complete verse (Job 27:14)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 27:14:

  • Kupsabiny: “(They) may have countless children,
    but (they) will be killed in battle, or famine will finish them.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Even though he has many sons and daughters, they will be killed by the sword.
    His sons and daughters will go hungry.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Even if he has many children, some of them will-die in battle or in famine.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Even if they have many children, many of those children will die in wars ,
    and their other children will die because they do not have enough food to eat.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 27:14

If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword: the Hebrew has “sons” in this line and “shoots” of a plant used figuratively to mean offspring or “children” in the next line. Are multiplied means “are increased in number.” It is for the sword means “they will be killed by the sword,” that is, “they will die in war.” The line may be rendered “If he has many sons, they will be killed in war.”

And his offspring have not enough to eat: offspring generalizes “sons” from line a but does not suggest a different group of people. They suffer death and starvation. The Hebrew is literally “they will not be satiated by bread,” that is, “they will not have bread to satisfy them,” “they will not have enough to eat,” or “they will starve.”

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 .