Having completed his complaint about being God’s target, Job reproaches God with a set of parallel questions. Why dost thou not pardon my transgression…?: here Job appears to make a mock plea. He makes no request for pardon with an affirmation of trust in God’s mercy, nor does he confess guilt. The only reason God would pardon him is because Job will soon be dead and gone. Dhorme suggests that the verb translated pardon, which means to “raise, carry, lift, endure,” takes on the meaning of tolerate when used with transgression or fault as its object, and so translates “And why dost thou not tolerate my transgression and overlook my fault?” Take away my iniquity is parallel in both meaning and structure to the previous line. Bible en français courant says “Why do you refuse to put up with my sin, to forgive my wrongs?” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “Can you not take away my mistakes, and simply overlook my sins?”

For now I shall lie in the earth: For now introduces the reason for Job’s ironical request. Job will soon be dead and in the grave, and it will be too late to consider him further. In the earth translates the Hebrew “in the dust.” In 20.11 and 21.26 the expression “lie down in the dust” means to die. In 17.16 Job asks “Shall we descend together into the dust?” Dust is one of the characteristics of Sheol. Good News Translation says “Soon I will be in my grave.” Translators may keep the poetic effect by using an appropriate metaphor for death. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy says “Soon I will be stretched out in the dust.” Thou wilt seek me: seek translates a word meaning to seek diligently, carefully. The word is used in Psalm 63.1 for worshipers who eagerly seek Yahweh in the temple. Job ironically reverses the picture and has God seeking Job, his victim. But I shall not be: although Psalm 139.8 claims it is impossible to escape God in Sheol, Job asserts that once he dies God will no longer be able to hound him or to pardon him. For Job the land of the dead is the only place of freedom, the only escape. But I shall not be may have to be expanded to complete the sense; for example, “But I will no longer exist” or “But I will have ceased to be a living person.”

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 .