Ixcatlán Mazatec: “with your best/biggest thinking” (source: Robert Bascom)
Noongar: dwangka-boola, lit. “ear much” (source: Portions of the Holy Bible in the Nyunga language of Australia, 2018 — see also remember)
Kwere “to know how to live well” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Dobel: “their ear holes are long-lasting” (in Acts 6:3) (source: Jock Hughes)
Gbaya: iŋa-mgbara-mɔ or “knowing-about-things” (note that in comparison to that, “knowledge” is translated as iŋa-mɔ or “knowing things”) (source: Philip Noss in The Bible Translator 2001, p. 114ff. )
Chichewa: nzeru, meaning both “knowledge” and “wisdom” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 28:12:
Kupsabiny: “But hey, where can one find wisdom? Where can one look for words/things and get understanding?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell? ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “‘But where can wisdom and understanding be-found?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “because I had helped the poor people when they cried out for help and I aided/helped orphans who had no one else to help them.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Mankind’s great industry in penetrating the earth for precious stones is now compared to his inability to get to the source of wisdom. Verse 12 is the key to the understanding of the whole chapter. The contrast between the success of the miners in the previous verse and the search for wisdom is marked by But in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. People know where to find silver, gold, and precious stones, but they do not know where to find wisdom. Between verse 12 and the next refrain in verse 20 there is a series of negative answers to the question asked here.
But where shall wisdom be found?: this verse is repeated as a question with a few small changes in verse 20 and as a response in verse 28. The answer to the question comes in the final verse of the chapter, where wisdom is defined as “the fear of the LORD” and understanding as “to depart from evil.”
The introduction of wisdom as new information may require in some languages an introductory statement; for example, “But let us talk also of wisdom,” “But what about finding wisdom?” or “But how does a person become wise?”
And where is the place of understanding?: here understanding is used in parallel with wisdom, just as in Proverbs 1.2; 4.5; 7.9; 9.10; 16.16. Dhorme says wisdom expresses what is handed down by tradition, while understanding is acquired by discernment, insight, and judgment. However, in these verses the two are to be taken as two ways of referring to a single virtue.
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 .
According to the Job translation by Greenstein (2019), Job 28:1-28 should be located following Job 37:24. He explains:
“In the preceding passage (37:14-24), Elihu describes the uncanny marvels of the created world in the upper realm, in the sky. In the present passage (chapter 28), Elihu continues to describe a world that is beyond human comprehension, now focusing on the lower realm, the earth and, more particularly, the subterranean, which includes both the netherworld—the domain of the dead—and the sea that was believed to lie beneath the land. The passage is structured by two questions that ask, Where can (divine) wisdom be found? The question turns out to be a riddle, for the answer is not about where, but when (see verses 25-27).
“Modern commentators tend to regard chapter 28, which does not comport with Job’s perspectives, as an independent poem that cannot be attributed to any of the known speakers. The assumption that the poem is autonomous is highly problematic. Biblical poems do not begin with the conjunction ki, ‘for, because,’ as this passage does. There is no antecedent to the pronoun ‘he’ in verse 3. But more important, the motif of esoteric wisdom lying beyond human reach typically includes both the above and the below (see for example Job 11:7-8; Deuteronomy 30:11-13; Jeremiah 31:36; as well the Babylonian hymn to the sun god Shamash). The conclusion of this passage (28:28) echoes the conclusion of the survey of the heavenly wonders in 37:24, and it is following that passage that this one belongs.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.