Job 4:6 and integrity your confidence and fehlleistung and eliphaz

This mini-essay needs to be read along with the previous one. My thesis there was that Eliphaz uses ambiguous words in 4:2-6, words that scholars are quick to strip of their ambiguity. What does it say about Eliphaz that he picks such double-edged terms when he is trying to establish a connection with Job? I would like to advance two points here, before looking at his basic theological principle in 4:6.

Eliphaz's Fears

Freud wasn't the first, but was probably the most famous, person to suggest that slips of phrases (which he called Fehlleistung-- a faulty accomplishment or action) might be more indicative of a person's inner state than the finely crafted speech that is given by the person. One of the more humorous Freudian slips is, "You said one thing and meant your mother." Well, slippage of words to reveal an inner state isn't precisely what is going on with Eliphaz, but nearly so. He uses words that have different and contrary significations and leaves them "hanging" out there for a split second before he fills in the interpretive gap with a positive and definitive construal. It is as if a person carrying an ancient Greek musical instrument (the lyre) is greeted at the door by the host, "Well, the lyre/liar is finally here. Now we have a harp, a piano and a lyre." For a split second the person welcomed will be uncertain as to meaning. What does this indicate? Let me suggest two things.

First, it might mean that the person saying the words is himself unresolved about what has happened. Later on (6:21) Job will attack his friends with the words, "You see my calamity and are afraid." Maybe Job has heard "between the words" of Eliphaz and has heard fear. The fear arises because of the absurdity or contrast between Job's condition and what everyone seemed to know about Job. And, if it could happen to Job, who is safe? Even though the friends might have been supportive of Job in their seven days of silence, they might also be wondering in their hearts, 'This has happened to the greatest man. What could happen to me?' Ambiguous words can betoken fear.

In addition to Eliphaz's fear, his ambiguous words might suggest Eliphaz's desire to put Job on the defensive. When someone says, "The lyre/liar is here," they mean to inject some humor into the encounter, to be sure, but they also supply a note of uncertainty, of unfilled space between people that might not be able amicably to be filled but might have to be filled with hostility. I used to have a friend whom I would visit frequently, and he usually answered the door, looked at me, glowered briefly and then said, "Oh, it's you." The words themselves had to be supplemented not only with the tone of voice, but with the awareness that the tone should be taken in an ironic fashion, in order to get the full "meaning" of the words. We can't hear Eliphaz's "tone," and so we are limited, but we probably are right in seeing his words as an attempt to claim the unclaimed interpretive ground between himself and Job, and make Job defend himself in an ever-smaller corner.

Eliphaz's Theological Principle

But when he finally gets to saying what he wants, Eliphaz says:

"Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?" (4:6)

Eliphaz "resolves" the uncertainty of kislah in v.6 by the second half of the verse. The Hebrew only has three words: "your hope" (tikvateka), "integrity" (tam), and "your ways" (derakeyka). The word "integrity" is in apposition to "fear of God" in the first half of the verse. Eliphaz is asking a rhetorical question of Job. He really is saying, 'in a situation like this it is your religious faith, your "fear of God" which should be your confidence, Job. Indeed, aren't you a man of integrity? Relax, then, this integrity will carry you through.' Eliphaz's advice, like his ambiguous words, is both engagingly helpful and utterly insensitive.

It is helpful advice because it is the fundamental advice we give to people all the time who are suffering setbacks. One of the realities of suffering great pain is that we tend to telescope our entire existence into the pain we now feel. We are unable to remember the "good days" or put the pain in perspective. That is what friends are for. They don't feel to the same degree the tearing at the flesh, the psychological oppression, the way we think we have been violated. They can put the issue in larger "perspective," which is something that we all need at times. And, one of the most common ways to put distress in perspective is to urge a person either to hang on to his/her basic values or to assure them that, in the end, those basic values will triumph. When a person is fired from a job, we say, 'you are a good person and a good worker. Your skills will be recognized. Hang in there.' When Eliphaz says that Job's integrity is his hope, he is giving this kind of friendly advice.

On the other hand, however, his advice is brutally insensitive. To the one suffering great inner oppression, it helps not at all to be reminded of that one quality that provides the great surd factor in the equation. The person experiencing Job-like distress feels both the pain of the distress and the pain created by knowing that he is being unjustly treated. Rather than being comforted by someone else referring to the "integrity of his ways," he would almost spit when he hears the words. "Integrity of my ways! Let me tell YOU about those ways. Let me tell YOU about how I have lived, worked, suffered, been loyal. And THIS is what I get."

Conclusion

There are many ways you can deal with a person in pain. You can be quiet. You can bring them fruit and water. You can try to say comforting words. You can try to "interpret" the person's distress for them. Eliphaz will approach things in the last way. He will try to put Job's pain in a theological context. Certainly the pain is real, Eliphaz would admit, but if Job only learned to put it in the same context that he had put everyone else's pain, he would have an answer for himself. There you have Eliphaz. A deeper person than even he would like to admit.