And Job again took up his discourse, and said: in Hebrew Job is identified as the speaker beginning with chapter 26, and normally nothing is said to remind the reader who is speaking until a new speaker starts. Therefore the prose formula in this verse is unusual and suspicious. In 29.1 the same formula is appropriately used following chapter 28. However, in 27.1 it seems out of place. Dhorme explains it as the result of separating 27.2 and the following from 26.4. Therefore, he argues, the natural sequence is 25.1-6 + 26.5-14; 26.1-4 + 27.2-12. The speech of Job continues in 27.2, and 27.1, which is borrowed from 29.1, is no longer necessary. Good News Translation follows this by identifying “Job” as the speaker and by indicating verses 1-2 as the opening verse. Took up is literally “raised,” and discourse translates the Hebrew mashal, which has the meaning of “proverb, parable, saying,” but in Isaiah 14.4 it refers to a larger composition, as here. In the context of Job it may be rendered “speech, address, discourse, argument, presentation.” Verse 1 may be rendered, for example, “Job began to argue again,” “Job picked up his argument again,” or “Job began to speak again.”

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 .