Elihu Rebukes Job

Elihu asks Job to hear him as one who speaks from an upright heart and from the life given by God's own breath. He presents himself not as a terrifying authority but as another creature formed from clay, inviting Job to answer if he can.

“¹But now, O Job, hear my speech, ²Behold, I will open my mouth; ³My words are from an upright heart, ⁴The Spirit of God has made me, ⁵Refute me if you can; ⁶I am just like you before God; ⁷Surely no fear of me should terrify you;

He then repeats Job's complaint that he is clean while God hunts for charges against him and holds him like an enemy under surveillance. Elihu answers that Job is wrong at this point, because God is greater than man and is not obliged to explain every action to him.

⁸Surely you have spoken in my hearing, ⁹‘I am pure, without transgression; ¹⁰Yet God finds occasions against me; ¹¹He puts my feet in the stocks; ¹²Behold, you are not right in this matter. ¹³Why do you complain to Him

Elihu insists that God does speak, even when people miss it, and names dreams and night visions as one way that divine warning comes. In such moments God uncovers the ear in order to turn a person from pride and wrongdoing and so preserve him from destruction.

¹⁴For God speaks in one way and in another, ¹⁵In a dream, ¹⁶He opens their ears ¹⁷to turn a man from wrongdoing ¹⁸to preserve his soul from the Pit

He adds that God may also speak through bodily affliction, reducing a man to wasting weakness at the edge of death. Yet if a mediating messenger declares what is right, God may be gracious, redeem the sufferer from the Pit, restore his flesh and prayer, and bring him to public confession that he was spared rather than repaid in full.

¹⁹A man is also chastened on his bed ²⁰so that he detests his bread, ²¹His flesh wastes away from sight, ²²He draws near to the Pit, ²³Yet if there is a messenger on his side, ²⁴to be gracious to him and say, ²⁵then his flesh is refreshed like a child’s; ²⁶He prays to God and finds favor; ²⁷Then he sings before men ²⁸He redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit,

Elihu closes by saying God works in these ways repeatedly to bring a soul back into the light of life. He tells Job to listen closely, to answer if he has anything to say in his own defense, and otherwise to keep silent while Elihu continues teaching wisdom.

²⁹Behold, all these things God does to a man, ³⁰to bring back his soul from the Pit, ³¹Pay attention, Job, and listen to me; ³²But if you have something to say, answer me; ³³But if not, then listen to me;