I will answer you marks Elihu’s decision to show Job Elihu’s own wisdom.

And your friends with you: it is not certain whether your friends refers to just the other three, or to people who may share Job’s ideas. In translation if your friends must be marked as present or absent, it is probably best to assume they are present listening to Elihu’s speech. If verses 2 and 3 have been translated as questions, then verse 4 should be expressed as “I will answer.” If statements have been used earlier, then verse 4 may require something like “tell, explain, teach.”

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 .