Job 32:1-5

1. The introduction of Elihu 32:1-5

A short prose pericope (Job 32:1-6 a) breaks into the poetic body of the book. Its purpose is to introduce Elihu, as the prose prologue to the whole book (chs. 1-2) introduced the other characters.

Elihu may have been a relative of Abraham, since a man named Buz was a descendant of Nahor, Abraham’s brother (Genesis 22:20-21), and Elihu was a Buzite (cf. Jeremiah 25:23). A man named Ram (Job 32:2) was an ancestor of David (Ruth 4:19-22).

Elihu was angry. The writer mentioned his burning anger four times in these verses (Job 32:2 [twice], 3, 5). He was angry with Job because Job considered himself right and God wrong. This is the meaning of "he justified himself before God" (Job 32:5). Furthermore, he was angry with Job’s three companions because they had failed to prove Job worthy of God’s punishment (Job 32:3). One writer suggested that Elihu served as a covenant mediator between Job and God (cf. Job 9:33; Job 16:19-22; Job 19:21). [Note: H. D. Beeby, "Elihu-Job’s Mediator." South East Asia Journal of Theology 7:2 (October 1965):33-54.]