complete verse (Job 17:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 17:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “The (my) eyes are red from tears
    and I have become thin until I am like the size of grass.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Due to much anxiety my eyes have become dim,
    my whole body has become like a shadow.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “My sight now become-blurry from sadness; as-if spirit/soul now I am in-slinderness/[or: almost now as thin as a shadow]” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “My sight has become dim/I cannot see well because I am extremely sad,
    and my arms and legs are very thin, with the result that they almost do not cast a shadow.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 17:7

My eye has grown dim from grief: the verb translated has grown dim is used of failing eyesight in Genesis 27.1; Deuteronomy 34.7. Grief or sorrow is said to be the cause of Job’s failing eyes. The line may also be expressed, for example, “My eyes have gotten dim because of my sadness,” “My vision grows dark because I grieve,” or “I can hardly see any more because my grief is so great.”

And all my members are like a shadow: members refers to Job’s limbs; Good News Translation has “my arms and legs.” They are compared to a shadow not because of their darkness but because of their thinness. In languages in which thinness of a person’s limbs cannot be compared to a shadow, it may be necessary to modify this line to say, for example, “my arms and legs are thin as sticks” or “my limbs are so thin they hardly cast a shadow.”

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 .