02_Burnight-co_347_370 28/10/14 10:35 Pagina 367 DOES ELIPHAZ REALLY BEGIN “GENTLY”? 367 fortune 54. By placing the term in regular semantic parallelism with !wa, he makes his previous assertion in 4,7 — i.e. that suffering is invariably the result of sin — even more explicit. IX. Job 4,9-11: images of divine punishment The punishment of these evildoers is described metaphorically in the last three verses of this section, 4,9-11: 4,9 By the breath of God they perish, And by the blast of his anger they come to an end. 4,10 The roaring of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion, And the teeth of the young lions are broken. 4,11 The lion perishes for lack of prey, And the whelps of the lioness are scattered. The figures of the “breath” of God and the “wind of his nostrils” as instruments of divine punishment are frequent in the Hebrew Bible 55, and several of the words for “lions” occur often as metaphors for the wicked 56. As mentioned above, a number of commentators delete these verses in whole or in part; it is frequently remarked that the content of this section does not match the puta- tively positive message of the rest of Eliphaz’s speech. Even among those who believe that the verses are original, there are a number who observe that the language used is at best insensitive, and at worst cruel, given Job’s situation as described in the prologue 57. 54 DHORME, Le livre de Job, 42; ET: The Book of Job, 46. 55 E.g., Exod 15,8; 2 Sam 22,9.16; Ps 18,15; Isa 30,28.33; 40,7; 59,9; Hos 13,15; Ps 18,8.15. 56 Cf. e.g., Jer 2,15; 12,8 (as a symbol for wicked Israel, who is said to “roar” against the LORD); Ezek 19,2; Nah 2,11-12; Pss 10,9; 17,12; 22,14.22; 34,10; 58,6; Prov 28,15. 57 CLINES (Job 1–20, 124-125), for example, calls Eliphaz’s remarks “cruel” and “doubly hurtful” in that they implicitly attribute the death of Job’s children to some sinfulness of theirs, writing that this “is even worse in Job’s case since he had constantly gone out of his way to ensure that any short- comings on their part had been adequately atoned for by sacrifice (1:5) [...]”. Clines nevertheless believes that Eliphaz’s words are “meant in a kindly spirit”, despite the harshness of the resulting statements.