The Greek and Hebrew phrases that are often translated as “birds of the air” in English “refer to the undomesticated song birds or wild birds, to be distinguished in a number of languages from domesticated fowl. In Tzeltal these former are ‘field birds’.” (source: Bratcher / Nida)
Q’anjob’al also uses an established term for non-domesticated birds. Newberry and Kittie Cox (in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. ) explain: “Qʼanjobʼal has two distinct terms, one to identify domesticated birds and the other non-domesticated birds. The additional descriptive phrase ‘of the air’ seemed entirely misleading, for Qʼanjobʼal speakers had never heard of such creatures. Actually, of course, all that was necessary was the term for non-domesticated birds, for that is precisely the meaning of the Biblical expression.”
In Elhomwe they are just translated as “birds” or “birds of the bush” (i.e., wild birds) to “not give the impression that these are special type of birds.” (Source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 28:21:
Kupsabiny: “Everything that has life is not seeing (it) and also the birds.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “It cannot be seen by the eyes of anyone living in the world. The birds that fly in the sky also do not see it.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “There is none creature that can-see this even the birds.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “‘When I spoke, people waited to hear what I would say and remained silent until I advised them what they should do.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
It is hid from the eyes of all living: the poetic movement between the two lines of this verse is from the general to the specific. In line a wisdom is hidden from all living, which means “all living creatures.” This includes mankind and animals.
And concealed from the birds of the air: here, as in verse 7, wisdom is hidden even from a bird whose sight is keen at great distances. The heightening of poetic effect gives the meaning “Wisdom is hidden from all living creatures; even the birds soaring in the sky cannot see it.”
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 .
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.”
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