An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 94: Eli-who? the Buzite (Job 31-35)

Job 31-35
Eli-who? the Buzite.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Job 31

“I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?”

I’m thinking at this point that the book of Job is probably better read in one go rather than in blocks as I’m doing, particularly as here I’ve come back into the middle of Job’s soliloquy. But anyway, here he lists a series of things that he could rightfully be punished for, if he had done them, but maintains that he has not. These would seem to include adultery (even in thought, if nothing else) and lack of charity to the needy. I raise an eyebrow at Job’s words that if his heart had been “deceived by a woman” then his wife could “grind unto another”. That’s what the kids these days are calling it?

Job 32

“And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, I am young, and ye are very old; wherefore I was afraid, and durst not shew you mine opinion.”

Job has finished speaking, and he leaves his three friends lost for words. But Elihu the Buzite speaks up. Who? You ask. Good question, he’s not been introduced before but evidently he’s been sitting there listening to this and getting annoyed. Annoyed at Job because he is justifying himself and not God, annoyed with the three old men because they condemn Job but have no good answer for him.

The bulk of this chapter is the opening to what Elihu says, which is largely that he hasn’t spoken before because the others are older than him, but that now he cannot remain silent and doesn’t think that old age and wisdom go hand in hand. Also, love this quote “Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles.” Elihu is talking about his opinions, but use this next time you feel like you’ve eaten too much.

Job 33

“Behold, now I have opened my mouth, my tongue hath spoken in my mouth.”

Elihu continues. He re-iterates what Job has said, of his proclaimed innocence of sin and that God torments him needlessly. Elihu’s point, when he gets to it, seems to be that God will save the souls of any man who repents, regardless of his sin beforehand. At least, that’s how I interpret “He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.”

Here’s another instance of afterlife punishment that I can’t recall elsewhere in the bible to this point, the idea of “the pit” as a place of punishment after death. But still, this is Elihu’s point. Quite a lot of the chapter is in the vein of the verse quoted above; Elihu saying “I am about to speak, so listen to me, because I am speaking now, this is me speaking … I have spoken things, you must listen to me because I have spoken.” Yeah, okay, we get it!

Job 34
“For he will not lay upon man more than right; that he should enter into judgment with God.”

As I’m understanding this, Job’s argument is that he has done no wrong, so God is wrong for punishing him. The three old men argue that God is never wrong, so Job must have done something wrong to be punished for. Elihu is kind of taking their side, but his argument seems to be more that it doesn’t matter if Job knows what it is or not, God doesn’t punish unjustly, but he also forgives if forgiveness is asked.

I see a flaw in Elihu’s argument when he says “Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? and to princes, Ye are ungodly?” because large chunks of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles involved prophets doing exactly this. He’s advocating the “put up and shut up” argument here, which can be a dangerous excuse for tyranny.

Also, we the readers know that in fact Job is right, and it precisely because he has done no wrong that he is suffering. I’m expecting God and Satan to pop up like the Duke Brothers from Trading Places in a minute, although to be a fair comparison there ought to be a miserable sinner who has become a righteous man as well as Job.

I do like the line “For the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat” as a nice metaphor. “Tasting” words and ideas by listening to them, that’s quite apt.

Job 35

“Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God's?”

Elihu continues, but with a mercifully short chapter this time. Actually, the long ones are sometimes easier to interpret because the speakers can wax on a theme for longer and make it more clear. Here Elihu reproves Job for trying, basically, to second-guess God’s motives. He points out that people are quick to complain to God when they suffer misfortune but less so to count their blessings (that they are made “wiser than the fowls of heaven”. But, Elihu says, neither really makes much difference to God who is aloof from such things.

As an explanation for why bad things happen to good people if there is a benevolent god, this is not very comforting – God may be benevolent to a point, but generally He doesn’t really care one way or the other. This is interesting as it renders God only one step away from non-existence, if His role is reduced to one who tends to the mechanics of the universe without acting as a parent/shepherd to humans. There’s not a lot of difference between this way of looking at it and a purely scientific one that there is no higher arbiter of moral rewards, only the blind chance of energy and matter interacting. Which is probably not what Elihu intends!