complete verse (Job 7:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 7:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “God, you know that my life is just a breath,
    so that I will never find happiness any day.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Oh God, please consider that my life is only a breath [lit. a fistful of air].
    I will not see the good days again.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Remember, O God, that my life is just like wind that passes-by, and I can no-longer experience joy.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Japanese benefactives (tomete)

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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 benefactive construction as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

Here, tomete (留めて) or “put/keep” is used in combination with kudasaru (くださる), a respectful form of the benefactive kureru (くれる). A benefactive reflects the good will of the giver or the gratitude of a recipient of the favor. To convey this connotation, English translation needs to employ a phrase such as “for me (my sake)” or “for you (your sake).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Job 7:7

In verse 7 Job’s complaint now seems to take on a tone of irony, and so it has been labeled as a reproach against God in the outline. Job calls upon God to remember that his life is nothing more than wind. According to Genesis, it is the breath of God which, when breathed into a person, makes him a living soul. Job sees it differently. To him life is nothing but a breath; life is ebbing away from him.

Remember that my life is a breath: Remember is a plea to God for him to become again the active Yahweh who showed his people mercy through the covenant. The same expression is used repeatedly by the psalmist in Psalms 20.3; 25.6; 79.8; 106.4. Here the call to God to remember is said in irony. Breath translates the Hebrew term ruach, which in Psalm 104.29-30 is the wind or spirit that creates life out of dust. By contrast Job uses the term as a symbol of the emptiness of life. Remember may sometimes have to be rendered negatively, “Do not forget,” or idiomatically, “Do not remove it from your heart.” Good News Translation has added the word “only” in “my life is only a breath.” This helps to emphasize the limited nature of breath. We may also say, for example, “My life is nothing more than a breath.” In some languages it may be better to shift to a simile and say “My life is like a breath,” as in Biblia Dios Habla Hoy.

My eye will never again see good: my eye is the poetic use of a part for the whole, and means that Job will not see, experience, witness joy or happiness in life. Good News Translation has restructured this expression to make “happiness” the subject, where good is the object in Revised Standard Version. In some languages an idiomatic expression will be appropriate; for example, “My mouth will never again taste happiness” or “Happiness will never again hold my heart.” Bible en français courant says “My eyes will never again see happiness.”

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 .