Job 32 Footnotes

32:1 Critics view the speeches of Elihu (chaps. 32–37) as a late interpolation into the text, and they offer the following reasons. (1) Elihu is not mentioned in the prologue or epilogue. (2) These chapters contain an unusual proportion of Aramaic words in the Hebrew text. (3) These speeches contain fewer metaphors than the preceding ones and have vocabulary differences. (4) Elihu’s speeches are more philosophically/theologically reasoned than those of Job’s three friends.

But these charges lack validity. First, Elihu’s absence from the prologue is understandable, if he arrived after the dialogue had begun. His absence from the epilogue is no more inexplicable than that of Satan or Job’s wife. Second, Elihu’s speeches give allusions to all three rounds of the dialogue. Third, the presence of twelve Aramaic words is scarcely disproportionate to the twenty-six Aramaic words found elsewhere in the book. Arguments based on style are subjective; Elihu should be allowed his own style. Fourth, the failure of Job’s friends to convince him necessitates Elihu’s philosophical and theological approach. Elihu’s speeches were a preparatory bridge between Job’s summation of his case and God’s reply.