Friday, February 1, 2008

Job 32:2

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Job 32:2


2 Then was kindled [charah] the wrath ['aph] of Elihu ['Eliyhuw] the son [ben] of Barachel [Barak'el] the Buzite [Buwziy], of the kindred [mishpachah] of Ram [Ram]: against Job ['Iyowb] was his wrath ['aph] kindled [charah], because he justified [tsadaq] himself [nephesh] rather than God ['elohiym]. KJV-Interlinear


2 But the anger of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram burned; against Job his anger burned, because he justified himself before God. NASB


The anger mentioned here is more of frustration.

Elihu is now introduced as the fifth participant of this conversation. He later mentions that he is considerably younger than the others and thus we presume that he may be half their age. But that is obviously a guess.

If the others were in the hundred-year age bracket, then someone who is ninety or eighty or even seventy would not consider himself considerably younger. But someone who is fifty or younger, certainly would.

The name 'Elihu' means 'the God of Him,' 'Who is God,' 'He is my God.' This is a reference to the personal name of God, rather than the general name of a deity. Elihu was a common name used throughout the Old Testament.

Elihu was the son of Barachel, of the Buzite group, of the family of Ram. Beyond this genealogy, nothing more is mentioned. Most commentators presume that 'Buzite' means Buz the second son of Nahor, the brother of Abraham. But the references to the different family lines, namely Barachel and Ram, makes this relationship impossible. Nothing more is mentioned about Barachel or Ram, so their ancestry is not known.

If Elihu's ancestry was important, then God would have made certain that it was better referenced in this book, but since it was not, then there is some other reason for mentioning the ancestry of the youngest of these participants.

Barachel means 'God has blessed.' Buzite means 'disrespect, despised, shamed, contempt, or one who has come from shame or contempt.' Ram means 'to bring up, presumptuous, haughty, extol, lofty, exalted.'

So the chain of Elihu's ancestry comes to mean, one who had been presumptuous or self-exalted, and has therefore been generally shamed or despised, has been blessed regardless of their past, by He who is God.

He who is God, is He who has no name, at this time in history, and is a personal reference to Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, the same as the redeemer and the advocate mentioned earlier by Job.

Elihu will make a number of arguments in his speech, but when all is said and done, he will have nothing significant to add to the debate, except for his disgust that Job does not repent and that God is so great that nothing can be understood about Him.

In addition to this, we can learn that God was on the minds of a large portion of the ancient world. This is obvious by virtue of the meanings of the names used, but what is more important, people back in those ancient times, knew God by reference to His personal character rather than as some ambiguous super being.