02_Burnight-co_347_370 28/10/14 10:35 Pagina 365 DOES ELIPHAZ REALLY BEGIN “GENTLY”? 365 to the “fear” imagery of 3,25, so 4,7 continues 4,6’s response to Job’s mention of the “man whose way is hidden” (i.e. whose righ- teousness God does not recognize, cf. Isa 40,27) in 3,23. Eliphaz counters that those who are “innocent” (yqn) and “just” (~yrvy) are never, in fact, “lost” or “hidden” from God’s sight 49. In his view, if Job has been abandoned by God, then he has only himself to blame. Even if dba and wdxkn are being used with the sense of “death” here, as many commentators believe, it is still more likely that Eli- phaz is criticizing Job rather than offering him words of comfort. His point could not be that the “innocent” do not die — an obvi- ously false proposition — but rather that those who suffer an un- timely demise must have been incorrigible sinners 50. Whether the verbs in 4,7 mean “hidden” or “perish”, the verse serves as a suitable transition to 4,8-11, in which Eliphaz provides a vivid description of the fate of the wicked. Again, many scholars have found this emphasis puzzling here if, as is widely assumed, Eliphaz believes Job to be righteous. As Newsom writes, It is evident why Eliphaz would speak about the fate of the innocent and upright person, but why does he devote most of this section to the issue of the fate of the wicked? … Although Eliphaz does not intend to imply that Job is among the wicked, his actual words come disconcertingly close to describing the fate that has actually befallen Job51. The most commonly accepted explanation is that Eliphaz means to comfort Job by contrasting his assured restoration with the de- struction awaiting evildoers. Any similarity to Job’s own situation is — according to this view — incidental, at worst indicating that Eliphaz is insensitive or oblivious. There are a number of difficulties with this interpretation. First, as discussed previously, it is not at all clear that Eliphaz is praising Job in 4,6, the verse which leads so many commentators to view 49 As commentators have frequently pointed out, in the prologue God twice (1,8; 2,3) calls Job “blameless” (~t) and “upright” (rvy), and this is also the narrator’s assessment of his character (1,1). 50 Also see Y. HOFFMAN, A Blemished Perfection. The Book of Job in Con- text (JSOTSS 213; Sheffield 1996) 118, and K. DELL, The Book of Job as Sceptical Literature (BZAW 197; Berlin – New York 1991) 54. 51 NEWSOM, “Job”, 377.