Job 32:1 - Meaning and Application

Usually young men are the ones who argue, and older men are the ones who settle matters. But here it is the other way around. The older men have been arguing badly, and a younger man is brought in to act as the one who speaks with balance and restraint. Several of Job’s friends were present, men who had come to visit him and, at least at first, to learn from what happened to him.

First, we are told why Job’s three friends stayed quiet. They stopped answering Job and let him have the last word because they thought he was convinced of his own rightness. That was the reason they gave for saying no more, since, in their view, it was useless to argue with a man so set on his own opinion (Job 32:1). People who are full of themselves are hard to persuade. There is more hope for a fool made by God than for someone who has made himself foolish by pride (Proverbs 26:12). Yet they were not judging Job fairly. Job was truly righteous before God, not just in his own eyes. So their silence was really a way to save face, which is how stubborn debaters often act when they know they cannot defend their case.

Second, we are told why Elihu, the fourth man, now spoke. His name means, “My God is he.” The other men had tried and failed to convince Job, but God is the one who can and will do so, and in the end he did. God alone can open the mind and make understanding clear. Elihu is also called a Buzite, meaning he was from Buz, who was Nahor’s second son (Genesis 22:21), and he was of the family of Ram, that is, Aram, according to some. That would connect him with the Syrians, or Arameans, who came from Aram (Genesis 22:21). He is described this way because he was not as well known as the others.

Elihu spoke because he was angry, and he believed he had good reason. After watching the dispute, he did not go away and attack the men behind their backs with a bitter tongue. He said what he thought openly, so they could answer him if they could. He was angry with Job because he thought Job did not speak as reverently about God as he should have done. That concern was partly true (Job 32:2). Job was more eager to clear himself from the charge of being unrighteous in his suffering than to clear God from any hint of wrongdoing in afflicting him. It was as if Job cared more about his own honor than God’s honor. But Job should have defended God’s glory first, and then left his own name to stand or fall as it might. A godly heart is protective of God’s honor and is troubled when that honor is ignored or pushed aside. It is no violation of meekness to be angry with friends when they speak against God.

Elihu also was angry with Job’s friends because he thought they had not dealt with Job as kindly as they should have done (Job 32:3). They had no answer, yet they still condemned Job. They had judged him to be a hypocrite and a wicked man, and they would not back away from that verdict. But they could not prove it, and they could not refute the evidence Job gave for his integrity. They could not support their main claim, yet they kept holding to it. They had no reply to his arguments, but they would not yield, and so they kept pressing him down whether fairly or not. That was unjust. A serious quarrel almost never begins and continues this long without fault on both sides. Elihu, as a fair moderator, sided with neither man. He was displeased with the errors and the bad handling on both sides. Those who truly seek the truth must be fair in judging both sides of a dispute. They must not reject what is true and good in one man because something else is wrong, and they must not defend what is wrong because something else is right. They must learn to separate the good from the bad.

Elihu also spoke because he thought the time had come for him to speak, and that now at last it was his turn (verses 4 and 5). He had waited through all of Job’s speeches and patiently listened until Job finished speaking. He also waited while the older men were silent, so that he would not interrupt Job, and he would not speak before them either. He did not do this because he thought they were wiser than he was, but because they were older, and the group expected them to speak first. Elihu was modest and did not want to take from them the respect due to age.

Some rules of order must be kept to preserve peace and good conduct. Real honor will naturally follow true wisdom and worth, but since everyone thinks he or his friend is the wisest and best, that cannot be the rule for outward respect. Therefore, public honor should usually follow age or office. Older people can rightly expect that respect, because they gave it when they were younger. Younger people can give it more readily, because they will receive it themselves when they grow old.