CHAPTER IV.
THE SPEECHES OF ELIHU.
(CHAPS. XXXII.-XXXVII.)
At a (perhaps) considerably later period than the original
work (including chap. xxviii.)—symbolised by the youthfulness
of Elihu as compared with the four older friends—the
problem of the sufferings of the innocent still beset the minds
of the wise men, the attempt of the three friends to 'justify
the ways of God' to the intellect having proved, as the wise
men thought, a too manifest failure (xxxii. 2, 3). One of
their number therefore invented a fourth friend, Elihu (or is
this the name of the author himself?[1]), who is described as
having been a listener during the preceding debates, and who
reduces Job to silence. It is noteworthy that the sudden
introduction of Elihu required the insertion of a fresh narrative
passage (xxxii. 1-6) as a supplement to the original
prologue.
I assume, as the reader will observe, the one assured result of the criticism of Job. To those who follow me in this, the speeches of Elihu will, I think, gain greatly in interest. They mark out a time when, partly through the teaching of history, partly through a deeper inward experience, and partly through the reading of the poem of Job, the old difficulties of faith were no longer so acutely felt. Two courses were open to the Epigoni of that age—either to force Job to say what, as it seemed, he ought to have said (this,
- ↑ So M. Derenbourg, who points out that none of the other speakers have a genealogy, and identifies Buz with Boaz, and Ram with an ancestor of David (Ruth iv. 19). The author of chaps. xxxii.-xxxvii. might thus be a descendant of Elihu the brother of David (1 Chr. xxvii. 18).
