Job 4:1-5 and eliphaz and job and eliphaz's words and words of encouragement

[*Let's start with this footnote. We all know the adverb 'gingerly' means cautiously or carefully. But, when I wanted to use the word as an adjective, which would naturally be 'ginger,' to express the same cautious thought, I searched in vain in the Collegiate Dictionary and Webster's Third New International Dictionary for such a meaning. Finally, I discovered that there were two attested uses of "ginger" as an adjective in the Oxford English Dictionary. One of those two meanings, it says "=Gingerly." Thus, I felt vindicated, even though the most recent quotation given by the OED in which ginger is used to mean "cautions" is more than 100 years old. The more normal meaning of "ginger" is energy, spirit, mettle or pep (no doubt derived from the "kick" that the spice gives you). I muse as to why the two adjectival meanings of ginger would be so different from each other, but it is a musing which I won't try to solve here. Suffice it to say that I use "ginger" above to mean "careful" or "cautious."]

When Eliphaz begins to speak he faces a dilemma in his opening words (4:2). On the one hand, he feels a sense of inadequacy. How can he say anything that might help Job in the least in his suffering? On the other hand, he says, "who is able to hold back from speaking?" He is almost forced, therefore, both to continue the silence that engulfed the friends from the begininng and to speak out of the silence. But, he decides to speak. As I have argued elsewhere, he does not speak as we have come to expect the friends to speak. That is, he seems concerned, solicitous, and gently exhortative of Job. His tone in 4:2-5, in my judgment, is not a cynical or judgmental one; rather, he seems gently to chide his friend to put on the same faith and perseverance which he had urged others to don when they faced personal crises. Eliphaz, then, will begin his speech as an exemplary expression of reasonable, cautious and supportive friendship.

Eliphaz's Vocabulary

What was striking to me as I read through Eliphaz's first words in the Hebrew text of Job is that how many of them were picked up, almost uniquely, by JOB later in the book. This essay will illustrate those usages, and try to come up with a theory of what Job's later mention of the words themselves or the concepts they illustrate might suggest for the interpretation of the Book of Job.

Six words or concepts used by Eliphaz in 4:2-5 are interesting. (1) Both in 4:2 and 4:5 he uses the word for "become weary" (laah) to express his concern that Job might be weary or unable to hear his words (v.2) or that Job's distress might have worn him out (v.5). The only other time laah appears in Job is when Job accuses God of wearing him out (16:7).

(2) Eliphaz wonders who can "hold back" (atser) from speaking when Job faces such immense losses (v.2). Job, in 29:9, uses the same word to describe how princes "held back" their words (in fear) when he rendered judgment. Atser is also used by Job in 12:15 to describe God's holding back waters.

(3) The verb hazak (strengthen) in v.3 is the common word for strength or strengthen in the Bible. Though Job doesn't use the word later to describe himself or God, the entire narrative of 29:1-17 can be used as an interpretation of this word. Job, in short, was a "strengthener" of vulnerable people.

(4) The very popular verb qum, meaning to rise and, in the Hiphil tense, to make stand or set up, is used by Eliphaz in 4:4 to describe how Job "supported" those who were stumbling. But qum appears only one other time in the Hiphil in Job, and that is in 16:12, where Job criticizes God for setting him up as God's target.

(5) Job also has strengthened (amats) weak knees (v.5) according to Elihpaz. This verb is uniquely used later in the book by Job, also in Job 16, to describe how God has strengthed foes against him (16:5).

(6) Finally, Eliphaz asserts in v.5 that now that this torment, which other people shared, has touched Job, he is "terrified" (bahal). This verb only appears two other times in Book of Job, both times in Job's mouth (21:6; 23:16).

What to Make of Eliphaz's Borrowed Words

I do not know if any other scholar has tried to make a point about Job's later use of Eliphaz's first words. Clines makes no mention of it, and his commentary is the most thorough modern commentary on Job. But to me there is a real significance to this later use of Eliphaz's words by Job. Recall that these are Eliphaz's most encouraging, conciliatory and irenic words that he will speak in the book. I wonder whether it is a sign of the depth of Job's mental distress that he will take these words, meant in a conciliatory way, to suggest something completely different later in the book.

In almost every instance where he later uses some of Elihpaz's words in 4:2-5, Job will reverse Eliphaz's meaning in 4:2-5. For example, when Eliphaz says that Job has "strengthened" or "set up" his fellow citizens. Job then uses this verb to say that God has "set him up" as his target. Job might be indebted to Eliphaz for the words, but he has rather twisting them for his own meanings. If this is really what Job is doing, it would be a parallel phenomenon to Job's turning Scripture on its head (as in 3:4 or 7:17) to accomplish his own ends. This, then, is the thesis I advance. Job will listen to his friend, Eliphaz, but will disagree with him. One of the indicia of disagreement will be his use of Eliphaz's words in contexts of fear or attack later in the book. Hence, what is at work here is a very subtle use of language by the author of the Book of Job, a use of language that we cannot "hear" unless our ears are inclined to listen to the Hebrew.