Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 10:5:
Kupsabiny: “Has life become short to you, too, like that of a human? Can your years be compared to those of a person?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Are your days like days of a mortal man? Is your year like of human?” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Is your (sing.) life is as short as of a man?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “But I wish/desire that God would talk and say something to answer you!” (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.
Are thy days as the days of man: that is, “Do you have as few days to live as a man does?” or “… as a human being does?” or “Is your life as short as a person’s?” By asking this question Job widens the scope of his inquiry. This question asks if God is not afraid Job will die before he can fully complete his torture of him. In putting his question in this way, Job continues his sarcasm. Line bor thy years as man’s years is in Hebrew “or your years like the days of a man?” Man in line a is the Hebrew term ʾenosh, which is translated “mortal” by New English Bible, New International Version. Man in line b renders the Hebrew term geber, which denotes a human of male gender. There is little poetic movement between the lines, and so Good News Translation has reduced them to one with “Is your life as short as ours?”
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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