soul

The Hebrew, Greek, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “soul” in English is translated in Chol with a term that refers to the invisible aspects of human beings (source: Robert Bascom), in Yagaria with oune or “shadow, reflection” (source: Renck, p. 81), and in Elhomwe as “heart” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext).

The Mandarin Chinese línghún (靈魂 / 灵魂), literally “spirit-soul,” is often used for “soul” (along with xīn [心] or “heart”). This is a term that was adopted from Buddhist sources into early Catholic writings and later also by Protestant translators. (Source: Zetzsche 1996, p. 32, see also Clara Ho-yan Chan in this article )

In Chichewa, moyo means both “soul” and “life.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also heart, soul, mind.

complete verse (Job 3:20)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 3:20:

  • Kupsabiny: “Why do people still live in suffering
    and why does a person in pain still see the light?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Why does God give light to weary
    and life to heart downed? ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘Why still allow people to live who suffer and their feelings are-hurting?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘Why does God allow those who are suffering greatly like me to continue to remain alive?/I do not understand why God allows those who are suffering greatly like me to continue to remain alive.
    Why does he allow those who are very miserable/distressed to keep living ?” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 3:20

In verses 20-23 Job continues his lament, asking again why any sufferer has to go on living when his life has lost direction. Just as Job gave a reason for his curses in verse 10, he concludes his lament in verses 24-26 by again giving a reason for it.

Why is light given to him that is in misery: Job has ended his contemplation of what death and the grave could have meant to him, and now he turns to asking about the meaning of the life of one who suffers. In Hebrew line 20a is literally “Why does he (or one) give light to the sufferer?” Revised Standard Version follows the traditional rendering of the verb as a passive; however, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Moffatt, Bible en français courant have supplied God as the subject of an active verb. Good News Translation (also New Jerusalem Bible) uses an impersonal “Why give light…?” Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, which says “why does he give…,” has an instructive note: “ ‘He’ refers to God. Greek, Syriac, Vulgate, Aramaic have ‘is given.’ The passive perhaps shows that translators of the ancient versions desired to exonerate God.” Good News Translation, like Revised Standard Version and others, avoids any explicit reference to God; however, Good News Translation has made God explicit in the curse section, and the text itself mentions God in verse 23. Accordingly it is probable that the reader of Good News Translation will understand God as the one being addressed. Translators will often have to choose a passive or impersonal expression, or express God as the subject; for example, “Why does God let people who suffer go on living?”

Good News Translation has transposed “life” to the first line and “light” to the second line, and has in this case retained both lines, which are parallel.

And life to the bitter in soul: line b steps up the intensity in this verse through the use of the figurative expression bitter in soul. Life is parallel to light in line 20a and defines it. The verb in line 20a must also be understood in line 20b. Bitter in soul, a Hebrew idiom parallel to the New Testament idiom “pure in heart” (Matt 5.8), is literally “bitternesses in soul,” where the plural form refers to Job and others having such a condition; therefore Good News Translation “men in grief.” For other references see Judges 18.25 (“angry fellows”); 1 Samuel 1.10 (“deeply distressed”); 2 Samuel 17.8 (“enraged”). In some languages this may be rendered idiomatically as “people whose insides are undone,” “people whose hearts are low,” or “people who carry trouble on them.” The build-up in the second line may be illustrated, for example, by “Why are people allowed to live in misery, or more important still, how does it happen that they can go on living when their lives have become bitter?” In languages in which impersonal subjects and passive verbs are not used, it may be necessary to say, for example, “God, why do you let people who suffer go on living; why do you allow this even when a person’s heart has become bitter?”

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 .