Eliphaz is a Hebrew biblical name meaning 'God is fine gold' or 'God is strength.'
Eliphaz is a name of ancient Hebrew origin, most commonly interpreted as meaning 'my God is fine gold' or, in alternate readings, 'God is strong.' It appears in two distinct places in the Hebrew Bible, first as the eldest son of Esau in the Book of Genesis — a figure from whom the Edomite tribes descended — and more famously as the senior of the three friends who come to console Job in the book that bears his name. These two appearances give Eliphaz a dual resonance: noble lineage on one hand, theological controversy on the other.
As Job's comforter, Eliphaz the Temanite is the most eloquent and initially the most gentle of the three visitors. He offers Job a vision of divine order: suffering, he argues, is always corrective, always a sign of hidden transgression. His speeches are among the most sophisticated theodicy in ancient literature, wrestling with why the righteous suffer.
But God ultimately rebukes him and his companions at the book's end, declaring that they have not spoken rightly. This narrative arc transformed Eliphaz into a symbol of well-intentioned but insufficient theology — the friend who says all the right-sounding things and yet misses the deeper truth. The name largely disappeared from common usage after the biblical period, surviving mainly in scholarly and religious contexts.
In Puritan England and early American communities, where deep familiarity with the full text of the Old Testament was standard, it occasionally appeared in church records and census documents. Today Eliphaz is exceedingly rare as a given name, which makes it a striking choice — weighted with ancient history, suited to parents who want something genuinely Old Testament without being ubiquitous.