Surely, you have spoken in my hearing: Elihu is saying that he has heard all of Job’s arguments, but the way in which he says it, according to Dhorme, is “You have done nothing but talk in my ears.” Good News Translation understands the two parallel lines as equivalent to a single line introducing the quotation that follows in verse 9. New Jerusalem Bible, which translates this line as a question, makes it refer to Job’s claim in verse 9: “How could you say in my hearing…?” Others use various syntactic and stylistic means to relate verse 8 to verse 9. For example, Bible en français courant says in line a, “I still have the sound of your voice in my ears”; this is followed by “since you did nothing but repeat this:…,” and the claims of Job’s purity follow.

And I have heard the sound of your words is translated by Revised Standard Version as nothing more than a parallel line, which does not attempt to tie it with verse 9. Revised Standard Version supplies You say at the beginning of verse 9. It is better, however, to follow Good News Translation if reducing the two lines to one, or Bible en français courant if retaining both lines.

You say, ‘I am clean, without transgression…’: Elihu now begins to pick up words from Job’s speech in 9.21, where he said “I am blameless.” In 10.6-7 Job said “thou dost seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, although thou knowest that I am not guilty.” In 16.17 Job said “There is no violence in my hands and my prayer is pure.” There are further claims of this kind made by Job in 23.7, 10; 27.4-6; chapter 31. None of these passages is actually quoted by Elihu. In fact the words which Elihu quotes in verse 9 are closer to the words of Eliphaz in 11.4, in which Eliphaz is paraphrasing Job. Job acknowledges his faults in 7.21 and 13.26, and has not claimed to be sinless, but Elihu has chosen to pay no attention to this. For discussion of clean see 11.4; on transgressions see 7.21.

I am pure, and there is no iniquity in me is parallel in meaning to the previous line. For pure see 11.4, and for iniquity see 7.21. In some languages it will be necessary to shift from nouns to verbs and say, for example, “You say, ‘I have clean hands and have done nothing wrong; I live a pure life and have done no evil deeds’ ” or “You say, ‘I have broken no taboo and have done no wrong; I live right and commit no crimes.’ ”

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 .