You whose garments are hot translates a line beginning with the relative particle “whose” followed by “your (singular) hot garments.” Revised Standard Version takes “your garments” to tie in with “you” (singular) in verse 16, and so Elihu is speaking to Job. Good News Translation expresses this line as a negative reply to the question in verse 16: “No, you can only suffer in the heat.” Good News Translation does not mention your garments but replaces this phrase with “you.” New English Bible and others retain it, “sweating there in your stifling clothes.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “You are suffocating in your clothes from the heat.”

When the earth is still because of the south wind describes the absence of moving air to bring coolness and relief from the heat. Good News Translation makes “south wind” the subject of “oppresses the land.” Many translations refer to the earth but fail to express the stillness of the heated air. It may be necessary to say, for example, “when the air is hot and heavy” or “when the air is too hot to breathe.” South wind translates the Hebrew “from the south,” which refers to the hot winds that blow across the desert from the south. It is this searing hot wind from the south that makes the air of the land hot. In some languages it will be more natural to transpose the two lines of verse 17 and say, for example, “When the burning winds blow from the south, you are suffocated in your clothes” or “When the hot winds blow, your clothes will make you suffer in the heat.”

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 .