Eliphaz now challenges Job to say whether or not he intends to continue in the evil way of earlier generations. Will you keep to the old way…? may be rendered “Will you go on living like your ancestors?” Way translates the Hebrew for “road,” used figuratively here to mean “conduct, behavior, way of life.”

Which wicked men have trod: the verb trod, “walk,” derived from the root meaning “road,” is used to preserve the figure begun in the previous line. Good News Translation would be closer to the Hebrew if it translated “Are you determined to go on walking in the old paths, the paths on which evil men have walked?” This verse may also be expressed “Have you decided to act the way evil people act?” or “Have you made up your mind to live as evil people live?”

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 .