extreme dryness

In Gbaya, the notion of extreme dryness is emphasized in the referenced verses with kpaa-kpaa, an ideophone that expresses complete or thorough dryness with brittleness because of dry weather or fire.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

sea / lake

The various Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation). Likewise, in Toposa all the different bodies of water are all called by one term as well: nya-name̥ (source: Schröder 2026, p. 101).

In Malagasy culture, the sea is perceived as sacred because it was a path taken by the ancestors. That is why the Malagasy word for the “sea” is ranomasina, which literally means “the sacred water.” The word masina actually has two different meanings: “salted” and “sacred/holy.” Salt is used for the conservation of some foods, such as meat or fish, that are to be set aside for later use. In this sense, the Malagasy phrase for “Holy Spirit” has the literal meaning of “Salted Spirit.” (Source: Brigitte Rabarijaona in The Bible Translator 2022, p. 103ff.)

“Sea” (or: “ocean”) is translated in Tepeuxila Cuicatec as “water land” and in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac as “very big lake.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

complete verse (Job 14:11)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 14:11:

  • Kupsabiny: “Like when the water of a lake dries up,
    and the rivers also dry up,” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Just as the water of a lake gradually diminishes,
    or just as the water of a river decreases and dries up,” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “As the water in the sea reduces and the river dries-up,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Just like water evaporates from the ocean,
    or like a riverbed dries up,” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 14:11

This verse opens with another comparison taken from nature. This time man, when he dies, is compared to a body of water that dries up.

As waters fail from a lake: As is supplied by the Revised Standard Version translators to mark the comparison; the Hebrew text does not have any such marker. Lake translates the Hebrew yam, which usually means “sea,” but covers the area of meaning of both seas and lakes. Since line b has river, it is better to use “lake” in line a. And a river wastes away and dries up: wastes away is the gradual process that results in the final state of being dry, or in the final process of drying up.

It is usual in Hebrew parallelism to shift to the smaller item in the second line. Good News Translation has reversed the two images, putting “river” in the first and “lake” in the second line. There does not appear to be any good reason for doing this. The nature of the comparison is between the verbs associated with the bodies of water and death. The whole verse may be expressed, for example, “Like a lake that dries up or a river that stops flowing.” In languages in which the comparison can only come after the thing compared, it may be necessary to say, for example, “a person’s life is like….”

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 .