Bible Person

Eliphaz

Meaning: the endeavor of God · Male · 6 cross references

This Eliphaz entry refers to Eliphaz the Temanite, one of Job's friends and the first to answer him, not Esau's son Eliphaz. He represents the most articulate form of the friends' conventional wisdom. First appears in Job 2:11.1

AI summary: This Eliphaz matters because the cross references present him as the leading voice among Job's companions and the one who most fully articulates the logic of traditional retribution. He speaks with confidence, appeals to visions and inherited wisdom, and later receives divine rebuke for not speaking rightly about God as Job has. His presence gives the book much of its theological tension. Taken together, the material presents this Eliphaz as a serious but ultimately inadequate interpreter of suffering.1

Central Figure

Eliphaz

Meaning: the endeavor of God