The following extract is taken from Robert Sutherland’s new book “Putting God on Trial: The Biblical Book of Job” (Trafford, Victoria, 2004) It is reproduced with his permission and he retains the copyright. Mr.Sutherland is a Christian Canadian criminal defense lawyer instrumental in changing the Canadian law on aggravated assault and solicitor-client privilege. He is a Senior Fellow at the Mortimer J. Adler Centre for the Study of the Great Ideas. And he is a member of St.Stephen’s Anglican, Thunder Bay. The book has received high praise from Job scholars: David Clines, Norman Habel and Gerald Janzen and the Review of Biblical Literature.. The manuscript and order information are online at http://www.bookofjob.org

Elihu

Job’s Oath of Innocence calls for an answer from God. Yet Elihu boldly steps forward to give an answer that only God can give.[1]

The author of The Book of Job tempts the reader to welcome what Elihu might say, by describing Job as “righteous in his own eyes”. (Job 32:1) The reference to “in his own eyes” should not seduce the reader, though it is surprising how many readers go astray at this point. Job is righteous and he knows it. The author and God have declared him righteous three times already. Job has repeated that claim to integrity. He has bolstered it with an Oath of Innocence, whereby he has put his temporal and eternal life on the line. It is all staked on his righteousness. Job is righteous in his own eyes and rightly so. Yet many assume Job is a sinner to demand that God give an answer to the question of why there is evil in the world.

But from then on, the author of The Book of Job undercuts everything that Elihu has to say. Elihu is presented as a “Buzite”. His lineage has contributed to his character. The Hebrew noun “buz” means contemptuous or contemptible and occurs several other times in The Book of Job (Job 12:5,21; 31:34) with that sense.[2] The reader is being warned that Elihu is contemptuous and contemptible. The real deconstruction of everything Elihu has to say however is fourfold.

(a) The author introduces Elihu as an angry youth, frustrated with Job and his three friends.

“So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became angry. He was angry at Job because he justified himself rather than God; he was angry also at Job’s three friends because they had found no answer, though they had declared Job to be in the wrong. Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were older than he. But when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouths of these three men, he became angry.” (Job 32:1-5 italics added)

Anger and youth are not qualities valued in the wisdom traditions of the ancient world. In fact, since Elihu is described as angry four times and four is the symbolic number for fullness, the author is saying Elihu is out of control.

(b) The author then has Elihu describe himself as a windbag in the most comic of ways.

“Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite answered: “I am young in years, and you are aged; therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you. I said, ‘Let days speak, and many years teach wisdom.’ But truly it is the spirit in a mortal, the breath of the Almighty, that makes for understanding..Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me; let me also declare my opinion.’..I also will give my answer; I also will declare my opinion. For I am full of words; the spirit within me constrains me. My heart is indeed like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins, it is ready to burst. I must speak, so that I may find relief; I must open my lips and answer.” (Job 32:6:-8, 10, 17-20 Italics added)

Elihu claims to be filled with the spirit of the Almighty (Job 32:8), but he strangely describes himself as being filled with the spirit of wine to such an extent that he has to vent. (Job 32:18-20) The key phrase here is “the spirit within me constrains me.” (Job 32:18b) The NRSV does not do justice to the comic Hebrew here. That spirit with which Elihu is filled is not the spirit of the Almighty. The Hebrew there is literally “the spirit or wind of my belly swells.” Elihu is bloated and puffed up by his arrogance. He is about to fart. The spirit or wind of his belly is nothing but fermenting gas.[3] The venting of that gas and bloating is flatulence and defecation. This is not the description of God’s chief spokesman; it is the description of Satan’s dupe. And it is a timeless way of saying that all Elihu’s words are but flatulence or defecation. All Elihu has to say is crap for it is nothing more than the opinion of an arrogant youth with no respect for his elders.

(c) The author has Elihu contradict himself in a most serious way on the nature of what has to say. Elihu admits twice that what he offers is opinion, not knowledge. (Job 32:6,17) Elihu then turns around and claims he has the perfect knowledge only God could have. “For truly my words are not false; one who is perfect in knowledge is before you.” (Job 36:4) Yet the reader knows or should know by then that all Elihu has to offer is opinion not knowledge. (Job 32:6,17) And that opinion is crap.

(d) The author has Elihu promise he will not show partiality (Job 32:21) and repeat the arguments of Job’s friends. (Job 32:14) Yet that is precisely what he does. And those arguments will later be condemned by God himself. (Job 42:7)

On the denial of Job’s moral purity, Elihu claims: “You [Job] say ‘I am clean without transgression; I am pure, and there is no iniquity in me.but in this you are not right.” (Job 33:9,12) This claim merely repeats Eliphaz’s earlier two comments: “Can mortals be righteous before God? Can human beings be pure before their Maker?” (Job 4:17) “What are mortals , that they may be clean? Or those born of woman, that they can be righteous?” (Job 15:14), Zophar’s earlier comment: “For you say, ‘My conduct is pure and I am clean in God’s sight.’ But oh, that God would speak and open his lips to you.” (Job 11:4-5) and Bildad’s earlier comment: “How then can a mortal be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure?” (Job 25:4)

On the nature of Job’s character, Elihu claims: “Who is there like Job, who drinks up scoffing like water.” (Job 34:7) That claim merely repeats Eliphaz’s earlier comment: “how much less one [Job} who is abominable and corrupt, one who drinks iniquity like water.” (Job 15:17)

On the importance of Job to God, Elihu claims: “If you [Job] have sinned, what do you accomplish against him [God]? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? If you are righteous, what do you give to him; or what does he receive from your hand?” (Job 35:6-7) That claim merely repeats Eliphaz’s earlier comment: “Can a mortal be of use to God? Can even the wisest be of service to him? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?” (Job 22:2-3)

On the denial of the legitimacy of Job’s moral claim against God, Elihu claims: “Far be it from God that he should do wickedness and from the Almighty that he should do wrong.Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice.” (Job 34:10,12) “You [Job] say, ‘I am in the right before God’.Job opens his mouth in empty talk, he multiplies words without knowledge.” (Job 35:1,16) These claims merely repeat Bildad’s comment: “How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind? Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? (Job 8:2-3) and Eliphaz’s comment: “Should the wise answer in windy knowledge and fill themselves with the east wind? Should they argue in unprofitable talk.” (Job 15:1)

On the punishment Job allegedly deserves, Elihu claims: “Would that Job were tried to the limit, because his answers are those of the wicked.” (Job 34:36) That claim merely repeats Zophar’s earlier comment: “Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.” (Job 11:6) and Eliphaz’s earlier comment: “Is not your wickedness great?” (Job 22:5)

In spite of his questionable credentials, Elihu condemns Job four times. Job is a sinner. It is blasphemy to force God’s hand. It is blasphemy to demand that God give an answer to the question of why there is evil in the world.

(a) Elihu expressly rejects Job’s blamelessness: his cleanliness and purity.

“You say, ‘I am clean, without transgression; I am pure, and there is no iniquity in me. Look, he finds occasions against me, he counts me as his enemy; he puts my feet in the stocks, and watches all my paths.’ “But in this you are not right. I will answer you: God is greater than any mortal. Why do you contend against him, saying, ‘He will answer none of my words’?” (Job 33:9-13 Italics added for emphasis)

Elihu clearly has Job’s moral cleanliness and moral purity in mind as the companion phrases “without transgression” and “no iniquity” confirm. Elihu claims Job is in fact a man of iniquity, a sinner. His sin is his claim that God is the author of evil. God treats or “counts” him as his “enemy.” (Job 33:10) He predicts God will not answer any of the words of such a sinner. (Job 33:13) God will soon prove Elihu a false prophet on both points.

(b) A short time later, Elihu unwittingly adopts a position that Satan himself has presented in the first scene in heaven.

“Let us choose what is right; let us determine among ourselves what is good. For Job has said, ‘I am innocent, and God has taken away my right; in spite of being right I am counted a liar; my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’ Who is there like Job, who drinks up scoffing like water, who goes in company with evildoers and walks with the wicked? For he has said, ‘It profits one nothing to take delight in God.’ “Therefore, hear me, you who have sense, far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong. For according to their deeds he will repay them, and according to their ways he will make it befall them. Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice.”(Job 34:5-12 Italics added for emphasis)

Elihu cannot conceive of a selfless love for God free from selfishness. That was Satan’s position. And Elihu is quick to pass judgment on Job for saying so. It would be an act of wicked and injustice for God not to reward the righteous. Through those words, Elihu has unwittingly condemned God.

(c) And a short time after that, Elihu describes Job as a wicked fool, deserving more evil than that which he has already suffered.

“Job speaks without knowledge, his words are without insight.’ Would that Job were tried to the limit, because his answers are those of the wicked. For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God.” (Job 34:35-37)

In Jewish theology, rebellion (disloyalty) is perhaps the greatest sin imaginable. Elihu describes Job as one of the greatest sinners imaginable. He merits one of the greatest possible punishments. This is a far cry from the consolation and comfort Job’s friends first came to give.

(d) And Elihu ends his criticism of Job with a repetition of his earlier comments.

“Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it. How much less when you say that you do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him! And now, because his anger does not punish, and he does not greatly heed transgression, Job opens his mouth in empty talk, he multiplies words without knowledge.”..Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it. How much less when you say that you do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him! And now, because his anger does not punish, and he does not greatly heed transgression, Job opens his mouth in empty talk, he multiplies words without knowledge.” (Job 35:1-8, 13-16)

God will neither hear Job’s cry nor give it any regard. Almost as he says this, the golden whirlwind can be heard and seen on the horizon (Job 37:1-2, 22-23). God has heard and attends to the cry of his beloved son Job.

Job has previously warned his friends, Elihu included, not to show deceit or partiality on behalf of God when discussing the question of why there is evil in the world.

“Hear now my reasoning, and listen to the pleadings of my lips. Will you speak falsely for God, and speak deceitfully for him? Will you show partiality toward him, will you plead the case for God? Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one person deceives another? He will surely rebuke you if in secret you show partiality. Will not his majesty terrify you, and the dread of him fall upon you? Your maxims are proverbs of ashes, your defenses are defenses of clay.” (Job 13:6-12)

They are not to prejudge the case in favor of God. They have all done so, Elihu most of all.

Early in his speeches, Elihu promised: “I will not show partiality to any person or use flattery toward anyone. For I do not know how to flatter– or my Maker would soon put an end to me!” (Job 32:21-23)

Yet as with everything else, Elihu promises more than he delivers. Despite his promises, Elihu prematurely condemns Job and prematurely acquits God. In doing so, Elihu is condemned by the words of his own mouth. The evil in the world constitutes a prima facie case of wrongdoing on the part of God. Only God can answer those charges. Elihu flatters himself when he thinks he can speak for God.

Elihu’s comments here may be suggestive of his final fate. “Or my Maker would soon put an end to me!” (Job 32:21-23) As he describes the majestic coming of God, “his heart trembles and leaps out of its place.” (Job 37:1) God is about to answer Job, something Elihu never dreamed possible. And Elihu probably suspects that a stern rebuke awaits him for his own presumption, a rebuke that will end his life. He is filled with the “terror” and the “dread” of which Job spoke. (Job 13:11) In such circumstances, it is probable this unstable youth flees the coming of his judge.

At least, Elihu disappears at this point in the book, never to reappear again. He is certainly not present for God’s condemnation of Job’s three friends. Were he present for that condemnation, that condemnation would certainly include him. His words were more vicious and more presumptuous than those of Job’s friends. In all likelihood, this Judas has fled the scene of his crime. And failing to remain and take responsibility for his great sins, he is not in a position to be forgiven by God when Job ultimately asks for forgiveness for his friends.

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[1] Many scholars would delete all of Elihu’s speeches as an interpolation of a later editor. They are wrong to make the attempt. The earliest extant manuscripts all include those speeches. And those speeches provide an important anti-climax to the three cycles and a certain comic relief following the intensity of Job’s Oath of Innocence.

[2] Good, E., In Turns of Tempest: A Reading of Job (Standford University, Standford, 1990) p. 320.

[3] Habel, N., The Old Testament Library: The Book of Job (Westminister Press, Philadelphia, 1985) pp. 444-445, 453-454

Newsom, C.A., The Book of Job in The New Interpreter’s Bible: Volume 4 (Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1996) p. 564.

Good, E., In Turns of Tempest: A Reading of Job (Standford University, Standford, 1990) p. 323.

Rowley, H.H., The New Century Bible Commentary: The Book of Job (William B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1976) p. 207.