dancing, shaking, trembling

The interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) uses the ideophone njenjenje (“shake-shake”) to emphasize movements like trembling, dancing, or shaking in these verses. (Source: Wendland 1998, p. 105)

Philip Noss (in The Bible Translator 1976, p. 100ff. ) explains the function of an ideophone: “The ideophone may be identified with onomatopoeia and other sound words frequently seen in French and English comic strips, but in [many] African languages it comprises a class of words with a very wide range of meaning and usage. They may function verbally, substantively, or in a modifying role similar to adverbs and adjectives. They describe anything that may be experienced: action, sound, color, quality, smell, or emotion. In oral literature they are used not only with great frequency but also with great creativity.”

Translation commentary on Job 41:22

In his neck abides strength: the neck is thought of as the place of strength in Psalm 75.5. “He has a powerful neck.”

Terror dances before him suggests a picture of an abstract quality performing a human action. The words translated terror and dances occur nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Therefore there is a degree of uncertainty in their meanings. The word for terror is related to a verb meaning to languish, that is, to lose strength, to wither. The withering away of one’s strength is said to dance, jump, leap before this powerful monster. The picture created by this figurative language is probably that the awesome power of Leviathan as described in verses 18-21 produces such panic in the beholder or its victim that all sense of strength is transformed (dances) into weakness.

Good News Translation “all who meet him are terrified” is a statement of the result of encountering this monster. It may be possible to keep some of the imagery by saying, for example, “and he causes everything to collapse with fear,” or “and he makes his victims wither with fright,” or “all who face him are terror-stricken.”

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 .