They were snatched away before their time: due to washed away in line b, some think this verse refers to the flood in Genesis 7, but others take it to refer to a general drowning in a flood. The verb translated snatched away occurs only here and in 16.8, where Good News Translation translated “seized.” Before their time refers to a premature death, “died before they should have died” or “died before it was their time to die.”

Their foundation was washed away: in Hebrew this line is not clear; it is literally “a river was poured out their foundation.” The verb is passive in form, but there is no preposition corresponding to Good News Translation‘s “by.” Revised Standard Version does not mention “river” or “flood,” and Good News Translation does not mention foundation. New International Version translates “Their foundations washed away by a flood.” Another possible meaning is “Their foundation is poured out like a river.” The sense in this case would be that the house collapses as the foundation gives way, as though the foundation were liquid. However, the poet is thinking of the destruction of evil men themselves rather than their homes, and so a better translation of this line is “They were swept away like a building in a flood”; or the whole verse may be translated, for example, “As a building is washed away by a flood, so they died before their time to die had come.”

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 .