How forceful are honest words: the Hebrew word translated forceful is problematic. The word is nimretsu. Some scholars replace r with l and get “pleasant,” arguing that the substitution of l for r is a common dialect variation. Revised Standard Version translates another form of the same root found in 1 Kings 2.8 as “grievous,” and in Good News Translation as “bitterly.” Some take the meaning to be “painful,” as this is the meaning of the cognate word in Akkadian. The Koehler-Baumgartner lexicon (K-B) gives “offending.” If Job is referring to his own words, the meaning can well be “painful” because he speaks his words out of his anguish, and so New International Version says “How painful are honest words.” On the other hand it seems best to take the adjective in line a to be in contrast with the thought in line b, that is, honest words spoken by anyone are pleasant, but the arguments coming from Job’s visitors are criticisms which correct nothing. Not surprisingly translations vary greatly. Bible en français courant has “Honest arguments wound no one,” and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy says “No one can refuse a correct argument.” It seems best to understand this verse as a complaint about the critical attitude in Eliphaz’s words, words which Job does not accept as honest arguments.

What does reproof from you reprove?: Job is repeating his demand to know for which of his sins Eliphaz is correcting him. The final word in Hebrew is mikkem, “from you,” which some scholars suggest should be hakam, “wise,” and get “what does reproof of the wise prove?” New English Bible, which made a change in the first line to get “How harsh are the words of the upright man,” accepts “wise” in the second line and gets a better parallel line: “What do the arguments of wise men prove?” (It gives a note on “wise men” saying “Hebrew unintelligible.”) However, a clear rendering is possible without changing the Hebrew text, by saying as does New International Version “But what do your arguments prove?” Good News Translation “You are talking nonsense” expresses Job’s thought, but little of the original form of it. If the translator has used a positive word such as “pleasant” or “convincing” in line a, it will be necessary to link line b to line a by a strong contrast; for example, “but your words are not pleasant, and they correct nothing” or “but your arguments are not like that, and they do not show me what is right.”

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 .