Elihu—The Straight Dope

Anyone who has read the book of Job carefully has probably been perplexed by the intrusion, in chapters 32-37, of a brash young man named Elihu. There is a certain unguardedness about him:

Behold, my belly is like unvented wine,
Like new wineskins it is about to burst.
Let me speak that I may get relief;
Let me open my lips and answer.

-- Job 32:9-10

At the same time he has the idealism of youth:

My words are from the uprightness of my heart,
and lips speak knowledge sincerely.

-- Job 33:3

It is difficult to see what Elihu adds to the narrative. Even more, nobody takes any notice of what he says. Neither God nor Job give any indication that he has spoken. This has caused some to speculate that the speech of Elihu is a later interpolation, put in by someone who was unsatisfied with the book and wanted . . . what?

Because Elihu’s speech doesn’t make sense as an interpolation. A casual reading would make one think that he is either repeating what Job’s friends said, in a somewhat more intemperate and forceful way, or anticipating what God says (i.e. Job 37, where Elihu reflects on the majesty of God’s rule of natural phenomena). If this is the case, then what is the point of adding it? Is it merely a poetic tour-de-force?

Others find Elihu’s speeches to be a more profound critique of Job, where Job’s friends give merely accusatory or simplistic answers. Elihu points out that God can use suffering to redirect someone:

Why do you complain against Him
That He does not give an account of all His doings?
Indeed God speaks once,
Or twice, yet no one notices it.
In a dream, a vision of the night,
When sound sleep falls on men,
While they slumber in their beds,
Then He opens the ears of men,
And seals their instruction,
That He may turn man aside from his conduct,
And keep man from pride; 
He keeps back his soul from the pit,
And his life from passing over into Sheol.

-- Job 33:13-18

Elihu goes on to apply this to the suffering that men experience.

But Elihu’s critique of Job goes deeper and higher. In fact, Elihu is something of a nihilist in his view of God and Job’s ability to connect with Him. He says,

Then Elihu continued and said,

Do you think this is according to justice?
Do you say, `My righteousness is more than God's'?
For you say, `What advantage will it be to You?
What profit will I have, more than if I had sinned?'
I will answer you,
And your friends with you.
Look at the heavens and see;
And behold the clouds--they are higher than you.
If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against Him?
And if your transgressions are many, what do you do to Him?
If you are righteous, what do you give to Him,
Or what does He receive from your hand?
Your wickedness is for a man like yourself,
And your righteousness is for a son of man.

-- Job 35:1-8

In fact, from start to finish Elihu sees an unbridgeable gap between man and God: “. . . For God is greater than man . . . ” (32:12).

God’s insight and justice are so great that he doesn’t even need to investigate evildoers:

For He does not need to consider a man further
That he should go before God in judgment.
He breaks in pieces mighty men without inquiry,
And sets others in their place.

-- Job 34:8

In ch. 37 Elihu meditates on the power and majesty of God as one who brings lightning and has perfect knowledge. Job is so much lesser in power and understanding than God that he cannot imagine even bringing his case before Him:

Listen to this, O Job,
Stand and consider the wonders of God.
Do you know how God establishes them,
And makes the lightning of His cloud to shine?
Do you know about the layers of the thick clouds,
The wonders of one perfect in knowledge,
You whose garments are hot,
When the land is still because of the south wind?
Can you, with Him, spread out the skies,
Strong as a molten mirror?
Teach us what we shall say to Him;
We cannot arrange our case because of darkness.
Shall it be told Him that I would speak?
Or should a man say that he would be swallowed up?

-- Job 37:14-20

Elihu disparages the ability of a human to stand as a peer to God—he cannot even stay cool when the south wind ceases. There is no common ground where a man can stand before God and present a case or speak before him.

The Almighty--we cannot find Him;
He is exalted in power
And He will not do violence to justice and abundant righteousness.
Therefore men fear Him;
He does not regard any who are wise of heart.

-- Job 37:23-24

With this discourse Elihu closes the door on any possibility that Job might get what he has previously asked for:

Oh that I had one to hear me!
Behold, here is my signature;
Let the Almighty answer me!
And the indictment which my adversary has written,
Surely I would carry it on my shoulder,
I would bind it to myself like a crown.
I would declare to Him the number of my steps;
Like a prince I would approach Him.''

-- Job 31:35-37

All along Job has expressed hope that he could confront God—that he could meet him face to face and hash things out with him. If only God would show up! Let me know what His problem is! We can work it out—or at least I’ll know what I did wrong. Elihu says that this is impossible.

And this makes the following account tremendously ironic. Elihu’s six-chapter-long discourse saying how impossible it is for man and God to communicate face to face is followed by God himself making an appearance, demanding that Job—communicate face to face with him!

Here I think we see the purpose of Elihu’s speeches. Job’s three friends give the normal, stock answers to suffering: you deserved it; God knows the secrets of your heart and sees your evil; the very fact of your suffering proves that you have sinned. The wicked are always punished; what makes you think you will be any different?

Elihu goes beyond that. God is just literally by definition. It makes no sense to think that God would ever do unrighteousness. But the problem is that man is so much lesser than God that he cannot understand anything about God. Nor can he expect that God will justify himself; it would be impossible for man to understand such a justification. Everything about reality proclaims that God is so much above man that there can be no meeting between them. Thus the tension of Job’s plight is heightened; even Job’s confidence that there is an answer and that if he could only confront God everything would become clear is called into question.

Admittedly at one point Job himself seemed uncertain about this:

If it is a matter of power, behold, He is the strong one!
And if it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?
Though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me;
Though I am guiltless, He will declare me guilty.

-- Job 9:19-20

Chapter 9 captures this existentialist despair, but it is followed by an appeal to God: “I will say to God, `Do not condemn me; / Let me know why You contend with me’ ” (10:2). The theme throughout Job’s speeches is that if only he could confront God it would all be OK.

Again, Elihu’s discourse seeks to destroy any confidence in that thesis. He makes the point more strongly than any of Job’s friends. Job, you can’t win. You can only submit. It doesn’t even make sense to think you can actually bring your case before God. “The Almighty—we cannot find him . . .” (37:23).

And this is where God shows up. At the point of highest despair, when all is lost, God does exactly what Job wants—though by no means in the way Job expects or asks for. Job wants to ask God questions; God appears and asks Job questions. And He demands an answer:

Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm and said,

Now gird up your loins like a man;
I will ask you, and you instruct Me.
Will you really annul My judgment?
Will you condemn Me that you may be justified?
Or do you have an arm like God,
And can you thunder with a voice like His?
Adorn yourself with eminence and dignity,
And clothe yourself with honor and majesty.
Pour out the overflowings of your anger,
And look on everyone who is proud, and make him low.
Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him,
And tread down the wicked where they stand.
Hide them in the dust together;
Bind them in the hidden place.
Then I will also confess to you,
That your own right hand can save you.

-- Job 40:6-14

The point of God’s discourse is not, however, that God is bullying Job. Rather, God is meeting him and answering him. There is a huge difference between Job and God—but there is also common ground. God speaks in terms Job can understand, showing how much bigger reality is than Job’s circumstances. God is managing much greater forces—Behemouth and Leviathan. Does Job think that God’s creation has escaped Him or gotten the better of Him? That Job’s suffering is beyond God’s ability to deal with?

Job’s answer shows that he is reconciled:

Then Job answered the Lord and said,

I know that You can do all things,
And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
`Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?'
Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
`Hear, now, and I will speak; 
I will ask You, and You instruct me.'
I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear;
But now my eye sees You;
Therefore I retract,
And I repent in dust and ashes.

-- Job 42:1-6

This is not the reply of one who is terrified, cowering and hiding in fear. Job is reconciled because he has stood face-to-face with God; he has seen him with his eye. That is what he asked for all along; that was his hope. And in the event, even though the experience was nothing like what he expected, it was enough.