I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: in Psalm 132.9; Isaiah 59.17, righteousness is spoken of as a garment. It is paired here with justice, as in Jeremiah 22.15; 23.5; 33.15, and means the same. The metaphor of putting on righteousness as if it were clothing may mean that Job dressed himself in the clothing (robes) worn by a leader of the community when he took his seat in the square (verse 7). In this sense the garment was the symbol of his position. Just as a person may be clothed with righteousness, he may also be clothed with shame (Psa 132.18). For Job righteousness and justice are like a garment which, in his case, adorns him and shows that he acted rightly and justly when he made decisions in regard to the oppressed. All of this is in contrast to the unjust treatment he claims to receive from God. Verse 14 is constructed as a chiasmus in Hebrew, with righteousness coming at the beginning of line a and justice at the end of line b. Put on means to dress oneself with clothing, but in English “put on” can give the idea of pretense, and so Good News Translation has modified this expression to say, “I have always acted justly and fairly.” This removes all traces of the imagery, which is not necessary to do; for example, in Isaiah 59.17 Good News Translation translates clearly, “He will wear justice like a coat of armor, and saving power like a helmet … He will clothe himself with the strong desire to set things right.” Bible en français courant is more poetic in its rendering of verse 14a: “A sense of justice was my garment….” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “Righteousness was always my clothing.” We may wish to express the line as, for example, “I did what was right, and it was like the clothes I wore” or “Doing the right thing to people was as important to me as being clothed.”

My justice was like a robe and a turban: line b with robe and turban makes more precise what was expressed in line a. Justice is the noun form of the verb “to act justly” or “to do the right, fair thing.” My justice refers to the just, fair, good acts which Job did for others. Robe translates the same noun as in 1.20, where “Job arose, and rent his robe.” Robe here refers to the outer garment, the one which is visible to the public. Turban translates the noun form of the verb meaning “to wind or wrap around” and applies here to the headdress that is wound about the head, and no doubt worn on the occasions mentioned above. In this line again the symbols of Job’s office are appealed to as representing his fairness in making decisions or judgments. We may translate, for example, “When I judged matters fairly it was as clear as the robe and turban I wore.” in areas where robes and turbans are unknown, it may be necessary to retain the general comparison in both lines a and b; for example, “I did things that were right, and it was like putting on my clothes; I judged matters fairly, and that was as common as getting dressed.”

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 .