complete verse (Job 3:21)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 3:21:

  • Kupsabiny: “This person is one who is waiting for death without dying,
    he wants death very much instead of wealth.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “They are waiting for death, but death does not come.
    They seek for it more than for wealth buried in the earth.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “They long to die, but they do not die. They search for death even more than the looking of man for wealth which is-hidden.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “They long/want to die, but they do not die.
    They desire to die more than people desire to find a hidden treasure.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 3:21

Who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hid treasures: like the sufferers in Revelation 9.6, “they wait for death, but it never comes.” Line b steps up the death wish from the prosaic long for death to the intensely dramatic picture of digging for a buried treasure. The Hebrew verb translated dig can mean either “seek” (New English Bible) or “dig” (Revised Standard Version), and either meaning fits the context. “Seek” or “search” is a better parallel to the first line, but in English “dig” fits the imagery of the treasure seeker. A similar picture is applied to the search for wisdom in Proverbs 2.4. Today’s English Version‘s “they prefer a grave to any treasure” retains the sense but sacrifices the intensity of the poetic imagery. In translation it may be necessary to make clear in the second line that the persons referred to are those who want to die to escape their suffering. The two lines may be rendered, for example, “They are people who wish they could die, but death does not come; they want death so much that they search for it like people who hunt for treasures.”

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 .