How then can I answer him: How may also be read as an exclamation meaning “How much more!” or, as in the present context, “How much less!” The monster is helpless against God, and so by comparison how much less powerful would Job be against him! In 9.3 Job admits the impossibility of entering into a legal dispute with God. The same thought is renewed here with answer him. The same Hebrew verb will be repeated in verse 32, where “answer” means to defend oneself in a legal dispute. Answer him does not refer, therefore, to making a simple response to a question, but rather to rebutting the charges or accusations that God would bring against Job. New Jerusalem Bible translates answer as “And here am I, proposing to defend myself.”

The parallel line choosing my words with him is condensed into the first line by Good News Translation. This is more logical, since a person selects the words to use before defending himself of the charges. With him is ambiguous, since it may mean either “choosing my words in cooperation with him” or “choosing my words to use against him.” Since the meaning is the latter, it would be better to say, for example, “choosing my words to speak to him,” “… to defend myself,” or “… to answer his charges.” In translation it may be necessary to make an adjustment similar to that made in Good News Translation; for example, “How can I choose the words to defend myself?” “How can I think of the arguments which I will use to answer the charges he brings against me?”

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 .