Job’s Intercession: Antidote to Divine Folly 465 the satan suggest that Job will bless or curse YHWH to his face if God strikes him (Job 1,11)? Does Job bless YHWH when what was given is taken back (Job 1,21)? Will Job bless or curse YHWH to his face when his health is gone (Job 2,5)? Is it the cursing or the blessing of God which should cause Job’s death (Job 2,9)? The beauty of the Prologue is that none of these questions can receive a definite answer. Narrative tension is built at the onset to carry the audience through the whole drama thanks to this fundamental issue. On which basis can one assert that Job breaks out in praise upon losing his health and everything else? In light of the next chapters, the euphemistic rendering of Job 1,21b actually makes more sense: “YHWH gave but YHWH took back, cursed be the name of YHWH!” The opposite would turn the Book of Job into a Stoic manifesto which cannot be the case since the Epilogue justifies Job’s screaming and ranting against the unfairness of his fate. However, the Epilogue moves beyond the issue of Job’s blessing or cursing. Since YHWH has admitted already in the Prologue that he took back for naught, the Epilogue depicts YHWH’s logical compensation of Job’s loses, thus assuming full responsibility for his crime. In the end, it makes no difference whether Job cursed or blessed God in the Prologue. In the very end, Job indeed dies and thus confirms that the person who spoke the least spoke the best. Job’s wife was right after all when she said “Bless/curse God and die!” (Job 2,9; 42,17). The Epilogue resolves the ambiguity of the Prologue through the notion of divine folly, and the lesson was not forgotten in the New Testament (1 Cor 1,25). When everything is said, the heart of the matter is how to deal with YHWH’s left hand. The Epilogue adds that if human behaviour makes little difference to human fate, humans are not left entirely powerless in the face of YHWH’s potential folly. 5. Job’s Elevation as Intercessor Readers spontaneously identify with Job, with his revolt and sufferings (34). Yet, we can never be Job. We certainly suffer in our own flesh like Job, but not quite for the same reason since we may not be as blameless as Job is. We are more likely to be friends of heroes than heroes ourselves, in spite of our natural tendency to identify with heroes. Hence, YHWH’s address to Eliphaz (Job 42,7-8) is more relevant to the audience than YHWH’s address to Job, and much more (34) J. VERMEYLEN, “Le méchant dans les discours des amis”, The Book of Job (ed. W. BEUKEN), 102.