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Elihu Rebukes Job’s Friends

32So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. ²Then Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became angry. He was angry at Job because he justified himself rather than God; ³he was angry also at Job’s three friends because they had found no answer, though they had declared Job to be in the wrong.^{* 4}Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were older than he. ⁵But when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouths of these three men, he became angry.

6 Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite answered:
‘I am young in years,
   and you are aged;
therefore I was timid and afraid
   to declare my opinion to you.
⁷ I said, “Let days speak,
   and many years teach wisdom.”
⁸ But truly it is the spirit in a mortal,
   the breath of the Almighty,^* that makes for understanding.
⁹ It is not the old^* that are wise,
   nor the aged that understand what is right.
¹⁰ Therefore I say, “Listen to me;
   let me also declare my opinion.”

¹⁹ My heart is indeed like wine that has no vent;
   like new wineskins, it is ready to burst.
²⁰ I must speak, so that I may find relief;
   I must open my lips and answer.
²¹ I will not show partiality to any person
   or use flattery towards anyone.
²² For I do not know how to flatter—
   or my Maker would soon put an end to me!

Elihu Rebukes Job

33‘But now, hear my speech, O Job,
   and listen to all my words.
¹⁹ They are also chastened with pain upon their beds,
   and with continual strife in their bones,
²⁰ so that their lives loathe bread,
   and their appetites dainty food.
²¹ Their flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen;
   and their bones, once invisible, now stick out.
²² Their souls draw near the Pit,
   and their lives to those who bring death.
²³ Then, if there should be for one of them an angel,
   a mediator, one of a thousand,
   one who declares a person upright,
²⁴ and he is gracious to that person, and says,
   “Deliver him from going down into the Pit;
   I have found a ransom;
²⁵ let his flesh become fresh with youth;
   let him return to the days of his youthful vigour”;
²⁶ then he prays to God, and is accepted by him,
   he comes into his presence with joy,
and God^* repays him for his righteousness.
²⁷   That person sings to others and says,
“I sinned, and perverted what was right,
   and it was not paid back to me.
²⁸ He has redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit,
   and my life shall see the light.”