Job 32 — The Breath of the Almighty Gives Understanding

Today’s Passage: Job 32

For a long time now the three friends have been talking, and at last they have stopped. But a young man has been standing at the edge of it all, listening, and now he steps forward. His name is Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, and he is angry. He is angry at Job for justifying himself rather than God, and he is angry at the three friends for condemning Job without ever proving him wrong. He held his tongue while they spoke, because they were older than he was, but he will hold it no longer. “There is a spirit in a man,” he says, “the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.” In that much he is right. And yet, for all his heat and all his truth, he is still not the Voice Job has been waiting for.

As you read, hold this: The breath of the Almighty gives understanding.

Job 32:1–5 (BSB)

¹ So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. ² This kindled the anger of Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram. He burned with anger against Job for justifying himself rather than God, ³ and he burned with anger against Job’s three friends because they had failed to refute Job, and yet had condemned him. ⁴ Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because the others were older than he. ⁵ But when he saw that the three men had no further reply, his anger was kindled.

The narrator sets the scene simply. The three friends have finally given up, because Job was “righteous in his own eyes,” and it is at that moment Elihu (אֱלִיהוּ) ʾĒlîhû, pronounced eh-lee-HOO. Strong's H453, he is my God (proper name, Elihu). The name itself is a confession, and the young man who carries it will soon speak as though he stands in for the very God it names. The book neither blesses that claim nor lumps him in with the three. When the LORD hands down His verdict, He will name Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar, but He will not name Elihu at all. Let the name stand, and let the silence around it stand too. enters. Notice how the words for his anger pile up, kindled, then burned, then burned, then kindled again: this is heat, not yet wisdom. His anger has two targets, and both of them hold some truth. Job has defended his own integrity so fiercely that he has come near to putting God in the wrong, and God Himself will later ask whether Job would condemn Him in order to justify himself (40:8). The friends, for their part, have condemned Job without ever winning the argument. Elihu sees the real trouble on both sides, and yet seeing the trouble is not the same as being the cure. A young man can be right about the room and still not be the Voice the room needs.

Job 32:6–14 (BSB)

⁶ So Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite declared: “I am young in years, while you are old; that is why I was timid and afraid to tell you what I know. ⁷ I thought that age should speak, and many years should teach wisdom. ⁸ But there is a spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding. ⁹ It is not only the old who are wise, or the elderly who understand justice. ¹⁰ Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me; I too will declare what I know.’ ¹¹ Indeed, I waited while you spoke; I listened to your reasoning; as you searched for words, ¹² I paid you full attention. But no one proved Job wrong; not one of you rebutted his arguments. ¹³ So do not claim, ‘We have found wisdom; let God, not man, refute him.’ ¹⁴ But Job has not directed his words against me, and I will not answer him with your arguments.

Here is his finest sentence. Wisdom is not the private property of age; it is something breathed into a person, and that is simply true. It gives even a young man the standing to speak, and both a psalmist and an apostle will later agree that youth is no barrier to understanding. His critique of the friends is sharp and fair. He waited, he listened, he watched them grope for words, and not one of them managed to rebut Job. He promises he will not merely recycle their tired arguments, and so far he sounds like a relief, and the reader leans in to hear him. The real question is whether the breath he claims is the Voice the ash heap has been waiting for, because claiming the breath is easy, and being the Voice is another thing altogether.

Job 32:15–22 (BSB)

¹⁵ Job’s friends are dismayed, with no more to say; words have escaped them. ¹⁶ Must I wait, now that they are silent, now that they stand and no longer reply? ¹⁷ I too will answer; yes, I will declare what I know. ¹⁸ For I am full of words, and my spirit within me compels me. ¹⁹ Behold, my belly is like unvented wine; it is about to burst like a new wineskin. ²⁰ I must speak and find relief; I must open my lips and respond. ²¹ I will be partial to no one, nor will I flatter any man. ²² For I do not know how to flatter, or my Maker would remove me in an instant.

He is full of words, he says, like unvented wine, like a new wineskin about to burst, and he must speak or he will find no relief. It is an honest picture, for anyone who has truly wrestled with God knows the feeling of being ready to split open if the words stay bottled inside. Whether the wine itself is good or sour, the reader will have to taste and see. He vows to show no partiality and to flatter no one, because he knows his Maker would remove him in an instant if he did, and there is real reverence in that: truth must never be bent to please a listener. And yet there is also, plainly, a young man very sure the room has been waiting all this while for him. The chapter ends with him wound tight and about to launch. Four human voices have now spoken, or are about to speak, and Yahweh still has not, and we will not try to answer in His place.