For thou writest bitter things against me: Job now develops a picture of God as the judge writing down the charges against him. (See also 31.35.) Bitter things describes the charges against Job, as seen from Job’s point of view. In 20.14 the same word means “poison,” and in 20.25 it refers to the organ which secretes bile, the gall bladder. In some languages it will be necessary to express bitter things against me in a different way, since written words may not be called bitter; for example, “You write in a book and accuse me of doing bad things,” “You bring charges against me and write them in a book,” or “In the book of the judge you write words which tell the wrongs I have done.”

And makest me inherit the iniquities of my youth: Job considers it would be unjust for him to be punished now for what he may have done when he was young. inherit here means “receive the consequences, be paid back for” his youthful sins. Good News Translation avoids the word inherit by making “even for what I did when I was young” the second object of “bring bitter charges” in line a. This line may also be expressed, for example, “in this way you make me remember the sins I did as a youth,” “and so you pay me back by recalling the wrong things I did as a child,” or “so you make me suffer for the sins of my youth.”

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 .