,” and translates “Without warning.” Dhorme understands the object of the verb to be the following line, that is, the mountains “know not the one who has overturned them in his anger.” New English Bible takes the verb to mean “to be still or at rest” and translates “It is God who moves mountains, giving them no rest.” Some scholars prefer to follow the Syriac, which has “and he does not know it,” meaning that shaking mountains is such a common event that God could do so without even knowing it. Probably the best understanding is “suddenly,” or “before they knew anything about it,” and so the text is best expressed by Good News Translation “Without warning.” “Without warning” may be rendered “Without saying a word,” “Without telling anyone.”

When he overturns them in his anger: the verb translated overturns means to knock over, turn upside down. The word is used in connection with the destruction of Sodom in Genesis 19. The reference is to the violent action of turning the mountains over or causing them to collapse. Good News Translation “destroy” is less descriptive and more general. In his anger: in 4.9 Eliphaz speaks of God cutting off the wicked, literally, “by his nostril.” The same expression is used here and may suggest the picture of a hot blast of breath through the nostril. In some languages the expression in his anger must be expressed as a reason clause; for example, “when he overturns the mountains because he is angry” or “because of his anger he throws them down.”

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 .

Are thy days as the days of man: that is, “Do you have as few days to live as a man does?” or “… as a human being does?” or “Is your life as short as a person’s?” By asking this question Job widens the scope of his inquiry. This question asks if God is not afraid Job will die before he can fully complete his torture of him. In putting his question in this way, Job continues his sarcasm. Line b or thy years as man’s years is in Hebrew “or your years like the days of a man?” Man in line a is the Hebrew term ʾenosh, which is translated “mortal” by New English Bible, New International Version. Man in line b renders the Hebrew term geber, which denotes a human of male gender. There is little poetic movement between the lines, and so Good News Translation has reduced them to one with “Is your life as short as ours?”

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 .

You will lie down: this expression is nearly the same in meaning as the last clause of verse 18, “take your rest.” It is found in the identical words in Isaiah 17.2; Zephaniah 3.13, apart from the pronominal differences. New English Bible considers it a later addition and puts it in a footnote. Good News Translation does not translate it here in order to avoid the repetition with verse 18. And none will make you afraid: the same expression is used in Micah 4.4 to express confidence. Good News Translation has made the object of the verb “enemies”: “You won’t be afraid of your enemies.” Another possibility is “No one will cause you to fear.”

Many will entreat your favor translates the Hebrew “many will soften your face.” This figurative expression is sometimes used of begging favors from God. Applied to people it refers to saying sweet or flattering words in order to obtain something. When Job is prosperous again many people will again be asking him for favors. In some languages this expression takes on figurative forms, as in Hebrew; for example, “Many people will stroke your back,” “Many people will hold out their hands to you,” or “Many people will open their hands and smile at you.”

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 .