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Elihu Responds to Job’s Friends

32 Job’s three friends refused to reply further to him because he kept insisting on his innocence.

Then Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the clan of Ram, became angry. He was angry because Job refused to admit that he had sinned and that God was right in punishing him. He was also angry with Job’s three friends, for they made God[a] appear to be wrong by their inability to answer Job’s arguments. Elihu had waited for the others to speak to Job because they were older than he. But when he saw that they had no further reply, he spoke out angrily. Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite said,

“I am young and you are old,
    so I held back from telling you what I think.
I thought, ‘Those who are older should speak,
    for wisdom comes with age.’
But there is a spirit[b] within people,
    the breath of the Almighty within them,
    that makes them intelligent.
Sometimes the elders are not wise.
    Sometimes the aged do not understand justice.
10 So listen to me,
    and let me tell you what I think.

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Footnotes

  1. 32:3 As in ancient Hebrew scribal tradition; the Masoretic Text reads Job.
  2. 32:8 Or Spirit; also in 32:18.

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