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Elihu Is Upset with Job's Friends

32 Finally, these three men stopped arguing with Job, because he refused to admit he was guilty.

Elihu from Buz[a] was there, and he had become upset with Job for blaming God instead of himself. He was also angry with Job's three friends for not being able to prove that Job was wrong. Elihu was younger than these three, and he let them speak first. But he became irritated when they could not answer Job, and he said to them:

I am much younger than you,
so I have shown respect
    by keeping silent.
I once believed age
    was the source of wisdom;
now I truly realize
    wisdom comes from God.
Age is no guarantee of wisdom
    and understanding.
10 That's why I ask you
    to listen to me.

I Eagerly Listened

* 11 I eagerly listened
    to each of your arguments,
12 but not one of you proved
    Job to be wrong.
13 You shouldn't say,
“We know what's right!
    Let God punish him.”
14 Job hasn't spoken against me,
and so I won't answer him
    with your arguments.

15 All of you are shocked;
    you don't know what to say.
16 But am I to remain silent,
just because you
    have stopped speaking?
17 No! I will give my opinion,
18 because I have so much to say,
    that I can't keep quiet.
19 I am like a swollen wineskin,
and I will burst[b]
20     if I don't speak.
* 21 I don't know how to be unfair
    or to flatter anyone—
22 if I did, my Creator
    would quickly destroy me!

Footnotes

  1. 32.2 Elihu from Buz: The Hebrew text has “Elihu son of Barachel from Buz of the family of Ram.” Buz may have been somewhere in the territory of Edom; in Jeremiah 25.23 it is mentioned along with Dedan and Tema (see 6.19).
  2. 32.19 swollen wineskin … burst: While the juice from grapes was becoming wine, it would swell and stretch the skins in which it had been stored; sometimes the swelling would burst the wineskins.

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