Job 32:16

16 I waited, (for I had not spoken,) because they stood still, they answered not.

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 And ye have commissioned a man to speak such words.

15 They were afraid, they answered no longer; they gave up their speaking.

16 I waited, (for I had not spoken,) because they stood still, they answered not.

17 And Elius continued, and said, I will again speak,

18 for I am full of words, for the spirit of my belly destroys me.