Job, fair misfortune, and the interpretation of suffering by friends. Eliphaz’s speeches

Abstract

The history of Job, known as history of unhappy upright, is part of the books of the holy Bible in Old Testament, whose writer is unknown as many other writers in the books of the Bible, being also, according to scholars of the Bible, known as part a “Sapient Literature” and a mas- terpiece of the wisdom movement. The book of Job and its personages lead us in thinking about the human experience in its whole, beginning with a higher conception of God and conside- rations about men, Satan, justice, redemption and resurrection by one hand; and invite us in another hand in analysing the problematical suffering of an upright man. This article intends to interpret the speeches of Eliphaz, one of Job console-friends, so his standing position on the suffering of his friend. The speeches of Job in Eliphaz view point as right to answer. We seek to an approach to the interpretation to the suffering in Eliphaz view point on regard to be the first personage to whom the narrator gives the word after Job been handed over to Satan by God`s will. We search in Eliphaz`s speeches the raised questions on Job sufferings of Job, questions we sought been present in our time: The innocent may or may not suffer? Why the upright undergoing afflictions? The human experience and God’s or Satan involvement in the human suffer. To answer these questions and others that may emerge alongside the work, we will have as support texts, beyond Job’s book others scientific texts and biblical that approach God`s intervention in suffering of men in a view point exclusively literary.