NOTES for Job 32:1-22
In chapter 32 a new character enters the action, Elihu. The author tells us that until now he had remained silent out of respect for the age of the speakers and in the expectation that they would answer Job's outrageous speeches. Elihu, then, is a young man who thinks and acts with greater energy than the elders. Elihu is indignant with everyone: with Job because he dares to question God, and with his friends because they cannot win their argument with Job.
Elihu is simply bursting with the desire to display his opinion. As he begins his speech, he rejects the answers of Job's friends and says that he would have answered quite differently in their place. Perhaps he really does have something to say; perhaps the author of the book will put into his mouth a truly wise answer to the questions that have been raised? Alas, in the next four chapters Elihu will say almost the same things as Job's friends who so angered him. The only difference is that Elihu is energetic; given the opportunity, he would punish Job himself without waiting for God.