Job 32:14

Now he hath not directed his words against me: neither will I answer him with your speeches.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Job 32:14. He hath not directed his words against me — I am not engaged in this dispute by any provoking words of Job, as you have been, which have excited your passions, and biased your judgments; but I speak merely from zeal for the vindication of God’s honour, and from love to truth and justice, and a sincere desire to administer to Job matter both of conviction and comfort. Neither will I answer him with your speeches — With such words or arguments as yours, either weak and impertinent, or opprobious and provoking. As Job did not direct any of his words against me, so I shall not trouble him with any of your replies.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

32:6-14 Elihu professes to speak by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and corrects both parties. He allowed that those who had the longest experience should speak first. But God gives wisdom as he pleases; this encouraged him to state his opinion. By attention to the word of God, and dependence upon the Holy Spirit, young men may become wiser than the aged; but this wisdom will render them swift to hear, slow to speak, and disposed to give others a patient hearing.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Now, he hath not directed his words against me - Margin, "ordered." The meaning of this expression is, "I can approach this subject in a wholly dispassionate and unprejudiced manner. I have had none of the provocations which you have felt; his harsh and severe remarks have not fallen on me as they have on you, and I can come to the subject with the utmost coolness." The object is to show that he was not irritated, and that he would be under no temptation to use words from the influence of passion or any other than those which conveyed the simple truth. He seems disposed to admit that Job had given some occasion for severe remarks, by the manner in which be had treated his friends.

Neither will I answer him with your speeches - They also had been wrong. They had given way to passion, and had indulged in severity of language, rather than pursued a simple and calm course of argument. From all this, Eliha says he was free, and could approach the subject in the most calm and dispassionate manner. He had had no temptation to indulge in severity of language like theirs, and he would not do it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. I am altogether unprejudiced. For it is not I, whom he addressed. "Your speeches" have been influenced by irritation.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I am not engaged in this discourse by any provoking words of Job, as you have been, which hath drawn forth your passions and biassed your judgments; but merely from zeal for the vindication of God’s honour, and love to truth and justice, and a sincere desire to administer to Job matter both of conviction and of comfort. With your words, i.e. with such words or arguments as yours, either weak and impertinent, or fierce and opprobrious.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Now he hath not directed his words against me,.... That is, Job had not directed his speech to him, or levelled his arguments against him; he had not set himself and his words in battle array against him, as the word signifies; he had not lashed and irritated him as he had them; and therefore he came into the dispute calm and unprovoked, having nothing in view but truth, the glory of God, and the good of Job; and therefore hoped for better success than they had had:

neither will I answer him with your speeches; he proposed to take a new and different method from them, as he did; for he never charges Job with any sin or sins, or a course of living in a sinful manner, before those afflictions came upon him, and as the cause of them; he only takes notice of what was amiss in him since his afflictions, and what dropped from him in the heat of this controversy, rash and unbecoming speeches, which reflected upon the honour and justice of God; and if he made use of any words and arguments similar to theirs, yet to another purpose, and in a milder and gentler manner.

Geneva Study Bible

Now {i} he hath not directed his words against me: neither will I answer {k} him with your speeches.

(i) That is, Job.

(k) He uses almost the same arguments but without taunting and reproaches.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - Now he hath not directed his words against me. Elihu thinks that he can interfere in the controversy with the better prospect of a good result, since he is untouched by any of Job's words, and can therefore speak without passion or resentment. Neither will I answer him with your speeches. He is also going to bring forward fresh arguments, which, as they avoid the line taken by the three friends, may soothe, instead of exasperating, the patriarch. Job 32:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

11 Behold, I waited upon your words,

Hearkened to your perceptions,

While ye searched out replies.

12 And I attended closely to you,

Yet behold: there was no one who refuted Job,

Who answered his sentences, from you.

13 Lest ye should say: "We found wisdom,

God is able to smite him, not man!"

14 Now he hath not arranged his words against me,

And with your sentences I will not reply to him.

He has waited for their words, viz., that they might give utterance to such words as should tend to refute and silence Job. In what follows, עד still more emphatically than ל refers this aim to that to which Elihu had paid great attention: I hearkened to your understandings, i.e., explanations of the matter, that, or whether, they came forth, (I hearkened) to see if you searched or found out words, i.e., appropriate words. Such abbreviated forms as אזין equals אאזין (comp. מזין equals מיזין for מעזין, Proverbs 17:4, Ges. 68, rem. 1, if it does not signify nutriens, from זוּן) we shall frequently meet with in this Elihu section. In Job 32:12, Job 32:12 evidently is related as an antecedent to what follows: and I paid attention to you (עדיכם contrary to the analogy of the cognate praep. instead of עדיכם, moreover for עליכם, with the accompanying notion: intently, or, according to Aben-Duran: thoroughly, without allowing a word to escape me), and behold, intently as I paid attention: no one came forward to refute Job; there was no one from or among you who answered (met successfully) his assertions. Every unbiassed reader will have an impression of the remarkable expressions and constructions here, similar to that which one has in passing from the book of the Kings to the characteristic sections of the Chronicles. The three, Elihu goes on to say, shall not indeed think that in Job a wisdom has opposed them - a false wisdom, indeed - which only God and not any man can drive out of the field (נדף, Arab. ndf, discutere, dispellere, as the wind drives away chaff or dry leaves); while he has not, however (ולא followed directly by a v. fin. forming a subordinate clause, as Job 42:3; Psalm 44:18, and freq., Ew. 341, a), arrayed (ערך in a military sense, Job 33:5; or forensic, Job 23:4; or even as Job 37:19, in the general sense of proponere) words against him (Elihu), i.e., utterances before which he would be compelled to confess himself affected and overcome. He will not then also answer him with such opinions as those so frequently repeated by them, i.e., he will take a totally different course from theirs in order to refute him.