mourn

The Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that is translated as “mourn” or similar in English is translated in Newari as “have one’s heart broken” or “have a bursting heart” (source: Newari Back Translation).

In Cherokee it is translated as “going around feeling badly” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 16).

complete verse (Job 14:22)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 14:22:

  • Kupsabiny: “The words/things that he hears/feels only are the pain of his body,
    and (he) grieves in the place of the dead.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “He will know only the trouble of his own body,
    he will lament only for himself.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “What only he feels is his own pain and sadness.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “We will feel our own pains; we will not feel anything else;
    we will be sorry for ourselves, not for anyone else.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 14:22

He feels only the pain of his own body: Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation give the traditional sense that the dead body, for at least a time, continues to feel pain. And this no doubt is the meaning the poet intended. He is saying that the dead man is unaware of the important things taking place around him, such as the honor or disgrace of his sons. His only awareness is confined to his own death pains. The line may be rendered, for example, “He knows nothing but his own pain,” or “He feels nothing but his own body’s pains.”

And he mourns only for himself translates the Hebrew “and his nefesh mourns for him.” This line reinforces the thought in line a. He does not know what happens to his own sons, cannot feel pain for them, and cannot mourn for them. His mourning is only for himself. In many languages it will seem strange to speak of a dead person mourning for himself, and in some cases this will have to be expressed as a simile; for example, “And he will be like a person who can only mourn over his own death” or “He will be like one who can mourn for nobody but himself.”

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 .