Job 32:6 - Exposition

And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, I am young, and ye are very old . We can only guess at the exact ages of Job and his friends. From the fact that God at the last "gave Job twice as much as he had before" ( Job 42:10 ), and the further fact that he lived, after he had recovered his prosperity, a hundred and forty years ( Job 42:16 ), it has been conjectured that he was seventy years of age at the time of his conference with his friends, and that he died at the age of two hundred and ten. But this clearly is quite uncertain. He may not have been much more than fifty when his calamities fell upon him. If this were so, the age of his friends need not have exceeded from sixty to seventy. Perhaps Elihu was himself not more than thirty. Wherefore I was afraid, and durst not show you mine opinion ; rather, I held back and was afraid to utter what I knew in your pre sence. Elihu would have been thought unduly pushing and presumptuous if he had ventured to come forward until his seniors had ended their colloquy.