He has described a circle upon the face of the waters: this translation is based on a change of vowels in the verb translated described and the word translated circle. In Hebrew the sense is “he has prescribed a limit.” Proverbs 8.27, speaking of creation, has “he drew a circle on the face of the deep.” Many interpreters believe this is also the intended meaning here, which Syriac has, and it is followed by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. Good News Translation transposes the lines. Upon the face of the waters means “on the surface of the oceans, seas.” The idea is that the earth stood between seas, and upon these the dome of the sky came down to the surface, like an inverted cup. Within this dome, light alternated with darkness as the sun passed overhead. (See Psa 19.4-6.)

At the boundary between light and darkness: this line has no verb. Good News Translation has supplied “divided,” so that it is God who “divided light from darkness.” Boundary refers to the horizon, which is said to be between light and darkness. This line becomes the first line in Good News Translation, and the other line becomes the means. Bible en français courant says it well and keeps the Hebrew order: “He drew a circle around the ocean, out there where light gives way to darkness.” New International Version translates “He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters for a boundary between light and darkness.” It is unlikely that many readers will understand how drawing a circle on the sea can divide day from night. The flat earth was thought of as surrounded by water, and the horizon (the circle on the face of the waters) was the place where night would end and daylight would begin, and vice versa. Accordingly we may translate, for example, “He has placed the horizon on the seas like a circle around the earth, and at the horizon daylight changes to night.”

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 .