Job 32:15

ELIHU EXPLAINS WHY HE WILL ANSWER JOB

"They are amazed, they answer no more:

They have not a word to say.

And shall I wait, because they speak not,

Because they stand still, and answer no more?

I also will answer my part,

I also will show mine opinion.

For I am full of words;

The spirit within me constraineth me.

Behold, my breast is as wine that hath no vent;

Like new wine-skins it is ready to burst.

I will speak, that I may be refreshed;

I will open my lips and answer.

Let me not, I pray you, respect any man's person;

Neither will I give flattering titles to any man.

For I know not to give flattering titles;

Else would my Maker soon take me away."

"They answer no more ... they speak not" (Job 32:15-16). This refers, of course, to the fact that Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, being utterly unable to refute Job's arguments, had at last, by their silence, acknowledged their defeat.

"I also will answer my part" (Job 32:17). A suggested meaning here is, "I will offer in reply the portion of knowledge that has fallen to me from God, and that portion will constitute a complete answer."[18] Elihu is convinced that he has the complete answer, but see Job 32:22, below.

"I am full of words" (Job 32:18). "None would dispute this."[19] In fact, Rowley wrote, that, "However these six chapters may have come to be incorporated into Job, these six chapters are intended to make Elihu look somewhat ridiculous, because he is so wordy, so self-important, and so unoriginal."[20]

"My spirit within me constraineth me" (Job 32:18). In context, the term "constraineth" is used in the sense of "compelleth".

"My breast is ... like new wine-skins which are ready to burst" (Job 32:19). We have used the alternative reading here from the margin of the American Standard Version. This passage also reveals the ignorance of Elihu and denies that he is, in any sense, `inspired of God.' The simile Elihu is using here compares his words to `wine' and his `belly' to new wine-skins that are ready to burst from the fermenting wine. However, it is not the new wine-skins that burst from fermenting wine, but old wine-skins, as Jesus Christ himself stated in (Matthew 9:17).

"Let me not ... respect any man's person" (Job 32:21). In this, Elihu gives himself another certificate, this time, for impartiality."[21] In the next verse he also claims that he does not flatter people with titles.

"I know not to give flattering titles; else would my Maker soon take me away" (Job 32:22). In this Elihu reveals that his theological position on sin and suffering is exactly that of the three friends who have been silenced. He believes that if he should sin in flattering people God would immediately (soon), in this present life, punish him by taking him away from the earth. This is exactly the same error that caused Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar to brand Job as a gross sinner.