joy

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The Greek, Latin, Ge’ez, and Hebrew that is translated with “joy” or “gladness” in English is translated with various strategies:

  • Baoulé: “a song in the stomach” (see also peace (inner peace))
  • Bambara: “the spirit is made sweet”
  • Kpelle: “sweet heart”
  • Tzeltal: “the good taste of one’s heart”
  • Uduk: “good to the stomach”
  • Mískito: “the liver is wide open” (“happily letting the pleasures flooding in upon it”) (source for this and above: Nida 1952)
  • Mairasi: “good liver” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Noongar: koort-kwabba-djil or “heart very good” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “refreshed heart” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.).
  • Hausa Common Language Bible: farin ciki or “white stomach.” Other languages that use the same expression include Southern Birifor (pʋpɛl), Dera (popolok awo), Reshe (ɾipo ɾipuhã). (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

See also Seat of the Mind for traditional views of “ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling,” happiness / joy, and exceeding joy.

complete verse (Job 31:25)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 31:25:

  • Kupsabiny: “or boasted of the things
    that I have collected through my strength,” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “I have not rejoiced in my wealth and property,
    nor in the treasures my own hands have earned.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “I did- not -boast of my great wealth and all of my properties which I possessed.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Job 31:24 - 31:25

In verses 24 and 25 Job swears that he has not trusted in wealth. The expected consequence of these two verses, and the following two, does not come until verse 28. Job is here denying the charges made against him by Eliphaz in 22.24 and following.

If I have made gold my trust: the two lines in verse 24 are parallel, with only a slight degree of poetic intensification in line b, in which a more specific form of gold is used. (See 28.16.) The pair translated trust and confidence are used in the opposite order in 8.14. For translators who find it best to reduce a pair of parallel lines to one, Good News Translation may be a good model: “I have never trusted in riches.” Translators will often have to shift verses 24-27 to emphatic statements or rhetorical questions, or combinations of these, in order to avoid the series of “if” clauses.

Or called fine gold my confidence: the poet varies the style in this line by switching to what in the Hebrew is direct address, as in 17.14. Dhorme translates “And have I said to pure gold: ‘My security!’ ” Bible en français courant, which uses the question form, provides a model for those who attempt to retain the parallelism “Have I put my confidence in gold? Where have I ever said of it ‘This is my security’?” In some languages this translation model may be rendered more idiomatically; for example, “Have I put my heart on gold? Never!” “Have I ever said, ‘Gold, you are the one who takes care of me’? Never!”

If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great: the two lines of verse 25 say about the same thing, with the second line carrying the figure of the hand obtaining wealth. As in verse 24, Good News Translation reduces this verse to a single line. In 22.25-26 Eliphaz advised Job “if the Almighty is your gold … then you will delight yourself in the Almighty.” Rejoiced is the usual translation of the word used here, the idea being that Job denies that his great wealth was the source of his “joy, satisfaction, delight.” Pope and New Jerusalem Bible translate “Have I ever gloated…,” and Good News Translation “taken pride,” while Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “My wealth has never made me proud.” These translations give the sense of misplaced delight, which is apparently the idea intended by the poet. The line may also be rendered, for example, “I never let my great wealth be my joy” or “my satisfaction never depended on the large amounts of wealth I had.” Some translators will find it best to combine the two lines into one; for example, “I have not rejoiced just because I had great wealth,” “I had lots of wealth, but this was not the source of my satisfaction,” or “… was not what filled me with happiness.”

Or because my hand had gotten much: my hand is a part for the whole and so refers to Job himself: “or because I had obtained great amounts of wealth” or “or because I made lots of money.”

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 .