complete verse (Job 28:11)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 28:11:

  • Kupsabiny: “(They) follow to where rivers well up
    and lay open/expose everything that is hidden.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “They search for the sources of the rivers,
    and even takes out wealth that has been buried in the ground.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “They dig-up from the source of the rivers, and they are-taking the hidden treasures and bring into light.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “When they all heard what I told them,
    they said good things about me.
    When they saw me (OR, what I had done), they commended me,” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 28:11

He binds up the streams so that they do not trickle: the word translated binds up is uncertain, since it is only used elsewhere in the sense of binding up wounds. Some of the ancient versions substituted another Hebrew verb which differs only in the middle consonant, and they get the meaning “search.” Accordingly New Jerusalem Bible translates “explores.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, however, prefers to keep the Hebrew and translates “he dams up.” Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation differ significantly at this point. Revised Standard Version follows the traditional rendering of the Hebrew, which has “from weeping,” and takes this to mean “he dams up rivers so they do not leak into the mines.” If this is followed, “weep” is understood figuratively. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project rejects the traditional vowel pointing of the word translated “weep” and substitutes other vowels to give the meaning “sources,” that is, the spring waters where a river begins. This is followed by Good News Translation and many others and is recommended to translators. “They discover the sources of rivers” gives a better parallel for the following line than “He dams up the sources of rivers.” The line may also be rendered, for example, “They find out where rivers begin” or “They find where water comes out of the ground to form rivers.”

And the thing that is hid he brings forth to light: this line is parallel in sense to verse 10b. The thing that is hid is general and may refer to things in the earth as well as to the sources of rivers, and so means “whatever is hidden.” Brings forth to light means “makes them known” or “makes them visible,” and so “brings things that are not seen out to the light where people can see them.”

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 .

textual location of Job 28:1-28

According to the Job translation by Greenstein (2019), Job 28:1-28 should be located following Job 37:24. He explains:

“In the preceding passage (37:14-24), Elihu describes the uncanny marvels of the created world in the upper realm, in the sky. In the present passage (chapter 28), Elihu continues to describe a world that is beyond human comprehension, now focusing on the lower realm, the earth and, more particularly, the subterranean, which includes both the netherworld—the domain of the dead—and the sea that was believed to lie beneath the land. The passage is structured by two questions that ask, Where can (divine) wisdom be found? The question turns out to be a riddle, for the answer is not about where, but when (see verses 25-27).

“Modern commentators tend to regard chapter 28, which does not comport with Job’s perspectives, as an independent poem that cannot be attributed to any of the known speakers. The assumption that the poem is autonomous is highly problematic. Biblical poems do not begin with the conjunction ki, ‘for, because,’ as this passage does. There is no antecedent to the pronoun ‘he’ in verse 3. But more important, the motif of esoteric wisdom lying beyond human reach typically includes both the above and the below (see for example Job 11:7-8; Deuteronomy 30:11-13; Jeremiah 31:36; as well the Babylonian hymn to the sun god Shamash). The conclusion of this passage (28:28) echoes the conclusion of the survey of the heavenly wonders in 37:24, and it is following that passage that this one belongs.”