rounds of speeches in chapters 4–27, with everyone becoming more agitated, so that at the end of the section their communication falls apart. At this point, the narrator interjects a poem in praise of wisdom in chapter 28, which serves to refocus attention on the key theme of the fear of the Lord, the foundational principle of wisdom (see Prov. 9:10). Job then speaks in chapters 29–31, culminating with a challenge to God to answer him (31:35). A young man, Elihu, then unexpectedly speaks up in chapters