There the prisoners are at ease together: in the context of people being shouted at by a taskmaster, the term prisoners is probably to be taken as “captives doing forced labor” rather than as prisoners who are locked up, doing nothing. At ease means they are “at peace” as in Good News Translation, and together simply designates them as a group, or as New Jerusalem Bible says, “all left in peace.” In some languages it may be necessary to recast this clause to say, for example, “In the world of the dead, the people who have been captured and forced to work are all at peace.”

They hear not the voice of the taskmaster: the term translated taskmaster is used of Egyptian “slave-drivers” who oppressed the Israelites (Exo 3.7; 5.6). Good News Translation leaves implicit the origin of “shouts and harsh commands” directed at the prisoners. New International Version, New American Bible, and Moffatt are to be preferred, with “slave-driver.” In some languages the role of “slave-driver” will be unknown, and in such cases it will be best to follow Good News Translation.

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 .