upright

The Hebrew that typically is translated as “upright” in English is translated in the English Job translation by E.L. Greenstein (2019) as “straight (of path).”

complete verse (Job 4:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 4:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “Has a righteous person ever been destroyed?
    Is there even one among the good ones who has been discarded?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Please consider. Who, being innocent, has ever perished?
    Have you ever seen simple man got in trouble? ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘Now, think carefully. Is there an innocent or righteous man that perished?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Think about this: Do innocent people die while they are still young ?
    Does God get rid of godly people ? No!” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 4:7

Eliphaz now shifts away from Job’s person to generalize, reminding him that, according to their shared store of wisdom, the suffering of the righteous is for discipline and not for destruction. This verse sums up the main argument of Job’s three friends. The two lines are parallel, with a step-up of feeling brought about in line b, where the figurative cut off matches the more general perish in line a. Psalm 37 represents the view that the innocent do not perish, and 37.9 says “For the wicked shall be cut off; but those who wait for the LORD shall possess the land.” The same thought is expressed in Proverbs 12.21, “No ill befalls the righteous, but the wicked are filled with trouble.”

Think now is literally “recall or remember now.” Innocent in line a and upright in line b refer to the same people, not to two different groups. The same combination is found in 2 Samuel 14.9 with the meaning of “blameless.” Such persons are called innocent because they are innocent of doing evil and so are “righteous, good, just, upright.” In other contexts innocent refers to people who are helpless in that they have no way to provide for themselves (see Psa 10.8). For the translation of upright see comments on 1.1.

If the translator is translating Job as prose, Good News Translation offers a model in which innocent and upright are reduced to “a righteous man,” and perish and cut off are condensed to “meet with disaster.” On the other hand, if the parallel lines are to be kept, we may translate, for example, “Think about it, Job, did a just person ever meet his doom, or was a good person ever actually destroyed?” In languages in which active verbs will be required, we may say, for example, “Did God ever bring an innocent person to his death, or did God ever snatch away the life of a good person?” Moffatt attempts to represent the poetic movement: “What guiltless man has ever perished? When have the just ever been swept away?”

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 .