complete verse (Job 30:5)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 30:5:

  • Kupsabiny: “Each one (of them) had been chased away,
    being shouted at like thieves.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “They have been driven away from human society.
    Like thieves are driven away by shouting, everyone drives them away by shouting.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “They are-driven-away from their fellowmen and being-shouted-at as-if thieves.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “But when Elihu realized that the three men had no more to say to Job, he became angry.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 30:5

They are driven out from among men: this construction is passive. These wanderers are driven out from “the midst,” meaning from where people are settled, living. Wherever there are people living they drive these miserable persons away. Good News Translation describes the action in this section as events that have already taken place: “drove them away.” Revised Standard Version describes it as present continuous action. This line will often have to be shifted to an active construction; for example, “People will not let them settle among them,” “Villagers drive them away,” or “Other people make them stay away from their settlements.”

They shout after them as after a thief: Good News Translation places “with shouts” in line a and “shouting” in line b. Not only are these people driven out from where others live, but at the same time people shout at them as when they shout to alert others that a thief has appeared. As after a thief is literally “like a thief.”

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 .