Job 3 Chapter Introduction

Structure and Formatting

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.

Translation Issues in This Chapter

Rhetorical questions

In many places in this chapter, Job uses the question form in order to express strong feelings. Your language might not use the question form for this purpose. Notes will suggest other ways to translate these questions. (See: figs-rquestion)

Birth meaning life by association

Throughout this chapter, Job is saying that does not feel that his life is worth living any longer. He communicates this by cursing the day he was born, which is a way of saying by association that he wishes he had never lived. This is a powerful poetic device that would be good to show to your readers, so it would be preferable to translate the device itself, rather than express only its meaning or implications in your translation. In other words, for example, it would be appropriate to translate Job’s actual words in [3:3](../03/03.md), “May the day on which I was born perish,” rather than have him say something like, “I do not feel that my life is worth living any more, and so I wish I had never been born.” (See: figs-extrainfo)