Harder Words

In his second speech, Eliphaz was sharper. He said Job's words were like the east wind. Your own mouth condemns you, and not I, he said. He claimed Job was hindering devotion before God.

Eliphaz asked whether Job was the first man born or had heard the secret counsel of God. He said the gray-headed and aged were on the friends' side. He asked whether the consolations of God were too small for Job. Yet Eliphaz's own words had not been gentle.

Eliphaz described the wicked man, who lives in distress and anguish and whose riches do not last. He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and cast off his flower as the olive tree. Eliphaz meant this as a warning to Job, but he was wrong about Job. God later said the friends had not spoken what is right.