complete verse (Job 32:22)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 32:22:

  • Kupsabiny: “I do not know how to praise a person to make please (him)
    if I did like that God would finish me.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “For if I were good at flattery [lit.: skilled in flattering], my creator would quickly lift me [up] and take [me] away."” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “I do- not -know how to flatter. If I will-do this, God who made me will-punish me right-away.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Honorary "are" construct denoting God (“[adversatively] take away”)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme are (され) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, torisatteshimaw-are-ru (取り去ってしまわれる) or “(adversatively) take away” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Job 32:22

Elihu says I do not know how to flatter, in which flatter translates the same verb as in verse 21b.

Else would my Maker soon put an end to me is the reason Elihu gives for not using flattery. Elihu is afraid that God would take vengeance on him by getting rid of him: “If I did so my Creator would soon take me away” or “… destroy me.”

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 .