Answer me, if you can is rendered alike by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, aside from punctuation. Answer me does not mean to reply to the question I will ask you, but rather “refute, argue against, disprove, defend yourself.” Bible en français courant and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch have “contradict.”

Set your words in order before me: words is not in the Hebrew. Set … in order translates the same verb used in 32.14 meaning “to marshal or line up,” and the implied object is Job’s defense or his arguments, and so Good News Translation has “Prepare your arguments.” Since the term is from military usage, Dhorme takes it more literally as “prepare yourself.” Revised Standard Version understands before me to apply to the setting in order of the words. Others understand before me to go with the final verb translated take your stand; that is, “stand in front of me,” which is more natural than Revised Standard Version. This clause does not appear in Good News Translation but should be translated, since the expression is appropriate in the context of the trial in which Elihu is acting as God’s spokesman.

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 .