complete verse (Job 14:10)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 14:10:

  • Kupsabiny: “But when people die they are finished completely.
    They die so that they will not be seen any other day.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “But a man dies and then he is buried.
    He breathes [his] last breath and then he is completely finished.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “But if a man dies, all his strength is now gone. When- his breath is -cut-off that is now his end.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Job 14:10

But man dies, and is laid low: But marks the sharp contrast between the living, growing tree in verse 9 and the person who dies like the rotting stump of verse 8. Man in line a renders the Hebrew geber, which is associated in meaning with the root meaning “be strong, powerful.” Man in line b is ʾadam as in 14.1. The strength of mankind is laid low, which translates a Hebrew root meaning “be weak” and is used in this sense in Joel 3.10. New English Bible uses “disappears” in the text and gives “is powerless” in a footnote. The expression laid low should not be interpreted to mean “laid in the grave.” So the meaning is either that man who is “strong” becomes weak and powerless, or that even a strong man dies and becomes weak and powerless.

Man breathes his last translates the Hebrew “expires,” which is parallel with dies in the previous line. And where is he?: this is a rhetorical question whose intention is to say “and that is the end of him.” It may be better in some languages to place this question before the first clause, so that the full line will read, for example, “and then where is he when he dies?” or “and what happens to him when he dies?”

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 .