complete verse (Job 9:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 9:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “He is able to prevent the sun so that it does not shine
    and covers the stars so that they do not give light at night.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “By His command the sun gives no light,
    He stops the light of the stars.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “At his command only, (it is) possible that the sun will- not -rise and the stars will- not -shine.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Some days he speaks to the sun, and it does not rise,
    and some nights he prevents the stars from shining.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

command (Japanese honorifics)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

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 to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, the Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “command” or “commandment” in English is translated in the Shinkaiyaku Bible as o-meiji (お命じ), combining “command” (meiji) with the respectful prefix o-.

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

Translation commentary on Job 9:7

Who commands the sun, and it does not rise: the author shifts from speaking of the earth in verse 6 to speaking of the heavens. The agent of the verb continues to be God. The command not to rise is given to the sun, which is here not the usual term for sun, but rather a poetic term. In some languages it may be necessary to shift to direct address; for example, “God says to the sun, ‘Do not rise,’ and to the stars, ‘Do not shine.’ ” Who seals up the stars: the action of sealing up the stars would be to cover them and not allow them to shine. So Job describes God as one who keeps the heavens in darkness, and this is similar to their condition in 3.4-9, when he called on God to “let that day (of his conception) be darkness.”

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 .