complete verse (Job 18:16)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 18:16:

  • Kupsabiny: “His life is like roots that are dried up in the ground
    and branches of a tree that are dried at the top.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “His roots below have dried up.
    Its branches above have shriveled and dried up completely.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “He will-be like a tree whose roots and its branches will-dry-up.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Job 18:16

His roots dry up beneath: for similar figures of roots and branches, see 8.16-19; 14.7-9. Revised Standard Version translates all the redundancy of the Hebrew, but Good News Translation does not state the obvious, that roots are beneath and that branches are above. Good News Translation also reduces the two parallel lines to one. For similar use of set expressions, see Amos 2.9, “fruit above and roots beneath.”

And his branches wither above: it is possible that the images here refer to ancestors and descendants, as in Isaiah 11.1, 10. See also Judges 5.14 (Revised Standard Version note “From Ephraim their root”); Isaiah 14.29. However, this thought comes out clearly in the progression leading up to verse 19. It is best therefore to translate the comparison of Job to the tree in verse 16; for example, “He becomes like a tree which is decaying from the roots in the ground to the branches up high.”

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 .