complete verse (Job 29:16)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 29:16:

  • Kupsabiny: “I took care of orphans,
    and I helped/saved the foreigners.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “I was like a father for the needy.
    In law cases I took sides with strangers [lit.: people whom [I] did not know].” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “I became like a father to the poor-ones, and even the strangers I helped in their case.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Job 29:16

I was a father to the poor: Good News Translation improves this line by saying “I was like a father to the poor.” This line may also be rendered “I protected the poor” or “I cared for the poor like a father.”

And I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know: “I investigated the case of those I did not know.” It was particularly in legal cases that the poor were without protection, and so Job undertook to help them. Job claims he sought the truth in legal suits and did not favor those he knew, his own community, at the expense of strangers. Searched out translates the same verb used in 28.3. This line may also be expressed “I defended strangers in court” or “I defended the rights of foreigners in legal cases.”

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 .