Figure Analysis
Talk about a peanut gallery.
These
guys have plenty to say, and Job isn't their biggest fan. He calls them
"miserable comforters" (16:3), and he spends almost the whole book
arguing with them. So if they're not Job's friends, what are they doing
there?
Well, they definitely give us something to think about.
All their generalizations about what happens to sinners seem a little
too cut and dry. It makes us think, there must be more to it than
that…right?
According to Maimonides, a super-scholarly
Medieval,
guy, each of Job's friends represents a different position on divine
providence: "Eliphaz represents the biblical or rabbinic tradition—Job
is being punished for his sins; Bildad expresses the view of the
Mutazillites—Job is being tested to receive a greater reward; and Zophar
presents the view of the Asharites—Job suffers because of God's
arbitrary will" (
source). Let's take a look.
Eliphaz the Temanite
Eliphaz poses a loaded question to Job: "Who that was innocent ever perished?" (4:7).
At
the core of that question is the statement that all humans mess up.
None of us are totally innocent. Eliphaz notes that God disciplines even
angels. So yeah, humans have no chance of being sinless. (As
you can imagine, this is a popular aspect of the book of Job in
Christian theology. Check out our
section on faith perspectives for more on that.)
With
that in mind, Eliphaz interprets Job's musings as whining. When he sees
how massive Job's punishment is, he compares that to his handy dandy
chart of sin-to-punishment ratios, and concludes that Job must have done
something awful (22:4-5).
Here's the thing, though. The same God is both the punisher
and the
healer in life. That complicates things quite a bit. Eliphaz and Job
would agree that God gives and God takes away, but Eliphaz believes that
this system corresponds to who does evil and who does good. Job, on the
other hand, recognizes that the system is more randomized (and thus
more scary, hence 6:20), and this leads him to the idea of making his
case to God directly.
Bildad the Shuhite
Bildad feels the
same way as Eliphaz, but he has another idea on top of it. What if it
was Job's kids or ancestors who had sinned?:
Does God pervert
justice?/ Or does the Almighty pervert the right?/ If your children
sinned against him,/ he delivered them into the power of their
transgression. (8:3-4)
Remember, back in the day you could
be punished for what your relatives did. The sins of your children could
mess with you, too. That means it would be possible for God to inflict a
punishment on Job for something his kids did.
Is Bildad trying to
give Job an out? Well, maybe. But he's still pretty harsh. Like
Eliphaz, he's putting it on Job to admit fault, suck it up, and start
over.
Zophar the Naamathite
Surprise, surprise, Zophar
follows the same line as his two friends: God is just, and Job must have
done something to offend him. If God's power is absolute, and God's law
is that the righteous are rewarded and the wicked are punished, then
Job's predicament is his own fault. The end.
Zophar's street cred mostly comes from his gruesome details about how the wicked are, um, hurt by
asps:
"They will suck the poison of asps; the tongue of a viper will kill
them" (20:16). Pure Biblical showmanship at its best—the writer gets a
chance to show off his literary bling, and it scares people into
believing that the wicked are majorly in for it.
Elihu
Figure Analysis
Elihu is kind of a creeper. Seriously—look at
the facts. He isn't mentioned as one of Job's friends, but apparently
he was there listening in on their conversation, because he knows all
about it when he chimes in. And then he takes it upon himself to spend
about five chapters—an eighth of the entire book—spouting off his
thoughts.
Who Is This Guy?
Other than his long speech,
Elihu is never mentioned. Theorists just eat this stuff up because it
helps them decide what was written down when. The more a story arc makes
sense, the more likely it is that the whole thing was written down at
the same time. Since things are a bit random in Job—like, for instance,
Elihu's magic appearing and disappearing act—scholars aren't so sure.
Maybe it was put in at a different time.
Elihu's brief appearance
does more than just help tweed-sporting scholars make estimations about
dates. It also opens up the text to new theoretical possibilities. After
all, he basically comes in, says his bit, and then heads out, leaving
it up to us to interpret his words.
What Does He Say?
What
are his words? Like Job's so-called friends, Elihu claims that God has
power beyond man. But he kind of stands up for Job, too. The ways of God
are mysterious to man—just think weather patterns—so who's to say Job
is guilty? Maybe he's innocent but being punished anyway. His point: Job
should stop obsessing about justice: "But you are obsessed with the
case of the wicked;/ judgement and justice seize you" (36:17). When it
comes down to it, Job is asking the wrong questions of God.
Elihu is a tricky guy, too. His speech uses material and language from the other speeches that we heard first. It's an old
rhetorical trick:
quote your opponent and use his own material against him. Job is the
perfect target for this because his speeches pose questions. Elihu, in
35:1-4, quotes Job, and then says, "I will answer you," before making
his point. Pretty fancy.
Do We Buy It?
Are we supposed to
trust this guy? Probably. The fact that he hasn't said anything until
now makes him a better arguer, right? He has listened to everyone else,
and now he says his bit.
Up until this point, Job's three friends
have been shoving it down our throats that Job messed up. Elihu backs
it up a bit. He basically says, "who are
we to say what God is doing?" And because we know what's going on up in the heavens—ah,
dramatic irony—we're pretty sure that Elihu is right.
Satan
Figure Analysis
Heads up, everyone: this is
not your
grandfather's Satan. No red skin, no horns, no pointy teeth and tail,
and no devilish grin. This Satan isn't even a tempter yet. In Hebrew,
Satan actually means "The Accuser" or "The Prosecutor," and he is
referred to as "the" Satan, not just "Satan." It's more of a title than
anything else—like "Your Honor" or "the Monsieur."
Satan only
pops up in Chapters 1 and 2—when things get poetic, he's out of there
for good. We don't have much to go on, but let's take a look.
What We Know About Satan
(1)
He spends a good amount of time down on earth. When he presents himself
to God and his divine court and God asks him how his life is going,
Satan always replies that he's been hanging out on earth. Angels get to
do that, apparently.
(2) He isn't a pushover. Satan challenges
God not once, but twice. Why does this matter? Well, it kind of makes us
wonder if we, too, should be questioning God.
(3) He's pretty
powerful. Remember, God doesn't inflict anything nasty on Job with his
own divine power. Instead, he allows Satan to use his own power. Having
Satan do the dirty work is a very Greek-mythology thing to do—you know,
let a demigod do the dirty work, then assert your dominance anyway. But
it also makes us think of Satan as the bad guy. He certainly isn't
raining down sunshine, rainbows, and love.
Disappearing Act
Satan
doesn't stick around very long. Why? Because, ultimately, this fight is
between Job and God. Satan's a catalyst, sure, but the moral of the
story lies in man's relationship with God.
Job's Wife
Figure Analysis
Job's wife really gets off easy. When Satan
unleashes the craziness on Job, Job's wife survives. Oh, and she's not
happy with the situation. She yells at him: "Do you still persist in
your integrity? Curse God, and die" (2:9). Hmmm. Sounds a bit reactive,
but that's just us. Still, misery and death often go hand in hand, and
Job's wife pops in here to remind us of just that.
Job, of course,
has a different opinion about all of this: "You speak as any foolish
woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not
receive the bad?" (2.10). Oh, foolish women.
Later, Job comments
that his misery is due at least in part to the fact that his wife can't
stand his bad breath (19:17). We mean, when it's bad, it's bad—there's
nothing worse than bad breath mixed with ash and sackcloth. We couldn't
make this stuff up if we tried.
By the very end of the story, Mrs. Job seems to bear her husband a bunch of kids (42:10-17). What a wild ride.
