complete verse (Job 21:16)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 21:16:

  • Kupsabiny: “They say that they fight in order to get something,
    but I do not agree with their thoughts.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “But the good circumstances of the wicked are not in their hands,
    so I am not [about] to agree with the advice of the wicked.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “But the truth is, their prosperity did- not -come from their own hard-work. So whatever these wicked-ones advise, I will- never -listen.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Think about it: Wicked people think that it is because of what they have done that they have become prosperous,
    but I do not understand why they think like that.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 21:16

Interpreters point out that verse 16 is difficult to relate to the wider context. Pope suggests it may be regarded as the protest of someone who was shocked at the idea that the attitude of the wicked was acceptable, and so Pope and others put the verse in brackets. However, the Handbook recommends that translators do as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?: Dhorme takes the word translated Behold (also in 13.15; 19.7) to transform a statement into a question and translates “Does not their happiness lie in their hands?” Bible en français courant has “Aren’t those people masters of their own happiness?” Good News Translation adds the words “they claim” in order to make a statement rather than a question. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders verse 16 “They believe every man is maker of his own fortune, but their way of thinking is far from mine.”

The counsel of the wicked is far from me: Eliphaz repeats this line in 22.18b. Counsel of the wicked is mentioned in Psalm 1.1. Revised Standard Version shifts in this line to a statement. Many scholars follow the Septuagint in this line in changing “from me” to “from him”; that is, “far from God.” However, as Rowley points out, is far from me means that Job refuses the prosperity of the wicked and desires the fellowship with God which he has been denied, and so Good News Translation translates “Their way of thinking I can’t accept.” Verse 16 may also be rendered “These wicked people think they make their own prosperity, but I don’t accept what they say” or “These people believe they decide their own happiness, but that way of thinking is not what I believe.”

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 .