complete verse (Job 29:5)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 29:5:

  • Kupsabiny: “I was together with the God of power
    and I also had all my children.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “At that time the Almighty God was near me,
    and my sons and daughters were standing all around me.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The Almighty God was still with me in-the-time-past, and my children were still with me.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God ("together with")

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, tomo ni o-rare-ru (ともにおられる) or “together with” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Job 29:5

When the Almighty was yet with me: Almighty translates Shaddai, regularly translated “Almighty God” by Good News Translation. Good News Translation avoids the repetition of “when” clauses in reference to past time by using an independent clause: “Almighty God was with me then.” The idea is that God, who is no longer with Job, was still near him at that earlier time.

When my children were about me: children translates a word used in 1.19, where it is translated “young people” (Revised Standard Version). It may also have the meaning of “my servants,” which New English Bible prefers. However, most translations consulted take it to refer to Job’s own children. Languages differ greatly in the way they express the idea of having one’s children close by in the home. For example, “when my children sat about my fire,” “in the times when my children ate from my bowl,” or “when my children cultivated and planted with 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 .