complete verse (Job 40:8)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 40:8:

  • Kupsabiny: “Do you want to show that I am wrong,
    so that (people) can agree with you that you are speaking the truth?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “What! Would you cancel my justice?
    Will you find fault with me that you might confirm your own righteousness?” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Would you (sing.) like to prove that I am not righteous so-that it would-come-out that you (sing.) are-righteous?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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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 choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

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

See also pronoun for “God”.

Translation commentary on Job 40:8

Will you even put me in the wrong? sums up the whole point at issue between God and Job. The question God put to Job in the first line is developed in the second line. The dispute between the two of them centers around the question of justice. By asking this question, which expects the answer “Yes,” God is accusing Job of denying that God is just. In 9.22-24 Job has done just that. This question opens with the same word used in 34.17, meaning “truly?” “really?” and translated as even. Put me in the wrong is literally “break my judgment,” which is equivalent to “make my judgment have no effect.” As Rowley points out, if Job had only defended his own integrity, he would have been in the right, but he has accused God of being unjust and challenged God’s moral right to rule the world.

Will you condemn me that you may be justified?: in the second line condemn translates the same term used in 9.20; 15.6; 32.3. Condemn me is parallel to put me in the wrong. That you may be justified is the opposite of being in the wrong; that is, “so that you may be in the right,” or as Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translates, “so that you may appear innocent.”

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 .