complete verse (Job 30:21)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 30:21:

  • Kupsabiny: “You have persecuted me severely
    and you have caused me much pain by your power.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “You have been cruel to me.
    You have attacked me with all [Your] power” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (sing.) became violent to me. You (sing.) have-used your (sing.) mighty power to have- me -suffer.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “He acts very cruelly toward me;
    with all of his power he causes me to suffer.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Japanese honorifics (Job 30:21)

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, semetate-rare-ru (攻めたてられる) or “attack incessantly” is used.

Also, when the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) is used here in mi-te (御手) or “hand (of God).”

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

Translation commentary on Job 30:21

Thou hast turned cruel to me: Job is unable to account for the change of God’s attitude toward him. Here Job renews his longstanding complaint against God expressed in 13.24; 16.9; 19.11. Turned in the sense of “became” is used also in Isaiah 63.10. Cruel is used the same way in Lamentations 4.3. The phrase suggests that God has become cruel, whereas in former times he was not. New Jerusalem Bible renders it “You have grown cruel to me,” and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “You have become cruel to me.” New English Bible says “Thou hast turned cruelly against me.” All of these appear to be better than Good News Translation, “You are treating me cruelly.”

With the might of thy hand thou dost persecute me: might of … hand occurs also in Deuteronomy 8.17 and expresses, as in Good News Translation, “with all your power.” And so Job says “You use all your power to make me suffer.”

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 .