complete verse (Job 22:28)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 22:28:

  • Kupsabiny: “And then you will prosper in everything
    and your life will become good.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “No matter what you would like to do, you will succeed.
    Light will shine on your path.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Whatever you (sing.) plan to do, it will-be-fulfilled, and your (sing.) way will-be-lightened.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Everything that you decide to do will be successful;
    it will be as though a light is shining on the road in front of you.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 22:27 - 22:28

These two verses add two more consequences which Eliphaz holds out to Job if he will repent and return to God.

You will make your prayer to him: Job has complained bitterly that God does not hear him. In 8.5-7 Bildad said that if Job was pure and upright he could pray to Almighty God, and that God would rouse himself for Job. Now Eliphaz has set new conditions that will enable God to hear Job and answer him.

And you will pay your vows: prayer may be accompanied by a vow, which is a promise to do something in payment to God for answering a request. See Psalm 22.25; 61.5, 8; 65.1. Here Eliphaz assumes Job’s prayer request will be granted, and that Job will back up his prayer with a vow to do something for God. Verse 27 may also be rendered, for example, “You will also pray to God, and you will keep the promises you make to him” or “God will hear your prayers, and you will do what you promised God you would do.”

You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you: “Anything you decide to do will be successful.” This translates what is literally “And cut a word it stands for you,” where “cut a word” means “decide something.” Established translates a verb form meaning “arise, stand”; that which is “stood up, raised” is accomplished and so it succeeds. Some interpreters take the literal expression “cut a word” to mean “make a decree,” so King James Version “Thou shalt also decree a thing.” The recommended sense is as in New Jerusalem Bible: “Whatever you undertake will go well.” This line may also be expressed “Whatever you decide to do will turn out well,” “The things you want to do you will do them successfully,” or “You will have success in everything you undertake.”

And light will shine on your ways: instead of the darkness in which Job walks (19.8; 22.11), there will be light shining on his paths. This line may also be rendered “and your path will be lighted,” “wherever you go you will walk in the light,” or “the path you walk on will not be in darkness.”

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 .