Eliphaz

Eliphaz (meaning God his strength or the endeavor of God) is the name of two distinct individuals in the Old Testament. The first and more historically significant is Eliphaz the Temanite, the eldest and most eloquent of Job's three friends who came to comfort him in his suffering (Job 2:11). In three rounds of speeches (Job 4–5; 15; 22), Eliphaz argued from personal visionary experience and from the principle of divine retributive justice that Job's suffering must be the result of hidden sin. His theology, while not entirely wrong, failed to account for the particular situation of Job and was ultimately rebuked by God at the close of the book: "My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath" (Job 42:7–9).

The second Eliphaz was the eldest son of Esau by his wife Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite (Genesis 36:4, 10–12), and the father of Teman — the ancestor of the Temanites, from whom Job's friend came. This genealogical connection may explain Eliphaz the Temanite's involvement as a wise man from Edom, a region noted in the Old Testament for its wisdom tradition (Obadiah 8; Jeremiah 49:7).