complete verse (Job 31:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 31:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “God knows everything that I do
    and he sees everywhere where I go.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Hasn’t God seen all my activities? Haven’t all my steps been counted?
    Haven’t all my footsteps been counted?” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “God knows everything I do.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

behold / look / see (Japanese honorifics)

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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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God or a person or persons to be greatly honored, the honorific prefix go- (御 or ご) can be used, as in go-ran (ご覧), a combination of “behold / see” (ran) and the honorific prefix go-.

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

See also Japanese benefactives (goran).

Translation commentary on Job 31:4

Does not he see my ways…?: like the previous verse the two lines of verse 4 are questions which expect an affirmative answer. Job may be thinking back to earlier times, but as Rowley suggests, it is more probable that he asks how it can be possible that God would make him suffer. If God truly saw him as he is, God could not bring misfortune on him. Revised Standard Version translates the verse in a way that accurately shows the Hebrew form. He is replaced by “God” in Good News Translation and others. My ways, which is found also in 4.6; 13.15; 22.3, refers to Job’s life, actions, conduct, or as Good News Translation translates, “everything I do.” New Jerusalem Bible has “But surely he sees how I behave.” Good News Translation translates “knows” in line a and “sees” in line b; but this variation does not appear necessary. This line may also be expressed, for example, “Doesn’t God see how I live? Of course he does!” or “God sees all that I do.”

And number all my steps?: in 14.16 Job said the same thing of God as he does here. There the sense is that God watches over, protects, and guides Job. Here it is more probable, as in the previous line, that God is aware of every move Job makes. God not only sees everything he does but even counts his footsteps. Line b is more specific than line a and heightens the intensity, so that the meaning is “God not only sees everything I do, he even counts every step I take.”

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 .