02_Burnight-co_347_370 28/10/14 10:35 Pagina 348 348 JOHN BURNIGHT would maintain Job’s righteousness here also appears to contradict the sense of 5,17, where he urges Job not to “reject the discipline of the Almighty”; if he believes Job to be sinless, for what is he being disciplined? Further, it is worth noting that Job himself does not appear to take kindly to Eliphaz’s words, as his harsh response in 6,14-18 indicates. Finally, such a positive assessment of Eli- phaz’s intent is also inconsistent with the sharp tone of the rest of the speeches of the “friends”, including Eliphaz’s own subsequent offerings in chapters 15 and 22. Only in 4,2-6 — at least as these verses are conventionally interpreted — do Eliphaz’s words seem inconsistent with the idea that he believes Job’s suffering to be the result of sin. II. An alternative interpretation: Job 4,2-11 as Eliphaz’s intertextual critique of Job There is, however, another interpretation of this passage that brings its tone into agreement with the “friends”’ other, more ac- cusatory speeches. Eliphaz’s words here exhibit a strong semantic parallelism with terms in the final part of Job’s speech in 3,20-26, in which Job asks why God gives life to those who suffer 4. I pro- pose that 4,2-6 are best viewed as Eliphaz’s intertextual “response” to Job’s tacit indictment of God in 3,20-26, and that what at first glance might appear to be concern and encouragement on Eliphaz’s part is in fact a sharp rebuke to Job for his complaints about his “fear” and his inability to find “rest”. According to this reading, Eliphaz’s message — and indeed that of the “friends” in all subse- quent chapters — is consistent throughout: he believes Job must have sinned to be suffering so. In what follows, I will discuss 4,2-11 in order, paying particular attention to 4,2 and 4,6, the verses most often cited as evidence that Eliphaz is sympathetic and reas- suring to Job at this point in the dialogue. I will use the NASB trans- lation to convey an idea of the traditional interpretation of these 4 For a discussion of the semantic links between Job 3 & 4–5 (and 6–7), see W.A.M. BEUKEN, “Job’s Imprecation as the Cradle of a New Religious Discourse: The Perplexing Impact of the Semantic Correspondences between Job 3, Job 4–5, and Job 6–7”, The Book of Job (ed. W.A.M. BEUKEN) (Leuven 1994) 41-78.