mouth (of God) (Japanese honorifics)

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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) can be used, as in mi-kuchi (御口) or “word (of God)” in the referenced verses.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Job 15:30

He will not escape from darkness: some scholars omit this line as a misplaced variant of verse 22a. In 10.21 Job used the image of darkness to refer to death and Sheol, and this is the thought being expressed here. Therefore Bible en français courant translates darkness as a metaphor for death: “He will not escape the night of death.” If “darkness of death” or “night of death” are not suitable expressions in the receptor language, we may say, for example, “He will not escape death,” or this may be translated positively as “He will certainly die.”

The flame will dry up his shoots: flame translates a word used only in Ezekiel 20.47 (21.3 in Hebrew), where it refers to a forest fire. Eliphaz picks up the word shoots from Job’s speech in 14.7. It is advisable in translation to use the same word as in 14.7, as this helps to relate the two speeches. It is the shoots of the tree, the young sprouts that will grow to be trees, that are dried up by the fire. Since the wicked person is here compared to a tree, Good News Translation expresses part of this line as a simile, “He will be like a tree,” and places this before “whose branches (shoots) are burned by fire.” We may also express this as “He will be like a tree whose young shoots are burned by fire” or “He will be like a tree, and the fire will burn his branches.”

The second aspect of failing to mature is his blossoms will be swept away by the wind. This translation and that of Good News Translation are based on the Septuagint. The Hebrew text says “he shall depart by the breath of his mouth.” This may be a reference to 4.9, in which Eliphaz claimed that the wicked, namely Job, perish “by the breath of God.” Some interpreters object to “his mouth” referring to the mouth of God, since God has not been mentioned since verse 26. However, this does not seem to be adequate reason for departing from the Hebrew text.

According to the Revised Standard Version footnote swept away represents a “correction” of the Hebrew “will depart.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, which gives “of his mouth” a “B” rating, recommends “by the breath of his (God’s) mouth.” “Will depart” in the Hebrew text may be understood in the sense of “carried off, taken away.” We may then avoid both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation by translating the Hebrew text of verse 30 as follows:
He will not escape from the darkness of death.
He will be like a tree whose young shoots are burned by fire,
and the breath of God will blow him away.

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 .