Verses 5 and 6 take the form of a long conditional sentence in Hebrew. The “if” clause runs from 5a to 6a, with the consequence in 6b and 6c.
If you will seek God: Job spoke in 7.21 of God seeking him, but Bildad’s advice is that Job should seek God. Seek does not mean to look for something that is lost or misplaced, but rather implies that Job should change his attitude toward God by going to him for help. Seek God may be rendered “Ask God for help,” or “Look to God for help,” or “Pray that God will hear you and help you.” If the two parallel lines are repetitive in translation, and since there is little poetic heightening, it may be possible to adjust the lines; for example, “Seek God the Almighty, and ask him to have mercy on you.”
Make supplication to the Almighty: as in verse 3, the first line has ʾEl and the second Shaddai. The two lines are parallel, but they are varied poetically so that in Hebrew they form a chiasmus:
(a) seek … God
(b) Almighty … supplication
Make supplication translates a verb meaning “implore, ask for mercy.”
If you are pure and upright makes up the third clause. Dhorme regards this line as a scribal addition on the basis that it is alien to the main theme, and consequently omits it. In 1.1 Job is described as being “blameless and upright,” where the same term occurring here is translated “upright.” In 16.17 Job says his “prayer is pure.” See 1.1 for translation suggestions about upright. For suggestions concerning pure see 4.17.
The consequence of these conditions is he will rouse himself for you. Rouse translates a verb meaning to wake someone from sleep or to wake up. In Hebrew no object is expressed, but it is implied that it is reflexive. In the present context the sense is not simply that of waking up, but rather of keeping awake and so keeping watch over. This is the suggestion of Dhorme, and New English Bible translates “Then indeed will he watch over you.”
Reward you with a rightful habitation: the word translated reward is shalam, which means to restore something to its original wholeness, to repair, or to reestablish. Rightful habitation translates a phrase which may mean the dwelling which is rightfully his, as in Jeremiah 23.5, or the dwelling which characterizes his righteousness. In Jeremiah 31.23 it is applied to the “land of Judah” and in Jeremiah 50.7 to God himself. Here it may refer either to the dwelling where Job is to live as a righteous man, or to the dwelling which is rightfully his. It is best to take it as Good News Translation has done, “restore your household as your reward.” So Job will be given back his family and prosperity. This expression may sometimes be rendered “and give you as a gift the family you once had.”
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 .