complete verse (Job 41:27)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 41:27:

  • Kupsabiny: “Metal bends for that animal like grass,
    and bronze is like rotten wood.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “He treats iron as wheat straw.
    For him, bronze is like rotten wood.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “For him the iron as-if just as soft as a straw, and the bronze as-if a rotten tree/wood.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Job 41:27

He counts is as used in 13.24; 19.15; 33.10; and 35.2 (“think”), where the meaning is “he regards, considers,” or as Good News Translation says, “for him….” The weapons of verse 26b are made of iron and bronze. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin (see comment at 40.18). In line a “to him an iron weapon is no stronger than one made of straw,” and in line b “a weapon made of bronze is as weak as rotten wood.” In languages in which bronze is unknown, it may be necessary to translate, for example, “Iron is nothing more than straw to him, and any other metal is to him like rotten wood.”

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 .