Reflections on Job 32

 Job 32 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Finally, these three men stopped arguing with Job, because he refused to admit that he was guilty.
   
2. Elihu from Buz was there, and he had become upset with Job for blaming God instead of himself.
   
3. He was also angry with Job's three friends for not being able to prove that Job was wrong.
   
4. Elihu was younger than these three, and he let them speak first.
   
5. But he became irritated when they could not answer Job,
   
6. and he said to them: I am much younger than you, so I have shown respect by keeping silent.
   
7. I once believed age was the source of wisdom;
   
8. now I truly realize wisdom comes from God.
   
9. Age is no guarantee of wisdom and understanding.
   
10. That's why I ask you to listen to me.
    
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
    
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!

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We are surprised now by a fifth voice that joins the discussion. Elihu, a man younger than the others, had sat quietly through all the speeches of the three friends and Job listening for the conclusions that would be drawn. But Elihu had grown angry with the speeches and now that silence hung over the group, his words were bursting to come out. He was angry because Job had justified himself rather than God and because the friends had been unable to refute Job.

Elihu had hoped that wisdom would accompany the words of the three older friends but had been disappointed. Wisdom and understanding, he concluded, comes from God rather than from age. In their failure to refute Jobm the friends should not claim wisdom, he said. So now Elihu would speak, telling what he knew. His comments would not be directed to Job because Job had not addressed him. In his comments, Elihu would speak without partiality or flattery. But speak, he would, for the words were bursting to come out of him as unvented wine is bound to burst the wineskins.
Elihu's speech begins in the next chapter.