complete verse (Job 7:12)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 7:12:

  • Kupsabiny: “Do you think that I am a very fierce animal
    so that you have locked me in where I am?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “What! Am I a sea or a dreadful sea animal?
    Why do you set guards to look after me?” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Why do- you (sing.) closely -watch me, O God? Am I a dragon in the sea?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Honorary "are" construct denoting God ("place")

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, ok-are-ru (置かれる) or “place” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

sea / lake

The various Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

In Malagasy culture, the sea is perceived as sacred because it was a path taken by the ancestors. That is why the Malagasy word for the “sea” is ranomasina, which literally means “the sacred water.” The word masina actually has two different meanings: “salted” and “sacred/holy.” Salt is used for the conservation of some foods, such as meat or fish, that are to be set aside for later use. In this sense, the Malagasy phrase for “Holy Spirit” has the literal meaning of “Salted Spirit.” (Source: Brigitte Rabarijaona in The Bible Translator 2022, p. 103ff.)

Translation commentary on Job 7:11 - 7:12

Verse 11 has three lines. Line a is stated negatively while lines b and c are positive. The parallelism is in the matching of I will not restrain my mouth, I will speak, and I will complain. There is steady intensification as Job becomes more specific in line c. Job shifts back to himself as he did in verse 3 and begins his second complaint. Verse 11 is introductory to what follows.

Therefore I will not restrain my mouth: Therefore introduces a conclusion, presumably from the generalized statements in verses 9-10. Restrain my mouth means to prevent myself from speaking. Good News Translation gives this line considerable emotive impact with “No! I can’t be quiet!” I will speak in line b matches the negative statement in line a. Job says he will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, which is to say in his pain or distress. In line c complain in the bitterness of my soul makes specific the nature of Job’s speaking and calls attention to his deep negative feelings. Bitterness of my soul is another way of saying “I am deeply angry.” Anguish of my spirit in line b matches bitterness of my soul in line c. These expressions are often rendered through other idiomatic expressions; for example, “My heart heat rises” or “The fingers of my stomach seize me.”

In verse 12 Job addresses himself directly to God. The form of this verse is a rhetorical question which serves poetically to express a strong denial. Am I the sea, or a sea monster…?: in Hebrew there are two distinct words, rendered by Revised Standard Version as sea and sea monster. Good News Translation renders the two as one, “sea monster.” The reference to the sea has generally been understood along the lines suggested by such passages as 38.10-11, where God claims to have marked a boundary for the sea. But it is more likely that there is a reference here to Canaanite legends in which Yam, the sea god, is defeated by Baal. The “sea monster” is mentioned in Genesis 1.21; Psalm 74.13; 148.7. In Isaiah 27.1 it is closely associated with Leviathan, and in Isaiah 51.9 with Rahab. In several of these passages there is an allusion to the Mesopotamian story of creation, with its description of the defeat of the forces of chaos by the creator. Translators will no doubt wish to provide a note to explain “sea monster” and can refer to the Good News Translation footnote as a guide. That thou settest a guard over me: Good News Translation restructures this dependent clause as a question and places it first. Job complains that he is not a threat to God, like the sea monster that had to be watched over to prevent its causing chaos. Dahood understands the word translated guard to mean “muzzle.” Most modern translations take the meaning as given in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. In translation it may be clearer to say, for example, “I am not the sea or a great sea snake, dragon, monster, that you have to keep an eye on me” or “… that you have to watch what I am doing all the time.”

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 .