Has the rain a father…? asks a question as to the origin of the rain based on the human analogy. For Job the question has a clear answer: “No.” Who has begotten in the Hebrew may suggest either the mother’s or the father’s role in giving birth. However, the mother’s role will come up in the next verse, and so it is best to consider the second line as still referring to the father. Drops in drops of dew translates a word that occurs only here in the Old Testament, but in the context there is little uncertainty about the meaning. Good News Translation has reduced the two lines to one with “Does either the rain or the dew have a father?” However, this loses some of the poetic effect. In languages in which the suggestion of the rain having a father or being conceived must be restructured for clarity, we may be able to say, for example, “Is the rain a person that must have a father? No!” “Has a human father made the rain?” “Does the rain come from a human father? Of course not!” The second line may be translated “Were the dew drops conceived like children? No.”

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 .