Job 36 · a question people ask
Elihu tells Job, "you are full of the judgment of the wicked" (36:17). Is he right?
The book never says, and these notes don't decide. These are Elihu's words to Job: "But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you" (36:17), and "you have chosen this rather than affliction" (36:21). The book names Elihu only in 32:2, 32:4, 32:5, 32:6, 34:1, 35:1 and 36:1. When the LORD answers Job out of the whirlwind (38:1), he doesn't name Elihu, and Elihu isn't named in 42:7-9, where the LORD speaks to Eliphaz of "your two friends" (42:7). Chapter 32's honest question sets out what the book does and doesn't say about Elihu, and chapter 33's asks the same of his words there. The book gives no verdict on Elihu's speeches, and these notes add none, for them or against them.
The verses
““But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you.”
“Take heed, don’t regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction.”
“Then the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel, the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was kindled against Job. His wrath was kindled because he justified himself rather than God. Also his wrath was kindled against his three friends, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were older than he. When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, his wrath was kindled. Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered, “I am young, and you are very old. Therefore I held back, and didn’t dare show you my opinion.”
“Moreover Elihu answered,”