Elihu endeavors to use the same linguistic manners as Job and his friends. So he offers words on their level and invites them to assess carefully in a wider context whether the things they have said make any sense. Elihu suggests that all four of them got all twisted up around esoteric arguments that never went anywhere. He uses the image of tasting words in the sense of waiting until the palate has been cleansed. Let’s start fresh.
In the standard hyperbole of Ancient Near Eastern expressions, Elihu satirizes Job’s arguments. Carry them to their obvious conclusion, Job. Did you really mean to say that God was unjust? He quotes Job accurately enough, though. Job said he could not lie about his own righteousness, but he left out the wider context of essential humility. Elihu said Job was swilling large gulps of near-blasphemy and giving support to those who did evil. Picking up where Job left off with the trio, one could make the case that there was no point in keeping loyalty to God.
This is all wrong, Elihu says. God is the definition of justice. He most certainly does pour out His wrath on sin, whether or not anyone else sees it. And to whom is God accountable? Who made Him God? The implication is that it wouldn’t matter, because we are not accountable to whomever that might be, but to God who made us. If God decided to withdraw His active Spirit from all flesh, every human would die immediately.
Who could imagine that God does not hold accountable even the highest of human rulers? God does not judge as humans do, so don’t be confused by what your senses and own reason tell you. Nothing is hidden from Him. He seldom calls men to account directly, but sends His wrath upon His own timing, in His own measure. You never know when you’ll awaken with a different human ruler over you. God didn’t reveal His laws out of amusement, but He also has no obligation to make them work as you wish. He is the final judge and His revelation is pretty clear on what He expects.
So Elihu asks the question here: Has any of you spoken a note of repentance? When was repentance ever a mistake? Notice that Elihu has already hammered both Job and the trio for their mistakes. So, should God not punish them? They have to decide because they are ones who have sinned, not Elihu. But he is particularly annoyed at how Job departed from lofty wisdom and groveled in the silliness of a debate that was beneath him. In so doing, he said things that would lead others to blasphemy.
