complete verse (Job 12:10)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 12:10:

  • Kupsabiny: “The life of everything is in the hands of God,
    including that (life) of a person.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “In His hands are the lives of all living beings
    and the breath of all humanity.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “(It is) there in his hand the life or the breath of all creatures, as-well-as of man.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “He directs the lives of all living creatures;
    he gives breath to all us humans to enable us to remain alive.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

hand (of God) (Japanese honorifics)

Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) is used here in mi-te (御手) or “hand (of God).”

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also hand of the LORD.

Translation commentary on Job 12:10

Verse 10 expands on verse 9 and gives the reason why God’s creatures are able to know him. The two lines of verse 10 are closely parallel in meaning. In his hand is the life of every living thing: In his hand means “in God’s power, under God’s control, directed by God.” Life translates nefesh, which is paralleled by ruach breath in the next line. In 7.11 these same two terms are rendered “soul and spirit.” There, as well as here, the meanings are the same. When God takes away the nefesh “soul,” death results, so here “soul” is the life principle or life force that sustains a creature. Good News Translation translates soul as “lives,” since it refers to the collective, every living thing. This expression includes all forms of life, including animal life. Line a then says “In God’s hands are the lives of everything that lives” or “God has power over the lives of everything that lives.”

And the breath of all mankind: In his hand in the first line applies also to this line. Breath translates the Hebrew ruach. Until God gives man breath, he is not a living creature. All mankind translates “the flesh of man,” which refers more specifically to the life or spirit of people, in contrast to the term in the first line, which is all-inclusive. This line may be expressed as “The breath which gives people their life” or “The breath which causes people to live.”

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 .