complete verse (Job 3:12)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 3:12:

  • Kupsabiny: “Oh, why did my mother give birth to me?
    It was in vain that she nursed me!” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Why were there knees to accept me
    and a breast to give me drink?” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Why did my mother put- me -on-(her)-lap and cause-(me)-to-suck-(her)-breast?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “I wish that my mother had not allowed me to live.
    I wish that she had not nursed me.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Japanese benefactives (wakete)

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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 choice of a benefactive construction as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

Here, wakete (分けて) or “divide” is used in combination with kudasaru (くださる), a respectful form of the benefactive kureru (くれる). A benefactive reflects the good will of the giver or the gratitude of a recipient of the favor. To convey this connotation, English translation needs to employ a phrase such as “for me (my sake)” or “for you (your sake).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Job 3:12

Why did the knees receive me?: it is not clear from the Hebrew whose knees are meant. Joseph’s great-grandchildren are said to have been born on his knees (Gen 50.23). Some have suggested that the knees are those of Job’s father, who in this manner legitimizes or formally acknowledges his infant son as his own. However, line 12b refers to the mother’s breasts, and so Good News Translation and others are perhaps right in relating the knees to the mother. Living Bible (Living Bible) has “why did the midwife let me live? Why did she nurse me at her breasts?” There is no justification in the text for introducing a midwife into this verse. The question in line a is literally “Why were the knees before me?” In translation it is again possible to restructure the rhetorical question Why did the knees …, using “I wish…,” as done by Good News Translation in verse 11. However, in some languages this type of repeated structure may be less satisfactory than varying them as Good News Translation has done. In some languages it will be more natural to say “lap” or “arms”; for example, “Why did my mother hold me on her lap?” or “… hold me in her arms?” If the translation follows a wording similar to Revised Standard Version, it may be advisable to provide a note saying, for example, “This is an act showing that the child is formally welcomed into the family.”

Or why the breasts, that I should suck?: Revised Standard Version translates the Hebrew literally, and the result is stilted, awkward English. Good News Translation has restructured this line so that “she feed me” is parallel with “my mother hold me” from line 12a. To avoid monotony of style Good News Translation has used the double “Why” question instead of the wish of the previous verse.

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 .