complete verse (Job 15:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 15:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “Were maybe among the first to be born?
    Or were you born before God created the mountains?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Were you the very first person to be born?
    Were you created before the mountains? ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Do- you (sing.) -think that you (sing.) were the first-one that was-born? Were you (sing.) born already before the mountains were-created?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Job 15:7

Eliphaz now returns to the rhetorical question to remind Job of his human limitations: Are you the first man that was born? Zophar in 11.7-9 argued that knowledge of God reaches beyond the four dimensions of space and so cannot be reached by man. Dhorme believes this line is a clear allusion to Proverbs 8.22, which refers to wisdom when it says “The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.” It may also imply that the first man born would have the most ancient and therefore the most authentic knowledge. It may be necessary to express this question in such a way that first refers to the first in creation and not first among Job and his friends; for example, “Job, were you born before any other human was born?” or “Job, were there any other people alive when you were born?”

Or were you brought forth before the hills?: Proverbs 8.25 makes wisdom the first of all the creatures of God: “Before the hills, I was brought forth.” The only difference between this line and the equivalent line in Proverbs is the change from “I” to “you.” In translation it may be necessary to say, for example, “Were you even born before the hills were created?” “Were you born before God created the hills?” or “Job, are you so old that you were born before God made the hills?”

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 .