If I say to the pit, ‘You are my father’: Revised Standard Version begins again with an “if” clause, as do New International Version and New English Bible. The word translated pit is rendered “corruption” by King James Version, New International Version; but most scholars agree that this noun is derived from the verb meaning “to sink down” and not from the verb “to ruin,” so pit is better. The same word is used for the grave or tomb in 33.18, 22, 24, 28, 30. Pit refers to the grave, and worm to those that eat the dead body in the tomb.

And to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister’: worm is singular, to be in parallel with pit; however, the thought is of a mass of worms that will eat Job’s remaining flesh in the grave, not the worms that are already eating him. He will be so familiar with them that he can address them as members of his family. In some languages it will be necessary to express the verse in the form of a simile and say, for example, “I will speak to the grave as if it were my father, and I will talk to the worms as if they were my mother and sister.” Other models are: “I will be so close to the grave and the worms that eat me that I can call them my father, my mother, and my sister,” “I will say to the grave ‘You, grave, are like a father to me,’ and to the worms I will say ‘You, worms, are like a mother or sister to me.’ ” In languages which must distinguish between younger and older sister, the appropriate term would probably be the one that implies endearment.

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 .