32:1–5 We are told in verse 1 why Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar “ceased to answer Job”: because they deemed him “righteous in his own eyes.” This phrase perhaps means “self-righteous” but certainly includes the exasperating idea that Job will not admit guilt. Then we are introduced to Elihu. Like the three friends, we are given reference to his father (2:11; 4:1; 8:1; 11:1): he is the “son of Barachel the Buzite” (32:2). We also learn that he is “of the family of Ram” (v. 2). What is most important, however, is not his lineage but his emotional state. Because no good “answer” has been given to Job (vv. 1, 3, 5), Elihu “burned with anger” (vv. 2, 3, 5). Such anger, unlike the Lord’s anger in 42:7, is a mix of righteous and unrighteous anger. Elihu is angry at the three friends because they have accused Job of wrongdoing (“they had declared Job to be in the wrong”; 32:3b) but have produced no solid evidence of sin (“they had found no answer”; v. 3a; cf. v. 5). This may well be righteous anger. He is right that they are wrong. However, is he right when he accuses Job of justifying “himself rather than God” (v. 2b)? If not, as we will suggest below, then his anger is off base.

32:6–22 Some Job scholars have become too soft on Elihu. While we are in the camp that equates him with John the Baptist (he prepares the way of the Lord, who will speak right after him), we are not in the camp that almost comes across as saying, “among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than” him (Matt. 11:11). In reaction to the historical consensus that Elihu is eccentric, angry, and arrogant, some commentators today claim that Elihu can do no wrong. Such a conclusion is wrong. And some of the wrongness of that interpretation is demonstrated in the wrongheadedness of Elihu’s first words.

While Elihu might be honest in his opening statement (Job 32:6–7), his hesitancy to speak can also be read in the voice and tone of Charles Dickens’s classic character Uriah Heep. As Heep consistently talks about how humble he is, the reader senses that something is amiss. Elihu might have waited to speak, as he states, because young men should not interrupt their elders or speak out of turn:

    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.” (vv. 6–7)

But we have taken the view, based on what follows, that he is not as respectful of his elders or as “timid” as he suggests. The word “but” at the start of verse 8 stands out as a massive transition from his stated humility. (In wisdom literature to stay silent rather than to speak is usually wise.) Elihu begins his long speech with a true statement about how wisdom comes from God (“it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand”; v. 8), not necessarily or automatically from life experience (“it is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right”; v. 9; cf. Ps. 119:100). Poetically, we can note the carefully laid out similarities and contrasts:

In light of this possibility, Elihu feels justified in opening his mouth: “Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me; let me also declare my opinion’” (v. 10). With this contrast he is implying that the “breath of the Almighty” (v. 8) is breathing words into his ear that God has not breathed into the “old”/“aged” Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar (v. 9).

Elihu perhaps knows that his claim (vv. 8–10) might come across as over-confident. So next, with a mixture of confidence in what he is about to say and nervousness over to whom he is about to say it, he feels the need first to justify himself further. It is not just that a young man, in principle, can know more than someone old (vv. 8–9); it is also that the three wise men have not said anything wise. “Listen [“behold”],” he says in effect, “I listened to your rebukes and arguments against Job [“I listened for your wise sayings,” v. 11b; “I gave you my attention,” v. 12a]—quite patiently, I might add [“I waited for your words, . . . while you searched out what to say”; v. 11ac]. The problem, however, is that all three of you did not prove that Job was wrong in what he said or did [“there was none among you who refuted Job or who answered his words”; v. 12bc] And now what do you do? Nothing! Your tongues are tied. It is no excuse to say that the wisest thing to do now [“we have found wisdom”] is to hope for God to rise up and drive Job completely away from your presence [“God may vanquish him”; v. 13]. You cannot wait for God to kill Job while you mutter, ‘We did what we could. Our best shot was a good shot. Now, it is time for God to shoot the target in the heart.’ I will wait no longer [“and shall I wait, because they do not speak, because they stand there, and answer no more?”; v. 16]. You might be discouraged [“dismayed”] from the war of words you have not won, so much so that you have nothing left to say [“they answer no more; they have not a word to say”; v. 15]. But I am ready to go! Job has not yet been in the ring with me [“he has not directed his words against me”; v. 14a]. And rest assured, he will not know what hit him when I use my left hook—some new and inspired logic [“I will not answer him with your speeches”; v. 14b].”

Elihu is indeed ready to go. He spends four verses telling everyone just how ready he is:

    I also will answer with my share;

    I also will declare my opinion.

    For I am full of words;

    the spirit within me constrains me.

    Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent;

    like new wineskins ready to burst.

    I must speak, that I may find relief;

    I must open my lips and answer. (vv. 17–20)

We find plenty of first-person personal pronouns on the lips of blameless Job, but the many pronouns here (“I,” “my,” and “me,” twelve times in four verses!) are a bit over the top, especially as there is a drama-queen attitude from this young man attached to them. Does he need to add a third “behold” (vv. 11, 12, now v. 19; sixteen times in six chapters!)? Is he sure that God’s spirit is within him, that what he is about to say will be purer than what Job and the three friends have said (v. 18; cf. v. 8)? Is he so constipated with great rebuttals to Job’s stupid speeches (“I am full of words”; v. 18) that if he does not “find relief” (v. 20a) he will “burst” like unvented wine in “new wineskins” (v. 19)? Must he really speak (“I must speak”/“I must open my lips”; v. 20)?

Elihu ends his long-winded introduction to his forthcoming speech by speaking more. His introduction needs a conclusion (obviously), a conclusion in which he assures the world that what he is about to say is pure. A third justification:

Why will Elihu (presumably unlike the three friends) be impartial and abandon all obsequiousness? The answer is easy: he does not know how to do otherwise (“for I do not know how to flatter”; v. 22a), and if he did know how to do such a wicked thing (which he does not!), he knows that God would eradicate him instantaneously (“else my Maker would soon take me away”; v. 22b). What a flair for drama.

33:1–33 This chapter records Elihu’s first speech. It is a twofold rebuke to Job (“But now, hear my speech, O Job,” v. 1; “Pay attention, O Job, listen to me,” v. 31). First, Elihu rebukes Job for claiming to be innocent (vv. 9–12). Second, he rebukes Job for not grasping that God has already spoken to Job (vv. 13–23). Both rebukes are ungrounded, but the second one adds a new and important idea to the debate.

In 32:18–20, Elihu spoke of needing to “find relief” (32:20) from all of the words fermenting inside him (“I am full of words,” 32:18; “I must speak”/“I must open my lips,” 32:20). In chapter 33, the wineskins crack (vv. 1–5), then burst (vv. 6–33). In verses 1–5, as well as verses 31–33, Elihu speaks a lot about speaking: “hear my speech . . . and listen to all my words” (v. 1); “my words . . . my lips . . . speak” (v. 3); “pay attention . . . listen to me . . . I will speak . . . listen to me . . . I will teach you” (vv. 31–33). And some of his statements about speaking are so redundant they almost belittle the simple beauty of the art of Hebrew parallelisms (e.g., “Behold, I open my mouth; the tongue in my mouth speaks”; v. 2).

At both the top (vv. 1–5) and the tail (vv. 31–33), Elihu calls on Job to listen to him. In these verses he gives three reasons why this would be wise. First, his words come from a pure heart and serious and sober thinking on the matter (“My words declare the uprightness of my heart, and what my lips know they speak sincerely”; v. 3). Second, his basis for speaking is grounded in God. God has created him:

God has also, implied here (cf. 32:8, 18; 33:14), given him words to say. Elihu speaks because God has given him wisdom (cf. 32:13). Thus he can boldly declare in his final line of the first speech, “Be silent, and I will teach you wisdom” (33:33). Third, Elihu offers a simple solution to Job’s dilemma. Justification! Vindication! “I desire to justify you” (v. 32b). How? It is easy: if Job would only admit his guilt before God (say, “I sinned”; v. 27), then God would graciously “accept” (v. 26a), “deliver” (v. 24b), “ransom” (v. 24c), “redeem” (v. 28a), “bring back” (v. 30), and “restore” (v. 26c; cf. vv. 25, 28b, 30b). While Elihu claims to have something new to say, these three reasons are no different from those of the three friends. The friends did not have some deep, dark ulterior motives (2:11). They too claimed to be God-made and God-inspired (e.g., 4:12–16). They offered Job justification through confession of sin, which would lead to redemption and restoration (22:21–30).

While Elihu offers no new rationale for listening to him, he does bring fresh arguments to the debate (32:12–22). We will explore these soon. First, however, Elihu finds it necessary to rebuke Job for claiming innocence. Before this rebuke, Elihu seeks to level the playing ground (33:6–7). We might imagine him like a school principal who starts a conversation with a student who is about to be expelled with gentle and affirming words before lowering the hammer of discipline. “Behold,” Elihu states, “I am toward God as you are; I too was pinched off from a piece of clay” (v. 6). Put differently, “We are both humans, created out of the earth by God.” So, “Behold [his favorite word], there is no need to be afraid of me [“no fear of me need terrify you”]; I will take it easy on you [“my pressure will not be heavy upon you”; v. 7].” Yeah, right! Not a second later, the weight of an elephant of accusatory words falls on Job’s head. This is all that Job needs—some “patronizing” disclaimer followed by a personal pounding.147

The personal pounding is no different than what Job has received thus far. Having listened carefully to the debate (“you have spoken in my ears, and I have heard the sound of your words”; v. 8), Elihu claims that Job’s claim below is false. “Behold [again!], in this [vv. 9–11] you are not right” (v. 12a).

    You say, “I am pure, without transgression;

    I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me.

    Behold, he finds occasions against me,

    he counts me as his enemy,

    he puts my feet in the stocks

    and watches all my paths.” (vv. 9–11)

Elihu exaggerates Job’s assertion of innocence (cf. 9:20). Job never claimed sinless perfection, only that there was not some sin that caused his calamities. He is even open to some unknown sin, if God would only reveal it to him (7:20), or some sin from his youth as the cause (13:26). However, Elihu does summarize well enough Job’s assertion that God has acted as his adversary by seeing (16:9; cf. 19:11) and seizing him. In 13:24 Job said to God, “Why do you . . . count me as your enemy?” (cf. 16:9; 19:11) and in 13:27, “You put my feet in the stocks and watch all my paths; you set a limit for the soles of my feet.”

The basic reason that Elihu believes Job is not right in claiming that he is innocent and God guilty (33:12a) is that Job has reversed the roles: “God is greater than man” (v. 12b). And because God is greater than man, a man like Job cannot “contend against him” (v. 13a). God is not obliged in any way to answer any of Job’s attestations of innocence or assertions against him (“He will answer none of man’s words”; v. 13b). Moreover, there is no need for God to say anything when he has already spoken. In verses 14–22, Elihu lays out two ways in which God regularly speaks (“God speaks in one way, and in two”), ways that are often missed by man (“though man does not perceive it”; v. 14).

First, God speaks through dreams, a familiar concept in the Bible that spans from the patriarchal era (Gen. 20:3, 6–7) to the birth of Christ (Matt. 1:20) and the Christian church (Acts 2:17).

    In a dream, in a vision of the night,

    when deep sleep falls on men,

    while they slumber on their beds,

    then he opens the ears of men

    and terrifies them with warnings. (Job 33:15–16)

The purpose of such nightmares is to suppress sin (“that he may turn aside from his deed”), subdue pride (“conceal pride from a man”; v. 17), and warn men of the consequences of unconfessed sin: death (God, through the dreams, “keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword”; v. 18). Job himself has experienced such nightmares (“you [God] scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions”; 7:14). However, he has not seen them as revelatory, and certainly not as revealing his sins or provoking him to confession or repentance.

Second, God speaks through suffering: “Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed” (33:19a). In verses 19b–22, Elihu details such pain. Man’s body aches (“with continual strife in his bones”; v. 19b); his appetite is suppressed and oppressed (he “loathes” both the basics, like “bread,” and delicacies, “the choicest food”; v. 20); “his flesh” is so emaciated that he is see-through (“so wasted away that it cannot be seen”), and “bones” that usually are unseen—like the rib cage and hips—now “stick out” (v. 21). God is screaming to him in the suffering, “Stop sinning before it is too late!”

Elihu’s insight—God speaks through suffering—is a crucial Christian concept. He is ahead of his time! The cross of Christ is God’s ultimate revelation. It is God’s bullhorn to wake up an indifferent world. But again, Elihu is assuming that Job is guilty of not listening to God in the suffering and not grasping that the pain is not punitive or purgative but preventive.148 But is Elihu right? Is God trying to prevent Job from sinning, as he does with Paul (2 Cor. 12:7)? Is this general principle—God speaks through suffering—true for Job? Is it “the reality . . . that Job has been deaf and not that God has been dumb”?149 We do not think so. Job 3–31 depicts Job as waiting to hear even the faintest whisper from God, and chapters 38–41 depict God as finally, and for the first time, speaking. So again, in our estimation, like the three friends Elihu offers some wise counsel but not necessarily the counsel Job needs.

And if there is one thing that Job certainly does not need to hear, it is a short sermonette on his need for repentance and the guarantee of restoration for his definite mortal illness. But alas, such is what follows (33:23–30). As stated above, Elihu offers a simple solution to Job’s dilemma: if Job would only admit his guilt before God (“prays to God”; v. 26a) and others (“he sings before men and says: ‘I sinned and perverted what was right’”) and that the punishment he got was more lenient than he deserved (“and it was not repaid to me”; v. 27), then God (cf. v. 29) would graciously and joyously (“he sees his face with a shout of joy”; v. 26b) restore his health and wealth. Job’s sad song will turn into a song of salvation: “He sings before men and says: . . . ‘He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light’” (vv. 27a, 28).

A similar if-then solution is offered by Eliphaz in his “Agree with God” sermon (22:21–30). What is new here is that Elihu takes seriously Job’s desire for a mediator (cf. 9:32–35; 16:19; 19:25). He proposes the possibility of a heavenly messenger (“an angel”) who will speak on behalf of Job (“for him”; 33:23a). If such a creature exists, he is rare (“a mediator, one of the thousand”; v. 23b). And if he spoke for God to man, he would say basically what Elihu has said and will say.150 He would “declare to man what is right for him” (v. 23c), namely, to find God’s mercy through confession of sin (v. 27). This confession will serve as man’s “ransom” (v. 24c), one that will “deliver him from going down into the pit” (v. 24b, parallel with v. 30a) and restore his good old (young!) life: “his flesh [will] become fresh with youth”; he will “return to the days of his youthful vigor” (v. 25); he will be “lighted with the light of life” (v. 30b).

34:1–37 Is Elihu only a pathetic prophet like Jonah? No. He may be going the wrong way, but unwittingly. Moreover, as shown above, he adds a few important new contributions to the conversation. However, he may be overly optimistic as he pauses between 33:33 and 34:1 to see what Job will say. Will Job answer him (“answer me”; 33:5, 32)? Job for the first time offers no answer. Is his silence because he agrees with Elihu or because he has had enough fighting with fools? Likely there is a mix of both. Whatever his flaws, Elihu is preparing the way for the Lord to speak, and, however bitter Job might feel after two chapters of the angry young man telling him what is what in the world, Job will listen in silence. Perhaps he is hoping for a treasure of truth, however small, to come from the misguided messenger.

Yet, in Elihu’s second speech (34:2–37), Job will only hear more overly simplistic deductions from the novice theologian. Elihu, once again “confident that he has deciphered the puzzle that has baffled Job,”151 calls the crowd around him to learn how he has put the pieces together. He begins,

The “wise men” here (v. 2), and in verses 10, 16, and 34 (“men of understanding”) do not include Job (he is counted among the wicked and “speaks without knowledge; his words are without insight”; v. 35). Elihu might also exclude Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, in whom he has found no wisdom (32:11–14). His audience, then, are those who listen to him (“hear my words”/“give ear to me,” 34:2; “hear me,” v. 10; “hear this”/“listen to what I say,” v. 16) and consider his words wise (“the wise man who hears me”; v. 34b). They are those who can discern “what is right”/“what is good” from what is wrong/bad (v. 4), just as a refined palate can taste the difference between a meal made by a master chef and one made by the cook at the local diner (cf. v. 3).

The heart of this speech is a defense of God’s justice (esp. vv. 10–30), as the main issue that Elihu has with Job is that Job denies that God is fair. The structure of his argument is as follows: it begins with what Job has supposedly said (“For Job has said,” v. 5; “For he has said,” v. 9) and should say (“For has anyone said”; v. 31), followed by Elihu’s replies (vv. 7–8, 10–30, 33–37). The first claim that Job has made, according to Elihu and rearranged by him, is that God has denied just Job justice:

    For Job has said, “I am in the right,

    and God has taken away my right;

    in spite of my right I am counted a liar;

    my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.” (vv. 5–6)

While it is accurate that Job has repeatedly asserted his innocence (e.g., 6:28–30; 9:15; 27:2–6), questioned God’s fairness (e.g., 19:6–8), and seen God as warring against him (e.g., 6:4; 16:13), Elihu’s representation is not completely fair. Elihu never gives or gets the context in which Job’s words are spoken. Job is actually an innocent sufferer! Moreover, Job has more to say than these three claims. For example, what does Elihu make of Job’s heartfelt cries to God or acknowledgements of God’s greatness?

Elihu does not have time to consider the full picture. Indeed, he has no categories for Job’s seemingly ridiculous claims. Thus with his damning rhetorical question he renders perhaps the harshest—and certainly the most overstated and untrue—verdict:

    What man is like Job,

    who drinks up scoffing like water,

    who travels in company with evildoers

    and walks with wicked men? (34:7–8)

There is simply no evidence to support a description of Job as the vilest man on earth (“what man is like Job?”). Can anyone really envision Job as sipping on sin (“drinks up scoffing like water”) as he walks side by side with the wicked (“travels . . . with evildoers”)?

In verse 9, Elihu advances Job’s second claim: “For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God.’” Has Job ever said that it does not pay to please God? In 9:29–31, he admits struggling with living righteously if it leads only to a condemnable existence. And in 21:15 Job says that the wicked say, “What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?” But again, Elihu has deduced too much. His paraphrase of Job’s position is a stretch and a direct contradiction of Job’s answer to Satan’s question (1:9). Job does not follow God for the perks.

More than that, like Elihu’s rebuke above (34:7–8), his second rebuke (vv. 10–30) is over the top and unnecessary. As much as he rejects and denounces the three friends, what he says here simply echoes and affirms what they themselves have said. Because of this, some commentators suggest that no one replies to Elihu’s four speeches because they have all fallen asleep during the sermon. This is easy enough to do when the preacher is preaching the same points we have heard for nearly thirty chapters!

Point one is that God is good (“far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong”; v. 10bc) and, consequently, is just (“God will not do wickedly”; he “will not pervert justice”; v. 12). Point two is that God demonstrates such justice through enforcing the retribution principle:

Point three is that God is a self-appointed sovereign (“Who gave him charge over the earth, and who laid on him the whole world?”; v. 13) who has such absolute control over creation that he can destroy people whenever he wants (“If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust”; vv. 14–15).152 Point four, based on points one, two, and three, is that it is inappropriate to accuse a sovereign, good, and just God of acting unjustly. Comparing God to a just king, Elihu asks two rhetorical questions:

    Shall one who hates justice govern?

    Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty,

    who says to a king, ‘Worthless one,’

    and to nobles, ‘Wicked man,’

    who shows no partiality to princes,

    nor regards the rich more than the poor,

    for they are all the work of his hands? (vv. 17–19)

With the first question Elihu assumes that the answer is obvious: God, like a righteous and mighty king, loves justice and thus governs by it. With the second question, Elihu emphasizes that God, like an impartial king, does not show favoritism: he never favors the powerful over the powerless or the rich over the poor.

In verses 20–30 Elihu moves beyond the analogy of God as a good earthly king and judge to his status as the almighty God who sees all (“his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps,” v. 21; he knows “their works,” v. 25a) and judges all without any need for a drawn-out court case (“God has no need to consider a man further. . . . He shatters the mighty without investigation”; vv. 23–24). Even the seemingly invincible (“the mighty”; vv. 20, 24), who think they have gotten away with evil, are soon found out (“there is no gloom or deep darkness where evildoers may hide themselves”; v. 22), promptly punished (“in a moment they die; at midnight the people are shaken and pass away,” v. 20ab; “he overturns them in the night, and they are crushed,” v. 25b) directly by God (“are taken away by no human hand,” v. 20c; “he strikes them for their wickedness” for turning aside “from following him” and “his ways” and for afflicting “the poor,” vv. 26–28), and replaced (God “sets others in their place”; v. 24b). God acts justly! He makes sure that wicked rulers are deposed. He does not allow a “godless man” to “reign” and “ensnare the people” (v. 30). Thus only a godless man (like Job!) would ever condemn God for the way he rules the world. Job must learn the lesson of verse 29: if God chooses to be silent (“when he is quiet”/“when he hides his face”), there is no man or nation in a position to find him (“who can behold him?”) and pass judgment on him (“who can condemn?”). God rules however he sees fit.

So, if Job wants to say anything further (“for Job has said,” v. 5; “he has said,” v. 9), Elihu suggests, he should learn from God’s disciplinary hand (cf. Prov. 3:11–12) that his sins should be confessed, not his God condemned. Job should say, “I have borne punishment; I will not offend any more” (Job 34:31b) and “Teach me what I do not see; if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more” (v. 32). However, it is rare for people to do so (“has anyone said” such things “to God”; v. 31a). Job certainly has not done so yet.

Elihu ends his second speech by turning to Job (v. 33), then to what he assumes the wise will say about his brilliant assessment (vv. 34–35), and finally to all who are sitting at his feet and awaiting his climactic conclusion (vv. 36–37). First, he says to Job (the “you” is singular in v. 33) in effect, “Let me make clear to you that you have rejected God’s terms. God is not going to reward you [“make repayment to suit you”]. You have a choice to make [“you must choose”]. I look forward to your making a wise decision. Let me know what you decide [“declare what you know”].” Then Elihu adds what will be the response of the wise:

It is not enough that Elihu calls Job an idiot and does so through a pretend response to a sermon that is not finished. He must end with a curse (hoping that Job will experience even further punishment: “would that Job were tried to the end”; v. 36a) and four unfeeling and ungrounded accusations (vv. 36b–37):

(1)  “He answers like wicked men.”

(2)  “He adds rebellion to his sin.”

(3)  “He claps his hands among us.”

(4)  “[He] multiplies his words against God.”

35:1–16 This shorter third speech begins with Elihu’s answering (“And Elihu answered and said”; v. 1) his own assertions. We might be surprised that he does not answer with self-congratulations, “Amen, preach it, brother!” But in light of the whole of the sermon, perhaps that would be the better option instead of once again lowering the hammer on poor Job. The word “you” (fourteen times) in the singular (namely, you Job) are the fourteen nails he uses to drive home his point that God is so great that he does not care about the superficial cries of sinners like Job.

Elihu starts with a loaded question to Job, “Do you think this to be just?” (v. 2a). The “this” follows: Elihu wants to know if Job thinks he is right in claiming, “It is my right before God” (v. 2b), the sense being, “I am right and God is wrong,” or perhaps, “I am righteous before God.” Elihu also wants to know if Job really believes what he has supposedly stated before, “What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?” (v. 3). These are twisted and exaggerated representations of Job’s cries to God for help and pleas to his friends to bring true wisdom to the inexplicable situation. They are loosely based on overhearing Job’s press conferences: “[God,] you know that I am not guilty” (10:7a); “[God,] what profit do [I] get if [I] pray?” (21:15b); “[God,] far be it from me to say that you [in context: the friends, not God] are right; till I die I will not put away my [absolutely perfect] integrity” (27:5). These are “press conferences,” by the way, given while Job is under an amazing amount of duress.

Now, while Elihu asks Job a question, “Do you think this to be just?” (35:2), it is not a serious question to Job; it is a strawman that has been set up to push down and burn. The clause “I will answer you and your friends with you” (v. 4) is perhaps the most arrogant statement in the Bible. How condescending! After putting words in Job’s mouth, now Elihu makes sure his own words of “wisdom” are heard, because, after all, that is the only wisdom that can possibly shed light on this situation. Distorting Job’s heartbreaking question, “What is man, that you make so much of him?” (7:17a), Elihu orates:

    Look at the heavens, and see;

    and behold the clouds, which are higher than you.

    If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him?

    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?

    Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself,

    and your righteousness a son of man. (35:5–8)

The gist of this section of the third sermon is simple; it is merely an expansion of Eliphaz’s earlier ponderings (22:2–3). God is too big and Job is too small for him to pay attention to Job’s puny pleas. Both Job’s righteousness and his unrighteousness might affect other human beings, but they do not affect God. But we have read the prologue, and Elihu has not, so we might be lenient here, or we might be disgusted by this deistic view of God. The latter is more appropriate. As Christians we know that God is both transcendent and immanent. We also sense that this is how Job understood God and has spoken about him. To Job, the struggle is with his theological convictions (God is not a distant and detached deity but a near and involved friend) and his experience (God seems distant and detached from his sufferings, so far removed and unfriendly).

Things get worse for Job. The sermon continues. Elihu next discounts Job’s heartfelt lamentations as hypocritical defamations. When most people are in trouble because the “arm of the mighty” is oppressing them (35:9), they finally beg God to do something: “Save me!” Job is like these foxhole atheists. But Elihu asks, in effect, where the really righteous person is who wonders, “Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?” (vv. 10–11). Elihu is a confused deist, if he is indeed the founding member of the club. Out of one side of his mouth he says, “The First Cause does not care about earthlings,” but out of the other side he chides, “Why are there not more pious prayers from the pinnacle of creation (humans) to the glorious Creator, the One who provides and protects his people?” We know that this young man must not have gone to seminary yet, but still there is something wickedly amiss here.

This sort of nastiness continues for the rest of this sermon. It will, however, find its resting place, as Jonah does in Nineveh, when Elihu finally speaks the word of the Lord. However, first we come to verses 12–16. They are sickening: Job is being repeatedly stabbed in the soul. He has said that he cannot see what God is up to (“I do not perceive him”; 9:11), that he wishes for some sort of legal hearing before his Judge (23:4; 31:35), that he hopes that God might rescue him (13:15; 14:14) and yet that it seems as if God is not playing fair (9:24; 12:6; 21:17). But what does Elihu do with these statements? He “takes Job’s words and spins them so that they sound like an arrogant rejection of God.”153

Elihu claims that Job, and people like him, “cry out” to God but “he does not answer” or “regard” their petition because “the pride of evil men” makes God indifferent to their “empty cry” (35:12–13). He claims that the more Job complains and waits for some imaginary court case, the worse he makes matters (“How much less when you say that you do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!”; v. 14). What then? Well, because God is so distant and detached—“his anger does not punish” and “he does not take much note of transgression” (v. 15; Elihu is hoping to impress everyone with his high view of God)—Job’s words are like dandelion petals trying to survive a hurricane. A chasing after the wind. Vanity of vanities (“empty” in v. 16a is Hb. hebel). “Job opens his mouth” (v. 16a), and what comes out? Mere breath; smoke in the air; dust in the wind. Job “multiplies words without knowledge” (v. 16b). Ouch. What wicked theology.

36:1–25 But wait! Finally, Jonah has arrived at Nineveh. “Please,” we readers say, “give us a God-inspired message, pathetic prophet. Give us some message from God!” Every Christian reader can rejoice that, in some perverted way, Elihu has asserted God’s justice and extolled his greatness. But surely, when we come to Elihu’s final two chapters—in which he proclaims the good news of God’s majesty—we realize that, however flawed an ass of a messenger he may be (cf. Balaam’s donkey from Num. 22:21–39), there is truly something both profound and preparatory here.

After Elihu introduces his fourth speech with an arrogant admission of divine inspiration (“I have yet something to say on God’s behalf. I will get my knowledge from afar”; Job 36:2–3) and God-like wisdom (“one who is perfect in knowledge is with you”; v. 4),154 he then rightly exalts God’s power. His favorite word, “behold,” is used four times in chapter 36 to emphatically introduce this main point.

    Behold, God is mighty, and does not despise any;

    he is mighty in strength of understanding. (v. 5)

    Behold, God is exalted in his power;

    who is a teacher like him? (v. 22)

    Behold, God is great, and we know him not;

    the number of his years is unsearchable. (v. 26)

    Behold, he scatters his lightning about him

    and covers the roots of the sea. (v. 30)

In these verses above, God’s power is linked to his wisdom and his wisdom to his justice, with the point being that God’s cosmic authority assures his wise governance and judgment of the world.

While Elihu’s tone has softened, his theological position has not changed. In verses 5–25 the same broken record is played, Retribution Principle’s Greatest Hits. Job has to sit and listen to more of this off-key album. Elihu’s perfect knowledge is for Job personally (“you,” “your,” and “yourself,” fourteen times in ch. 35). What Job presumably needs to know is what he has already heard, namely, that God is using suffering to save him from his sin and that Job needs to be willing to submit to this discipline and allow God to correct him. The principle is laid out plainly in verses 5–15 and the application in verses 16–25. Verses 5–15 focuses mostly on God. He is powerful, wise, and fair (v. 5). Evil men are judged (“he does not keep the wicked alive”) and the oppressed saved (he “gives the afflicted their right”; v. 6). His watchful protection (“he does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous”) assures that good people prosper, promoting them as rulers (“but with kings on the throne he sets them forever, and they are exalted,” v. 7; or the sense of v. 7b might be that God raises up good kings to rule over these good people). However, if these good people sin (“their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly,” v. 9b; “iniquity,” v. 10b), God sends some suffering to wake them up!

    Then he declares to them their work

    and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.

    He opens their ears to instruction

    and commands that they return from iniquity.

    If they listen and serve him,

    they complete their days in prosperity,

    and their years in pleasantness.

    But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword

    and die without knowledge. (vv. 9–12)

The godly hear God’s voice in the pain and return to him: “They listen and serve him” (v. 11a). And what happens? God rewards the righteous:

And what happens to those who will not listen? “If they do not listen, they perish by the sword and die without knowledge” (v. 12). “They die in youth, and their life ends among the cult prostitutes” (v. 14). An unexpected, violent, and disgraceful death awaits those who will not learn from the school of suffering (“the godless in heart” who stay angry and “do not cry for help when he binds them”; v. 13).

Elihu wants Job to understand that this general principle—that God “delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity” (v. 15)—is good news for Job personally. Through the gift of punitive pain, God is wooing Job out of the slough of despond (“he also allured you out of distress”), seeking to move him to a safe place (“into a broad place”), free from suffering (“where there was no cramping”) and with a feast awaiting him (a “table . . . full of fatness”; v. 16). Basically, all that Job needs to do is to say what the psalmist says: “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word” (Ps. 119:67). But what has Job done instead? The opposite. And for this Elihu lays into him: But you! “But you are full of the judgment on the wicked; judgment and justice seize you” (Job 36:17).

In verses 18–25 Elihu offers five admonitions: “beware” (v. 18), “do not long for” (v. 20), “take care” (v. 21), “behold” (v. 22), and “remember” (v. 24). First, he warns Job that, even though his loss has been great (“let not the greatness of the ransom”),155 he should still return to God (do not let the losses “turn you aside”; v. 18b) and should certainly not allow his anger to lead to any mocking of God (“beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing”; v. 18a). The loud angry cries need to stop, as they are not helping Job’s cause: “Will your cry for help avail to keep you from distress, or all the force of your strength?” (v. 19). Second, Elihu warns Job not to “long for the night” (v. 20a; perhaps an allusion to death), because there is no safety even in sleep (“when peoples vanish in their place”; v. 20b—perhaps alluding to criminal activities that happen at night [cf. 24:14–17], including murder [24:14; cf. 36:12]).

Third, Elihu accuses Job of choosing to sin in the pain rather than listening to the pain (“for this you have chosen rather than affliction”; v. 21b), and he exhorts him to stop such wicked behavior (“take care; do not turn to iniquity”; v. 21a). Fourth, instead of touting his innocence and demanding his rights, Job needs to acknowledge God’s power (“Behold, God is exalted in his power”), wisdom (“who is a teacher like him?”; v. 22), sovereign freedom (“Who has prescribed for him his way . . .”), and justice (“or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’?”; v. 23). Fifth, Job also needs to “remember to extol [God’s] work” (v. 24a), joining all mankind in noticing God’s justice (see Deut. 32:4, “his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice”), mighty deeds (see “work”/“mighty deeds” in Ps. 77:12), and creation (see Job 37:14, 16; “All mankind has looked on it; man beholds it from afar,” 36:25) and even singing about it (“of which men have sung”; v. 24b; cf. Ps. 77:6, “Let me remember my song in the night”).

36:26–37:24 While the admonitions above are excellent and would apply in many situations to many people, once again they do not fit Job. Elihu’s assessment is inaccurate. However, an important shift has occurred in 36:22. As Elihu says “Behold, God is exalted in his power,” he moves the discussion beyond Job alone to everyone listening and reading. He wants us all to behold God! And, as he in 36:26–37:24 “breaks into [his] hymn of praise to the God of creation,”156 we sense that Elihu might indeed “have yet something to say on God’s behalf” (36:2) about God that is true even in Job’s situation. The two key admonitions here are to (1) “stop and consider the wondrous works of God” (37:14) so that we might (2) “fear him” (37:24). Both of these tie into important ideas in chapters 1–2 and 28. They also connect closely with what God himself will ask Job to do in 38:1–40:2 and 40:6–41:34, and what Job himself will do in 40:3–5 and 42:1–6.

The first admonition focuses on God’s awesome power displayed throughout creation, from the sun (the “light”; 37:21) to the “roots of the sea” (36:30b). Elihu especially focuses on God’s control (“he draws up,” 36:27a; “he scatters,” 36:30a; “he covers,” 36:32a; he “commands,” 36:32b; “he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’” 37:6a) of storms, including clouds (36:29a), thunder (36:29b), lightning (36:32; 37:3b, 11b, 15b), rain (“drops of water,” 36:27a; “skies pour down,” 36:28a; “downpour,” 37:6b), snow (37:6a), ice (37:10), and winds (37:9, 17). In such storms, God speaks:

    Keep listening to the thunder of his voice

    and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.

    Under the whole heaven he lets it go,

    and his lightning to the corners of the earth.

    After it his voice roars;

    he thunders with his majestic voice,

    and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard.

    God thunders wondrously with his voice;

    he does great things that we cannot comprehend. (37:2–5)

Both man and beast acknowledge God’s power (36:33; 37:7–8), but only man can hear God in the storm and “fear him” (37:24a). This is Elihu’s second main admonition. In context, to fear God is not only to be in awe of his awesomeness (“God is clothed with awesome majesty”; 37:22b) or to shake before his presence (“my heart trembles and leaps out of its place”; 37:1); it is also to acknowledge that God governs the world justly (with the same storm “he judges” some people and “gives food in abundance” to others, 36:31; “for correction . . . or for love,” 37:13) and that human beings cannot teach God how to run the world (37:19–20), because we do not fully comprehend how he controls everything:

    Behold, God is great, and we know him not;

    the number of his years is unsearchable. (36:26)

    Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds,

    the thunderings of his pavilion? (36:29)

    God thunders wondrously with his voice;

    he does great things that we cannot comprehend. (37:5)

    Do you know how God lays his command upon them

    and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?

    Do you know the balancings of the clouds,

    the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge,

    you whose garments are hot

    when the earth is still because of the south wind? (37:15–17)

    The Almighty—we cannot find him;

    he is great in power;

    justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate. (37:23)

This is the meaning of the remark that God “does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit” (37:24b). Those who fear God know that they do not know what God knows, and they know that God has wise designs for the ways in which he rules his creation.

All of this is another rebuke to Job (“Hear this, O Job”; 37:14), but this time it is a right rebuke, as it aligns with what God himself will say next. God, whose voice thunders (40:9; cf. 37:2) as he speaks out of a whirlwind (38:1; 40:6; cf. 37:9), will refer to his rule of creation, including clouds (38:9, 34, 37), rain (38:25a, 28), snow (38:22), lightning (38:25b, 35), ice (38:30), and “springs of the sea” (38:16).