The Hebrew that is translated as “the poor” in English is translated in Chichewa as “people without power.” In Chichewa context this refers to those who are in the lower class in terms of both social status and political influence in a community. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
In Cherokee it is translated as “those who are not doing well.” “The concept of poverty was unknown to Cherokee prior to European arrival due to the sharing of resources among clan members and the shared and welfare tradition known as gadugi (ᎦᏚᎩ). In contrast, the concepts of rich and poor play a large role in the world and message or the New Testament (…) This phrase (‘those who are not doing well’), still used today for ‘poor,’ speaks to a more general understanding of well-being than the presence of monetary resources.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 45)
The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “orphan” in English is translated in Enlhet as “those who are gone past” (source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. ) and in Newari as “ones not having mother-father” (source: Newari Back Translation).
E.L. Greenstein (2019, p. 108) notes that, particularly in reference to Job 24:9 where the child is being nursed, that the Hebrew term “has the narrower meaning of “fatherless.”
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 29:12:
Kupsabiny: “I saved those who were helpless when they cried to me for help, and I saved the orphans who did not have where to run to.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “For when they would ask for help — the poor, those who had no close kin, [or] the fatherless — I would deliver [them].” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “For I help the poor-ones who ask for help and the orphans/parentless who have no place-of-refuge.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Verse 12 supplies the reason for the praise in verse 11. Because I delivered the poor who cried: in 22.6-9 Eliphaz alleged that Job oppressed the poor. But Job is saying that he did not oppress them. “I rescued, saved the poor when they cried for help.” It is probably implied that the poor cried to Job for help. This line echoes Psalm 72.12, in which the ideal king behaves in the same manner in regard to the poor. Good News Translation and others do not make verse 12 the reason for the actions in verse 11, but make both verses independent statements of Job’s conduct. Translators may find this fits the style of their language better and may wish to do the same. Who cried must often be expressed as “who cried to me for help,” “who begged me to help them,” or “who came crying to me for help.”
And the fatherless who had none to help him: fatherless is parallel with the poor in the previous line. See 5.15; 6.27. The same pairing was used in 24.9; see there for comments. The line has no verb in Hebrew, and so a verb of similar meaning to that used in the first line must often be supplied. This line may also be expressed “and I rescued the orphan who had no one to help him” or “I helped orphans who are without fathers to help them.”
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 .
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