Buz

Buz, whose name means contempt or despised, appears in two contexts in the Old Testament. The first is as the second son of Nahor and Milcah, Abraham's brother and sister-in-law (Gen. 22:21), making him a nephew of Abraham and a member of the broader Terahite family that gave rise to both the Israelites and the Aramean peoples. A Buzite region in northern Arabia is also associated with the name.

The more theologically significant appearance of Buz is through his descendant Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, the fourth and final interlocutor in the book of Job (Job 32:2). Elihu is notably angry with both Job for justifying himself rather than God and with the three friends for failing to answer Job adequately, and his speeches (Job 32–37) prepare the way for God's speeches from the whirlwind. Jeremiah 25:23 lists Buz among the nations that will drink the cup of God's wrath in judgment, placing the region in the orbit of the broader ancient Near East subject to prophetic reckoning.