UTN uW Translation Notes:

Job 33 General Notes

Structure and Formatting

This chapter is a continuation of Elihu’s speech. In this chapter, Elihu addresses Job directly. He invites Job to listen to him, summarizes what Job has said, and tells Job that he is wrong that God does not respond to people. Elihu says that God speaks to people in dreams to warn them not to keep sinning. He says that God also uses sickness to correct people. The implications are that Job’s sufferings are a warning from God not to sin; they are not a punishment from God for sins that Job has committed. In that sense, as Elihu says at the end of the chapter, Job has been right and his friends have been wrong about what has been happening to Job.The ULT sets the lines of this chapter farther to the right on the page than the rest of the text because it is poetry.

Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Chapter

ransom

In verse 24, Elihu describes how God may say of a person who is suffering because of his sin, “I have found a ransom.” The term “ransom” can describe a payment that is made in exchange for someone’s freedom. The term “redeem,” which Elihu uses earlier in that verse, can similarly mean to make a payment in order to have someone set free. However, in this context, the term “ransom” seems to describe instead a valuable consideration, not necessarily a monetary one, that provides the grounds for sparing someone from punishment. Be sure that it is clear in your translation of this verse that God is not saying that he is going to make a payment to someone else on behalf of the suffering person.A further implication seems to be that the person whom Elihu is describing has repented because of his sufferings after an interpreting angel has explained to him the change needed in his actions. This repentance shows that the person has responded positively to God’s initiatives to get him to stop living in the wrong way and to start living in the right way once again. Be sure that it is also clear in your translation of verse 24 that there is nothing that the person has done to redeem or ransom himself. As Elihu says, God “is gracious to him.” It is God who brings the sickness into the person’s life to “chasten” him, and it is God who sends the angel to warn and admonish the person, and so the person is spared from punishment through the actions of God.

Translation Issues in This Chapter

“words” meaning speaking or what a person says

As in chapter 32, many times in this chapter Elihu uses the term “words” to mean speaking or what a person says by using words. Notes suggest ways to translate the term “words” in these various individual contexts.

reference of “you” and “your”

Throughout this chapter, Elihu uses the pronouns “you” and “your” to address Job individually, so use the singular form in your translation if your language marks that distinction.

“man” and “men” with generic meaning

In several places in this chapter, Elihu uses the words “man” and “men” in a generic sense that is clearly inclusive of both men and women. It may be helpful in your translation to say “men and women” or to use a term in your language that is clearly inclusive of both men and women. Notes suggest translation possibilities at various places (see: figs-gendernotations).

“seals their correction” or “terrifies them with warnings” (verse 16)

In verse 16, the ULT follows the standard Hebrew text by saying “seals their correction.” However, as a footnote in the ULT indicates, many biblical scholars believe that the original reading was more likely “terrifies them with warnings,” and some translations say that. If a translation of the Bible exists in your region, you may wish to use the reading that it uses. If a translation of the Bible does not exist in your region, you may wish to use the reading of the ULT.