a flood of waters may cover you

The Hebrew in Job 38:34 that is translated as “a flood of waters may cover you” or similar in English is translated in Elhomwe with “rains may soak you.” Bow “is understood as the curved horizon.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

complete verse (Job 38:34)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 38:34:

  • Kupsabiny: “Can you shout at the clouds in the sky,
    force them to pour down rain?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Can you give commands to the clouds by crying out loudly
    so that you are covered by a flood?” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Can- you (sing.) -command the clouds to rain thickly?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Job 38:34

Can you lift up your voice to the clouds…? questions Job’s ability to direct the clouds in a way similar to the question asked in verse 33b. The clouds are not ordered about by men. In 36.29 Elihu asks Job “Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds?” Lift up your voice means “shout out orders, call out commands.”

That a flood of waters may cover you is identical to 22.11b, but the context is different. In the Septuagint cover you is translated as “answer you.” The Hebrew Old Testament Text Project committee was divided between those preferring the Septuagint and those wanting the Hebrew text, which Revised Standard Version follows. Most modern translations follow the Hebrew. The line may be translated, for example, as “so that the rain will submerge you,” “so that rain will flood over you,” or “and cause the rain to drown you like a flood.”

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 .