complete verse (Job 21:34)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 21:34:

  • Kupsabiny: “So, do not comfort me with words only.
    Everything you are saying are lies!’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “So how will all your meaningless words comfort me.
    There will be nothing true in all your answers.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘Therefore how can you (plur.) pleased me with your (plur.) nonsense talking? There is no [intensifier] truth in what you (sing.) are-saying.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘So how can you console me by talking nonsense?
    Every reply that you make is full of lies!’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Job 21:34

Verse 34 marks the conclusion of the second round of arguments, in which Job shifts his attention back to the friends. He sums up all of their efforts to prove that he is guilty of wrong, stating that they are nothing more than empty nothings. Their mission to comfort Job has proven to be a miserable failure. The friends and their arguments are untrustworthy. Verse 34 marks not only a conclusion to the second round of speeches, but also a transition to the final round. Accordingly translators will want to watch for ways in which the concluding and transitional features may need to be marked.

Finally Job asks How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? In view of his observations and experience, the words of his comforters are lies. In 21.2 Job suggested that the consolation the friends wanted to give him would be accomplished by listening to his words. The word Job uses to describe their consolations is the Hebrew hebel “breath,” that is, “whatever is vain, worthless.” Good News Translation translates this line with two exclamations: “And you! You try to comfort me with nonsense!” This line may also be rendered, for example, “How can you hope to comfort me with your foolish words?” or “It is foolish of you to think you can help me with your nonsense.”

There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood: falsehood translates a word meaning “treachery” or “faithlessness” in regard to a person’s relation to God or to his neighbor. Here the friends are unfaithful, disloyal to the truth, which Bible en français courant translates “Your arguments are nothing more than a pretense of a reply.” New English Bible has “How false your answers ring.” This line can also be expressed “All you have said is a lie” or “There is no truth in anything you have said to 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 .