Eliphaz prepares to deliver to Job the “word” mentioned in 4.2. He begins by describing the communication which came to him. His account is very different from the way traditional prophets of Israel spoke of their revelations. It is more akin to the experience of Abraham in Genesis 15.12, in which a “dread and great darkness fell on him.” Verse 12 has two parallel lines which form the process, and verse 13 has another pair of related lines which form the circumstances of verse 12.

A word was brought to me stealthily: a word, although singular in Hebrew, refers to the whole message Eliphaz received and is correctly translated “message” by Good News Translation, Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, and others. Brought to me stealthily translates the Hebrew “was stolen to me,” a metaphor used also in 2 Samuel 19.3 to underline the quiet, furtive nature of this ghostly visit. Line b is chiastic in relation to line a, that is, it has the parallel elements in reverse order, since line a ends with “was stolen,” and line b begins with “received” (for the definition of “chiasmus” see the Glossary). In line b the poet shifts to more concrete language, ear and whisper, to dramatize the emotion. Good News Translation has preserved something of this with “so quietly….” Some languages will prefer to keep the noun ear rather than shift to the verb “hear.”

In some languages it will be necessary to shift to an active construction in line a and say, for example, “Someone quietly spoke a message to me” or “I heard a message someone quietly spoke to me.” The two lines may be rendered, for example, “Someone stole in quietly and spoke a message to me; I could hardly hear what was said.”

The parallel lines of verse 13 serve as the circumstances for verse 12 and for verse 14. The matching terms in verse 13 are thoughts from visions in line a and deep sleep in line b. Thoughts translates a Hebrew form of the same noun used in Psalm 94.19 (“cares”), where the idea is that of troubled or disturbed thoughts, and in the context of night sleep this would be a “bad dream” or, as in Good News Translation, “nightmare.” Deep sleep translates a Hebrew noun which in Genesis 2.21 God imposes on Adam in order to remove one of his ribs. In Isaiah 29.10 the LORD pours out on the leaders of Jerusalem a “spirit of deep sleep,” which is here a stupor, and in Job 33.15-16 it is a terrifying dream. Good News Translation in a very plain form reduces the two poetic lines to one. Bible en français courant keeps both lines, saying “… during a dream at night, when the thoughts are confusing, when stupor pounces on human beings.”

In some languages it will be necessary to shift from noun phrases to clauses and say, for example, “While I was having a nightmare (a confusing dream) one night, at that time when people fall into a deep sleep” or “One night I had a nightmare; it happened when I fell into sleep that was like fainting.”

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 .