The names of these friends and their places of origin have been the subject of much speculation. However, little can be said about them that is certain. Eliphaz is an Edomite name (Gen 36.4), and “Teman” occurs in Genesis 36.11 as an Edomite personal name. In Jeremiah 49.7; Ezekiel 25.13; Amos 1.12 “Teman” is represented as one of the main localities of Edom. Good News Translation identifies “Teman” as a city and “Shuah” and “Naamah” as “the land of….” The names Bildad and Zophar are not found elsewhere in the Bible. The place name “Naamah” is found in Joshua 15.41 but may have no connection. Translators will want to transliterate these names from Hebrew or, in certain cases, borrow the form from a major language. The sentence order in Hebrew is not in accordance with the natural way of expressing this introduction in English, as the names of Job’s friends are not mentioned until the end of the first half of verse 11. For this reason Good News Translation opens with “Three of Job’s friends were…” and names them. Good News Translation clearly implies that these three were three among others. Some translations, like Revised Standard Version, imply that Job had only three friends; others leave the question of exclusion open.
Heard of all this evil: evil refers to Job’s losses and consequent sufferings, or as Good News Translation says, “heard how much Job had been suffering.”
They made an appointment together sounds somewhat businesslike. It is the storyteller’s way of saying “they decided to meet,” or as Good News Translation says, “they decided to go.”
To come to condole with him and comfort him: come in English suggests movement as seen from the place where Job is. As the three friends decide to leave the place where they are, it is more appropriate in English to say “go,” as in Good News Translation. Translators will have to determine what is appropriate in their own language. Condole translates a verb which had the meaning of “move to and fro,” that is, rocking back and forth with the body in the ritual of mourning. In 42.11 it is used as a synonym with the word translated “to comfort.” Accordingly Good News Translation translates the two verbs as one, “they decided to go and comfort him.” In some languages idiomatic expressions are used to render the verb “to comfort”; for example, “to make his heart strong” or “to make solid his innermost.”
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 .