I loathe my life: (see 9.21.) It is apparent from the following verses that Job imagines how it would be to take God to court. The verb translated loathe in 9.21 is different from the verb found here. In both verses the object is Job’s nefesh “life, soul,” but the verb here is better expressed “to be weary, tired, exhausted,” and so Good News Translation “I am tired of living.” Moffatt says a bit more forcefully “I am sick of life, sick of it.” Some translators understand this line as a reason clause to explain the next line, and so New Jerusalem Bible “Since I have lost all taste for life, I shall…”; Bible en français courant “So, since my life makes me sick…”; New International Version “I loathe my very life; therefore, I will….”

I will give free utterance to my complaint translates the Hebrew “I will let loose my complaint upon myself.” This clause is open to various interpretations. Dhorme and others understand that Job will let loose his complaint “to myself.” That is, he will inwardly vent his anger against God. Habel understands that Job is preparing to make a public rehearsal of his legal complaint. Good News Translation has taken the verb of this line to mean the same as speak in the next line and has combined the two lines into one. “Let loose” is to say that Job can no longer keep his complaint to himself, and so Bible en français courant “I will not keep to myself any longer my complaints”; Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “I will relieve myself of my complaints.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, which makes this a reason clause, says “Therefore I cannot hold back my complaint.” Job’s complaint is not to be understood as a traditional lament such as Psalm 55.17, “Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan.” The complaint of Job is a legal dispute or charge he would take up against God if he were able to take God to court. This line may be rendered, for example, “I cannot keep my complaint to myself,” “I will openly bring charges against God,” “I will not hide the things I have to complain against God,” or “I will tell everyone the charges I have against God.”

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul describes the manner and not the place where Job will let loose his accusations. Bitterness of my soul is a widely used metaphor in which bitterness of taste is extended to feelings of disappointment, anger, resentment. In this verse as a whole, line c is parallel to line b, and bitterness of my soul also serves the poetic purpose of intensifying line a, going beyond it in rhetorical vividness. The term nefesh is rendered soul here by Revised Standard Version but life in line a. In translation bitterness may be associated with various parts of the body. Bible en français courant says “bitter heart,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch avoids the term bitter and translates “What has left me in despair….” Bitterness of my soul may sometimes be rendered “the anger in my heart,” “the sourness in my stomach,” or “the heat in my liver.” The full line may be translated, for example, “I will tell him how sour my stomach is” or “I will tell him from the heat in my innermost.”

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 .