Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me: the written Hebrew text has “his cord,” and the margin has a notation that it is to be read “my cord,” which both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation accept. The Hebrew of the verbs translated loosed and humbled are in the singular, and cast off in the next line is plural. Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation supply God as the subject of the verbs in this line. My cord is understood by some to mean “my bowstring,” as in Judges 16.7-9 “God has loosed my bowstring,” which means that God has left Job defenseless or, as Good News Translation says, “Because God has made me weak and helpless.” The Hebrew Old Testament Text Project committee was divided between choosing “my cord” or “his cord” as the better text. The expression is obviously figurative and must be interpreted in order to be translated with meaning. Therefore Good News Translation provides a good model for translation. In languages in which the cause is better stated following the consequence, it will be necessary to transpose the lines of verse 11. If the figure of loosening the bow string does not mean to weaken a person, the translator may be able to supply a different figure or may shift to a general term; for example, “God has broken my weapon.” It may be possible in some languages to retain the image of the bow string and say “God has cut my bow string and now I am helpless.”

They have cast off restraint in my presence: restraint translates the Hebrew for “bridle” and is used in Isaiah 30.28 and Psalm 32.9. A “bridle” is a harness placed on the head of a horse to control its movements, and it is used here as a symbol of restraint. The thought expressed in this line is that, when people saw that Job was helpless, they turned on him violently, as an unbridled horse that is no longer under control. New English Bible has “At sight of me they throw off all restraint.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “Therefore they let every restraint go.” New Jerusalem Bible has “They too throw off the bridle in my presence,” but this does not convey the idea in English of abandoning restraints. Other models are “when they saw me they did to me whatever they wished” or “so they let themselves do whatever they wished.”

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 .