Job 32:16

16 Should I continue to wait now that they are silent, now that they stand [there] and no longer answer?

Job 32:16 Meaning and Commentary

Job 32:16

When one had waited
To observe whether they would make any reply to what he had said, or any objection to his engaging in the controversy:

for they spake not;
were as mute as fishes:

but stood still;
like statues, had no power to move, neither to sit down nor to depart, but were as if all life, sense, and motion, were gone from them:

[and] answered no more;
or not at all; for it does not appear that they had given him any answer before, as well as not now.

Job 32:16 In-Context

14 But Job has not directed his argument to me, and I will not respond to him with your arguments.
15 Job's friends are dismayed and can no longer answer; words have left them.
16 Should I continue to wait now that they are silent, now that they stand [there] and no longer answer?
17 I too will answer; yes, I will tell what I know.
18 For I am full of words, and my spirit compels me [to speak].
Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.