The image of the two plants which was introduced in verses 11-12 is brought back, but now they are in a garden, not a marsh. Here evil people are like a well-watered plant that spreads throughout a garden but is soon destroyed. He thrives before the sun: thrives translates a word meaning “moist” or “sappy” and is found only here. The verb form is found in 24.8, where Revised Standard Version renders it “They are wet.” This line may be taken to mean “He is watered before the sun rises.” The watering may be the work of the owner of the garden or may be the result of the early morning dew. In some languages it will be necessary to adjust the third person singular pronoun He, which goes back to the “godless man” in verse 13, and shift to a simile; for example, “They are like plants that are watered before the sun rises.” If the passive voice must be avoided, we may translate, for example, “They are like plants which a gardener waters before the sun rises.”

His shoots spread over his garden does not parallel the first line but is its consequence. Shoots are the new growth that spreads out from the parent plant. Good News Translation has “weeds”; however, the reference is not to individual weeds, which would have separate roots from the main plant. His garden is changed by some editors who feel that, since the evil person is compared to the plant, the garden is not meant to refer to the same person. However, the meaning is not that he is the owner of the garden, but simply that the garden is the place where he grows. We can translate line b, for example, “and their shoots come up everywhere in the garden.”

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 .