Verses 24-25 are clearly linked in grammar and sense. If you lay gold in the dust: the Hebrew text of this verse has had two major interpretations. The first is “You will gather gold in the dust,” in which Eliphaz is promising Job that he will be rich again. In 5.17-27 Eliphaz told Job that he would be restored to greatness. The other major understanding of the verse is that Eliphaz is urging Job to renounce wealth, and the consequence in verse 25 is that Shaddai, “Almighty God” (Good News Translation), will take the place of his wealth. As Rowley points out it would be strange for Eliphaz to urge Job to get rid of gold when everything but his life has been taken from him. However, it is unfair to impose too much logic and too many demands for consistency on the ancient poet. In addition to these two interpretations, the ancient Syriac modified the Hebrew to get “You will count gold as dust,” which makes a simile and means that Job will value gold no more than dust, or as Dhorme translates, “Then you will esteem gold as though it were dust.” Among all the translations of this passage, only King James Version views Eliphaz’s words as a promise for the future, “Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust.” In other words, to Job gold will be as common as dust. Most modern translations understand verse 24 to mean that Job is told to get rid of his gold. Good News Translation and others have “Throw away your gold.”

The advantage of understanding verse 24a to mean the renouncing of wealth is that it seems to make the best sense in the context and leads in smoothly to verse 25. New English Bible follows Syriac’s simile and translates “If you treat your precious metal as dust….” Verse 24 has poetic alliteration, that is, similar sounds that recur. For example, the word ʿaphar “dust” in line a is echoed by ʾOphir in line b. Betzer, a rare word for “gold” in line a, is matched in line b by betzur “rocks.”

And gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent bed: gold of Ophir translates the Hebrew proper noun Ophir, which is an unknown place famed for its gold. (See Psa 45.9; Isa 13.12.) Only here and in 28.16 is gold described by giving it this place name. Good News Translation translates “finest gold.” The verb in this line is to be understood from line a or supplied as a word of similar meaning, so Good News Translation “dump.” For torrent bed see 6.15. Verse 24 may be rendered, for example, “Get rid of your gold; throw your best gold among the rocks in the dry bed of the river,” or somewhat differently and as an “if” clause, “If you will consider the most precious gold as if it were dust and nothing more than the stones of a river bed….”

And if the Almighty is your gold: in Revised Standard Version verse 25 contains two more “if” clauses, which Good News Translation renders as “let” commands. Gold translates the same rare word used in verse 24a. This line may also be expressed, for example, “If you will accept Almighty God as your gold,” “If you will let Almighty God be like gold to you,” or “Let Almighty God be like gold to you.”

And your precious silver: the meaning of the word translated precious is uncertain. It occurs elsewhere only in Numbers 23.22; 24.8 (“horns”), and in Psalm 95.4, where it is translated “heights” in contrast with “depths of the earth.” In the present context the sense suggested by Dhorme is “heaped up piles” of silver, which is nearly equivalent to Good News Translation “silver piled high.” This line is an example of parallelism in which line b goes beyond, or carries the thought of line a, to a more intense level. In translation it will be necessary in some languages to shift to a simile and say, for example, “and let him be like piles of silver” or “let God be like silver that is heaped up.”

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 .