complete verse (Job 17:1)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 17:1:

  • Kupsabiny: “A sense of danger has overtaken me and my days are over.
    The only thing there is, is for me to go to the world of the dead!” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “It is becoming difficult for me to breathe,
    my day is finished,
    and the grave is waiting for me.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘I am about to die/am nearly to pass-away; as-if my breath will- now -be-cut-off. The place-of-burial is now ready for me.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “My life/time to live is almost ended; I have no strength left;
    my grave is waiting for me. ” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 17:1

Chapter 17 is a continuation of chapter 16, and 17.1-2 belongs to the theme structure of the subdivision beginning at 16.22.

My spirit is broken: in Hebrew this verse has three lines, each line consisting of two words. There are two major interpretations of line a, depending on the way the Hebrew term ruach (spirit) is understood. It can mean “breath” as in 9.18, or “wind” as in 15.30. It may also refer to a person’s spirit as “life force, human vitality,” something akin to “strength,” as in 10.12; 12.10a. Good News Translation and others prefer to take it in the sense of “breath”; that is, Job appears to be approaching death in great pain, and so he says “I can hardly breathe.” New Jerusalem Bible has “My breathing is growing weaker.” Translators who understand spirit to mean “life force” or “the principle that sustains life” tend to translate like Revised Standard Version, My spirit is broken. This expression in English, however, means something different than the translators intend. In current English it means to lose the will or desire to go on living. A better translation is “My strength is gone” or “I have no strength left.” This is expressed idiomatically in some languages as “My spirit has vanished” or “My innermost has laid down.”

My days are extinct: my days refers to the days of Job’s life, the time he has lived, his years of life. Extinct translates a verb found in an Aramaic form in 18.5-6, where it refers to a lamp being “put out.” It occurs in that form in a number of manuscripts in 6.17, where it refers to desert stream beds that are drying up. So for Job the days of his life are coming to their end, vanishing, disappearing, or as Good News Translation says, “The end of my life is near.” This may also be expressed, for example, “I am about to die” or “My life is almost over.”

The grave is ready for me is literally “graves for me,” which expresses in poetically compressed form the idea that the graveyard or death lies ahead. Grave is plural in Hebrew, to suggest the place of tombs or graves, that is, the graveyard or cemetery. This line may also be expressed “They have prepared my grave for me,” “People have dug my grave,” or “My grave is ready and waiting for me.”

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 .