I’m Young. You’re Old. Listen.

Job 32:3-5

Suddenly, the tent flap opens and a young man enters the conversation.

The Book of Job is full of twists and turns, but when we hit chapter 32, a new character pops up seemingly out of nowhere: Elihu. Who is he? What’s his deal? And why does he get six chapters to speak after Job and his faux-friends have already hashed out the problem of suffering? It’s worth digging into this enigmatic figure, his speeches, and why his take on suffering might just offer us a new perspective.

Elihu’s sudden entrance and overly formal introduction of lineage by the narrator -“Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram” - feels like someone hitting “Insert” on an already polished manuscript. But maybe that’s the point—he’s here to shake things up, with passion and also with respect. He steps in as the three visitors sit silently, unable or unwilling to respond to Job’s big finale in the previous chapter.

וֶאֱלִיהוּ חִכָּה אֶת־אִיּוֹב בִּדְבָרִים כִּי זְקֵנִים־הֵמָּה מִמֶּנּוּ לְיָמִים׃ וַיַּרְא אֱלִיהוּא כִּי אֵין מַעֲנֶה בְּפִי שְׁלֹשֶׁת הָאֲנָשִׁים וַיִּחַר אַפּוֹ׃ {פ}

וַיַּעַן  אֱלִיהוּא בֶן־בַּרַכְאֵל הַבּוּזִי וַיֹּאמַר צָעִיר אֲנִי לְיָמִים וְאַתֶּם יְשִׁישִׁים עַל־כֵּן זָחַלְתִּי וָאִירָא  מֵחַוֺּת דֵּעִי אֶתְכֶם׃

Elihu waited out Job’s speech, for they were all older than he. But when Elihu saw that the three men had nothing to reply, he was angry. Then Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite spoke:

I have but few years, while you are old;

Therefore I was too awestruck and fearful

To hold forth among you.”

Job 32:3-5

Elihu is young, bold, and unafraid to tell it like it is—though he hesitated at first out of respect for Job’s older friends. When they failed to provide a satisfying answer to Job’s complaints, Elihu jumped in, claiming he had something new to offer. It’s interesting to note that he is angry. Righteous rage is its own sort of protest and position, not always helpful and often brutally honest.

Some scholars think Elihu wasn’t even part of the original Book of Job. As Robert Alter explains:

“Although some scholars have tried to save the Elihu speeches as an integral part of the book, the plausible consensus is that it is an interpolation, the work of another poet. No hint of Elihu’s presence is made in the frame-story at the beginning, and he is equally absent from the closing of the frame in chapter 42. The poetry he speaks is by and large not up to the level of the poetry in the debate between Job and his three reprovers... His name appears to be satirically devised as an imitation of his impatiently presumptuous character.”

Unlike Job’s three friends, who argue that suffering is a direct punishment for sin, Elihu sees suffering differently.

For Elihu, suffering isn’t about retribution; it’s a warning, a chance for soul-purification. He sees it as God’s way of nudging people back onto the right path. In his opening lines he speaks of the God who “rescues the lowly from their affliction, and opens their understanding through distress”

Elihu has sparked a range of interpretations over the centuries. In the Testament of Job he’s a “wild beast… imbued with the Spirit of Satan.” The Talmud, however, lists him as one of seven prophets to the nations. Some rabbis even equate him with Balaam or Isaac. Modern scholars like Helen Hawley Nichols argue that Elihu saw his words as “God-given illumination,” offering a theological bridge between Job’s complaints and God’s eventual response.

Whether we see Elihu as a presumptuous upstart or a wise intermediary, his speeches challenge Job to rethink suffering. Maybe it’s not just punishment or meaningless pain. Maybe it’s a divine wake-up call. And whether or not Elihu’s words belong in Job’s story, they remind us that fresh perspectives often come from unexpected voices.

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