Elihu

Elihu is a figure in the Hebrew Bible, appearing in the Book of Job. He is described as a young man, the son of Barachel the Buzite, from the family of Ram. He enters the narrative after Job's exchanges with his three friends and speaks in a supplemental discourse, found in Job chapters 32–37.

In his speeches, Elihu rebukes both Job and the three friends for failing to give a satisfactory account of God. He asserts that God is wise and just, and that human beings cannot fully comprehend divine ways. He argues that suffering can be a means of divine instruction rather than punishment for a faultless person, and that God communicates through various means, including dreams and natural phenomena. He emphasizes the sovereignty of God and cautions against presumptions about human righteousness or guilt.

Textually, Elihu’s speeches precede God’s theophany in the whirlwind (Job 38–41). The status of Elihu within the text is a matter of scholarly debate: some view him as a later addition to the original narrative, while others treat his words as an integral, if debated, part of the Book of Job. In the final section, God rebukes Job’s three friends for not speaking rightly about Him; Elihu is not explicitly rebuked or commended in that divine speech, leaving his exact theological reception a topic of interpretation.

The name Elihu means “My God is He” or “God is He” in Hebrew.