Look Who’s Talking

Then Eliphaz the Temanite responded, “If one ventures a word with you, will you become impatient?  But who can refrain ^[a]from speaking?  Job 4:1-2  NASB

Eliphaz – It’s always important to know the meaning of the names in a biblical story.  Here the name of the speaker is Eliphaz (אֱלִיפַז), a combination of God’s shortened title and (perhaps) a word for gold.  The pictograph adds another layer: leader, authority, work, word, weapon.  Perhaps a leader whose words carry powerful authority.  The fine gold of God’s voice bottled in a man.  At any rate, what he is about to say cannot be taken lightly.  And yet he approaches Job with great humility.

“If one ventures,” that is to say, “May I propose a test?  Would it be acceptable to you if I just raised a point, a test case, so to speak, in order to prove something?”  The man with a name of authority does not bellow orders, demand compliance, or castigate the sufferer.  He quietly asks for an audience.

“will you become impatient?”  Not exactly what the Hebrew text suggests.  The verb, lāʾâ, is about becoming weary, grieved, or offended.  Job has nothing but patience, so Eliphaz isn’t asking for Job to be tranquilly indulgent.  He’s asking for Job to hear him out, to practice a bit of cognitive dissonance.  “What I want to say might seem a bit confrontational at first, but bear with me.”  The one who comes with God’s golden words must still earn the right to be heard.  This is not a thunderous declaration spilling down the Sinai mountainside.  This is the whisper at the back of the cave heard by a fearful prophet.  We might think that the word should be translated “annoyed,” but I beg to differ.  Eliphaz isn’t attempting to chastise Job or to bother him with platitudes of condolence.  After all, he’s been silently, compassionately waiting for the last seven days.  What he wants now is the opportunity to offer an explanation, a psychological soothing for his troubled friend’s mind.  Job is already weary.  He treads carefully not to increase that existential tsunami.

But despite all his caution, all his tenderness and compassion, he can’t hold back any longer.  The weight of destructive rational pressing upon Job requires, indeed, demands a response.  He must speak.  He must overcome his restraint if he is going to offer any hope, any help.  Interestingly, the root ʿāṣar (to restrain, to retain, to shut) has a derivative, ʿeṣer, which means “oppression.”  Eliphaz offers explanation which releases his dammed response, but at the same time, in the background lurks the possibility that his response will increase Job’s oppression.  The inherent risk of personal communication rides along the same rails as any effort to comfort.  It is as if the ancient Hebrews knew that compassion and oppression are woven from the same threads.

Now the stage is set.  We wait for Eliphaz’s answer to Job’s wretchedness.  We wait with anticipation.  Perhaps the man of God’s fine gold will resolve our dilemma and we will once more find hope.  Perhaps.

Topical Index: Eliphaz, āṣar, restraint, lāʾâ, impatient, grieved, Job 4:1-2