What is the context?
Elihu proposes a humble request for instruction and a resolve not to repeat wrongdoing. He asks whether God should govern according to Job’s preferred terms.
He then declares Job’s words lacking in knowledge and wishes for him to be tried to the utmost, accusing him of adding rebellion. The severity remains part of the speech despite the call for humility.
The reader should neither dismiss every invitation to correction nor automatically make this wish the narrator’s instruction to prolong someone’s suffering. The book has not yet given God’s direct answer.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley understands the proposed response as willingness to learn what one cannot yet see and interprets the wish for trial as a thorough testing of the case. That explains his favorable reading without erasing how severe the language sounds to a suffering person awaiting help.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.
Where can I study this further?
No deeper study linked yet.