Translators vary greatly as to the form of the two lines in verse 5. Some translate them as questions, some as conditions, and some as statements. Revised Standard Version and others translate verse 5 as two conditions and verse 6 as their consequence.

If indeed you magnify yourselves against me: magnify yourselves translates the Hebrew literally, but when the object is a person, the expression means “to appear superior, to look down on someone.” For similar usages see Psalm 35.26; 38.16. New English Bible translates “You lord it over me,” and Good News Translation “You think you are better….” The line may also be expressed in some languages, for example, “If you (plural) think you are great and I am small” or “If you think you are chiefs and I am a slave.”

And make my humiliation an argument against me: the verb in this line, make … an argument, is the same as used in 5.17 with the sense of “reproach, rebuke.” In 16.21 it has the meaning of “argue, reason, reprove.” Job’s friends use his humiliation as an argument to prove him guilty of sin, or as Good News Translation says, “(You) regard my troubles as proof of my guilt.” The word translated humiliation means “shame, disgrace” as in 16.10, “insolently.” The same noun is used in 1 Samuel 25.39, “insult,” and in 2 Samuel 13.13, where it refers to the shame accompanying a crime. Job’s friends have always looked upon Job’s misery as the effect of his sin, while in reality the cause is God, as Job argues. The line may continue as an “if” clause; for example, “If you (plural) use my suffering to show that I have sinned”; or it may be a statement, if a statement was used in the first line; for example, “You consider my sufferings as evidence that I have sinned” or “You think that because I suffer, that proves I have done wrong.”

Know then that God has put me in the wrong: verse 6 makes clear that in verse 4 Job is not admitting that he has sinned, for here it is clear that it is God who gives rise to all his troubles. The expression translated know then is used here as in 2 Kings 10.10, to introduce a serious and important assertion: “Know then that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of the LORD….” Here New English Bible translates “I tell you….” In 8.3 Bildad asked if God perverts (Good News Translation “twists”) justice. Job uses the same verb here to say that is exactly what God has done to him. Good News Translation “God … has done this” refers to “troubles” in verse 5b. Bible en français courant is more precise, “… it is God who has wronged me,” as is Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, “… God has done me an injustice.” The line may also be expressed, for example, “You should understand that God is the one who has made me suffer,” “Know for sure that God has caused me these troubles,” or “Look here, God is the one who has wronged me.”

And closed his net around me: in 18.8-10 Bildad spoke at length of the traps, snares, and nets which catch the wicked. Job knows only the ones God has set for him. The term for net is derived from a verb meaning “to hunt and fish,” which implies a general word for net. The use of the net is, however, restricted by the verb translated closed, which suggests “to turn around,” and implies, therefore, a net which can encircle its victim. Good News Translation “a trap to catch me” is general both in object and process. New Jerusalem Bible has “and enveloped me in his net,” New English Bible “He has drawn the net round me.” In languages in which a term for a net large enough to encircle a person is available, this should be used. However, a casting net used in fishing may not always be appropriate in this context. It may be necessary to use a general term for “trap” or to shift to another image; for example, “He has caught me in his grip” or “He has snatched me up in his hand.”

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 .