complete verse (Job 12:3)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 12:3:

  • Kupsabiny: “You are all alike
    and I, too, have knowledge like you.
    Who does not know all those words that you have listed!” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “But, like you, I also have a mind.
    I, also, am not less than you in any matter.
    Who does not know such things?” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “But I am also wise like you (plur.); you (plur.) are not superior over me. I also knew/know all this that you (plur.) said.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “But I have as much good sense as you do;
    I am not less wise than/certainly as wise as you.
    Certainly everyone knows all that you have said.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

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

Translation commentary on Job 12:3

But I have understanding as well as you: verse 3 has three lines as in Revised Standard Version, but as the second line is identical with the second line of 13.2, some interpreters think it is out of place here and omit it. However, it makes good sense and appears to be part of the design for the closure of the first unit of the poem, and so it should not be omitted in translation. Understanding translates the Hebrew term “heart,” which is rendered “sense” in Good News Translation, New English Bible, and others. Bible en français courant says “I know how to think as well as you do.” The line may also be expressed “But I understand things as well as you do,” “Your sense does not surpass mine,” or “How you understand matters is not greater than the way I understand them.”

I am not inferior to you is a more general statement than lines a or c of the verse. Accordingly Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch places it at the beginning. Translators may wish to do the same. This line translates a Hebrew idiom “I do not fall from you,” meaning “I do not fall short of you” or “I am not less than you.” New English Bible translates “In nothing do I fall short of you.” Job is assuring his friends that he is their equal. This line may also be rendered, for example, “I am equal to you” or “What you are in thinking I am also.”

Who does not know such things as these?: the verb know does not occur in Hebrew but is clearly implied. Revised Standard Version translates Job’s remark as a negative question which expects the reply “Everybody knows.” Good News Translation and others translate as a statement: “Everyone knows all that you have said.” Job thus continues to ridicule his friends’ wisdom, saying that all they have said is nothing new. This line may be rendered as a question by translating, for example, “Is there anyone who does not know these things you are saying?” “Doesn’t everyone know these words you speak? Of course they do!” As a statement we can say “There is no one ignorant of what you have said” or “Everybody knows the things you have said.”

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 .