And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, I [am] young, and ye [are] very old; wherefore I was afraid, and durst not shew you mine opinion.
Ver. 6. I am young, and ye are very old] Yet was he nothing inferior to any of them in wit, piety, and learning; he had lived long in a little time, and was (as one saith of Macarius) μειρακιογερων, an "old" young man (Niceph.); as if he had been an Alban born, qui albo crine nascuntur, who come into the world hoar headed, as did Seneca; and thence had his name, as Cassiodorus thinketh, quod canus, quasi senior natus sit, Canitiem habent auspicium capillarum (Solin). Some young men are ripe early, and more ready headed than their ancients; as David was, Psalms 119:100, and as Solomon was, a child king, but very wise; contrarily, his son and successor Rehoboam entered into the kingdom at a ripe age, yet Solomon was the man and Rehoboam the child. Age is no just measure of wisdom. There are beardless sages and greyheaded children. Not the ancient are wise, but the wise is ancient as Elihu will tell us in the next verses.
Wherefore I was afraid, and durst not show you mine opinion] Heb. my knowledge; that is, the truth, so far as I understand it, siquid ego aut capio, aut sapio, if I have any judgment. Thus he delivers himself in modest terms, using many prefaces. And if hereafter he seem to boast, and set up himself above the rest, as he doth, it is out of his zeal for God, whose honour he seeketh, and not his own. The words here rendered, I was afraid and to show, are both Syriac. Elihu, by his family of Ram or Aram may seem to be that countryman, and to have a touch of that dialect, as Livy had of his Patavinity.