complete verse (Job 16:6)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 16:6:

  • Kupsabiny: “Even when I try to speak, the pain does not subside,
    or if I wish/want to be quiet where it hurts/is aching does not become quiet.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Yet if I speak, my grief and suffering will not be less.
    Even if I keep silent, my pain will not leave me.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “But for now, my pain continues even-though whatever I might say. And if I will- also/as-a-matter-of-fact -keep-silent this still would not disappear.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘But now, if I talk, my pain does not decrease,
    and if I am silent, my pain still certainly does not go away.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 16:6

Verse 6 begins the complaint against God, who treats Job as an enemy. God is seen at times acting like a wild animal, and like an enemy who turns people against him.

If I speak, my pain is not assuaged: in verse 5 “your pain” was supplied by Revised Standard Version; here it is expressed in the Hebrew text. The same verb translated “assuaged” in verse 5 occurs here in the passive form. It means “to ease, lessen, relieve pain.” Good News Translation translates “help,” that is, “Nothing I say helps.” This line is in contrast to the preceding one and may need to be marked as such; for example, “But, on the other hand, however, nevertheless”: “But when I speak, it does no good to relieve my suffering” or “However, if I make a speech, it does not make my pains go away.”

And if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?: the result clause is expressed in Revised Standard Version as a rhetorical question. Neither by speaking nor by remaining silent can Job find any relief. Forbear translates a verb meaning “cease, stop, desist,” and in the context refers to ceasing from speaking, saying nothing, as in Good News Translation “being silent.” How much of it leaves me translates the Hebrew “what am I eased?” Some interpreters understand the question word to be a negative and understand the clause to mean “it (the pain) does not depart,” which is the basis for Good News Translation “does not calm my pain.” This line may also be expressed, for example, “even if I remain silent, I am still in pain,” “keeping silent likewise does not remove my suffering,” or “by not speaking I still do not get rid of my pains.”

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 .