complete verse (Job 28:14)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 28:14:

  • Kupsabiny: “The deep ocean denies,
    that wisdom is found there.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The ocean will say, ‘I do not have it.’
    The sea will say, ‘I do not have it.’” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “This can- not -be- found even in the depth of the sea.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “I always acted justly;
    my continually doing that was like a robe that I wore and a turban that was wrapped around my head.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

sea / lake

The various Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Job 28:14

The two lines of this verse are closely parallel in meaning and have been rearranged by Good News Translation so that the first line contains both subjects. Nature is here personified as speaking.

The deep says, ‘It is not in me’: The deep refers to the water beneath the earth from which the sea is fed, and which is the source of floods in Genesis 7.11. The parallelism of The deep and the sea in line b occurs again in 38.16. Good News Translation “depths of the oceans” expresses the idea adequately. Revised Standard Version reflects the Hebrew structure, in which The deep speaks directly.

And the sea says, ‘It is not with me’: the slight difference in the quoted words is not significant. Translators may find the parallelism so close in meaning that the two lines may be handled as a single thought. In many languages the sea cannot be personified as speaking directly or indirectly. In such cases we may translate, for example, “Wisdom is not found in the deepest parts of the oceans,” or actively, “You will not find wisdom at the bottom of the sea.” For comments on the translation of sea in areas where seas are unknown, see 6.3; 12.8.

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 .

textual location of Job 28:1-28

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.”