complete verse (Job 12:25)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 12:25:

  • Kupsabiny: “He makes them grope around in the dark
    and he makes them stagger like drunkards.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Groping in the dark they will be without light.
    He will make them [people] who go walking, staggering like drunkards.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “They grope in darkness and stagger like a drunkard.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “They grope around in the darkness, without any light,
    and he causes them to stagger like people who are drunk.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 12:25

They grope in the dark without light: the verb translated grope is used also in 5.14. Grope means to feel with the hands in the dark so as not to fall. In the dark without light translates the Hebrew “darkness and not light” and refers to a complete and total darkness where there is no sign of light. The line may be rendered, for example, “These rulers feel about like blind men in the dark,” “They put out their hands to feel their way in the darkness,” or “They do not know where they are going in the darkness.”

And he makes them stagger like a drunken man: stagger is the same verb used to translate “makes them wander” in verse 24. It may be clearer in translation to rearrange and transpose the two lines of verse 25; for example, “Like drunkards they stumble and grope about in the darkness” or “They stagger about like drunk men as they feel their way through the darkness.”

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 .