A fourth friend, Elihu, “still young,” breaks in violently. He is indignant that Job could have said: “I am clean, and sinless, I am pure, free of all fault” (33:9). For, Elihu declares, “God never does wrong, does not deflect the course of right” (34:12); he does not spurn the blameless man (36:5). After Elihu’s long speech,14 Yahweh’s answer is disappointing in its impersonality. God speaks “from the heart of the tempest” (38:1), in a veritable theophany, but he ignores Job’s questions. Yahweh contents himself with reminding Job of his omnipotence, his cosmic work, the complexity of the
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