I cry to thee and thou dost not answer me: Good News Translation says, “I call to you, O God, but you never answer.” God is not mentioned in the Hebrew, but there is no one else Job cries out to.

I stand, and thou dost not heed me: the Hebrew has “I stood and you looked at me.” Stand is used here, as in Jeremiah 15.1, with the sense of “to pray,” and so Good News Translation “when I pray.” Thou dost not heed me lacks a negative in Hebrew, as Revised Standard Version indicates. Revised Standard Version follows the Vulgate and one Hebrew manuscript which has the negative. See the Revised Standard Version footnote. Some translate the line without adding the negative; for example, New English Bible “I stand up to plead, but thou sittest aloof.” New International Version is better: “I stand up, but you merely look at me.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project has “I stood up and you fixed (your gaze) on me,” with a second suggestion, “I halted (that is, ‘I became silent’) and you gazed at me.” This agrees in part with Gordis’ rendering, “If I remain silent, you pay me no heed.” Gordis argues that the negative in line a applies equally to line b. On the same basis Good News Translation translates “You pay no attention.” The line may also be expressed “I came before you, but you do not listen to me,” “I call to you for help, God, but you do not hear me,” or “I pray to you, God, but you pay no attention to me.”

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 .