complete verse (Job 13:17)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 13:17:

  • Kupsabiny: “Listen carefully to my words
    and let the words I am saying enter into your ears.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Listen carefully to my words,
    give ear to the things I have to say.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘Listen carefully to what I am-saying.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Job, listen to what I will tell you.
    I will declare to you what I know,” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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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 choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Job 13:17

For the third time in this chapter, Job emphasizes his message by calling for attention. Listen carefully to my words: Job’s call for a hearing is in the prophetic style of Isaiah 6.9, which is literally a double verb, “Hear and hear.” The same formula will be repeated by Job again in 21.2 and by Elihu in 37.2.

And let my declaration be in your ears: in line b there is no verb; instead in your ears parallels the double verb translated Listen carefully in line a. (See also 15.21.) Declaration refers to the argument that Job will set forth. Good News Translation “explanation” is to be preferred. The two lines of verse 17 are typical of parallelism in which line b heightens the poetic tone through the use of a figure of speech, in your ears. Good News Translation does not handle the poetic intensification, and reduces the two lines to one. Verse 17 may be rendered, for example, “Listen carefully to what I have to say, and think about what I will explain to you” or “Listen to what I say, and pay attention to the words of my argument.”

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 .