Job 34

General context

Elihu answers again, calling on the wise to hear him, since the ear tries words as the mouth tastes meat, and to choose judgment together. He reports Job as saying that he is righteous, that God has taken away his judgment, and that his wound is incurable without transgression. What man is like Job, he asks, who drinks up scorning like water and walks with wicked men, and who has said it profits a man nothing to delight in God? Elihu declares that God cannot do wickedness; he renders to each according to his ways and will not pervert judgment. No one gave him charge over the earth; if he gathered back his breath, all flesh would perish. Can one who hates right govern? One does not call a king wicked, much less God, who accepts no persons and regards rich no more than poor. The mighty die in a moment and are taken away without hand. God's eyes are on every man's ways; there is no darkness where workers of iniquity can hide. He breaks mighty men without number, overturns them in the night and strikes them openly because they turned from him and caused the cry of the poor to reach him. When he gives quietness none can trouble, and when he hides his face none can see him, so that the hypocrite does not reign. It is fitting to say to God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more; teach me what I do not see. Elihu asks the wise to judge: Job has spoken without knowledge, and Elihu desires that Job be tried to the end because of his answers for wicked men, for he adds rebellion to his sin, claps his hands among them and multiplies words against God.

Cited passages: Job 34:1, Job 34:2, Job 34:3, Job 34:5, Job 34:6, Job 34:7, Job 34:8, Job 34:9, Job 34:10, Job 34:11, Job 34:12, Job 34:13, Job 34:15, Job 34:17, Job 34:18, Job 34:19, Job 34:20, Job 34:21, Job 34:22, Job 34:24, Job 34:25, Job 34:28, Job 34:29, Job 34:30, Job 34:31, Job 34:32, Job 34:33, Job 34:35, Job 34:36, Job 34:37

Job 34 (KJV)

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Historical context

The heading marks this as a further speech of Elihu, and he addresses "ye wise men" and "men of understanding" rather than Job, speaking of Job in the third person until verse 16, where a singular "thou" appears. The words Elihu attributes to Job are his report. The first, "I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment," closely matches Job's oath in chapter 27. The second, that it profits a man nothing to delight in God, is not found in those words in the preceding chapters; in chapter 22 it was Eliphaz who asked whether a man could be profitable to God, a different point. Elihu's charge that Job walks "with wicked men" is his inference from Job's speeches, and the chapter narrates no such company. The statements about God's justice, his impartiality toward princes, rich and poor, and his overthrow of the mighty are Elihu's assertions. His closing wish that Job "may be tried unto the end" is Elihu's desire, not a sentence from God; nothing in the chapter records any response from Job or the friends.

Cited passages: Job 34:1, Job 34:2, Job 34:10, Job 34:16, Job 34:5, Job 27:2, Job 27:6, Job 34:9, Job 22:2, Job 34:8, Job 34:36

Literary context

The speech is staged as a hearing before a jury of "wise men," with Job as the accused spoken about in the third person: "Job hath said," "What man is like Job." Elihu opens with an image of testing, the ear trying words as the mouth tastes meat, and closes by asking the same wise men to judge that Job spoke without knowledge. The center is a defense of God's justice built on rhetorical questions: who gave him charge, shall he that hateth right govern, is it fit to say to a king thou art wicked. Two motifs answer earlier speeches of Job. Job had said the oppressors' victims cry out and God lays no folly to them; Elihu says God hears the cry of the afflicted and overturns the mighty in the night. Job had said he could not find God forward or backward; Elihu says there is no darkness where the wicked can hide from him. Elihu also supplies the words a chastened man should say, as in the previous chapter, and turns Job's own gesture of scorn, clapping the hands, into a charge against him. The chapter ends by asking that Job's trial continue, a harsher note than the desire to justify him voiced before.

Cited passages: Job 34:2, Job 34:5, Job 34:7, Job 34:3, Job 34:35, Job 34:17, Job 24:12, Job 34:28, Job 23:8, Job 34:22, Job 34:31, Job 34:37, Job 33:32, Job 34:36

Key moments

1. Appeal to the wise (Job 34:2). Elihu asks men of knowledge to hear and judge with him.
2. Job's claim reported (Job 34:5). Elihu reports Job as saying he is righteous and God has taken away his judgment.
3. Scorning like water (Job 34:7). Elihu says no one is like Job for drinking up scorn and walking with the wicked.
4. God cannot do wickedness (Job 34:10). Elihu declares that the Almighty cannot commit iniquity or pervert judgment.
5. No respect of persons (Job 34:19). Elihu says God regards neither princes nor the rich above the poor.
6. The mighty overturned (Job 34:25). Elihu says God overturns the mighty in the night because of the cry of the poor.
7. Tried unto the end (Job 34:36). Elihu wishes Job's trial to continue because he answers like wicked men.

For reflection

In the previous chapter Elihu said he desired to justify Job; here he desires that Job be tried to the end. What changed between the two speeches, given that Job said nothing in between?

People in this chapter

• Job

Also indexed here:

• Elihu