forgers of lies

The Hebrew in Job 13:4 that is translated in English as “forgers of lies” or similar is translated in Newari as “cover truth with lies.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)

complete verse (Job 13:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 13:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “But you are lying to cover up the truth.
    You are like herbalists who do not heal a person.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “but you cover truth with lies.
    You all are useless doctors.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “For you (plur.) are-trying to treat/cure me with lies. All of you (plur.) are like a doctor who has- no -value.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: As for you, you do not allow people to know the truth about me,
    like someone covers up a bad surface of a wall with whitewash.
    You are all like doctors that give people useless medicines.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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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 13:4

As for you, you whitewash with lies: As for you translates the same contrastive conjunction used in verse 3. Here it serves to shift the focus from God in verse 3 to you (plural). Whitewash with lies translates “plasterers of lies” and is similar to Psalm 119.69 “The godless besmear me with lies” (Revised Standard Version). Whitewash is lime mixed with water and is used for painting on walls to make them white and cover ugly rough surfaces. (See Matt 23.27; Acts 23.3, “whitewashed tombs.”) Here the lies are the whitewash that conceals the truth. In English the expression “whitewash” is used to say that something ugly and distasteful has been covered up to improve its appearance. In this case Job pictures the friends as disturbed by the ugly truth, and thus they attempt to hide, or cover, it with lies, as one uses whitewash. Job’s friends are depicted as “falsehood-plasterers,” meaning they have covered over the truth with a coating of lies, and so Good News Translation has “You cover up your ignorance (of the truth) with lies.” This may also be rendered, for example, “You tell lies to hide the truth” or “You hide what you don’t understand by telling lies.”

Worthless physicians are you all: this line should be seen as parallel in meaning to the previous line. Job accuses his friends of covering the truth with lies in line a, and in line b of being healers with worthless medicines. Job’s friends who came to give him comfort and healing are failures. This is the sense of Good News Translation “like doctors who can’t heal anyone.” Another interpretation is that the word physicians is to be read “patchers,” and so “worthless patchers” who try to cover up the tears in a garment. New English Bible “stitching a patchwork of lies” follows this sense, which makes the two lines similar in meaning. Although nearly all translations follow Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, the understanding of New English Bible is likewise possible, but the first is more likely. This line may be translated, for example, “You are like doctors who treat the sick with bad medicines,” “You are false doctors unable to cure the sick,” or “You give out medicines that will cure no one.”

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 .