power / strength

The Hebrew that is typically translated in English as “power” or “might” or “force” is translated in the English translation by Goldingay (2018) as energy or energetic.

complete verse (Job 6:12)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 6:12:

  • Kupsabiny: “After all, am I a stone?
    Or is my body hard as bronze?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “What! Is my strength like stone?
    Or is my body of bronze?” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Do I have strength like of stone? Is my body bronze? No!” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “I am not strong like rocks are,
    and my body is not made of bronze.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 6:12

Is my strength the strength of stones: strength translates the same word as in 11a, and it is used twice in 12a. Lines a and b are parallel, matching bronze with stones, both being figures of hardness and of insensitivity to pain. See 40.18 for comments on bronze. Job, by contrast, is a man of flesh and blood who cries out in his anguish. Or is my flesh bronze: in typical emphasis line a strength is matched in line b by the more specific my flesh. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is even more specific, with “my muscles.” Bible en français courant, like Good News Translation, says “Am I a rock, I, to resist everything? Is my body bronze?” In some languages verse 12 may be rendered, for example, “Am I strong as a rock or am I made of bronze? Certainly not!” or “I am not as strong as a rock, and much less am I made of bronze.” If bronze is unknown, the translation can be “metal.”

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 .