Behold, I open my mouth: Elihu’s gift is in multiplying words. Behold translates a double expression, and the same as that used in 13.18. Here Elihu is calling attention to himself and his readiness to say something. Again the two lines have the same meaning, and no doubt the author is satirizing Elihu’s self-importance. This line means “I am ready to speak” or “I am all set to present my arguments.” New English Bible has “the words are on the tip of my tongue,” which is a good idiomatic expression in English.

The tongue in my mouth speaks is literally “my tongue in my palate has spoken.” Elihu wastes his words with empty phrases and says almost nothing of substance. It is also possible to understand these verbose lines as Elihu playing the role of God’s attorney preparing to call Job to appear in court, as he finally does in verse 5. Good News Translation reduces the two lines to one, “I am ready to say what is on my mind.” Good News Translation, however, loses some of the banality or emptiness in Elihu’s talk by translating more economically and logically than the way Elihu speaks. If it is desirable to keep both lines, we may translate, for example, “I am all set to speak, and my tongue is forming words in my mouth.”

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 .