Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 10:18:
Kupsabiny: “God, why did you accept that I was born? It would have been better if I had died without any person seeing me!” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “If so, why did you bring me out of my mother’s womb? It would have been better if I had perished there and no one had ever seen me. ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “‘ ‘Why did- you (sing.) -let me be- born? Wish I would-have- just -died before someone has-seen me.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “You will feel safe/secure, because you will confidently expect that good things will happen to you; God will protect you and enable you to rest safely each night.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.
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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.
As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.
In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.
Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”
In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.
Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking (source Philip Noss).
In Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, das-are-ru (出される) or “go/let out” is used.
Job again picks up his death wish from 3.11-26. Why didst thou bring me forth from the womb?: Job does not repeat the exact words of 3.11 which ask “Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?” In 3.11 Job did not ask why God allowed him to be born, but here in verse 18 he blames God directly for his tragic existence. The line may be rendered “Why did you allow me to be born?” “Why did you let me come out of my mother’s womb?” or “I wish you had never let me come out of my mother’s womb.”
Would that I had died before any eye had seen me: in 3.16 Job envies babies that never lived to see the light of day, and here in a similar vein he wishes that nobody had ever seen him alive. The line may also be expressed “I wish I had died before anyone saw me” or “I wish I had died before I was born.”
And were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave: this verse continues the lament begun in verse 18. The Revised Standard Version wording follows closely the structure of the Hebrew text and therefore is not particularly clear. Job is saying that he wishes he had never lived but had died at birth and been buried. Good News Translation makes this clear with a noun clause as subject: “To go from the womb straight to the grave would have been….” This line may also be translated, for example, “I wish I had died and they had buried me immediately. That would have been better than living.”
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 .
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