When the ear heard, it called me blessed: a similar statement is used in 13.1 in reference to Job having seen and heard what the friends were asserting. In the Hebrew of this line, the ear is a part of the body which stands for the whole, meaning “people,” or as Good News Translation says, “Everyone who….” Called me blessed is literally “pronounced me happy.” The verb used here is also found in Genesis 30.13; Proverbs 31.28. Here the word has the sense of “declare happy” or “congratulate,” and Bible en français courant translates it well: “I was congratulated by those who heard me”; other possibilities are “Everyone who heard me speak congratulated me,” or “All those who heard me spoke highly of me,” or “… said good words about me.”

And when the eye saw, it approved: the eye represents the same subject as in the preceding line. Therefore Good News Translation is correct in combining the two actions, with “Everyone who saw me or heard of me.” It approved translates a verb meaning “to be a witness” or “to witness something regarding someone.” The witness given may be favorable or unfavorable, but in the present context it clearly means “to speak in favor of someone.” New English Bible keeps both lines parallel, with “whoever heard of me spoke in my favour, and those who saw me bore witness to my merit.” Bible en français courant translates this line “upon seeing me, all assured me of their esteem.” The line may also be rendered “and everyone who saw me said good things about me.” Some translators may prefer to rearrange the verse slightly to say, for example, “When the people heard and saw me, they congratulated me and said many good things about me.”

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 .