Job 32: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Job's three friends stop arguing with him, because Job is sure he is in the right. A younger man named Elihu, who has been listening the whole time, becomes angry, at Job for defending himself instead of God, and at the three friends for condemning Job without answering his arguments. Elihu explains that he held back because of his youth, but says understanding comes from God's breath in a person, not from age alone. He announces that he is bursting to speak, and promises to show no favoritism and use no flattery.

Claim by Claim

1. 32:1
   • The three men stopped answering Job.
   • They stopped because Job was righteous in his own eyes.
2. 32:2
   • Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became angry.
   • His anger burned against Job.
   • He was angry at Job because Job justified himself rather than God.
3. 32:3
   • His anger also burned against Job's three friends.
   • He was angry at them because they had found no answer.
   • He was angry at them because they had nevertheless condemned Job.
4. 32:4
   • Elihu had waited before speaking to Job.
   • He waited because the others were older than he in days.
5. 32:5
   • Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of the three men.
   • Then his anger was kindled.
6. 32:6
   • Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite answered and spoke.
   • Elihu said he was young in years.
   • Elihu said the others were aged.
   • Elihu said that for this reason he held back and was afraid to declare what he knew to them.
7. 32:7
   • Elihu said he had thought that days should speak.
   • Elihu said he had thought that a multitude of years should teach wisdom.
8. 32:8
   • There is a spirit in man.
   • The breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.
9. 32:9
   • It is not the many (or the great) who are wise; the wording leaves it open whether the reference is to numbers, greatness, or age.
   • The aged do not necessarily understand judgment.
10. 32:10
    • Elihu said therefore, Listen to me.
    • Elihu said he too would declare what he knew.
11. 32:11
    • Elihu said he waited for their words.
    • Elihu said he listened to their reasonings.
    • Elihu said he did so while they searched out what to say.
12. 32:12
    • Elihu said he paid close attention to them.
    • Elihu said none of them proved Job wrong.
    • Elihu said none of them answered Job's words.
13. 32:13
    • Elihu warned them not to say, We have found wisdom.
    • Elihu warned them not to say that God, not man, thrusts Job down.
14. 32:14
    • Job has not directed his words against Elihu.
    • Elihu will not answer Job with their speeches.
15. 32:15
    • They were dismayed.
    • They answered no more.
    • Words had departed from them.
16. 32:16
    • Elihu waited.
    • They did not speak.
    • They stood still and answered no more.
17. 32:17
    • Elihu said he would answer his own part.
    • Elihu said he too would declare what he knew.
18. 32:18
    • Elihu said he was full of words.
    • Elihu said the spirit within his belly constrained him.
19. 32:19
    • Elihu said his belly was like wine that has no vent.
    • Elihu said it was ready to burst like new wineskins.
20. 32:20
    • Elihu said he would speak so that he might find relief.
    • Elihu said he would open his lips and answer.
21. 32:21
    • Elihu said he would not show partiality to anyone.
    • Elihu said he would not give flattering titles to any man.
22. 32:22
    • Elihu said he did not know how to give flattering titles.
    • Elihu said that if he did, his Maker would soon take him away.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

32:1

The three men are Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, who have argued with Job since chapter 4. Their speeches have just run out, and this verse closes that long debate. "Righteous in his own eyes" is a Hebrew idiom for being convinced of one's own innocence, not for being vain.

32:2

Elihu has not been mentioned before this point in the book, and he is never mentioned again after his speeches end in chapter 37. A "Buzite" is a member of the people of Buz, a tribal group associated with the Aramean territory east of Israel; Ram is an otherwise unknown family name. Giving a man's father, tribe and clan is the standard way of identifying a stranger in Hebrew narrative. "Kindled" is the ordinary Hebrew image for anger: it pictures a fire catching.

32:3

The Hebrew text as it has come down to us reads that the friends "condemned Job," and that is what the rendering follows. Ancient Jewish scribal tradition, however, lists this line among a small number of places where the wording was deliberately softened out of reverence, and reports that it once read "and so had condemned God."

32:4

In this society age carried the right to speak first, and a younger man was expected to stay silent while his elders argued. Elihu's long wait, and the apology he makes for finally breaking in, both follow that convention rather than personal shyness.

32:6

"Durst" is the old past tense of "dare", so "durst not" means did not dare. "Shew" is simply the 1611 spelling of "show", and "mine opinion" means what I know or think, a considered judgment rather than a passing preference.

32:7

"Days should speak" is an idiom: length of life, not the daylight hours. Elihu is quoting the standard assumption he grew up with, that wisdom comes with age and the old should therefore do the talking.

32:8

"Inspiration" in 1611 English meant literally a breathing-in; the Hebrew word here is simply "breath." The line pairs two words, spirit and breath, that in Hebrew are close in sense and both suggest wind or breathing. "The Almighty" translates the Hebrew title Shaddai, an ancient name for God whose exact meaning is uncertain; it appears far more often in Job than in any other book.

32:9

The Hebrew word behind "great men" can mean either "the great," that is, men of rank, or "those many in days," that is, the aged. Both readings fit the line, which is why translations differ here. "Judgment" in the King James sense means sound judgment about what is just, not a verdict.

32:10

"Hearken" is an old word for listen.

32:11

"Gave ear" means listened. "Your reasons" means your arguments, the case you were building, not your motives.

32:12

"Convinced" in 1611 meant proved wrong or refuted, from the same root as "convict". Elihu is not saying the friends failed to change Job's mind emotionally; he is saying they never actually defeated his argument.

32:13

The saying Elihu quotes back at the friends is compressed in Hebrew and can be taken two ways: either as their boast that only God, not any human arguer, is able to knock Job down, or as their shrug that they will leave the refuting of Job to God. The wording keeps both open.

32:15

Elihu switches here from addressing the three friends directly to talking about them in the third person, as though turning aside to other listeners. The shift is in the Hebrew, not introduced by the translation.

32:16

The Hebrew can be read either as a statement, "And I waited, because they did not speak," or as an impatient question, "Am I to go on waiting?" The rendering takes the second; the King James takes the first.

32:18

"Full of matter" means full of material to say, words piling up with nowhere to go. "Constraineth" means presses or forces, so the spirit inside him is squeezing the words out rather than holding them back.

32:19

The "bottles" of the King James are skins, whole hides sewn shut and used as containers. Wine still fermenting gives off gas, and a sealed skin with no vent swells until it splits. A new skin has more stretch left in it than an old one, which makes Elihu's image an extreme one: even a fresh skin is at bursting point.

32:21

"Accept any man's person" translates a Hebrew idiom, "lift up the face," which belongs to the language of the law court and means to favor one party because of who he is. "Flattering titles" refers to piling honorific names on a man to win his goodwill.

32:22

"Take me away" here means put an end to him, kill him. Elihu is swearing that he does not know how to flatter, and adding that if he tried it in a matter this serious his Maker would not let him live long.