Job 32:16

When I had waited, (for they spake not, but stood still, and answered no more;)

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
waited	וְ֭הוֹחַלְתִּי Ve.ho.chal.ti	H3176	to wait · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
spake	יְדַבֵּ֑רוּ ye.da.Be.ru	H1696	perhaps properly · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
still	עָ֝מְד֗וּ 'a.me.Du	H5975	to stand · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
answered	עָ֥נוּ 'A.nu	H6030	properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Job 13:5 O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.
Proverbs 17:28 Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.
Amos 5:13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
James 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 32:15–end

Three things here apologize for Elihu's interposing as he does in this controversy which had already been canvassed by such acute and learned disputants: - 1. That the stage was clear, and he did not break in upon any of the managers on either side: They were amazed (Job 32:15); they stood still, and answered no more, Job 32:16. They not only left off speaking themselves, but they stood still, to hear if any of the company would speak their minds, so that (as we say) he had room and fair play given him. They seemed not fully satisfied themselves with what they had said, else they would have adjourned the court, and not have stood still, expecting what might further be offered. And therefore…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 32:15

Here Elihu turns from the friends to Job: and so passes from the second person to the third; a transition frequent in a rebuke (Job 18:3-4). they left off--Words were taken from them.

Adam Clarke on Job 32:16

When I had waited - I waited to hear if they had any thing to reply to Job; and when I found them in effect speechless, then I ventured to come forward.

John Gill on Job 32:16

When one had waited,.... To observe whether they would make any reply to what he had said, or any objection to his engaging in the controversy: for they spake not; were as mute as fishes: but stood still; like statues, had no power to move, neither to sit down nor to depart, but were as if all life, sense, and motion, were gone from them: and answered no more; or not at all; for it does not appear that they had given him any answer before, as well as not now.

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 32:15-17

15 They are amazed, they answer no more, Words have fled from them. 16 And I waited, for they spake not, For they stand still, they answer no more. 17 Therefore I also will answer for my part, I will declare my knowledge, even I. In order to give a more rapid movement and an emotional force to the speech, the figure asyndeton is introduced in Job 32:15, as perhaps in Jer 15:7, Ew. 349, a. Most expositors render העתּיקוּ passively, according to the sense: they have removed from them, i.e., are removed from them; but why may העתיק not signify, like Gen 12:8; Gen 26:22, to move away, viz., the tent = to wander on (Schlottm.)? The figure: words are moved away (as it were according to an encampme…

The Church Fathers

"I waited, and they did not speak," he seems to turn to Job saying this.
— Augustine of Hippo, ANNOTATIONS ON THE BOOK OF JOB (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Because therefore I have waited, and they have not spoken, they have stood, and have answered no more. Wise men are accustomed to make it the limit of their speaking, to speak so far as to silence their adversaries. For they wish not to display their own powers, but to put down the teachers of heresy. But after it is said of the friends of Job, They were afraid, they answered no more, they removed speech from themselves, Eliu subjoins and says, I have waited, and they have not spoken; they have stood, and have answered no more. Even when they are already silent, he yet multiplies his words, because, being an arrogant man, and representing the character of the arrogant, he is in haste not merely to refute the arguments of his opponents, but to display his own wisdom.
— Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIII

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Elihu — Whose God is he. (1.) “The son of Barachel, a Buzite” (Job 32:2), one of Job’s friends. When the debate between Job and his friends is brought to a close, Elihu for the first time makes his…

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Job 32:16

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 32:15–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 32:15

Adam Clarke on Job 32:16

John Gill on Job 32:16

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 32:15-17

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Job 32:16

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 32:15–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 32:15

Adam Clarke on Job 32:16

John Gill on Job 32:16

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 32:15-17

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Job 32:15-16

Rashi on Job 32:15