I will answer thee - Margin, “return to thee words.” Elihu meant to explain this more fully than it had been done by the friends of Job, and to show where Job was in error.
And thy companions with thee - Eliphaz, in Job 22:2, had taken up the same inquiry, and proposed to discuss the subject, but he had gone at once into severe charges against Job, and been drawn into language of harsh crimination, instead of making the matter clear, and Elihu now proposes to state just how it is, and to remove the objections of Job. It may be doubted, however, whether he was much more successful than Eliphaz had been. The doctrine of the future state, as it is revealed by Christianity, was needful to enable these speakers to comprehend and explain this subject.