Will you show partiality toward him: show partiality toward him translates “lift up his face.” This is an idiom referring to the act of a superior to an inferior that allows the inferior person to face the superior after having been granted a special favor. In other words Job is asking if his friends will do God a special favor that will allow God to look up at them. The tone is very sarcastic. In some languages the first clause may be expressed figuratively; for example, “Will you hold out your right hand to God?” “Will you put your right hand on God’s head?” or “Will you make God’s face shine?”

Will you plead the case for God: in this line Job shifts his thought only slightly but maintains his sarcasm. Plead the case is used in Judges 6.31, where it is rendered “defending” by Good News Translation and “defend his cause” by Revised Standard Version. In other words Job is asking his friends if God has hired them to be his defense lawyer in court. In legal terms verse 8 can be rendered “Will you show favors to God, and will you defend him in court?” or alternatively, “Will you show God a special favor by being his lawyer?”

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 .