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Person Old Testament

Barachel

Also known as Barachel =ESV, KJV; Barakel =NIV

Barachel the Buzite was the father of Elihu, one of the men who spoke to Job. Mentioned in 2 verses across 1 book, first at Job 32:2.

Why it matters. The father of Elihu, one of Job's friends.

Primary passages
Last reviewed
2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team

About Barachel

Barachel is mentioned in Job.32.2 and Job.32.6 as the father of Elihu, one of the men who engaged in a dialogue with Job. Barachel is described as a Buzite, indicating that he was from the region of Buz, possibly located in northern Arabia or southern Edom. Elihu, his son, is introduced as a younger man who had been listening to the conversation between Job and his three friends (Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar). After the three friends had finished speaking, Elihu became angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God and with the friends for not refuting Job's arguments effectively. Elihu then proceeded to present his own perspective on Job's situation and God's justice. Apart from being Elihu's father and a Buzite, no other information is provided about Barachel himself.

Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.

Connections

No reviewed connections yet.

Family

Family links from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0). Where the dataset marks an identification as uncertain, the mark is kept. Matthew and Luke give different genealogies for Jesus; see the Lineage page, which never merges them.

Children
Elihu

Appears in Scripture

Named in 2 verses across 1 book. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.

Record type: Person. FaithGraph explanations on this page are editorial and are not Scripture.