Job sets out now to match Eliphaz’s proverbs (5.2-7) with two of his own. These are stated as rhetorical questions, meaning emphatic denials. The two lines are parallel but without increasing the emphasis. Wild ass bray and grass in line a is matched in line b by the domestic ox low and fodder. What do these rhetorical questions refer to? According to Habel, verse 5 is linked back to verses 2-3. Then the interpretation is that the ass and ox, which refer to Job, do not complain when there is fodder to eat, and so Job would not complain if God were not causing him all this trouble. On the other hand, the hungry animals may still refer to Job, but the fodder may be taken as the comfort that is not forthcoming from his friends. A somewhat parallel picture is found in Psalm 69.21-22. The point of the second view is that, if Job had received proper food (true words of comfort), he would not now be in such anguish.

Does the wild ass bray when he has grass: the wild ass is portrayed fully in 39.5-8. The despair of this wild creature when it lacks food is seen in Jeremiah 14.6. Grass translates the term for wild pasture grass used also in Genesis 1.11 for “vegetation” in general. Ox low over his fodder: the Hebrew term translated ox is defined by Holladay as “fully grown male bovine, whether castrated or not.” The word is also used sometimes of cattle in general. Good News Translation says “cow,” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “bull,” and New English Bible, like Revised Standard Version, “ox.” This range of renderings covers all possibilities, and translators are free to take their choice. In contrast with grass which the wild animals find growing on the hillsides, fodder is more specifically food for domestic animals, and the word is found only here and in Isaiah 30.24.

In some languages other animals will have to be substituted for wild ass and ox, but the translator should attempt to maintain the contrast between the wild animal that eats grass in line a and the domestic animal that eats food supplied by its owner in line b. If it is not possible to contrast actual species of animals, we may often shift to a generic usage; for example, “Does a wild animal cry when it can find something to eat, or a tame animal when its owner gives it something to eat?” Rhetorical questions must often be answered “Certainly not!” Or negative statements may be used instead of rhetorical questions. Those finding a positive statement more natural will find a good model in Good News Translation. Good News Translation does not attempt to make the distinction between wild and domestic animals.

In Revised Standard Version and other translations, Job continues with still another rhetorical question. In order to vary the style, Good News Translation, which avoided the question form in the previous verse, now translates with a question. Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt: this figure may refer to the words of Eliphaz, which were arguments without consolation or comfort. Line a asks rhetorically if anything that is in itself tasteless can be eaten without adding salt to give it flavor. The answer is an emphatic “No.”

Any taste in the slime of the purslane?: the first line of this pair is straightforward in its literal meaning. However, this line is more of a problem. Slime translates a word found only here and in 1 Samuel 21.13, where Revised Standard Version renders it “spittle.” Purslane is a pod-bearing plant that secretes a runny, sticky sap. The name of this plant has also been associated by some interpreters with the “mallow” (New English Bible) and the milkweed. A rabbinical interpretation, “slime of the yolk,” preferred by many scholars, is the basis for “white of the egg” used by Good News Translation and others. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy avoids identifying any form of substance and says “What pleasure is there in a flavorless thing?” Because of the uncertainty in this line, translators are advised to follow Good News Translation, or if people do not eat eggs, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy offers an adequate model.

In line a that which is tasteless is matched in line b by the tastelessness of slime of the purslane. Line b follows the regular pattern in being more specific than line a. The way in which line b goes beyond line a can be rendered in English, for example, “Food without salt is tasteless, and there is even less taste in the white of an egg” or “Saltless food is tasteless, but not as tasteless as the white of an egg.”

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 .