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Chapter 36
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Book of Job, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Suffering and Divine Justice
The Mystery of God
Human Wisdom vs. Divine Wisdom
Faith in Suffering
Summary
Analysis
Elihu says that God’s thundering voice causes his heart to tremble. God unleashes lightning across the earth, and his voice roars majestically. Nobody can understand how he causes the snow and rain to fall, sending animals into their dens. He also sends whirlwinds by his breath and causes the waters to freeze. “Whether for correction […] or for love” he causes all these things to happen.
Elihu continues speaking about God’s majesty, with particular attention to God’s “voice” as personified in thunder, and his “breath” in the terrifying power of a whirlwind. Moreover, God’s speech, his breathing, and all his actions are purposeful, even if human beings don’t understand those purposes.
Themes
Elihu urges Job to stop and consider God’s wonderful works. Does Job know, he asks, how God causes lightning to shine, or balances the clouds? Can Job spread out the skies like God can? He tells Job to teach the rest of them what to say to God. The Almighty, feared by mortals, doesn’t listen to anyone who is wise in their own eyes.
Elihu concludes his speech by encouraging Job to think about God’s incredible power—can Job explain any of the marvelous phenomena God creates? He sarcastically tells Job to teach the rest of them, then. Assuming Job can’t, Elihu admonishes Job to revise his opinion of himself—he’s not wise enough to argue with Almighty God.
Themes
