Elihu asserts that God 'does not preserve the life of the wicked, but gives the afflicted their due right,' suggesting that God's justice involves both punishing the wicked and vindicating the righteous. This verse presents a principle: God actively works against the wicked, allowing them to suffer the consequences of their actions, while God ensures that the afflicted receive justice. The principle seems clear: wicked people do not prosper indefinitely, while the righteous are eventually vindicated. Yet Job's situation complicates this principle: Job is righteous, yet he is afflicted; if the principle operates as Elihu states it, Job's affliction should not be happening. The verse reveals that Elihu's principles, while potentially true at some general level, do not account for the particular exceptions and complications that Job's suffering represents. The verse demonstrates a persistent feature of Elihu's argument: he states general theological principles that are difficult to dispute in the abstract but that fail in particular application.

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