Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: in Hebrew this formula is “Then answered (name of speaker) and said.” It is in prose form and its function is to mark the introduction of each new or next speaker. Answered does not mean literally that the speaker replied to a question that has been asked. In fact the new speaker may open a new line of thought that has little or nothing to do with what the previous speaker has said. Therefore the word answered may be inappropriate in this context. New English Bible has “Then Eliphaz the Temanite began:…,” Bible en français courant “Then Eliphaz of Teman spoke up (prit alors la parole) and said to Job….” New Jerusalem Bible says “Eliphaz of Teman spoke next. He said:….” Good News Translation and others reduce this formula to nothing more than speaker identification in italics, “Eliphaz.” Translators must consider carefully the most natural manner to signal the change of speaker and to introduce each following speaker. In some languages the use of speaker identification in the margin will be unfamiliar, and in others it may be more customary to identify the speaker by origin than by name. In some languages it may be better to place the speaker identification at the end or to repeat it at the end by saying, for example, “This is what Eliphaz from the city of Teman said when he spoke to Job,” or in direct address, “I am Eliphaz, and those are the words I spoke to Job.” See 2.11 for suggestions on the transliteration of proper nouns.

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 .