When I had waited, (for they spake not, but stood still, and answered no more;)
Elihu had waited to speak until Job and his friends had stopped speaking and stood still and silent, and when they offered no further answer he began to speak. The waiting belonged to a longer speech in which Elihu explains that he held back until the others had finished speaking. The moment comes after Bildad's short last effort in chapter 25 to convince Job that he was a sinner deserving his condition, an effort which neither helped Job nor convinced him of guilt. After Job's bitter reply with its descriptions of infinite power and wisdom, it opens Elihu's admirable discourse, which did not help Job much.
It belongs to the section presenting Elihu's argument and reproof to Job. More fully, it belongs to the instructive discourses of Elihu in chapters 32-36, which come before God speaks to His servant in chapters 38-41. It stands in the third of the four parts of the book of Job, the speeches of Elihu in chapters 32 to 37, coming after the prologue in chapters 1 and 2 and the debate between Job and his three friends in chapters 4 to 31, and before the speeches of the Lord out of the storm-cloud. The book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible and the oldest poetical book that has come down.
Elihu had waited to speak until Job and his friends had stopped speaking and stood still and silent, and when they offered no further answer he began to speak. The waiting belonged to a longer speech in which Elihu explains that he held back until the others had finished speaking. The moment comes after Bildad's short last effort in chapter 25 to convince Job that he was a sinner deserving his condition, an effort which neither helped Job nor convinced him of guilt. After Job's bitter reply with its descriptions of infinite power and wisdom, it opens Elihu's admirable discourse, which did not help Job much.
It belongs to the section presenting Elihu's argument and reproof to Job. More fully, it belongs to the instructive discourses of Elihu in chapters 32-36, which come before God speaks to His servant in chapters 38-41. It stands in the third of the four parts of the book of Job, the speeches of Elihu in chapters 32 to 37, coming after the prologue in chapters 1 and 2 and the debate between Job and his three friends in chapters 4 to 31, and before the speeches of the Lord out of the storm-cloud. The book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible and the oldest poetical book that has come down.