Beginning with verse 3 in unit A, Job shifts from the general observation to concentrate on his personal complaints. Verse 3 has two lines, in which months in line a is paralleled by nights in line b.

So I am allotted months of emptiness: so translates a Hebrew connective which indicates that the following clause is a logical sequence to what has come before; that is, Job applies the misery of the soldier, worker, or slave to himself. So I am allotted is literally “Thus I am caused to inherit.” Just as an heir receives property from his ancestors without having chosen them, so Job receives his misery without having any say in the matter. What Job has inherited is months of emptiness. Emptiness translates a word meaning “vanity” or “futility” which occurs also in Psalm 89.47, translated by Revised Standard Version “for what vanity thou hast created all the sons of men.” The reference is to the short span of a person’s life and is rendered by Good News Translation “you created all of us mortal!” The figure of months of emptiness refers back to the “days” of verse 1 and extends the picture of suffering from days to months over these verses.

The expression I am allotted may have to be shifted to an active voice, with God as the actor; for example, “God makes me spend months….” It may be unnatural to receive something abstract such as months of futility, and so the translator must often shift to something like “month after month my life is useless.” In some languages it is possible to assign this emptiness to Job’s fate in the sense “It is my lot to spend month after month for nothing” or “… to live for months with no purpose.”

Nights of misery are apportioned to me: this line is a generalized introductory statement followed in verse 4 by the picture of Job tossing on his bed, trying to go to sleep. Misery translates a term meaning “sorrow, grief, oppression, suffering.” As in line a there is no attempt to say how many nights were involved. However, the time span is seen as a cycle of inescapable repetition, or as Good News Translation says, “month after month” and “night after night.” It is not stated who has caused Job’s grief, but in verse 7 Job, without addressing God by name, calls upon God to remember how short Job’s life is. So here, as in the previous line, it is God who has handed out to Job his months and nights of misery. Line b may parallel line a in a stylistically acceptable manner; for example, if it is possible to say “pass month after month of futility,” line b may say “and night after night in suffering.”

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 .