complete verse (Job 38:13)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 38:13:

  • Kupsabiny: “Did you tell the dawn to push away the blanket of darkness,
    and shake off the flees?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “To bring an end to the wickedness of the night,
    have you spread daylight to the ends of the earth?” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “so-that its brightness will-shine in the whole world and will-stop the wickedness which is being-done at night-time?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Job 38:13

That it might take hold of the skirts of the earth expresses the purpose of verse 12. It refers to “the dawn.” Take hold translates the usual word for “grasp, seize,” and skirts of the earth is the same expression translated as “corners of the earth” in 37.3. See there for discussion. The poetic picture is the dawn reaching out to the edges of the earth, as though it were a blanket or garment, and shaking the wicked out. In many languages the figures in this verse will appear extreme and therefore may have to be expressed differently. Good News Translation repeats “Have you ordered” from verse 12 in order to make the relation of verse 13 to verse 12 clear. The picture of the dawn taking hold of the skirts of the earth may easily be misunderstood. Good News Translation “dawn to seize the earth” may have to be restructured to say, for example, “Have you ever made the light of dawn shine across the edges of the earth?” or “Have you ever sent the rays of morning light shining across the earth?”

And the wicked be shaken out of it: the wicked translates the word commonly having that meaning. Interpretations differ as to the meaning of shaken out of it. It seems best to take this expression to mean that the dawning light of morning causes the wicked to escape from the light (see 11.13-17; 24.13-17) and flee into the darkness. Accordingly this line may be rendered, for example, as “which makes the wicked flee” or “which causes evil people to run and hide.” New English Bible translates “the Dog-stars” both here and in verse 15, which refers to the stars named Sirius and Procyon, visible in the late winter skies in the northern hemisphere. This rendering is based on the assumption that the wicked is out of place in a context describing God’s activities in the created heavens. However, the poet deals separately with the stars in verses 31 and 32, and so the wicked is to be kept here.

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 .