complete verse (Job 9:31)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 9:31:

  • Kupsabiny: “God will still send me into a smelly ditch,
    and even my clothes will refuse me.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “you will throw me out into the mud.
    Even my clothing will dislike me.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “he will- still -immerse me into a muddy pit, so-that even my clothes would detest me.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “he would still throw me into a filthy pit;
    as a result it would be as though even my clothes would detest me.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 9:31

The consequences of the “if” clauses in verse 30 are drawn out in verse 31. God is still being addressed by Job. Yet thou wilt plunge me into a pit: no matter how hard Job tries to cleanse himself, God’s superior power will undo him and act against him. Scholars propose changing the word translated pit to get “cesspool” or “filth.” Dhorme believes the line should be read “plunge me into filth,” which contrasts sharply with the cleansing images of the previous verse. Pope argues that the Hebrew means “filth” and does not require any change. The context suggests the contrast of cleanliness in verse 30 with its opposite in this verse. Good News Translation translates “a pit with filth.” This line may be rendered, for example, “you will still push me down into the dirt” or “you will throw me into a dirty hole.”

My own clothes will abhor me: in this expression the clothes act like a person. Job becomes repulsive to the clothes that cover his body. Some scholars suggest changing “my clothes” to “my friends,” but clothes is more logical in the context. In languages in which clothes cannot be used as the subject of a verb of emotion, it may be necessary to expand this line to say, for example, “my own clothes will be ashamed of me like one person is ashamed of another” or “my own clothes will turn against me like a false friend.”

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 .