Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

32:2 Elihu's introduction includes a reference to his father and family that is more explicit than that of any of the three friends (see 2:11; and 4:1; 8:1; 11:1). The reference may be included for the way it signifies Elihu's understanding of his role (e.g., Barachel may mean either "may God bless" or "God has blessed") or possibly his need for further introduction in light of his youth.

32:3 Although Elihu burned with anger against both Job and his friends (v. 3), when the same phrase is used of the Lord in the epilogue, his anger burns only against the three friends because they had not affirmed what was right about the Lord, as Job had done (see 42:7).

32:8 Elihu plays on the words spirit and breath in his early speeches (see also 33:4; 34:14) in the way most likely to evoke Job's earlier plea (see 27:2-3) as he asserts his own right to speak.

32:18-20 As in v. 8, Elihu claims he is not speaking by choice but by necessity. Elihu may be thinking he is like a prophet, but the reader must judge whether he is right. (On the difficulty of assessing Elihu, see the discussion in the Introduction: Literary Features.)

33:1 Elihu frames his rebuke with a call for Job to listen to his words (also vv. 31, 33), which he likely sees as serving to fill the silence left by Job's friends as well as to explain how God may be speaking on the very points where Job has claimed he is silent.

33:2-4 Elihu appears to be evoking Job's earlier statement where he declared that, as long as he had breath, his lips could not speak falsely by agreeing that his friends were right (see 27:2-6). Elihu plays on Job's words (see also 32:8) to assert that what he has to say is equally an upright and sincere declaration.

33:9 Elihu summarizes Job's statements as if Job had argued that he was pure and without transgression. However, it is clear from Job's regular practice of making burnt offerings that this was not his claim (see 1:5), which was focused instead on denying the suggestion that some hidden sin was at the root of his suffering. By mischaracterizing Job's plea, Elihu ends up offering a similar argument to that of the three friends: God is greater than man (33:12) and thus he must have intended to warn or rebuke Job (vv. 14-30).

33:11 puts my feet in the stocks. Elihu quotes Job verbatim (cf. 13:27). God had made Job his enemy, pursuing him like a leaf driven in the wind (13:24-25).

33:14 For God speaks . . . though man does not perceive it. Elihu is suggesting that Job has not recognized and maybe even has ignored the ways in which God has spoken to him.

33:18 Elihu repeatedly states that the purpose of God's speaking to a person in the way he describes is to keep his soul from the pit (also vv. 22, 24, 28, 30). Thus he implies that Job's suffering may be a corrective of his overall path rather than simply punishment for some hidden sin. However, given the Lord's description of Job in the prologue (see 1:8; 2:3), Elihu's suggestion seems very similar to, if not an even more severe condemnation than, the one offered by the three friends.

33:19-22 The images that Elihu employs in this section are surely aimed at encouraging Job to see his similar physical state as signifying that God has spoken mercifully through his circumstances, to keep him from the path he was on (see v. 18).

33:23-28 Elihu poses a hypothetical situation in which an angel or mediator might act on behalf of a person to deliver him (vv. 23-25), and he suggests that the appropriate response would be repentance and rejoicing (vv. 26-28). When Elihu tells Job that he should not fail to accept the correction because of the "greatness of the ransom" (36:18), he implies that the loss of all of Job's possessions and family might be such a ransom for his deliverance (33:24).

34:1-9 Elihu calls those who are wise to weigh Job's claim that he is right and that God has taken away what he was entitled to (vv. 1-6); he prefigures his conclusion when he says that Job "walks with wicked men" (vv. 7-9; see v. 36).

34:3 palate tastes food. Truth is discerned through hearing, just as the quality of food is discerned through tasting. Job used this same proverb earlier to challenge the wisdom of his friends (12:11). Elihu repeats the proverb to challenge his listeners to weigh Job's words.

34:4-6 With the repeated reference to right in these verses, Elihu seems to be playing particularly off Job's statements in 27:2-6, where he lamented that God had taken his right away and he refused to agree that his friends were right about him.

34:8 Elihu describes Job as one who walks with evildoers and wicked men, which is a path that the wise are called to avoid (see Ps. 1:1). He will ground this description in what he feels Job's assertion about himself and God (Job 34:5) necessarily means (see vv. 11-13).

34:9 Although Job had stated that the wicked and the righteous seem to suffer the same fate, in order to argue against his friends' suggestion that the wicked are always punished, he did not state precisely what Elihu presents here. Job had governed his life by delight in God and his words (see 23:10-12), and he had argued that it was the wicked who live, often in prosperity, as if service to the Almighty profits a man nothing (see 21:15).

34:10-37 Although Elihu has already indicated his conclusion about Job (vv. 7-9), he sets out to prove that Job should be condemned for his claims.

34:10-12 These verses represent the grounds for Elihu's argument against Job: since God will repay a man in accord with his work and ways (v. 11), Job's claim that he is right and that God has taken away his right (see v. 5) would be the same as saying that God has acted in wickedness (v. 10) so as to pervert justice (v. 12). Although it takes a slightly different shape, Elihu's argument results in the same dilemma that resulted from the arguments of the three friends: either Job is in the right or God is in the right, but it cannot be both (see 8:2-7).

34:23 God has no need to consider a man further. The subject of this sentence is "he" in Hebrew (see ESV footnote), and just whom that refers to must be inferred from the context. Some interpreters suggest that it refers to "man," with the sense that a person does not set his own times for judgment, which would require a slight emendation of the Hebrew text. However, understanding God as the subject makes sense in the context of Elihu's dispute: Job has been calling for some opportunity to present his case before either God or an arbitrator, but Elihu is suggesting that God has already acted and does not need to give further consideration to Job's or any other person's case.

34:26-28 Although Elihu does apply the images directly to Job, his description suggests something very similar to what the three friends had already argued (see 22:5-11): Job has been struck for all to see (34:26) because he must have turned aside from following the Lord's ways (v. 27) by mistreating the poor and afflicted (v. 28).

34:34-37 Elihu concludes with the presumption that any who are truly men of understanding or wise would agree with him (v. 34; see vv. 2, 10) that Job speaks like a fool who is without knowledge or insight (v. 35). Furthermore, Elihu wishes boldly that the judgment signified in Job's suffering would be taken to its logical end (v. 36), because in addition to whatever sin he is ultimately being punished for, Job's words also express rebellion and arrogance against God (v. 37).

35:2 my right before God. Job was declaring himself right before God. He asserted that God had wronged him (19:6), which in the view of Elihu amounted to claiming that he was right rather than God (32:2).

35:6-8 Elihu repeats an aspect of Eliphaz's final argument against Job--that God does not profit from Job's righteousness (see 22:2-3). (However, where Elihu merely mentions wickedness within his comparison [35:8], Eliphaz detailed the likely specifics of Job's evil [see 22:5-9].) Neither Eliphaz nor Elihu understand that the whole impetus for Job's complaint is his desire to see God vindicated on earth in and through the lives of those who are faithful to him.

35:12-13 When Elihu says that God does not heed the cry of the oppressed because of the pride of evil men (v. 12b), he does not explicitly indicate whether he is referring to those who cry out or to their oppressors. However, Elihu's repeated emphasis that God does not answer (v. 12a), listen (hear), or regard an empty cry (v. 13) indicates that he is most likely referring to the pride of the oppressed.

35:14-16 Elihu argues that if God does not regard the cries of the proud oppressed (vv. 9-13), how can Job expect an answer (v. 14) to what Elihu assumes is the even more obstinate stance of one who takes his own lack of punishment as reason to speak foolishly (vv. 15-16). This is extraordinarily insensitive, considering Job's actual situation. Elihu is revealing a high view of his own importance.

36:2-4 Elihu presents his final speech as something offered on God's behalf (v. 2), emphasizing that, unlike Job (see 34:35), he has understanding that comes from outside himself (36:3) and that he is perfect in knowledge (v. 4), something he will later ascribe also to God (see 37:16). Again, he seems more arrogant than he realizes, as young men sometimes do.

36:5-21 Elihu begins by describing God's power and wisdom (v. 5) and asserts that he governs justly over the lives of both the wicked (v. 6) and the righteous (v. 7). The section is focused on affliction (v. 8; also vv. 6, 15, 21), which God uses to deliver the righteous from their sin unless they reject his correction and show themselves to be like the godless (vv. 8-15). Elihu appeals to Job to consider his own circumstances as an example of this choice, and encourages him to embrace the mercy of his affliction rather than his iniquity (vv. 16-21).

36:6-7 The statement that God gives the afflicted their right (v. 6b) comes directly between the mention of the wicked (v. 6a) and the righteous (v. 7), expressing the heart of Elihu's argument: the afflicted (see vv. 8, 15, 21) are treated justly by God and reveal the state of their heart by how they respond to affliction.

36:8-15 Elihu describes affliction using the language of captivity: people are bound in chains and caught in the cords (v. 8) because God binds them (v. 13). He argues that God uses this captivity of affliction to speak to people about their sin (v. 9) and opens their ears to his correction (vv. 10, 15). Those who listen (v. 11) will be delivered by God (v. 15); those who do not listen (v. 12) will be judged even in the circumstances of their death (vv. 13-14).

36:10 When he states that God opens the ears (also v. 15), Elihu is continuing his point from an earlier speech, suggesting ways that God has been speaking and that Job may be failing to listen (see 33:14, 16).

36:13-14 Elihu describes those who hold onto their anger rather than crying out when God binds them through affliction (see v. 8). He does so now to warn that Job's continued complaint could lead him to a state and end like that of the godless in heart.

36:16-21 Elihu addresses Job more directly by describing the change in his circumstances (vv. 16-20) and warns him against choosing his iniquity rather than embracing the purpose of his affliction (v. 21; see vv. 8-15).

36:16-17 Elihu refers to the change in Job's circumstances with a wordplay on the descriptions of when his table was full of fatness (v. 16; i.e., prosperity) and how he is now full of the judgment on the wicked (v. 17; i.e., calamity and distress). Just as Elihu has already referred to affliction with the imagery of captivity (see vv. 8, 13), he suggests quite plainly that Job should see his own suffering as God seizing him in judgment and justice (v. 17).

36:18 Elihu has already alluded to the possibility of a ransom (see 33:24). Here he makes it explicit: Job should consider the greatness of the loss of his family, his reputation, and all that belonged to his household as the means by which the Lord is arresting his attention and turning him from sin.

36:22-37:13 Having described how God speaks through affliction (36:5-21), Elihu focuses now on the majestic and unsearchable ways of God (vv. 22-33) and the way in which his majesty is partially revealed in his governing of the power and purposes of storms (37:1-13). The speech is structured by the calls to the hearer/reader to see (Behold, 36:22, 26, 30) and hear (Keep listening, 37:2) what Elihu is describing--further implying that Job is simply not attending to the places where God is actually speaking.

36:30 he scatters his lightning. The lightning of the storm represents God's glory in it (cf. Ps. 104:2-3). His glory covers (lights up) even the depths of the sea.

36:31 he judges peoples. Judging and nourishing are often parallel aspects of God's provision. The clouds bear God's throne, from which he governs and feeds his people.

36:32 covers his hands. "Hands" may be a way of describing the great arches or vaulted chamber of heaven, filled with God's light.

37:2-5 Elihu makes repeated reference to God's voice in connection with both the audible (thunder) and visible (lightning) manifestations of a storm, through which God communicates something of his majesty.

37:7 He seals up the hand of every man. This probably refers to the way severe weather causes people to take shelter (as the animals do, v. 8) and thus prevents them from working.

37:13 God's providential purposes may relate to people (correction or love), or may be for his land (see also 38:25-27).

37:14-20 Elihu focuses on God's majesty and calls on Job to listen (Hear this, O Job) and apply the weight of this description to his complaint before God, just as he had called Job to do in relation to affliction (see 36:16-21).

37:16 Elihu refers to God as one who is perfect in knowledge, a description he first applied to himself in offering this speech on God's behalf (see 36:4).

37:21-23 Elihu likens the light that comes after a storm has cleared (v. 21) to the God who is clothed with awesome majesty (v. 22), who cannot simply be found, who is extremely powerful, and who does not violate what is right (v. 23).

37:24 Elihu presents the options of responding to God's majesty in two stark categories: either people are wise and exhibit fear of God, or they are wise in their own heart (see ESV footnote).