Job 32:14
in Job 32But Job has not directed his words against me, and I will not answer him with your arguments.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For he hath not directed his words against me; Neither will I answer him with your speeches.
KJV
Now he hath not directed his words against me: neither will I answer him with your speeches.
⋯
This verse in Job 32
Commentary
8 notes on this verseHe hath not directed - I am no party in this controversy; I have no party feeling in it: he has not spoken a word against me, therefore I have no cause of irritation. I shall speak for truth; not for conquest or revenge. Neither will I answer him with your speeches; your passions have been inflamed by contradiction, and you have spoken foolishly with your lips.
This site's exposition
Listen to me
on Job 32:10-14
Elihu's “Listen to me” comes after he says “I listened to your reasoning”. Barnes reads the friends' fallback, “let God, not man, refute him”, as silencing the question with authority in place of argument. Elihu refuses that shortcut, which claims a different method before any different conclusion.
This site's exposition
has not directed his words against me
Clarke hears a man with no quarrel of his own. Job had directed no words against Elihu, so Elihu had no cause for irritation. Barnes calls it a claim to approach the subject calmly, free of the provocations the friends had felt.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
He intended to answer more efficaciously, and so he then says, "He has spoken nothing to me," for he wants to show that he does not speak because he has been provoked, "and I will not answer him according to your discourses," because I will …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXIII · Written before 604.
proposed
He spake nothing to me, and I will not reply to him according to your word. What is meant by his saying, He spake nothing to me? For does holy Church, when she detects haughty men within her, ever omit to instruct and reprove them by preachers of righteousness? She exercises these duties, and ceases not to exercise them daily.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
16 When I had waited, (for they spake not, but stood still, and answered no more;) 17 I said, I will answer also my part, I also will show mine opinion. 18 For I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me. 19 Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-run:32w-of-59
Now he hath not directed his words against me,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Now, he hath not directed his words against me - Margin, “ordered.” The meaning of this expression is, “I can approach this subject in a wholly dispassionate and unprejudiced manner. I have had none of the provocations which you have felt; his harsh and severe remarks have not fallen on me as they have on you, and I can come to the subject with the utmost coolness.” The object is to show that he was not irritated, and that he would be under no temptation to use words from the influence of passion or any other than those which conveyed the simple truth. He seems disposed to admit that Job had given some occasion for severe remarks, by the manner in which be had treated his friends. Neither will I answer him with your speeches - They also had been wrong. They had given way to passion, and had indulged in severity of language, rather than pursued a simple and calm course of argument. From all this, Eliha says he was free, and could approach the subject in the most calm and dispassionate manner. He had had no temptation to indulge in severity of language like theirs, and he would not do it.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
He did not set up words against me This is a plaint: Woe that he did not set up words against me.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Lest you say You shall not say We have found wisdom by remaining silent in order not to provoke him anymore. for God will crush him and not a man You should not have belittled the honor of the Omnipresent thereby.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְלֹא־ | velo'- | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| עָרַ֣ךְ | ʾarakh | he has arranged | H6186 → | 74 times |
| אֵלַ֣י | ʾelai | against me | H413 → | 5510 times |
| מִלִּ֑ין | milin | words | H4405 → | 38 times |
| וּ֝בְאִמְרֵיכֶ֗ם | uveimreikhem | and with words your | H561 → | 49 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| אֲשִׁיבֶֽנּוּ׃ | ʾashivenu | I will respond to him | H7725 → | 1056 times |
וְלֹא־and not
velo'-H3808 →5168 times
עָרַ֣ךְhe has arranged
ʾarakhH6186 →74 times
אֵלַ֣יagainst me
ʾelaiH413 →5510 times
מִלִּ֑יןwords
milinH4405 →38 times
וּ֝בְאִמְרֵיכֶ֗םand with words your
uveimreikhemH561 →49 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
אֲשִׁיבֶֽנּוּ׃I will respond to him
ʾashivenuH7725 →1056 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
About Job
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIII; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.