Eliphaz Speaks on Divine Retribution

Seven days of silence end in the ash pit outside the city gates. Eliphaz the Temanite begins to speak over the scraping of broken pottery. He traveled from Edom across 100 miles of arid scrubland to reach this place. The heavy desert wind carries his voice across the smoldering refuse heap.

The city of Teman sits high in the rocky southern highlands of Edom. Its people held a reputation for deep wisdom throughout the ancient Near East. Scholars place the final written record of this exchange near 500 b.c. The cultural backdrop reflects a much older time of massive livestock herds.

Eliphaz anchors his argument on a terrifying event he experienced in the deep night. He describes a spirit gliding past his face inside his dark woven tent. A sudden cold draft makes the hair on his arms stand straight up. He hears a quiet voice asking if mortal man can outrank his Maker.

Consider now, who being innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?

The speaker relies entirely on the ironclad agricultural law of planting and harvesting. Men who plow fields of trouble will inevitably harvest a crop of sorrow. He attempts to force a mechanical grid over the raw chaos of human tragedy. The smoldering ash heap offers no clean answers to his rigid system.