NOTES for Job 34:1-37

Elihu continues, and many of his judgments are impossible to dispute, although not all of them are beyond question. (Why, for instance, should it be impossible, when necessary, to accuse a king and princes of wickedness and lawlessness? Elihu himself even allows that the Lord may call them strictly to account for their wickedness. But if Elihu considers it permissible to speak on God's behalf, why may other people not speak in their own name?) Yet it is difficult to escape the impression that in some respects Elihu twists the meaning of Job's speeches.

Job's words must not be considered apart from the situation and the state of mind in which they were spoken. Elihu repeats what seem to be the very same words that Job uttered only recently, but it is unlikely that both men spoke the same words with the same feelings. The same words too often conceal different meanings.