The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me: verse 13 is closely parallel in meaning to verse 12. This line is literally “The blessing of the perishing came upon me.” This sounds as if someone’s death was a blessing to Job. The meaning can be expressed better as implying that Job rescued them: “Those who were about to die (and would have died if Job had not saved them) gave me their blessing.” Him who was about to perish translates the present participle of the verb “to perish, to die.” Perish suggests dying with suffering and misery. Good News Translation expresses the aspect of suffering as “Men who were in deepest misery….” In the context of the poor, orphans, and widows, him … about to perish has the sense of one who is in great suffering. It may also be possible to translate, for example, “People who were suffering near death said good things about me” or “People in great misery gave me their blessing.”

And I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy: this statement may be taken in reply to Eliphaz’s claim in 22.9, “You have sent widows away empty.” The verb translated caused … to sing is general in sense and means “to raise a loud cry,” which may be either of grief or joy; in this context it is a shout of joy. Most translations leave the content indefinite; for example, “I put back some joy in the hearts of widows” (Bible en français courant), but Good News Translation has tried to be more specific with “I helped widows find security.” This line may also be rendered, for example, “the help I gave even made widows happy,” “what I did for widows made their hearts rejoice,” or “widows were full of joy for the help I gave them.”

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 .