Continuing his speech, Elihu, like Job's friends, denounces the sufferer for wickedness (vv. 2-9). He condemns Job because, in Elihu's opinion, by speaking against God Job makes himself an apostate (vv. 34-37). Job has not yet had to hear accusations like these. Why, then, does Elihu assess Job's behavior so harshly? Like all the others taking part in the conversation, he proceeds from the fact that God possesses full and absolute power over the world He has created (vv. 13-15). From this unconditionally true premise Elihu draws the conclusion that God cannot be wrong or judge perversely (vv. 10-12), and again one cannot disagree with this. Moreover, Job himself and his friends would certainly agree with Elihu on this. But in God's omnipotence Elihu sees something close to arbitrariness. It is not accidental that he compares God's power over the human person with the power of earthly rulers, whom it is impossible to stop even when their actions appear unjust or actually are unjust (vv. 17-18). Elihu's God makes no distinction between great and small, between rich and poor, not because a person's spiritual condition is more important to Him than his social position, but because people are indifferent to Him, and He shuffles earthly rulers like a deck of cards, easily replacing some with others, so that there can be no question of judgment over anyone (vv. 19-25).

Of course, Elihu himself asserts that God acts this way with lawless people (vv. 26-30), but in this case that assertion remains unproved. If God does not examine a person's actions like a thoughtful judge, if to Him everyone is all alike, how can one be sure that His determinations correspond at all to any human ideas of righteousness and sinfulness? It is not surprising that a person cannot count on a just assessment of his actions from such a God. All that remains for him is to acknowledge his wrongness from the very beginning and beg his merciless Judge for leniency (vv. 31-33). As one can see, Elihu truly experienced the greatness and power of God deeply. But this experience evidently completely obscured God's justice from him. The God of the prophets and sages is not only the God of power, but also the God of righteousness; He is the source of goodness and justice. Elihu's God is only the God of power. He is not the source of goodness and justice; He is above them and, in essence, indifferent to them. The God of the prophets is the source of the moral norm, and in this sense He is above morality. Elihu's God is altogether outside morality. This is precisely the God Job was most afraid to encounter; this is precisely the God to whom Elihu bears witness before him.

Elihu continues, and many of his judgments are impossible to dispute, although not all of them are beyond question. (Why, for instance, should it be impossible, when necessary, to accuse a king and princes of wickedness and lawlessness? Elihu himself even allows that the Lord may call them strictly to account for their wickedness. But if Elihu considers it permissible to speak on God's behalf, why may other people not speak in their own name?) Yet it is difficult to escape the impression that in some respects Elihu twists the meaning of Job's speeches.

Job's words must not be considered apart from the situation and the state of mind in which they were spoken. Elihu repeats what seem to be the very same words that Job uttered only recently, but it is unlikely that both men spoke the same words with the same feelings. The same words too often conceal different meanings.