How long will you torment me…?: How long is the question with which Bildad began both his speeches in 8.2 and 18.2. Since the verbs are in the plural, it is clear that Job is throwing Bildad’s questions back at him and the friends. Torment me translates “torment my soul (nefesh),” which Dhorme renders “distress my soul.” Job is not attempting to separate his soul from his person, and it is better to translate me as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

And break me in pieces with words?: the verb translated break … in pieces is used in 4.19; 6.9 and translated “crushed” by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. Here Job is emotionally crushed by the words of his friends. Their crushing words do not lead him to have sorrow for his sin; on the contrary, they only increase his pain. God is responsible for Job’s physical torments. The torment he speaks of is mental. Verse 2 may also be expressed, for example, “How long will you make me suffer anguish and crush me with your long speeches?” or “Will you never stop making me pained in my heart and wounding me with your sharp words?”

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 .