Recently I heard a theologian talking about Job and was not surprised to hear him refer to Job’s “so-called friends”. Not surprised perhaps, but as usual when I hear this common sentiment, I was uncomfortable with it. Were Job’s friends there to give him a hard time? Were they there just so they could make him feel worse? Did they offer him their dire diagnosis of the cause for Job’s travail through condescending self-righteousness?
I’m not going to say that there was none of that attitude in what they said. I do think, however, that we can make the following observations:
- The text plainly calls Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar Job’s “friends”.
- They sat with him and shared his grief for a week’s time.
- They didn’t simply tell him why they thought God had it in for him, but offered a solution (repentance) to extract him from further judgement. When Job was insistent that he had done nothing to repent for, they became even more determined that he do what they felt was necessary to avoid more of God’s judgment.
- Job thought enough of them to pray for God to forgive them their incorrect counsel.
