Verse 30 has two “if” clauses which are followed in verse 31 by two consequences. The two “if” clauses are parallel, both having to do with physical cleansing. If I wash myself with snow: there are two forms of the Hebrew text; the one has “with snow water” and the other “with snow.” Washing with snow or with water from melted snow would not produce anything more than a symbolic cleansing. Pope understands the Hebrew word for snow here to refer to the soapwort plant, whose roots were used for making soap, and so Good News Translation has “No soap can wash away my sins.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project reports that its committee members were equally divided between “soap” and “snow,” and so offers translators equal choice.

And cleanse my hands with lye: I in the first line shifts to my hands here, which represents a sharpening of focus in the second line. Good News Translation has chosen to disregard this focusing and has condensed the two lines into one. The term translated lye refers to an alkaline substance made from the ashes of vegetable matter and used for cleansing. The poetic intensification in the movement from line a to line b is based on the shift from washing with snow or “snow water” (clean but not particularly cleansing) to lye in line b (a specific cleansing agent). Hence the heightening may be expressed “If I wash myself with snow or even cleanse my hands with lye….” In languages where snow is unknown, water which is known to be particularly clear and clean may be used, such as spring water, or simply “very clean water.” A natural soap known to get things especially clean may be used for lye. If neither image can be used, verse 30 may be rendered, for example, “If I wash myself with water and cleanse my hands completely….”

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 .