Verse Lens · Context pointer
Job 32:4 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 4. 4Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they were elder than he.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
Job 32:4 advances the thought unit with the words “Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they were elder than he.” The prose narrator develops the next stated step through “Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they were elder than he” as part of The Three Friends Stop and Elihu's Anger Is Introduced.
Read It With
- Job 32:1–32:5
Read Job 32:4 with 32:1–32:5. Read alone, “Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they were elder than he” could lose its speaker, the question or claim it develops, and the unit's outcome. The complete movement establishes: The friends cease because Job is righteous in his own eyes, and the narrator introduces Elihu's lineage and anger at both Job and the friends.
Why It Needs Context
Job 32:4 depends on 32:1–32:5; isolating “Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they were elder than he” would detach a poetic premise, image, response, or transition from The prose narrator and “The Three Friends Stop and Elihu's Anger Is Introduced.”
Read Job 32:1–5 together
Why these verses belong together: Job 32:1–32:5 follows the pinned KJV paragraphing and holds together one sustained prose scene: “The Three Friends Stop and Elihu's Anger Is Introduced.” The next unit begins with a new stanza, question sequence, scene, speaker response, or rhetorical turn.
Verse 1. 1 So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.
Verse 2. 2 Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram: against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God.
Verse 3. 3 Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.
Verse 4. 4 Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they were elder than he.
Verse 5. 5 When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, then his wrath was kindled.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Job 32:1–32:5 — The Three Friends Stop and Elihu's Anger Is IntroducedSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? probable
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 32:1–32:5, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 32:1–32:5
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗