Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ELIHU

(Heb. ʾĕlîhû) (also ELIAB, ELIEL)

1. An Ephraimite, the son of Tohu, and great-grandfather of Samuel (1 Sam. 1:1); he is called Eliel at 1 Chr. 6:34 and Eliab at 1 Chr. 6:27.

2. A chief of a thousand from Manasseh who defected to David at Ziklag (1 Chr. 12:20).

3. A gatekeeper in the temple, of the lineage of Obed-edom (1 Chr. 26:7).

4. A brother of David, chief officer of the tribe of Issachar (1 Chr. 27:18). The LXX reads Eliab, the same as David’s oldest brother mentioned at 1 Sam. 16:6-7.

5. The son of Barachel; young friend and final debater of Job (Job 32–37), the only speaker in the book with an Israelite name.

Scholars argue that these chapters are a secondary insertion into the book because: Elihu is mentioned nowhere else, including the epilogue; the style is pretentious, inferior to the remainder of the book; and the speeches disrupt the book’s continuity and contribute little. Much recent scholarship refutes these arguments. Satan is also not mentioned in the epilogue, yet is integral to the book; perhaps neither is deemed worthy of mention in the epilogue. The different style may be a deliberate authorial intent to portray a self-inflated speaker.

Various opinions exist concerning the contribution of the Elihu speeches to the book. Some regard them as a critique of the prophetic tradition (J. Gerald Janzen). They act as a foil for the divine speeches: Elihu states that no one shall ever hear God speak, but then God speaks (J. G. Herder). Elihu assumes the mediator role, defender of God (Norman C. Habel). Elihu’s solution of suffering as disciplinary, purging the heart of pride, is the book’s climax (Karl Budde). Elihu’s speeches are an early critique of the book, inserted by a later wisdom teacher (Claus Westermann). Elihu is purposefully portrayed by the author as a brash fool (Janzen, Habel). He is undercut by the divine speeches and the epilogue which ignore him and by his own speeches, where his anger and tactlessness prove him the antithesis of a wise man (cf. Prov. 12:15-16; 14:17, 29). He unwittingly characterizes himself as a windbag (Job 32:18). Elihu claims divine inspiration as his authoritative source (32:8, 18; 33:4). His main argument, that suffering is disciplinary, was already broached by Eliphaz (5:17).

Bibliography. J. G. Janzen, Job. Interpretation (Atlanta, 1985); M. H. Pope, Job. AB (Garden City, 1973).

Patricia A. MacNicoll

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ELIHU

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)