complete verse (Job 30:30)

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

  • Kupsabiny: “My body has been scorched
    and fire/fever burns much on my body.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “My skin has turned black and comes peeling off.
    Fever comes and my body burns.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “My skin has turned-dark and the scab has-fallen-off. My fever is so severe.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Job 30:30

My skin turns black and falls from me: black does not translate the same word used in verse 28, but a verb related to the adjective translated “very dark” in Song of Solomon 1.5. And falls from me is a wrong translation of a preposition, which means “on me.” It is unlikely that Job’s skin could darken anywhere else than “on him,” so Good News Translation does not reproduce the phrase “on me.” The implication is that, regardless of what color Job’s skin was before his suffering, it has now become darker than before. The line may be rendered “My skin has turned dark and peels off.”

And my bones burn with heat is literally “burn from heat,” which is a metaphor used also in Psalm 102.3, meaning “My body is burning with fever” or, as Good News Translation has it here, “I am burning with fever.”

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 .