Job 32 and Elihu and book of Job

Elihu has gotten a bad rap from Job scholars. Most of them look at his speeches as a later insertion in the book, even though they are not very clear on how, when, by whom or under whose authority or what circumstances this insertion took place. Some scholars also criticize his thoughts as banal. Professor Edwin Good, a leading Job scholar, dismisses his speeches as "boring." I disagree with the good professor in these four mini-essays. My major point will be that Elihu plays a crucial role in the development of the book and that his construal of Job's distress, especially in Job 36, provides a prism for Job to extricate himself from the interpretive prison in which he is confined.

Elihu--First Impressions

Our first impression of Elihu might not be too different than that of Professor Good. Elihu has three strikes against him as he speaks. First, he is a young man in a tradition that honored elders (32:6). Second, he is angry. Four times in the narrative portion of chapter 32 (1-5) his anger is recounted. Anger is the enemy of reasoned and deliberate exposition of wisdom. Third, he is wordy. We might have received the impression that Job and the friends never stop speaking, but Elihu is even worse than they are. It takes him a full 25 verses to "warm up;" he does not address Job's situation specifically until 33:8. As he himself confesses, "For I am full of words (32:18)." The unwary reader is prepared to set him/herself up for a long and boring sojourn with this young man.

Elihu Listens

It would be a mistake to look at things this way. In 33:8-11 we hear Elihu characterize Job's complaint. Three things strike us about that characterization. First, it is very precise. He actually quotes words that Job has said. Granted, his first words attributed to Job, "You say, 'I am clean, without transgression (33:9),'" may be a liberal reading of Job's words in 16:17, 9:15 or 10:15, but it is not a direct quotation of Job. But when he attributes the following to Job: "he counts me as his enemy (v.10)," he is quoting Job's words at 13:24 and 19:11, and when he says, "he puts my feet in stocks and watches all my paths (v.11), that is a direct quotation of 13:27, "You put my feet in the stocks, and watch all my paths." Second, he is different from the other friends in the precision of his quotation. They may at times allude to Job's attitude or words; never do they quote him directly. This leads to the third point, that Elihu was really the first person who actually listened to Job. My reading of Elihu's contribution to Job's ultimately being able to "hear" God's words in 38-41 is based on the notion that Job finally was heard by someone else. Rather than identical quotations being "boring," they are indicative of a most profound psychological truth--we become willing to modify our construal of events precisely when others show that they are listening to us.

Elihu's Truth--32:12-33:33

In the remainder of Elihu's first discourse, he makes one suggestion, illustrated through three examples, of what the "meaning" of Job's suffering is. His central point is that Job's experience is the occasion for God to speak him in a special way. "For God speaks in one way, and in two, though people do not perceive it (33:14)." Elihu then illustrates three ways that God may speak to a person: (1) through dreams and visions (33:15-18); (2) through the chastening bed of pain (33:19-22); and, most remarkably, (3) through the ministrations of a mediator (33:23-25). Job thought that the dreams he had in the night were examples of divine torment (7:14); now Elihu is gently suggesting they may be the occasion of God's talking to Job. Likewise, Job lamented his suffering, feeling that it was an example of how God "hated" him (16:9); Elihu will give an alternative explanation. Finally, the mediator, whom Job himself has mentioned (in 19:25, though the word is "goel" in 19:25 and "melits" in 33:23), is the instrument of graciousness and delivery.

In other words, Elihu's major point, after we wade through the bluster of his original words, is that God may be trying to get Job's attention through his current condition. His advice may be summarized as follows: 'Job, even though the conditions are sorely painful to you, why don't you look at them as God's attempt to get your attention, to communicate something of special importance to you?' Already we see how Elihu is intelligently interpreting Job's dilemma in a way that will ultimately lead Job to see things differently.

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