In verse 3 Elihu “burns with anger” at Job’s three friends. The reason is because they had found no answer. That is, the friends did not know how to respond to Job (for lack of wisdom). Good News Translation has restructured the clause as a new sentence. Verse 3b in Revised Standard Version says although they had declared Job to be in the wrong. On the other hand Good News Translation says “this made it appear that God was in the wrong.” Modern translations are divided between those that translate Job and those that translate “God.” According to Jewish tradition Job in this passage is another of the eighteen scribal corrections where the original text of the Hebrew Bible was altered out of reverence to God. To write a clause saying that “God was in the wrong” would seem to be blasphemy, and they could not read it aloud; therefore the text was changed to read “Job.” (The only other such scribal correction in the Book of Job occurs at 7.20.) The text that reads “God” implies that, by giving up the argument, the three friends were declaring Job right and God wrong.

Although many scholars prefer to take the text to be as in Good News Translation, “God was in the wrong,” others argue that giving up the argument does not imply putting God in the wrong, and so the present Hebrew text should be kept. Rowley would keep Revised Standard Version but translate “and so (that is, by finding an answer) shown Job to be in the wrong.” Tur-Sinai translates “because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, which classifies the Hebrew text here as a “B” reading, suggests a rendering which may be reworded to say “Although the friends found no answer to give Job, they still found him unfaithful to God.” Since it is not possible to rule out either possibility, translators are free to follow either Good News Translation or one of the adaptations of Revised Standard Version. Therefore we may translate, for example, “Elihu was also angry at the three friends because they could not show Job that he was wrong and so had let God appear to be wrong” or “… they could not refute Job, but still they condemned him.” Some translations provide a footnote to say “The Hebrew reads ‘thus leaving Job in the wrong.’ ”

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 .