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Job 32:17

in Job 32

I too will answer; yes, I will declare what I know.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

I also will answer my part, I also will show mine opinion.

KJV

I said, I will answer also my part, I also will shew mine opinion.

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This verse in Job 32

Commentary

8 notes on this verse
I will also answer my part, and I will display my knowledge. For every proud man considers this to be his part, if he does not so much possess, as make a show of, knowledge. For all proud men are anxious not to possess knowledge, but to make a display of it: against whom Moses well says, Every vessel which hath not a cover nor binding over it shall be unclean. For the covering or the binding is the reproof of discipline, and every one who is not kept under by it is rejected as an unclean and polluted vessel.

This site's exposition

friends are dismayed, with no more to say

on Job 32:15-17

“Job’s friends are dismayed, with no more to say” marks their silence as final. He takes that silence as his opening: “I too will answer; yes, I will declare what I know”. Delitzsch reads the repeated waiting and declaring as Elihu building his standing on the debate's exhaustion.

This site's exposition

I will declare what I know

Barnes hears modesty in the Hebrew behind I too will answer, which means even one so young. Clarke gives answer as recite a portion. He reads the book of Job as a drama in which each speaker will answer in his turn and declare what he knows.

The record, by era

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Thomas Aquinas

Commentary on Job · Written before 1274.

proposed

Since, therefore, they had failed, he says that he wants to make up for their defect, and so he says, "Therefore, as I waited," for a long time in deferring to them, "and as they did not speak," in answer to the discourses of Job, …

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

That he was uneasy, and even in pain, to be delivered of his thoughts upon this matter. They must give him leave to speak, for he cannot forbear; while he is musing the fire burns ( Ps. xxxix.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

I said, I will answer also my part,.... Or take his turn in giving an answer to Job; what they had given being quite insufficient and unsuitable: I also will show mine opinion; knowledge, or sentiment; this for a while he was fearful of doing, but, upon a thorough and serious consideration of things, he determined upon it, and now repeats it, to assure he would do it; the reasons of which follow.

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

I also will show mine opinion - In this language, as in Job 32:6, there is a delicate expression of modesty in the Hebrew which does not appear in our translation. It is אף־אני 'aph 'ănı̂y - even I. “Even one so young, and so humble as I, may be permitted to express my sentiments, when the aged and the great have nothing more to say.

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

I will answer also my part - אענה חלקי aaneh chelki, “I will recite my portion.” We have already seen that the book of Job is a sort of drama, in which several persons have their different parts to recite. Probably the book was used in this way, in ancient times, for the sake of public instruction. Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad, had recited their parts, and Job had responded to each: nothing was brought to issue. Elihu, a bystander, perceiving this, comes forward and takes a part, when all the rest had expended their materials: yet Elihu, though he spoke well, was incapable of closing the controversy; and God himself appears, and decides the case.

The words behind it

8 Hebrew words

Every 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.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

7 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Job 33:12

    Behold, you are not right in this matter. I will answer you, for God is greater than man.

    it leads to

    • Ezekiel 18:25

      Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is it My way that is unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust?

    • Job 36:5

      Indeed, God is mighty, but He despises no one; He is mighty in strength of understanding.

    • Job 1:22

      In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.

    • Job 34:23

      For God need not examine a man further or have him approach for judgment.

    • Job 40:8–9

      Would you really annul My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself?

  • Through

    Job 32:10

    Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me; I too will declare what I know.’

    it leads to

    • 1 Corinthians 7:25

      Now about virgins, I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.

    • 1 Corinthians 7:40

      In my judgment, however, she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

About Job

Job Hears of His Misfortunes, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Job Hears of His Misfortunes, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Job: the study guide →Read Job 32 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIII; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.

Read on in Job 32 →