THE second discourse of Elihu has for its scope to prove that the divine equity in government is in no way to be doubted, and that Job, who did venture to impeach it, is himself deserving of grave censure, as giving countenance, in thought and word, to the evil and scornful. God, sovereign in Himself, cannot err in His ways, but is necessarily righteous. So Abraham reasoned in Genesis 18:25; so all men, unless their mind and conscience be defiled. Impossible to conceive of injustice in the Almighty. His servants may fail—never the Fountain of all good. And if it be in the highest degree unseemly to tax a king with worthlessness, how much more to impute wrong to Him who is infinitely above all kings, and knows not the rich before the poor, having made both alike! Therefore under the invisible hand of God falls the mighty ruler whose guilt was marked of Him, spite of the darkness that enveloped it, now in the night, now openly, so as to warn others, as well as to deal with himself, and to relieve the oppressed. Submission of heart is, then, the only due feeling for man, that he may be taught more, as becomes one conscious of his faults, and turning from them in the fear of God. And what can be less consistent than, like Job, to insinuate unrighteousess to God, and withal appeal to His decision and desire his intervention? Elihu (who is sure of the sympathy of intelligent men) could not wish Job relieved, but rather tried to the uttermost for thus adding rebellion to his sin, and multiplying his words, not only among them, but at God.
And Elihu answered. and said,
Hear, ye wise men, my words,
And ye men of knowledge’ give ear to me;
For the ear trieth words, and the palate tasteth food.
Let us choose for ourselves judgment,
Let us know among ourselves what [is] good.
For Job hath said, I am righteous,
And God [El] hath turned aside my right;
Against my right I shall lie:
My wound [is] mortal, without transgression.
Who [is] a man like Job?
He drinketh mockery like water,
And goeth in company with workers of iniquity,
So as to go with men of wickedness;
For he hath said, It profiteth not a man
That he should delight himself with God.
Therefore, hear me, ye men of heart;
Far be it from God [El] to do wickedness,
And [from] Shaddai to do perverseness.
For the work of man he reporteth to him,
And causeth each to find according to his way,
Yea, verily, God [El] doth not act wickedly,
And Shaddai doth not pervert the right.
Who committed to Him the earth?
And who established the whole world?
If He should set His heart on Himself—
Gather to Himself His spirit and His breath,
All flesh would expire together,
And man return to dust.
And if [thou hast] understanding, hear this,
Give ear to the voice of my words.
Yea, doth a hater of right govern?
And wilt thou condemn the mighty just One?
Shall one to a king say, Belial; to princes
Wicked?
Who accepteth not the person of princes,
Nor hath known the rich before the poor?
For the work of His hands [are] they all;
In a moment they die; even at midnight
Is a people shaken, and passeth away,
And the mighty are removed without hand.
For His eyes [are] on the ways of a man,
And He seeth all his steps.
There is no darkness nor death-shade,
Where the workers of iniquity may hide.
For He doth not regard man more,
That he should go to God [El] in judgment;
He breaketh the mighty without inquiry,
And He setteth up others in their stead.
Therefore He knoweth their works,
And overthroweth them in the night, and they are,
bruised.
As wicked did He strike them publicly,
Who purposely turned aside from after Him,
And attended not to any of His ways,
So that the cry of the poor should come to Him,
And the cry of the oppressed He heareth.
And He giveth rest, and who can disturb?
And hideth His face, and who beholdeth it?
Whether as to a nation or to a man, the same,
That a corrupt man reign not,
Nor snares [be] to the people.
For had man [but] said to God [El],
I have suffered, I will not offend;
Things beyond [what] I see teach me:
I have done iniquity—
I will not do it again.
According to thy judgment shall He requite him?
Nay, but thou hast rejected,
Thou hast chosen, and not I.
And what thou knowest, speak.
Let men of heart tell me,
And let a wise man hear me:
Job hath not spoken with knowledge,
And his words [were] not with wisdom.
Would that Job were proved to the uttermost,
Because of replies like men of iniquity;
For he addeth to his sin rebellion,
In the midst of us he mocketh [lit. clappeth],
And multiplieth his words against God [El].
Thus does Elihu vindicate God and His ways with man, which the three elders had so painfully misconstrued, not only to their own loss and the increased anguish of the sufferer, but to the dishonor of Him whom they knew too little to represent aright. Elihu would have his words subjected to the keenest discrimination. Truth has nothing to fear from this, if men listen with conscience toward God, not with the misjudged will which refuses all that lowers man, as all truth cannot but do, for he is fallen. But the fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom, as surely as fools despise wisdom and instruction. Therefore does he call men of wisdom and knowledge to hearken. There is an inner man no less than an outer, and he cannot escape responsibility. Judgment surely becomes man to choose, and to know what is good in an evil world.
At once Elihu seizes on Job’s self-justification, as if God could set aside the right, or treat with unfairness. This he brands as worthy of a scorner, and expresses for himself the pain with which he had heard Job’s heroic strain, drinking not indeed iniquity like water, as Eliphaz had harshly said, but a taunting style, or mockery, which really tended to the encouragement of evil-doers. And was it comely to say that man is not profited from having pleasure with God Elihu scouts the thought of iniquity with God, the Judge of all; and who or what was man to sit in judgment on the Almighty? Was it he, or who, that pilt Him in charge of the earth? And who founded the universe? Creation owes its being and conservation to His disinterested goodness, who had only to absorb His care on Himself, gathering up His all-quickening Spirit, and all flesh would breathe its last, and man, the chief of all here below, return to dust.
Besides, government has its rights, and reverence is due to those in power and dignity. Therefore he appeals to his understanding whether a hater of right governed, and he condemned the mighty Just One? If no man could address a king or prince with a disrespectful word, what was it to speak unworthily of Him who, infinitely higher than the highest, has no respect of persons, nor knows the rich before the poor, all being the work of His hands? Death comes in a moment; and the night is half spent when a people is shaken and pass away, and the mighty are removed, and not by hand. For all things are naked and open to His eyes with whom we have to do, the ways of a man and all his steps. Nor is there darkness or death-shade dense enough to hide the workers of iniquity; neither needs He to look a second time on a man ere going to God in judgment, but is entitled, without further scrutiny, to break the mighty, and to set up others in their room. He takes cognizance of their deeds, and overturns in a night, and they are crushed, as wicked, struck openly before others, for deliberate slight of Him and His ways, and in vindication of the poor and oppressed who cried to Him. So truly sovereign is He, and withal just and merciful: nation or man makes no difference, He being above both, lest a corrupt man reign, and the people be ensnared.
Man—Job—should have rather humbled himself to God, bowing to His hand and owning his fault, with desire to be taught, and to sin no more. Was God to recompense according to Job’s mind? It was he that repudiated, and he that chose, not Elihu. It was for Job, then, to speak what he knew. Elihu turns to men of discretion, that they may say whether such language was wise, or according to knowledge. He wished him not afflicted, but proved thoroughly, because of answers meet for or countenancing the wicked. For this was to add presumption in divine things, or a breaking away from authority, and this not without a sense of exultation over the rest, in a multitude of words to God, wherein there lacked not sin.