Job · Chapter 19

Explanation of the words of this response — 'Then Job answered and said.'

Introduction to the Eleventh Speech — Job's Response Here too he still does not respond directly to Bildad's approach, for he is waiting to reply to all three companions together, as noted above in the introduction to Job's previous speech. Rather, he expresses bitter distress at how they wound him with harsh words, and with reproach and contempt (cf. Psalms 119:22) — for even if what a person says is not doctrinally sound, he is not held culpable for it when spoken out of anguish. He sees that they have all turned into enemies to him, as though they had come to add pain to his pain (cf. Lamentations 1:12), hounding him like foes without mercy. He hands his case over to future generations, who will vindicate him in his dispute, and lodges judgment against them before Heaven, for hounding a man stricken with sickness like himself, broken-hearted to the point of death (Psalms 109:16). He tells of his pain and his distress, and warns them to fear Hashem's punishment for the wrong they had done him with words, under the guise of love.

Job’s Reply will you grieve Heb. תגיון, an expression of grief (תוגה).

‘will you vex’ — related to the root meaning ‘sorrow’ [yagon].

'Vex' — related to the term for sorrow, anguish.

'How long' — how long will you vex my soul and crush me with words of provocation?

Will you vex (togyun) - an expression of grief.

'How long will you vex my soul' — referring to what had been said to him, that his soul would perish from the land of the living; for in all that was said about the punishment of the wicked, they meant Job.

ten times There are ten chapters until here.

‘These ten times’ — Rav Saadia Gaon, of blessed memory, said: counting both Job’s own words and his friends’ replies, this now makes ten times. But the correct view, in my opinion, is that it is like ‘ten women shall bake’ (Leviticus 26:26) — the number ten being used as a round figure, a general reckoning.

'Deal harshly with me' — meaning: you mock me; or perhaps it is related to the sense of brazen insolence.

'These ten times' — for until now Job has spoken five discourses, and his friends have answered him with five discourses of provocation; therefore he says: have you not put me to shame these ten times? For even what they did not accept of his words is counted to him as further shame. 'You are not ashamed' — how is it that you are not ashamed to be so brazen toward me, and make yourselves out as though you were strangers and foreigners to me, who never knew me at all?

You deal harshly (tahkeru) - an expression of 'foreign, strange' [treating me as an outsider].

'These ten times have you reproached me' — for Eliphaz and Zophar, too, told him that he was wicked, even though they spoke only in general terms, about the wicked of the world at large. 'You are not ashamed that you deal harshly with me' — you speak in a way that makes it plain your words are aimed at me; and everything you said about the punishments of the wicked was all aimed at me, since all of this happened to me.

stay with me I am the one who receives blows for my error.

'And be it indeed,' etc. — even if it is possible that I have erred in doing wrong, does not my error lodge with myself alone? Meaning: you yourselves have not seen anything wrong from me; but it could be that I did wrong privately, between myself and myself alone — so what claim have you against me? For how could you possibly know my hidden things?

I have erred (shagiti) - an expression of 'mistake, inadvertent error'. Remains (talin) - an expression of 'lodging for the night'; that is, it stays concealed [with me alone].

'And be it indeed that I have erred' — even if I grant that I erred in my views concerning the principles of faith, surely I do not deserve so great a punishment for this; for 'my error remains with myself' — I never made these views public; they were only matters of the heart and mind, in which I erred through speculation, and I do not deserve such great punishments for that.

If indeed you are added upon me to my trouble. and prove against me my reproach You show and prove my reproach to my face.

‘you will magnify yourselves against me’ — [that is,] your own selves.

'If indeed' — as for the truth of what you magnify against me as sin: it is that you argue so as to establish against me the reproach of my iniquity, from the greatness of the suffering that has come upon me, and from this you judge that I bear great sin.

If indeed (im omnam) - [meaning] 'that indeed'. And plead (vetochichu) - an expression of 'proof, clarification'.

'If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me' — that is, insofar as you wish to magnify my iniquity in proportion to the punishment I have suffered. 'Plead against me my reproach' — that from the sufferings themselves you would prove my disgrace, establishing from this that my iniquity is too great to bear. But there is no proof in this, for —

‘His net’ [metzudo] — its meaning is [the fuller form] ‘metzudato,’ His net.

'His net' — meaning: His snare.

'Know now' — behold, it is not so; rather, know, you who argue with me here, that God has perverted my case; even His net, which He has cast around me to catch me, was cast in perversion, not on account of any sin.

His net (metzudo) - similar to a net, as in 'and he shall be caught in My net' (Ezekiel 12:13). Compassed (hikkif) - an expression of encircling and surrounding.

'Know now that God has subverted my cause' — that these sufferings do not accord with justice, but come through a perversion of justice and through wrong. 'Has compassed me with His net' — he takes up the very language Bildad had used, that the wicked man is cast into a net by his own feet (cf. Job 18:8), and says that He has encompassed him with His own net — not through justice, but through a perversion of justice.

I cry out concerning violence but I am not answered.

'Behold, I cry out' — behold, I cry out over the violence done to me, and no one answers me. 'But there is no justice' — I have no judgment giving me the reward that is due me.

I cry out (eshava) - I cry out.

'Behold, I cry out: Violence!' — and about this very thing he cries out 'Violence!', for violence and oppression have been done to him. 'But I am not heard' — he pictures himself like a man set upon by robbers on the road, crying out to passersby while none answers, and afterward like one crying aloud before the judges of the land, seeking relief, but finding no justice.

'He has fenced up my way' — He has made a fence across the road on which I travel, so that I cannot pass; He has even set darkness in the place of my path. Meaning: I am unable to accomplish my wish in any matter at all.

'My way' — I still had hope that I might pass from here to the great judges of the land, to seek judgment before them. But He has fenced up my way so that I cannot pass this way, and so I planned to go instead by the small paths that individuals use — but upon these too He has set darkness, so that I cannot even find my way along them.

'My glory' — meaning: my wealth.

'He has stripped me of my glory' — He has removed my glory from me, and I have become an object of scorn in everyone's eyes. 'The crown from my head' — meaning, my dominion.

'My glory' — now he pictures what Hashem did to him after having caught him in His net: that He then stripped him of his glory and the crown of his head, that is, He took away his wealth and his greatness. And afterward —

he has uprooted Heb. ויסע, an expression of uprooting.

‘plucked up like a tree’ — as a tree is uprooted from its place.

'Plucked up' — related to the term nesi'ah, journeying [i.e., uprooted, as a tent is pulled up to move on].

'He has broken me down on every side' — He has torn me down all around, and I go about broken, unable to be healed. 'My hope has He plucked up' — He has uprooted my hope from me, like one who uproots a tree from its place so that it never again returns to be planted there as it was; so too, I no longer hope to return to my former state.

'He has broken me down on every side' — that He killed his children around him. 'My hope has He plucked up' — like a tree that is uprooted from its roots, so did He uproot his hope, root and all; meaning that He afflicted his body with pains that have no cure.

'He counts me' — He regards me as though I were one of His adversaries, and on this account He strikes me all the more.

'He has also kindled' — afterward He kindled His wrath against me; he pictures 'the wrath' as an abstract, personified entity, an agent sent by Hashem, and Hashem kindled it against Job. 'He counts me' — and the wrath counted him as one of its own adversaries; and on account of this —

they build their road Heb. ויסלו, an expression of a highway (מסלה).

‘And cast up’ [their way] — related to [the same root as] ‘a piercing brier’ (Ezekiel 28:24), as in ‘Behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns’ (Hosea 2:8), from [the image of] ‘a hedge of thorns’ (Proverbs 15:19). And likewise, ‘my way is turned aside’ — from [that same image of] thorns.

'His troops' — meaning: the troops of misfortunes. 'And cast up their way against me' — meaning: by a well-trodden, paved road, made so by much walking upon it.

'Together' — all the troops of my sufferings have come at once, marching along a paved, well-trodden road, with not one of them straying from its course; and they encamp all around my tent, and do not depart at once.

His troops (gedudav) - armies. And cast up (vayasollu) - an expression of 'highway, a paved road'.

'His troops come on together' — He sent His troops against me, and all of them came against me for battle. 'Cast up their way against me... and encamp round about my tent' — he alludes here both to the bands of the Sabeans and Chaldeans, whom Hashem's wrath had set upon him earlier (ch. 1), and to his companions, who are likewise troops of Hashem's wrath — who count him among the adversaries of Hashem, the deniers of His providence, and who war against him with harsh, bitter words out of their zeal for Hashem.

became strange Heb. אך זרו, an expression of cruelty.

'Are wholly estranged from me' — meaning: they have become like strangers to me.

'My brethren' — the troops of suffering have driven my kinsmen far from me, for on their account they regard me as a man of great transgression. 'And my acquaintance' — those who knew me formerly now do not know me; they have become utterly estranged and foreign to me.

Are estranged (zaru) - an expression of 'stranger, foreign'.

(13–14) 'My brethren' — Because of the troops of wrath encamped around me, no one comes to me — not even my brothers, my relatives, and my acquaintances.

'My kinsfolk have failed' — to come to visit me.

My familiar friends (umeyudda'ai) - my loved ones and acquaintances, as in 'and call understanding your intimate friend' (Proverbs 7:4).

'Those who dwell in my house' — those who live in my house, and my maidservants. 'Count me for a stranger' — they regard me as a strange man, and I have become in their eyes like a foreigner whom they never knew.

'Those who dwell in my house' — Would that they counted me merely as a stranger! Instead, I have become an alien — in their eyes I am like an alien who has come from a distant land, whom they do not recognize at all, not knowing from what nation or tongue I am.

'With my mouth' — even though I plead with him with my mouth and speak gently to him, still he does not answer me.

'I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer' — even though I plead with him with my own mouth, still he pays no heed to my pleading.

to the children of my body To those who I raised in my house as though they were my own children.

'I am loathsome to the children of my tribe' — the sense here is that, even though I show her [my wife] much favor, it is for the sake of the children of my own body [reading the phrase as 'my entreaty is toward the children of my own body,' rather than 'I am loathsome to the children of my tribe'] — that is, so that I may raise up children through her. Or perhaps 'my entreaty' functions as a noun rather than a verb, as in 'has He forgotten to be gracious' (Psalms 77:10), and the sense would then be: my having shown her favor so that I might raise up children through her is something alien to her, and she is not reconciled to me at all. It is also possible that he had children even now, for we do not know how much time passed between the loss of his [first] children and the time of his dispute with his friends; in that case the meaning would be: even the favor I show my [present] children is something alien to them.

'My breath' — my desire in the matter of intimacy is repugnant to my wife, and she is unwilling to comply; and even though I plead with her to bear children, still she does not heed me.

My breath (ruchi) - my will [i.e., desire, request], as in 'Behold, I will put a spirit in him' (Isaiah 36). My supplication (vechanoti) - an expression of 'entreaty, plea' [i.e., my very pleading is loathsome to them].

'My breath is abhorred of my wife, and I am loathsome to the children of my tribe' — meaning, my imploring and my pleading are alien also to the children of my tribe — that is, to his grandchildren (the children of his children); or perhaps he had additional children by concubines.

children despised me I was despised in the eyes of children, all the more so in the eyes of princes.

‘urchins’ [avilim] — young children; or, [by a play on the word,] the wicked — those who deal in iniquity [avel].

'Urchins' — meaning: men of injustice and violence [reading the word as related to `avel`, injustice, rather than 'children'].

'Even urchins' — even the young boys despise me; and when I rise before them to show them honor, they speak against me words of contempt, counting my honor as nothing at all.

Urchins (avilim) - youths, as in 'they send forth their little ones like a flock' (below, Job 21:11); the word denotes 'one young in days', as in 'an infant of days' (Isaiah 65:20).

'Even urchins despised me' — young boys who do wrong, even they have rejected me; for when I rise up from the debate, they speak against me, saying: 'For...'

‘And they whom I loved’ — [literally,] ‘this one whom I loved’ [singular in the Hebrew, used for the plural]: all of them have turned against me.

'Abhor me' — all the men of my own counsel abhor me. 'And they whom' — each one of those standing here before me, whom I have loved from of old — behold, they have turned into enemies against me, and revile me.

Are turned against me (nehepchu vi) - [literally 'turned in me', but] means 'turned against me'; similarly, 'the beast that I ride on' (Nehemiah 2:12), where the sense of 'on' is 'upon it'.

'All my intimate friends abhor me' — they speak disrespectfully about me: my intimate friends, namely my three companions, have come to abhor me, for they have spoken harshly to me. And even this friend whom I loved — namely Bildad, whom he regarded as more beloved than all the others (for in the first round of debate, Bildad, unlike Eliphaz and Zophar, did not conclude that Job had sinned) — and now, my intimate friends, and this one whom I loved — all of them abhor me and have turned into enemies against me.

My bones cleaved because I am emaciated from thickness of flesh. by the skin of my teeth All his flesh was afflicted with boils and worms except his gums.

‘And I have escaped with the skin of my teeth’ — the sense is that I have not really escaped at all; it is as though only ‘my teeth [remain] in [my] skin’ — the barest sliver.

'And I have escaped with the skin of my teeth' — meaning: no whole skin remains to me, except what still clings to the roots of my teeth.

'To my skin' — from the greatness of my emaciation, my bone has cleaved to my skin and to my flesh; and because so little flesh remains, the bone has become attached to the skin as well. 'And I have escaped' — there is no soundness left in my flesh; all of it is stricken and diseased, and I have escaped [unharmed] only with regard to the flesh attached to the root of my teeth, which resembles skin — that is, 'the skin of my teeth.'

'My bone cleaves to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped with the skin of my teeth' — my bone cleaves on one side to my skin (since the flesh that lay between bone and skin has wasted away), and on the other side it cleaves to my flesh — that is, the flesh of the inner organs, which have become stuck fast to the bones. And because of this, 'I have escaped with the skin of my teeth' means: I escape, expel, and vomit up my food a second time — I am like a beast or a head of cattle that eats and then brings the food back up as cud from its innards; so too does my food escape outward from me, because my intestines and digestive organs have become stuck to my bones and no longer perform their function.

'The hand of God' — meaning: the blow of Hashem.

'Have pity upon me' — have compassion and pity on me, you my friends, and do not go on reviling me; for the blow of God's hand has touched me, and this suffering is enough for me.

Have pity upon me (chonnuni) - an expression of 'grace, compassion'.

(21–22) 'Have pity upon me' — So I ask you, my friends: show me pity, since the hand of God has touched me with plagues. If so, then you surely can never be satisfied with my flesh, for my flesh is full of the plagues of Hashem and cannot be eaten. And if so, it is impossible that you are pursuing me for your own benefit, to eat my flesh. If so, why do you pursue me the way God has pursued me, yet without any benefit at all? What do you gain by pursuing me in this manner?

‘as God’ [ke-El] — that is, the Holy One.

'Why do you persecute me' — meaning, why do you vex me with words of reproach, just as God vexes me by bringing suffering upon me? Are you not yet satisfied with the suffering in my flesh? Why must you go on further paining my soul with words of reproach?

'And that they were inscribed' — meaning: and that they were written down.

'Oh that' — oh, that I had a man! Where is there one here who would take it upon himself, that my words be written down? And oh, that they were inscribed in a book! This is the same matter repeated in other words.

In a book (basefer) - in a scroll; it is called a 'sefer' because of its edge [the defined border of a rolled scroll]. Inscribed (veyuchaku) - an expression of 'engraving'.

'Oh that...' — He says: even though in this generation they condemn me as wicked for my complaints — 'Oh that my words were now written' — and he adds: would that my words be inscribed in a book, to serve as a remembrance for the generation to come. And he adds further: 'Oh that...'

With an iron pen they should be inscribed in the rock, and afterwards they run lead over them to give the letters a black appearance, to make them recognizable. This is the practice of those who inscribe on stone. It cannot be explained to mean a lead pen because lead is soft in comparison with stone.

‘For ever they were graven in the rock’ — he wished that they be engraved somewhere they could never be erased; and he wished it to be known that his redeemer, who spoke on his behalf, is well — alive today, or that he would be the very last one yet to be born.

'They were graven' — meaning: they were engraved.

'With an iron pen' — let them be engraved with an iron pen, and let lead be poured into the hollows of the engraving, so that the writing be legible and enduring; and let the writing itself be hewn into the rock, so that it stand forever, and a later generation may determine with whom justice lies — for my friends have done a great wrong in saying that these afflictions came upon me because of a shortfall in my effort to know Hashem.

With a pen (be'et) - with a stylus, as in 'a scribe's pen' (Psalms 45:2). They were graven (yechatzevun) - engraving in rock is called 'chatzivah' [hewing].

'That with an iron pen and lead they were graven in the rock' — so that the words would remain intact until the last generation, and then —

But I know that my Redeemer lives This “vav” refers to the above. You persecute me, but I know that my Redeemer lives to requite you, and He will endure and rise. and the last on the earth, He will endure After all earth dwellers will perish, He will endure last.

'But as for me, I know' — but it is not so; for behold, I know that Hashem, the Redeemer of my soul — who will bring it to its ultimate well-being — lives and endures forever; and when the whole world is destroyed, He will remain, last, over the dust. So then, I do know whatever it is possible to know.

'But as for me, I know' — with certainty — 'that my Redeemer lives' — that at some point in time there will arise a man, alive in those days, who will read my words, avenge my blood, and take up my cause to vindicate me. 'And that He will witness at the last upon the dust' — even though this man will belong to the last generation, one who will arise only later upon the dust of the earth — in any case, there must inevitably arise, at some point in time, a person who will accept my view and my approach and vindicate me, when he reads my words as written in a book and on tablets of stone.

And after my skin, they have cut into this Yet they do not pay heed to my Redeemer, but after the plague of my skin, they cut, strike, and pierce. This vexation and persecution that I mentioned, which is to me like one cutting into my skin, like (Isa. 10:34): “And the thickets of the forests shall be cut off (ונקף).” and from my flesh I see judgments. judgment Heb. אלוה, an expression of judgment and chastisements.

‘And when after my skin, this is destroyed’ — [the word] ‘destroyed’ [nikefu] is like ‘and He shall cut down the thickets of the forest’ (Isaiah 10:34); and ‘this’ refers to my very self — my skin and my flesh. ‘shall I see God’ — [that is, I shall see] the afflictions that He will bring anew upon me.

'Is destroyed' — [the word] is like 'they have pierced' [nikvu]; or 'nikkefu' means 'they shall be broken off.'

'And after my skin' — and nevertheless, my wounds have so multiplied that, after my skin was worn away, they broke this bone as well; even so, I would see God and apprehend Him, insofar as that is possible, more than I see and apprehend my own flesh.

Is destroyed (nikefu) - an expression of 'breaking, cutting down', as in 'the thickets of the forest shall be cut down' (Isaiah 10:34). Shall I see (echezeh) - I shall see, as in 'and you shall seek out' (Exodus 18:21).

(26–28) 'And when...' — In response to their having comforted him with the survival of the soul — that he would then behold God and delight in His goodness — he says to them: Is it truly 'after my skin, this, which was destroyed' — meaning, pierced and shattered by wounds until the whole skin was ruined and dissolved — or is it truly 'from my flesh' (which has been pierced and utterly crushed) — that from these I will 'see God'? For this you would say: what more is there to pursue in him? For you would say that I am not persecuted at all, since 'the root of the matter is found in me' — that the root, namely the soul, which is the root of the body, is still found within me, and it has not been destroyed by the plagues that destroyed the flesh; and therefore you would say that I am not persecuted at all. But I ask you: after my skin has been so pierced, can I behold God and see by the light of the living? Is it not that what my own eyes have seen, and not a stranger's, is that my very innards are consumed within me? And since I see with my own senses that my innards are consumed, and that all my flesh and skin are afflicted beyond healing, for the sword has reached even to the soul — how then could I behold God without a body, without flesh, and without limbs? And how could the root remain in me to live on? How could I live without a body? (For according to his view, the soul cleaves only to the body, and once it has no garment to wear, it cannot live the kind of life that pertains to the former state, in which reward and punishment are received.)

'Whom I, even I' — as if to say: behold, these wounds are visible and known to all; but that which I myself shall behold for myself alone, which only my own eyes shall see and not another's, is that my reins are consumed within my bosom — for this I feel by myself alone, and it is not visible to anyone else.

Within me (becheiki) - that is, within my innermost being.

Shall you say, ‘Why should we persecute him?’ Like (Deut. 7:17), “Will you say in your heart,” in which [כי] is an expression of a question. That is to say, “Will you lay your heart to the matter to have pity and say, ‘Why should we persecute him?’” and the root of the matter that is found in him—what is it? This favor will never enter your mind [to determine] the root of the matter for which he suffers with pains.

‘If you say’ — is there anyone among you who would [actually] say, ‘How shall we pursue him?’ ‘the root of the matter’ — [that is,] evil: you ought to be afraid of the sword.

'If you say' — for it would indeed be fitting for you to say: 'Why do we go on persecuting him? Is the root of the matter of sin really to be found in him?' For all your words maintain that these afflictions came upon me because of a shortfall in the effort to know Hashem; but if in fact I know whatever it is possible to know, then what more is there to do?

How we will persecute (mah nirdof) - [meaning] 'why shall we persecute', as in 'why does a man complain' (Lamentations 3:39).

for the wrath For you are committing much iniquity that will bring about the sword. in order that you know and understand the secret of the retribution that will come upon the wicked. Also, the mesorah is authoritative and שדין is written, as though it would say that there is justice (שיש דין) in the world, like (Jud. 5:7), “I, Deborah, arose (שַׁקַמְתִּי), [like שֶׁקַמְתִּי].” I saw this in Tanchuma (Mishpatim 3)

‘For wrath’ — because of sins, the sword shall come. ‘that you may know shaddun’ — [shaddun is] like ‘din’ [judgment]: that there is a judgment.

'That you may know there is a judgment' [she-din] — meaning: that there is judgment. This word is a noun on the pattern of 'buz' [contempt]. The intent is: because of what you know, according to your own words, that there is judgment and justice over every deed of a person, be afraid of angering Him through such insults as you hurl at me. 'You may know' [tede'un] would then carry a present-tense sense even though it has the grammatical form of the future tense — the like of this is found often in our language. Alternatively, 'don' may be a participial noun on the pattern of 'shuv' in 'the returning from battle,' in which case the intent would be: because of what you know, according to your own words, that a person is judged for all his deeds, whether good or evil, it is fitting for you to fear angering me in this manner, for it is a wondrous sin. Explanation of the words of the response: Job answered and said: How long will you cause grief to my soul, and crush me with your words? All you do is demean me with them, and there is no valid argument in them to establish the truth of your opinions — they are mere words. This is now ten times that we have spoken, one after another, and in every reply you have given me, you have shamed me with your words — or he says ‘ten’ by way of exaggeration, for in fact they had spoken to him only five times — and you are not ashamed to say such things to me, and you harden your faces against me. And even granting, as you say, that I have erred, what is that to you? My error remains my own; leave me be. But if indeed you would enlarge your case against me and prove my disgrace against me, on the strength of what you see — the blows and misfortunes that lead you to believe that everything happens by strict judgment — and would bring proof from this that I must have been a sinner, then know in truth that Hashem has wronged me, and has encompassed me with His net, to snare me though there is no violence in my hands. Behold, I cry out ‘Violence!’ over my afflictions and troubles, which came about because of the configuration of the stars at the time of my birth, unjustly; and no one answers me — I cry aloud, and I find no justice. Hashem, who ordains this arrangement, has fenced up my path, so that I cannot attain what I seek, and upon the very paths I aim for He sets darkness, so that I cannot walk there. He has stripped my glory from me — my wealth from me — just as He overtook me earlier with the loss of my possessions. And He has removed my offspring, who were the crown of my head, as Scripture says, ‘The crown of old men is their children’s children’ (Proverbs 17:6). He has broken me down on every side with the blows He has sent to destroy my possessions and my children, until I am reckoned as though I were gone; and through this act He has plucked up my hope like a tree — meaning that I have no hope, just as a tree has no hope once it has been torn up all around and uprooted from the ground in which it had taken root, for if it were simply left alone it would surely die. So too with me: now that my possessions, in which the life of my spirit consisted, have been taken from me, I am reckoned as dead. His wrath has burned against me, to strike me, after this, with these wondrous blows, and He regards me as though I were one of His enemies, pursuing me continually though there is no violence in my hands. Together the troops of my troubles come upon me, and pave their way against me — meaning that their way is paved and well-trodden in coming to me, from such constant recurrence — and these troops encamp all around my tent. Now, because of the abundance of my troubles, my brothers, my acquaintances, my kinsmen, and my friends have turned into strangers to me, until they have grown distant from me and forgotten me; for when a man’s foot slips, one often finds that both his enemies and his relatives avert their eyes from him and forget him. And not this alone — even the people residing in my house, who eat my bread, and my maidservants, regard me as a stranger; I have become an alien in their eyes. I called to my servant, and he does not answer, even though I plead with him in words to grant my request, and do not command him the way a master would ordinarily command his servant — yet even so, he does not answer. My breath has become strange to my wife, even though I show her great favor, so that I might raise up children through her. Even the basest men, men of iniquity, despise me; I rise up before them, yet they are not ashamed, even so, to speak insults and contempt against me. All the men of my intimate counsel abhor me, and those who stood with me, who were my friends whom I loved, have turned into enemies to me and reproached me with many reproaches. Behold, from the extent of my emaciation, my bone cleaves together with my skin and my flesh, as though I had no flesh at all; no whole skin remains on me that my bones have not pierced through, except what clings to the roots of my teeth, which resembles skin. Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends, for the hand of Hashem has struck me though I am without transgression. Why do you pursue me as those iniquitous men who insult me do? — or he may mean: if Hashem pursues me with such blows, why should you pursue me just as He does, until you are not sated with my flesh, out of the abundance of your hatred for me? Oh, that my words were now written down, in a manner that they would stand forever! He says this because he judges that his own words are true, even though his friends kept dismissing them with their false arguments. And one may not say of me that I sinned by failing to strive to know Hashem to the extent of my ability, as Bildad said of Job, stating, ‘and this is one who does not know God’ (Job 18:21) — for I do know Him: I know that the One who redeems my soul and brings it to its ultimate success is He who lives and endures forever. And I know that the Last — who shall stand up at the last upon the dust — is Hashem, may He be blessed; meaning: the last of the causes standing over the earth is Hashem, may He be blessed, and he calls Him ‘last’ because He is last in the order of our inquiry, for we begin from what is posterior and proceed from it back to what is prior, whereas in actual existence He is truly first. And it is possible that his statement ‘and He shall stand up last upon the dust’ indicates His eternity and everlasting existence, along the lines of the verse, ‘I am the first, and I am the last’ (Isaiah 44:6). But the first explanation is more correct, both as regards the sense and as regards the language. And nevertheless my blows have multiplied, until, after they pierced my skin, they broke through even to the bone, and from my flesh I see the hand of Hashem, may He be blessed, and His blow. Or he may mean by this: my blows have already gone to such an extreme that, after piercing my skin, they broke my very bones — even though I perceive Hashem and apprehend Him more directly than I perceive my own flesh. He says this because they had already attributed to him the sin of not knowing Hashem, may He be blessed, as stated in the previous response. Now, what was related earlier concerning these evils was a matter openly known to all; but the evil that has overtaken me, which I alone perceive for myself, is that I reckon that, from the abundance of my illness, my innards have wasted away within my body. It would therefore have been fitting for you to say: ‘Why should we pursue him? Behold, some root of the matter is found in him’ — meaning: it is fitting for me to complain as I do complain, and to conclude from this — given that, in your own reckoning, I am righteous and upright — that Hashem, may He be blessed, does not watch over human individuals; and it would be fitting that what happens to me be treated, in this inquiry, as providing some real basis for that conclusion. So then, since you know that there is judgment and justice over every human deed, be afraid of provoking my anger with such provocations, lest you fall by the sword; for the wrath that you bring upon me in this manner is a great sin, whose punishment is death by the sword, it being among the harshest of sins. The general principle that emerges from these words is this: Bildad had said that it is not proper for them to abandon the general rule they hold on account of what Job argues from his own case. Job, however, says that the matter is just the opposite: they ought to take what they have seen befall him in the way of evils as the root and starting point for establishing — with more certainty than the verification they derive from the other men who suffered evil and whom they cited as proof — that he is righteous and upright. Moreover, a general rule that does not hold true in even a single individual is thereby false. And as for Bildad’s claim that Job perhaps sinned by not knowing Hashem, Job has already refuted this statement and made clear that he did know Him to the extent of his ability, in a statement that genuinely acknowledges that he knew Him — namely, his statement that He is ‘the Last, who shall stand up upon the dust’ — for this is the very manner by which one arrives at the knowledge of Hashem: by inquiring into the causes of these perceptible phenomena that produce them, until we arrive at last at the ultimate cause. And Job rebukes them for committing a wondrous sin in provoking him in this manner, given their own admission that there is reward and judgment for every deed.

'Be you afraid' — therefore cease from afflicting me, and be afraid for yourselves before the sword of retribution; for the wrath with which you are angry at me for no cause is itself among the sins for which the sword comes upon those who bear it. 'That you may know' — for you yourselves know that there is judgment in the world, to repay a man according to his deeds; for do you not maintain that there is One who watches over and duly repays? Therefore be afraid for yourselves, and cease from afflicting me. (The upshot of this speech: he complains of his friends, saying, 'Why do you condemn me? Have you found anything wrong in my hand? And if it is because of the pain of my afflictions that you judge that I bear great sin — that is not so, for they came upon me for nothing. And if it is because of a shortfall in the effort to know Hashem — behold, I know whatever it is possible to know.' And he condemns them for reviling him with words, for they themselves will be exposed to retribution on this very account, by their own reasoning that there is One who watches over and duly repays.)

Be you afraid (guru) - fear, as in 'and that which I feared' (above, Job 3:25). There is a judgment (shaddon) - [that is], 'that there is judgment' [asher din]; the letter shin stands in place of 'asher' (that, which), as in 'until I, Deborah, arose' (Judges 5:7); and 'don' is an expression of 'judgment, justice'.

'Be you afraid' — of the sword of judgment that hangs over you for the sin of verbal oppression, in that you have caused me pain for no reason. 'For wrath brings the punishments of the sword' — the sin for which the sword comes to destroy and lay waste is the sin of verbal oppression; it comes with great wrath, as it is written: 'You shall not afflict any widow or orphan; for if you afflict them at all... then My wrath shall grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword' (Exodus 22:21-23) — 'that you may know there is a judgment': then you will know that there is judgment and justice in the world, in keeping with your own view, that everything operates by judgment and justice — a view you now assert with your mouths, but do not know with clear knowledge. For had you truly known it, you would not have failed to fear punishment, and you would not have afflicted your fellow with bitter words. But then you will truly know that there is judgment.