Job now begins to reproach God for treating him unjustly. The first sentence is long for Hebrew poetry and may be understood as a conditional clause, as in Revised Standard Version If I sin, what do I do to thee…? Job is not admitting (here or elsewhere) that his troubles have come on him because he has sinned; he is establishing the imaginary context or condition which is required to get relief from God, who is his tormentor. In the next verse he will make a plea for forgiveness for his supposed sin. The question, then, is how should that affect God? This question may sometimes be rendered “If I were to sin, how would it affect you?” or “… how are you hurt?” or “… what have I done to harm you?” Thou watcher of men: God is addressed in this expression of irony, which alludes to verse 12, “You have set a guard over me.” Normally in the Scriptures, when God watches, it is for care and protection, but here it is to keep an eye on, that is, to confine or restrict. So Good News Translation translates “you jailer.” Why hast thou made me thy mark?: in 6.4 Job complained of being shot by God’s arrows. In 16.12 Job says “He set me up as his target.” The word translated “target” means something aimed at. Here mark translates a different word, but clearly it has the meaning of target in the present context. In languages where shooting at targets is unknown, it may be necessary to restructure this question to say, for example, “Why have you beaten me?” or “Why have you hit me again and again?” The third question Why have I become a burden to thee? presents a problem, in that Hebrew says not to thee but “to myself,” and this is followed by some translations. According to Jewish tradition “to myself” in this passage is one of the eighteen scribal corrections where the original text was altered out of reverence to God. The rabbinical idea was that for Job to be a burden to God would be blasphemy, and this could not be read. Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation follow “to thee.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project rates “to thee” as a “B” reading. Why have I become a burden to thee? may have to be restructured to say, for example, “Why have I become something heavy for you to carry?” or “How is it that I am like a load that you have to carry?”

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 .