Job 35 and Elihu and book of Job

In his third speech, Elihu turns his attention from the friends to Job. He already has addressed Job at length (32-33), and his focus in that passage was on the variety of ways that God might be trying to communicate with Job in his distress. In chapter 33 Elihu focused on two points Job made in his speeches, his purity and God's reluctance to answer him, and emphasized only the second [i.e., God speaks in three ways]. Now, in Job 35, Elihu also alludes to two points, Job's rightness (35:2) and his belief that the religious life brings no benefits for the one who practices it (35:3), and again only answers the second.

Job's Complaint

Elihu attributes the following sentiment to Job: "What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned (35:3)?" It is a classic complaint of the beleaguered religious person, and though Job doesn't precisely say these words, his references to the benefits that the unjust enjoy (Job 21; Job 24) imply it. 'What is the benefit of just and blameless living, and what is the advantage of my integrity, and why should I have so scrupulously sacrificed and cleaned up after my children (1:5), if all I have to look forward to is this immobilizing distress?'

Elihu's Response

Elihu answers Job's complaint in two ways. First, he reiterates an earlier word of Eliphaz to the effect that a mortal's righteouness neither benefits God nor does sin really hurt God (Job 22). In Elihu's words, "If you are righteous, what do you give to him; or what does he receive from your hand? Your wickedness affects others like you, and your righteousness, other human beings (35:7-8)."

But this is really not the focus of Elihu's concern. In words of immense depth and beauty, Elihu recites two reasons why religion is of value to mortals. People may cry to God for help, but "no one says, 'Where is God my Maker, who gives strength in the night, who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the air (3:10-11)?'"

Strength in the Night

Both of Elihu's reasons for the value of religion are tied to specific complaints of Job. Had not Job earlier said, "When I say, 'My bed will comfort me, and my couch will ease my complaint,' then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions (7:13-14)"? Had not Job also complained that he was alloted "months of emptiness" and "nights of misery (7:3)"? So, Elihu's word here is designed specifically to answer Job in his situation. 'Instead of the nights of misery or the nightmares that terrify you,' he says, 'why not look at these visitations as gifts of a God who wants to provide strength in the night?' By construing Job's vivid realities in a different way than the settled interpreation Job had given them, Elihu is enabling Job to separate his pain from the interpretation of his pain. And this is the first step in learning to reconceptualize the meaning of human pain.

God the Teacher

Elihu's second point is that God, and not the animal or natural realm, is the proper teacher for Job. Though God does not hear the empty cry of those who make a legal case (35:14), he does teach Job. Hadn't Job tried to draw object lessons from nature (from the tree or the mountain in Job 14:9, 19)? More to the point, hadn't Job said that it was so obvious God was behind his distress that all one need do is "ask the plants of the earth" and "the fish of the sea" and they all knew "that the hand of the Lord has done this (12:8-9)"? Elihu is gently correcting Job's view. It is as if he is saying, 'Job, it is not enough to stop with object lessons from nature. In fact, God wants to teach you directly about this event. God does not want a legal process, however. Your words are empty words, but God still wants to teach you.'

Elihu has gradually been weaning Job away from his distress while still maintaining a conection with the friends. Rather than being a "boring" set of speeches that scholars attribute to a "later" period, the speeches function perfectly to help Job consider that there might be other, legitimate, life-affirming interpretations of his pain. And, in Job 36-37, Elihu will give one such interpretation.

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