complete verse (Job 9:21)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 9:21:

  • Kupsabiny: “Even if I have no sin, let happen what has happened,
    because I am fed up with my life.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Actually I have no guilt,
    moreover, I have no concern for myself.
    I do not love my own life.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Even-if my life is without blame, it has no-value to me now. I despise my life.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘I have not done what is wrong, but that is not important.
    I despise continuing to remain alive.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Job 9:21 - 9:22

The three short lines of verse 21 appear to be irregular in their rhythm and are considered by some scholars as a poetic device for expressing the intense emotion under which Job is now speaking. I am blameless: Job has asserted in verses 9, 15, and 20 that he is innocent. In order to preserve his innocence, he is willing to give up all else, including his very life. The word translated blameless is the same as that used in 1.1; 1.8; and 2.3. Bildad had assured Job in 8.20 that God does not spurn the “blameless.” But Job’s frustration comes from being blameless and unable to prove it. I regard not myself translates what is literally “I do not know my soul.” The verb translated “know” here has the meaning of “concern” in such passages as Exodus 2.25, where God “saw the slavery of the Israelites and was concerned for them” (Good News Translation). Job is therefore saying that he no longer is concerned for himself, or “I do not care what happens to me.” He then goes further in the next line by saying I loathe my life. In 10.1 Job will say again the same thing. Good News Translation translates this as “I am sick of living.” Loathe translates a word meaning “despise or reject.” Job is prepared to risk his life by taking up charges against God. In some languages it may be necessary to shift life to a verb and say, for example, “I hate living” or “I hate the way I have to live.”

It is all one: these words are omitted by the Septuagint, and some editors invert the two lines to say “Therefore, I say: it is all one.” Dhorme translates “That is why I have said: ‘It is all one.’ ” Good News Translation combines verses 21 and 22 and translates “Nothing matters.” The literal translation is “One it is, therefore.” Here “one” carries the sense of “It is all the same” or “It all amounts to the same thing.” “Nothing matters” may be expressed as “Nothing is important to me,” or idiomatically as in some languages, “Nothing touches my head” or “Nothing takes hold of my heart.” The reason for this despairing remark is that he destroys both the blameless and the wicked. Since the good and the evil share the same fate, Job is saying that God is not a just judge but a heartless destroyer of life. Destroys is general and may have to be expressed more specifically in some languages; for example, “he kills both…” or “he takes away the life of….”

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 .