Job 32:13

_LEST YE SHOULD SAY, WE HAVE FOUND OUT WISDOM: GOD THRUSTETH HIM DOWN, NOT MAN._ This has been so ordered, "lest ye should" pride yourselves on having overcome him by your "wisdom" (Jeremiah 9:23; the great aim of the book of Job); and that you may see 'God alone can thrust him down' - i:e., confute him-`not man.' So Elihu grounds his confutation, not on the maxims of sages, as the friends did, but on his special commission from God (Job 32:8; Job 33:4; Job 33:6)....

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....

Verse Job 32:13. _WE HAVE FOUND OUT WISDOM_] We by dint of our own wisdom and understanding, have found out the _true system of God's_ _providence_; and have been able to account for all the sufferings and tribulations of Job. Had they been able to _confute_ Job, they would have _triumphed_ over him in their own self-sufficiency. _GOD THRUSTETH HIM DOWN, NOT MAN._] This is no _accidental_ thing that has happened to him: he is suffering under the just judgments of God, and therefore he must be the wicked man which we supposed him to be....

LEST YE SHOULD SAY, WE HAVE FOUND OUT WISDOM - That is, this has been permitted and ordered in such a manner that it might be manifest that the truths which are to convince him come from God and not from man. You were not permitted to refute or convince him, for if you had been you would have been lifted up with pride, and would have attributed to yourselves what belongs to God. This is in accordance with the entire drift of the book, which is to introduce the Almighty himself to settle the controversy when human wisdom failed. They could not arrogate to themselves the claim that they had found out wisdom. They had been completely silenced by Job; they had no power to drive him from his positions; they could not explain the divine dealings so as to settle the great inquiry in which they had been engaged. Elihu proposes to do it, and to do it in such a way as to show that it could be acco...

EXPOSITION A new personage is now introduced upon the scene, who speaks in a new style and almost in a new language. No previous mention has been made of him; no subsequent notice is taken of his arguments; and nothing is said of him in the historical section wherewith the work concludes (Job 42:7). It is therefore scarcely surprising that some exception has been taken to the genuineness of the entire passage (Job 32-37), or that it has been regarded by many excellent critics as an interpolation into the Book of Job, made by one who was not the original author, at a date considerably later than the rest of tile composition. A modification of this extreme view is suggested by M. Renan, who thinks that the original author may have added the passage in his old age. This view is entitled to consideration. The subject has been discussed at some length in the Introduction, so that no mor

LEST YE SHOULD SAY, WE HAVE FOUND OUT WISDOM,.... They were left to themselves, and not directed to take the proper methods of convincing Job, and answering his arguments; lest they should be wise in their own conceits, and attribute too much to themselves; or Elihu told them this, that they had not convicted Job, though they had condemned him, nor answered his arguments, though they had left off speaking; and this he was obliged to say, and that for the reason before observed: for all wisdom is of God, and not to be found out or acquired by men; not natural wisdom, that is not of men, but of God, and especially supernatural wisdom, or the knowledge of divine and spiritual things, and the reason of God's dealings with the sons of men in the different manner he does, see Job 28:12; GOD THRUSTETH HIM DOWN, NOT MAN: some think Elihu says this in reference to himself, whom God woul

CHAPTER S 32--33:7 _ 1. Elihu introduced (Job 32:1)_ 2. I waited, but now must speak (Job 32:6) 3. His address to Job (Job 33:1) Job 32:1. As Elihu had listened to the different addresses his wrath was stirred up. His name is very suggestive. Elihu means “my God is He”; Barachel--”the Blessed God”; the Buzite, “the rejected One” of Ram, and Ram means “exalted.” These are names which find their fullest application in the person of our Lord, whom Elihu in his mediatorial work represents. But why was his wrath kindled? Because Job justified himself rather than God and because Job's friends had found no solution of the problem, yet they c

Elihu had remained silent because of his youth. However wisdom is not a matter of age, but of Divine inspiration. Where the friends have failed, Elihu will succeed: there is no need to call in God. Job 32:13 is a direct polemic against the poet, a strong assertion that the Divine speeches which follow had been better omitted (Peake)....

GOD. Hebrew El....

Elihu, directly addressing the three friends, states more clearly his reasons for taking upon him to speak: he had hoped to hear them confute Job, and was disappointed in their arguments; Job may be shewn to be in the wrong, though with different arguments from those they had employed. In Elihu's opinion the cause of the three friends was much better than their advocacy of it....