complete verse (Job 21:20)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 21:20:

  • Kupsabiny: “Let sinners meet with their punishment,
    so that they know that it is very bitter when the God of power becomes angry.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “May he experience his destruction with his [own] eyes,
    and may he drink the anger of The Almighty.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “and they can see themselves their destruction. Let them test the anger of the Almighty God.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “I hope/wish that wicked people will experience themselves being destroyed,
    that they will experience being punished by an angry Almighty God.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 21:20

In verse 20 Job continues to expand the view presented in verse 19. Let their own eyes see their destruction: in 19.27 a very similar construction is used: “my eyes shall behold.” Here again the idea is that they (the wicked) should “witness” or “experience” their own destruction. Destruction translates a word found only here in the Old Testament, and so its meaning is largely arrived at from the context. Scholars differ greatly, however, in their interpretations of its meaning. Most employ terms which focus on a common area of meaning; for example, “punishment,” “damnation,” “misfortune,” or “calamity”; and it is also translated “ruin” in the ancient versions. Dahood, Pope, and others see here the word “jar, pitcher, or cup.” The allusion, they say, is to the cup of fate and divine wrath, as used in Psalm 16.5; 75.8; Isaiah 51.17; Jeremiah 25.15; Revelation 16.19. This interpretation has the advantage of paralleling the following line. Although none of the modern versions translates this as a figure, a reasonably good rendering is “Let him see the cup which he must drink” or “… the cup of punishment….” However, since “cup” is a figurative expression for “punishment,” many translators will prefer to avoid the figure, as in Revised Standard Version. The first line may be rendered, for example, “They should see their own misfortune,” “They should receive their own punishment,” or “These wicked people themselves should be punished.”

And let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty: if “cup” is used in the first line, this line may be translated as an apposition, that is, another expression referring to the same object: “the cup that is filled with the anger of Almighty God.” On the other hand, if something like destruction or “punishment” is used in line a, then Good News Translation‘s rendering will be appropriate: “Let them feel the wrath of Almighty God.” Other suggestions are: “Let the anger of Almighty God fill them up,” “Let them taste the anger of God the Almighty,” or, if such idioms are inappropriate, “Let God Almighty punish them thoroughly.”

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 .