complete verse (Job 17:2)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 17:2:

  • Kupsabiny: “People who insult me have surrounded me,
    and I am looking at how they insult me.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Those who taunt me are all around me.
    My eyes have to see their hostility.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “I am surrounded by mockers/ones-who-belittle. Their mocking of me is very obvious/in-the-open.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘When are you going to stop talking ?
    If you would stop talking and listen, we could tell you something.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 17:2

Surely there are mockers about me: according to Rowley Surely translates a Hebrew phrase used in 31.36 which expresses an oath: “I swear that….” However, no translation uses that expression. Dhorme understands it to make both clauses into questions. Most translators, however, render both lines as statements. Mockers about me is a noun phrase which Good News Translation expresses as a clause, “everyone mocks me,” and this is clearer in English.

And my eye dwells on their provocation: this line is obscure in Hebrew, and the various changes proposed do not improve it, according to Pope. Consequently translators vary greatly in the way they express it. Provocation is modified by some to get “bitterly,” and so Good News Translation has “how bitterly everyone….” The verb translated dwells means “rest, stay, pass the night,” and suggests “keeping an eye on” or “watching closely.” Good News Translation reduces the two lines to one with “I watch how bitterly everyone mocks me.” This is as good a model as translators will find. Verse 2 may also be expressed, for example, “Everywhere there are people who laugh at me, and I watch as they cruelly attack 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 .