complete verse (Job 22:16)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 22:16:

  • Kupsabiny: “The flood swept those people away
    even before their day/time had arrived.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “They have been swept away before their time,
    their foundations have been washed away by flood waters.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “They died before their time; they were like the foundation of a house washed-away by a flood.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “They suddenly died while they were still young;
    they disappeared like everything disappears when there is a flood.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 22:16

They were snatched away before their time: due to washed away in line b, some think this verse refers to the flood in Genesis 7, but others take it to refer to a general drowning in a flood. The verb translated snatched away occurs only here and in 16.8, where Good News Translation translated “seized.” Before their time refers to a premature death, “died before they should have died” or “died before it was their time to die.”

Their foundation was washed away: in Hebrew this line is not clear; it is literally “a river was poured out their foundation.” The verb is passive in form, but there is no preposition corresponding to Good News Translation‘s “by.” Revised Standard Version does not mention “river” or “flood,” and Good News Translation does not mention foundation. New International Version translates “Their foundations washed away by a flood.” Another possible meaning is “Their foundation is poured out like a river.” The sense in this case would be that the house collapses as the foundation gives way, as though the foundation were liquid. However, the poet is thinking of the destruction of evil men themselves rather than their homes, and so a better translation of this line is “They were swept away like a building in a flood”; or the whole verse may be translated, for example, “As a building is washed away by a flood, so they died before their time to die had come.”

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 .