Job · Chapter 26

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

Introduction to the Seventeenth Speech — Job’s Response This, his final speech, he delivers in three discourses, each distinct from the next. In the first discourse (Job 26) he replies, refuting Bildad’s final position. First he shows Bildad that in taking this position, he has actually reinforced and strengthened Job’s own thesis and view — that the celestial order rules the world, and that by it a person’s mazal is allotted, whether for kindness or for the rod, for prosperity and pleasure or for poverty and affliction. For although Bildad had parted from Job’s position by maintaining that Hashem does nonetheless watch over individual matters, that the stars have no power to compel man’s discretionary acts, and that there is therefore reward and punishment for the good and the wicked — he nevertheless conceded that the governance of providence does not override the governance of the celestial order, so that what befalls the wicked could just as well befall the righteous, and vice versa, since Hashem does not alter the celestial order for the sake of a righteous man’s deeds. This being so, the question of the suffering of the righteous and the prosperity of the wicked remains in full force. For Bildad’s claim that they will receive their reward and punishment after death is not accepted by Job, who has already said it twice and three times over: that he has no proof of any life after death, a thing hidden from the eyes of all flesh (Job 26:2-4). As for the substance of Bildad’s position — that Hashem cannot punish the wicked in this world against the order of nature and the celestial order — Job shows him that on his own approach, the stars do not rule over everything in the world, but only over what is determined by their motions in things that share a quality with them, and not otherwise, in keeping with the view of the philosopher cited in Sefer HaIkkarim, which I quoted in the introduction to Job’s first speech. If so, there still remain punishments with which Hashem can punish the wicked, by means of things that do not depend on the motion of the stars. He takes a further example from the nature of air and water: the laws by which the waters were gathered from off the dry land came about by Hashem’s will, and do not depend on the nature of water itself. For originally it was water’s nature to cover the globe of the earth all around, as it did at the beginning of Creation. If so, the gathering of the waters into seas runs against their own nature, and does not depend on the celestial order or the nature of the world — so Hashem is able to scatter the wicked by means of water, as He did in the generation of the Flood, and the like, punishing them through the lower elements, in matters that, on the philosopher’s own view, the celestial order has no share in. From this it is clear, on Job’s view, that the celestial order rules even over things that share no quality with it, and also over the deeds of human beings and their choices — as the stargazer holds, and as Job and his position hold. In the second discourse (Job 27–28), after seeing that his companions have stopped arguing and found no reply, he returns once more to justify his refusal to agree with their position — to accept things his heart does not agree with. For that would fall under the category of flattery, which is hateful in Hashem’s eyes; and it is better to say with one’s mouth what one believes to be true in one’s heart, even words of heresy and denial, than to speak flattering words with the mouth contrary to what is in the heart — even if by doing so one might restore the ruins of faith and raise up its desolate places (cf. Isaiah 61:4) (Job 27:2-11). On this basis he complains against his companions, who spoke things they know in their hearts to be the very opposite of the truth. As for their claim that the punishment of the wicked is that his children die and his possessions perish after his death — this is meaningless, for what does he care about his household after he is gone, when in any case he will have spent his days in good and his years in pleasantness (Job 36:11)? The calamities ought rather to fall on him, himself (Job 27:12-23). On this basis he complains (in chapter 28) why Hashem has hidden wisdom from the eyes of all who search for it, so that man cannot find the wisdom of God and His governance of His world, to understand its secret and its mysteries — so much so that these seekers are forced to say that the wisdom of governance, its order and its rightness, will be found only after death, when the soul is stripped of matter — a thing hidden from human beings clothed in body and flesh. And instead of it being proper to open their eyes and show them His ways and the rightness of His wisdom and governance, He has hidden and concealed from them the root of the matter, telling them instead to take comfort in the fear of Hashem and in faithfulness of heart, and not to inquire into the deeds of Hashem — presenting them with folly as wisdom and lack of knowledge as understanding. In the third discourse, he goes on to take up his theme (cf. Job 27:1, 29:1) in three utterances, hewing out flames of fire (Psalms 29:7): In the first utterance, he recounts at length all his former success, honor, and glory in days gone by (Job 29). In the second utterance, he sets against this his present wretchedness — his poverty, his lowliness, his disgrace, and his suffering now — contrasting the one with the other (Job 30). In the third utterance, he passes all his deeds under the rod of scrutiny (Leviticus 27:32), and proves with evidence that no iniquity is to be found in him (cf. Hosea 12:9) in any of his deeds and acts — that he was blameless in all his ways (cf. Ezekiel 28:15) and faithful in all his deeds (Psalms 145:17), and that he is stricken, struck by God, and afflicted (Isaiah 53:4), though there is no violence in his hands and no deceit in his mouth (cf. Isaiah 53:9). And with this, the words of Job and the words of his companions come to an end, and they cease from arguing any further.

'How have you helped him who is without power' - one who has no strength was helped.

'How have you helped' — what help have you given, with your words, to one who has no power of his own to understand the truth of providence? 'Have you saved' — the word 'how' serves for both clauses, as if to say: how have you saved one who has no strength in his arm, to understand on his own? The matter is repeated in other words.

How have you helped him who is without power! — Job says to him: In your words just now, you have actually given great help to ‘him who is without power’ — that is, to my own position, which holds that everything depends on the arrangement of the stars, and that from them issues the evil governance by which the blameless and the wicked are consumed alike. All of you have been fighting against this position of mine, until it was left with no strength before its pursuer — but now you have helped ‘the powerless one,’ giving my position strength and substance. For you too say, on your own approach, that everything depends on the arrangement of the stars and on the mazal of one’s birth: that the righteous man who is overtaken by misfortune was born under an evil arrangement of the celestial order, and the wicked man who prospers was born at an auspicious hour. And you have also ‘saved the arm that has no strength’ — for you have lent support to this position, both with inner reasoning and with an arm of real strength.

'Sound knowledge' — meaning: the divine order and arrangement found among existing things.

'How have you counseled' — what counsel have you given to one who has no wisdom, to know it out of his own understanding? 'And plentifully declared sound knowledge' — have you truly made known the wisdom of God in great measure? And he repeats the matter many times over, in the manner of one who mocks and jeers.

'Sound knowledge' [תושיה] — this is a name for wisdom, because it always 'is' [has real substance] and, unlike everything else, never reverts to nothing.

(3–4) ‘How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!’ — My own position — the very one you yourselves held — was a foolish position, lacking wisdom. Did you truly give it any counsel, by tying Providence to the cosmic order, saying that although everything follows that order and the constellations, Hashem nonetheless watches over the deeds of mankind? In this ‘you have declared abundant sound knowledge’ — you announced the matter in a way that most people would accept, since you said that despite it all, Hashem watches over them. But in essence, have you not thereby only reinforced my own position — that everything depends on the cosmic order, and that Hashem does not change that order for the sake of human deeds, so that the righteous man whose constellation is bad is afflicted with suffering, while the wicked man whose constellation is good prospers? All of this agrees with my position. And so it continues: ‘To whom have you uttered words? And whose spirit came forth from you?’ — is it not that you are speaking with me, and that the very soul of your position is taken from me — that the cosmic order rules the world? If so, my question stands as forcefully as ever: is there not, then, injustice in Hashem's governance, and a corruption of the moral order? Why is there a righteous man to whom evil happens, and a wicked man to whom good happens? And as for your claim that the essence of reward and punishment comes after death, I ask: is that truly so?

Job’s Reply and whose breath emerged from you? Who put into you this breath that emerged from your mouth? Who does not know this?

'and whose spirit' - the sense is: from whom did you receive these things that you have spoken?

'And whose spirit came forth from you' — meaning: and whose soul came forth from you. The sense is: what have you taught mankind by your words? For one who teaches his fellow something is, as it were, forming that fellow's soul through what reaches the soul in that teaching — for the soul is perfected, and in a sense formed, through the learning of intelligible things, so that it and the intelligible things it grasps become one and the same thing. This is why Scripture says, 'and the souls that they had made in Haran' (Genesis 12:5) — referring to the people whom Abraham and Sarah had drawn to the service of Hashem and to the attainment of truth.

'With whose help' — to whom did you utter words such as these? As if to say: is there indeed anyone who does not already know them on his own, such that he would need your words? 'And whose spirit' — whose breath of spirit went forth from you? Meaning: from whom did you hear these things? And he says this in a mocking manner.

'With whose [help]' [את מי] — [i.e.,] to whom. 'Spirit' [נשמת] — an expression of breathing, the blowing of air, as in 'by the breath of God they perish' (above, Job 4:9); its sense here is speech that comes out with a puff of breath, as in the phrase 'and it breathes forth at the end' (Habakkuk 2:3).

Gehinnom Gehinnom, which weakens the creatures. is hollow Its seven hollows. beneath the water and its denizens in the deepest of the depths, but that too...

'The shades' — even the shades, who are the dead: God makes them tremble beneath the waters and its inhabitants. The matter also applies to the kernels of seed, for in Sheol, which is a hidden place, He does as He wishes.

'The shades' — these are the kernels of seed; he calls them 'shades' [refa'im] because, before they are sown, they are like dead things, yet a soul-like power is found in them once they are sown — and this is a great wonder. He says this regarding the plants that grow on the floor of the sea and the rivers, such as coral and the like, which grow beneath the water; and it is a wonder that Hashem's action reaches, by means of the heavenly bodies, even to such places, and that the water and the earth covering them do not block the influence of the stars from reaching there. Or, alternatively, by 'shades' he may mean the mineral 'shades' — that is, the metals and the other things that come into being in the belly of the earth, beneath the water and beneath its inhabitants, by virtue of the vapors that the stars produce there, as has been explained in the natural sciences; and he calls them 'shades' because they are like dead things, having no soul-like power at all. This latter explanation fits the wording better, for according to the first explanation, the verse should have said, 'the shades sprout.' 'Tremble' [yecholelu] — meaning: are formed, are brought into being. 'And its inhabitants' — meaning: and beneath its inhabitants [the word 'beneath' carries over from the previous phrase].

'The shades' — as if to say: and if you have come to tell of the greatness of God, behold, I know more than this, and I too will tell it, and say: behold, Gehinnom is the abode of the dead, which contains many chambers — seven compartments of Gehinnom — and it lies beneath the waters, and their inhabitants dwell within them; for Gehinnom has but a single opening, and it is in the sea.

'The shades' [הרפאים] — this is the name given to the dead, because they have grown slack and weak through the angel of death. 'Tremble' [יחוללו] — an expression of hollowness, of being made void and empty.

‘The shades tremble beneath the waters and its inhabitants’ — Is it that the shades — the dead who went down to the grave and were buried in the depths, near the abyss to which the waters of the deep flow — will be brought forth again from beneath the waters and their inhabitants, and then receive their reward and punishment? This image is built on the fables of the ancients, who told that the shades and the giants — to whom they attributed divinity in their own foolishness — after they died and sank to the depths of the great abyss, would come out again from beneath the waters and be born a second time, becoming new deities and creatures, as is well known from the follies of (mythology). But is not Sheol naked before Him? How could He bring them out of Sheol to give birth to them and bring them to life again? With what would He clothe the soul, once the body has rotted away in Sheol? Is not Sheol naked — for the garments, that is, the bodies in which souls are clothed, decay in Sheol, and the souls remain naked, with no covering for Abaddon, since no other covering is to be found there to clothe the form that has come to Abaddon; it will not be clothed again in other matter. One can also explain these verses in a further way, as continuing Job's argument against the very foundation of Bildad's position — who says that Hashem does not punish the wicked man, and he prospers, because he was born under a good constellation, and the workings of nature and fortune impose no evils upon him, and Hashem does not change the workings of the cosmic order for the sake of a single individual, since ‘the world follows its accustomed course.’ To this Job answers: are there not natural laws that are not bound up with the workings of the cosmic order, through which Hashem can punish the wicked without changing the general order of nature? And so it says, ‘the shades tremble beneath the waters and its inhabitants’ — can Hashem not bring the shades out from beneath the waters and punish the wicked — meaning, He could flood the waters over the place of the wicked, as He did in the days of the Flood, and wipe out the wicked along with them — for is not Sheol naked before Him, since what lies in the belly of Sheol and the depths of the waters is not covered by the workings of the cosmic order, and Abaddon, which is in the depths, has no covering, for it stands exposed before Hashem, and is not bound up with the cosmic order, as the philosopher holds — and by these means Hashem is able to punish the wicked.

Sheol is naked before Him to know and to see all that is within it.

'The nether-world' [She'ol] — this is, in the absolute sense, the lowest point, namely the center of the earth. He speaks here by way of hyperbole and exaggeration — meaning that even to that place Hashem's action reaches, as though it were naked, with no body above it to cover it and keep it from receiving the influence of the heavenly bodies. That place is also called 'Destruction' [Avadon], since it is the farthest of all places on earth from receiving the influence of the heavenly bodies, and it is therefore more devoid of perfection than any other part of the earth — for death and destruction are attributed to whatever is devoid of form and perfection.

'Is naked,' etc. — and even though it lies in the depths of the earth, beneath the waters, nevertheless the Omnipresent knows everything within it, as though it were naked, without any covering.

'The nether-world' [Sheol] — that is Gehinnom; and so too 'Destruction' [Avadon].

'Over nothing' — there is nothing at all beneath as a foundation; rather, they [the heavens and the earth] stand suspended in the air by the strength of the arms of the Holy One, blessed be He. Dunash, however, explained 'belimah' as meaning level, stable ground — as in (Psalms 32:9), 'with bit and bridle, its harness, to hold in check' — so I have found written in another text.

'He stretches out the north' — that is, He stretched the north, which is the world's inhabited region, over the empty space. 'Hangs the earth over nothing' [belimah] — this is really two words, 'beli mah' ('without what'), in the sense that the earth hangs suspended in the middle of the celestial spheres.

'Upon nothing' [beli-mah] — upon that which has no existence in itself, namely, the center of the earth; for the earth is suspended upon it, as has been explained in the natural sciences.

'He stretches out the north' — meaning, He spread out the earth over the void, for there is nothing there to hold it up; and because the main settled region is in the northern quarter, he therefore said, 'He stretches out the north,' etc. 'Over nothing' — over a thing that has no substance. For the entire stability of the terrestrial globe, keeping it from drawing near to any one side, comes about because every part of an element longs for its own natural place; and so the whole terrestrial globe rests upon the point at its center — the midpoint of the sphere, a point that cannot be divided.

'The empty space' [tohu] — its sense is something devoid of substance. 'Nothing' [belimah] — this is [really] two words, beli mah, 'without anything.'

‘He stretches out the north over the empty space, and hangs the earth over nothing’ — Now he comes to establish the question he had raised: whether Hashem can punish the wicked by means of a flood of waters, and by means of the lower elements — water and air — which are not bound up with the motion of the celestial spheres, since they have their own particular natural laws. For it is known that at the beginning of Creation the earth was covered with water all around, since it is the nature of the element water to surround the element earth, just as the element air surrounds the element water; and Hashem changed this nature and decreed that the waters should be gathered to one place. I have already explained, in my commentary on the Account of Creation, that the comprehensive law by which Hashem changed the nature of the waters is the force of expansion that He set within the air. At first the element air was mixed with the element water; through the workings of this force of expansion in the air, vapors were separated from the water by the light created on the first day, and rose upward to the sphere of respiration, where the firmament — the thick clouds and clouds — was formed, and there the air was separated from the water. Through this the waters were gathered by way of the streams into the seas, and the dry land was revealed (as I have written further in my commentary on Psalms, chapter 104, and elsewhere). This law has no connection with the cosmic order, for it came into being only after the first Creation. I have already explained that, in the view of the ancients, the region of the north is uninhabited — meaning, the lower part of the globe, covered by the waters of the Ocean, which they called by the name ‘the north side’ (as I wrote in my composition Eretz HaChaim, section 1) — and there the earth remained in chaos, covered with water, just as it was at the beginning of Creation. This is the meaning of ‘He stretches out the north over the empty space.’ But the rest of the globe of the earth came forth from the womb of that chaos and became dry land — this is the meaning of ‘and hangs the earth,’ that is, the portion of dry land is carried, suspended over the water (as in, ‘to Him who spreads the earth over the waters’), over nothing — over the law that restrains and shuts out the water, holding it back from covering the earth. This statement continues into what is said in verse 10, ‘He has drawn a boundary upon the face of the waters’ — meaning, the law that Hashem drew, like a circle, upon the face of the waters: the law and the nature that Hashem set for the waters, that they should rise by way of vapor and remain in the place of the clouds, in the sphere of respiration. This law was founded upon the force of expansion that Hashem set within the nature of the air. This is the law that ‘hangs the earth over nothing’ — this law holds back the element of water from ever covering the whole earth, and thereby suspends the earth over the water. And he goes on to explain.

and the cloud does not split It never [split] so that its water [i.e., rain] should fall together. beneath it Beneath the water.

'He binds up' — He ties up the waters of the rain within the clouds, so that they are stored within it, letting them fall only drop by drop; and the cloud never splits open under the weight of the water, so as to pour it all out at once.

'Binds up' [צורר] — [i.e.,] ties, as in 'his bundle of money' (Genesis 42:35).

‘He binds up’ — This is the law that binds up the waters within the thick clouds: after the vapors rise, by the force of expansion belonging to the air, up to the sphere of respiration, there they are bound up within the thick clouds and clouds, and hang suspended in the air; and the cloud does not burst open beneath them.

He closes in with walls the face of His throne of glory, like (Ps. 18:12), “He made darkness His secret place.” He spreads over the throne His cloud (Ezek. 1:22), “And there was a likeness over the heads of the living creatures, of an expanse.”

'The face of His throne' — that is, the heavens, in the sense of 'Hashem has established His throne in the heavens' (Psalms 103:19). 'Spreads' [parshez] — it has no parallel elsewhere in Scripture; its meaning is 'spreads,' or similar.

'He closes in the face of His throne' — He grips and thickens the air that lies upon the face of the firmament of the heavens, which is called 'throne,' as in the phrase 'the heaven is My throne' (Isaiah 66:1). 'And spreads His cloud upon it' — in this manner He spreads His cloud upon it; meaning, that through the thickening of that air, cloud comes to form from it, as has been explained in the Book of Meteorology (Sefer HaOtot).

'He closes in the face of His throne' — the heavens are called a throne, as it is written, 'The heavens are My throne' (Isaiah 66:1); and he says that the air over the face of the firmament of the heavens thickens until it becomes fit to be grasped, and in this way He spreads His cloud upon the firmament, for it is in this manner that the cloud comes into being, namely, through the thickening of the air.

'His throne' [כסה] — [written with a final hei, it] is equivalent to כסא, 'throne,' [normally spelled] with an alef. 'Spreads' [פרשז] — an expression of spreading out; the zayin [at the end] is extra.

He closes in the face of His throne — This law forms a canopy and a covering over the face of the throne, that is, the face of the heavens, which are Hashem's throne, as it says, ‘Hashem has established His throne in the heavens’ (Psalms 103:19) — so that it is pictured as though Hashem sits there on the throne of governance. The waters that are in the firmament are the ones that stand between the earth and the heavens; above them the air is not fit for the breath of any living soul, and that region belongs to the domain of the heavens. They function like a ceiling, a covering, separating the heavens from the earth. ‘And spreads His cloud upon it’ — there [Scripture] speaks of the cloud being spread out like a curtain before the throne, which is the heavens.

He encircled a boundary (compas in French), an expression of (Isa. 44: 13), “and with a compass (ובמחוגה) he rounds it.” [He surrounded it with sand for the sand to be a circle for it. Does not appear in all editions.] The word חֹק denotes a perpetual boundary. The sea will not cross that circle until light and dark come to an end.

'To the confines of light and darkness' — to the point that marks the boundary of light, meaning that everything above it is light, and below it, the opposite. Some say the sense is 'until light and darkness come to an end.' The first view is correct in my opinion.

'He has described a boundary' [chag] — He marked out a boundary; the word is related to mechugah (a compass), since a compass marks out the limits of the circular surface that comes into being by its means.

'He has described a boundary' — He made a decree, the encircling of the sand around the face of the waters of the sea, which it may not cross, until light comes to an end together with darkness. Meaning: forever, until the entire world is destroyed.

'A boundary' [חג] — an expression of circling, of roundness, as in 'and walks the circuit of the heavens' (above, Job 22:14). 'The confines' [תכלית] — an expression of completion, an end-point.

He has described a boundary — This continues everything said above: the law that was traced upon the face of the waters is the same one by which He hangs the earth upon nothing, binds up the waters in thick clouds, and closes in the face of the throne. All this is done by the natural law that Hashem traced with a compass upon the face of the waters, so that the waters rise as vapor up to the sphere of respiration, which surrounds the earth like a circle traced by a compass, reaching to the boundary where light meets darkness. For it is known that the firmament forms through the sun's rays striking the globe of the earth and bouncing back until the region of storm and cloud; from there upward, darkness begins, because the sun's rays pass through the thin air called the ether and do not remain there. That region is therefore cold and unfit for breathing, and is called darkness, since no rays of light are found there. And in the region of the storm-clouds, where it is the law and nature of the water rising as vapor to come to rest, that is the boundary where light meets darkness, for there light and darkness meet one another. Therefore the law traced upon the face of the waters operates only up to that point, raising the waters into the air, and they rise no further.

trembled when He created them, and He caused them to congeal. They were trembling, and He rebuked them, and they stood dry and strong. astonished (wondering and ascending. Other editions: wondering and standing) in one place.

'Tremble' [yeropafu] — like 'yirpu' (grow slack). Some say it means 'sway.' And in the language of our Sages [the related word] 'refafot' [fluttering] is used.

'Tremble' — meaning: shake and quake.

'The pillars of heaven' — the earth is called the pillars of heaven, for it is their center and, as it were, holds them up; the term is borrowed from a physical object, where the center is the main support and foundation for what surrounds it. He says that at times the places of the earth tremble and shift from their place, and when the Omnipresent rebukes them they come to rest in their place, like a man who stands astonished at the rebuke of one who threatens him, and stands still in his place.

'Tremble' [ירופפו] — [i.e.,] they quake, as with 'its pillars shudder' (above, Job 9:6); the Targum there renders it with this same word.

The pillars of heaven — This law of the air's expansion and the rising of the vapors has no connection whatsoever with the celestial system and the stars, for its workings are fixed within the nature of the elements themselves. And when this law issues its rebuke, ‘the pillars of heaven tremble’ at its rebuke — meaning, the bond between heaven and earth, by which the motion of the celestial spheres and system acts upon the earth, is what [Scripture] calls ‘the pillars of heaven’: the pillars on which the earth rests, standing by their attractive force upon it. But this law does not rest upon the pillars of heaven, for it operates independently, on its own, obeying no command of theirs — so that they ‘are astonished at its rebuke,’ that it should issue commands like an independent ruler in its own right, while they have no power to restrain its rebuke.

the sea wrinkled Like (above 7:5), “my skin wrinkled.” Many wrinkles were formed. (So, when He said (Gen. 1:9), “Let the waters...gather,” they were gathered from their straightness and were wrinkled into many wrinkles) until they gathered into one place, which was prepared for them. He smote Rahab The Egyptians, who are called רהב, haughty.

'Stirs up' [raga] — its meaning is 'He split.'

'Stirs up' [raga] — meaning: stills, calms. 'He smites through Rahab' — this refers to whatever part of the sea would rise up over the land; the sense is that He has ordained that the sea not rise over the exposed portion of the earth.

'With His power' — with the greatness of His power He split the sea, and with His understanding He struck Egypt through it, for He confounded their judgment and drew them into the sea, to strike them down.

'Stirs up' [רגע] — [means] he cleaves, splits, as in 'my skin is broken' (above, Job 7:5). 'Smites' [מחץ] — [means] he strikes, slays, as in 'He shall smite the head' (Psalms 110:6). 'Rahab' — Egypt is called by this name, as it says, 'I have called her Rahab' (Isaiah 30:7).

He stirs up the sea with His power — This law, traced upon the face of the waters, by which the waters rise as vapor, is what stills the sea, so that it does not return to cover the earth, as above at verse 7. ‘And by His understanding He smites through Rahab’ — for at first the waters covered the earth, and [that mass of water] is called by the name ‘Rahab’ on account of its greatness. (As our Sages said: the Holy One, blessed be He, said to the prince of the sea, ‘Open your mouth and swallow all the waters of creation in the world,’ but he did not want to, so the Holy One, blessed be He, struck him and killed him. The sense of this is that, by the nature of the original creation, the sea covered the earth, and its ‘prince’ — that is, its nature — did not want to swallow all the waters of creation, because the waters had spread over the whole globe, since oxygen, the life-sustaining air (for every living creature survives by oxygen, as is known), was mixed in with the water. Hashem then changed the nature of the water by drawing the oxygen out of it, through its rising as vapor, where it separates from the water by means of rain; and so the breath of life went out of the water and it ‘died.’ As is said in Bereishit Rabbah (5): ‘The whole world was entirely water within water, and yet you say [it was gathered] to one place? A parable: to ten inflated wineskins lying in a hall — the king needed their space, so he untied them, let out their air, and moved them into one corner. So did the Holy One, blessed be He, press together all the waters of creation and remove them into the ocean.’) This is the meaning of: this law smote Rahab by His understanding, and drew the breath out of the waters.

By His breath He made the heavens a tent Heb. שפרה. With His words and with the breath of His mouth, He made a tent, like (Jer. 43:10), “and he shall spread his royal pavilion (שפרירו).” His hand caused pain to Pharaoh, who was called the barlike serpent (Isa. 26:1). חללה is an expression of pain and trouble. Likewise, elsewhere (ibid. 51:9): “are you not the one that hewed Rahab and slew (מחוללת), the sea monster?” Another explanation: His hand founded the leviathan, as in (Prov. 8: 25), “before the hills I was created (חוללתי).”

'Are serene' [shafrah] — the heh is an added letter, and its meaning relates to 'set in order,' from the root shafar ('pleasing'), or from shafriro, 'his pavilion' (Jeremiah 43:10); or alternatively, the bet of 'by His breath' [be-rucho] is the added letter, and the dagesh that belongs in the peh of shafrah is missing [i.e., the phrase divides differently]. 'The slant serpent' — the sea monster that is in the sea. Some say it is 'the Teli' [a serpent-shaped configuration in the astronomers' lore], called a 'serpent' because it is twisted like a crooked thing, and a '[slant] bar' because it stretches like a bar from one end [of the heavens] to the other.

'By His breath the heavens are serene' — by the will of Hashem, the heavens came to have the beauty and perfection that is in them. 'Has pierced' [cholelah] — meaning: created. 'The slant serpent' — this refers to the image of a serpent that appears winding around the circle of the zodiac; it is the Milky Way.

'By His breath' — with the breath of His mouth He spread the heavens as a tent over the earth, and His hand created the Leviathan, which resembles a serpent and speeds through the sea from one end to the other.

'Serene' [שפרה] — an expression of a tent, as in 'and spread his pavilion' (Jeremiah 43:10); a fine tent is given this name from the expression 'words of beauty' (Genesis 49:21). 'Pierced' [חוללה] — [i.e.,] created, formed, as in 'or ever You had formed the earth' (Psalms 90:2). 'Slant' [בריח] — [literally 'bolt': it describes] something like a bar made to be laid across the width of a gate, to close it.

By His breath — At times He also clears the heavens of vapors, and this too comes about through this same law of the air's expansion: for when the force of heat and fire is trapped within the vapors, the droplets of water spread apart through the expansion of the air within them, and the heavens are cleared of clouds — as will be explained further below, chapters 36–37. This is the meaning of: this law, traced upon the face of the waters, makes the heavens fair and clears them of clouds ‘by His breath,’ through the element of wind spreading within them. And then ‘His hand has pierced the slant serpent’ — meaning, it slays the serpent, a name for the clouds that surround the heavens like a serpent. This image is drawn from the fables the ancients told in their poetry, who used to say that the serpent wars with the sun, and when it overpowers it, covers its light, causing an eclipse of the sun; and that Hashem killed this serpent — the sea-monster they called the crocodile — which was sacred to them, who assigned it a star in the heavens that wars with the sun, and said Hashem ‘pierces’ it, as in, ‘Are You not it that hewed Rahab in pieces, that pierced the dragon?’ (Isaiah 51:9). On this basis [the verse] figuratively means that this law, which clears away the clouds darkening the sun, ‘slays the slant serpent.’

the outskirts of His ways The easiest and the smallest in comparison to His other qualities. and what implications of any matter can be understood What hint of anything can a man understand from His deeds? Another explanation: שֶמֶץ is like (Exod. 32:25), “to the scandal (לשמצה),” uncomplimentary.

'A whisper' — like 'lishmatzah' [a whisper of disgrace].

'A whisper is heard of Him' — meaning: a small amount. 'But the thunder of His mighty deeds' — meaning: and the abundance of His decrees. Explanation of the words of the response: Job answered and said: How has your view of providence been helped by what your own thinking amounts to? These words you have spoken have no power to bolster your position or to resolve the doubts I raised against what you said. What have you devised in your heart to answer the difficulties I posed to you — namely, where is the wisdom, and where is the order that Hashem maintains among existing things, together with its arrangement, which you claimed to have set forth at such length? For in truth, what you have told of it is next to nothing. To whom have you said these things, and what have you taught us by them? Do I not know, far more than you, the order of Hashem's workings, His mighty deeds, and His wonders? Does not Hashem, blessed be He, create mineral deposits beneath the waters and beneath the things that dwell upon the earth? And this is utterly wondrous — that the working of the heavenly bodies, which flows forth from Hashem, should reach, by this means, even into the depths of the earth's belly. Behold, the absolute lowest point — which is the center of the earth — lies before Hashem as though it were naked, without covering, even though the earth itself covers it; for Hashem's action reaches there, depth and all. Behold, Hashem stretches the north — where the inhabited world lies — over emptiness, for it rests upon the center of the earth, which is nothing but a point; and He hangs the earth upon nothing, meaning that it rests and is supported upon that point, its center, and not upon anything outside itself, as has been demonstrated in the natural sciences — and this, too, is utterly wondrous. Behold, He binds up water within His clouds, and the cloud does not burst open beneath them while the winds carry them along, until they reach the place where the rain is to fall. Behold, Hashem is the cause that makes the air over the face of the heavens congeal and thicken through cold, and He then spreads His cloud over it — for it is in this way that clouds come to be; and He tells of this because it is hidden from most people. He has decreed a boundary upon the face of the waters that it not overstep, in such a way that this exposed portion of the earth, on its northern side, remains forever visible, and these processes occur within it up to the point where the alternation of light and darkness ceases each day — meaning, that on every day of the year, part of it is light and part of it is dark. This continues up to a latitude of sixty-six degrees and twenty-five minutes, and the inhabited world extends that far, according to what the ancients have recorded. But there, one day of the year has no night, and, opposite it, one day has no daylight; and from there onward this measure increases little by little, until it reaches the region beneath the North Pole itself, where there are six months of the year with no night at all — these being the summer months — and six months of the year with no day at all — these being the winter months. The pillars of heaven tremble and shudder — these are the parts of the earth that quake at Hashem's rebuke, when an earthquake occurs whose cause is the wind that forms beneath the earth on account of the smoky vapor trapped there. Scripture calls them 'the pillars of heaven' because the heavens rest upon the earth, as has been demonstrated in the Physics. By the power and might of Hashem the sea is stilled and does not overrun the land, so that the creatures dwelling there not be drowned; and by the understanding of Hashem, whatever rises up from the sea over the land is struck down and destroyed. This is because, since the other waters mix with the water of the sea and flow into it, one would expect the water of the sea to rise over the visible portion of the earth and drown it — except that Hashem, in His understanding, brought it about that the sun and the other heavenly bodies consume, through their heat, as much of the sea's water as comes to it from the rivers, so that the sea never increases at all. By the will and wisdom of Hashem, the heavens came to possess, in their creation, this degree of beauty and perfection, such that it is impossible for them to exist in any more perfect manner suited to bringing this lower world whatever it needs to receive from them. His hand formed and fashioned the Milky Way, within the sphere of the fixed stars, which holds wonders and hidden matters already explained in the Meteorology; and we ourselves have said something of all this in the fifth book of the Wars of Hashem. Behold, these things I have recounted are but a portion of Hashem's ways, and how little is heard of Him in this telling! But as for the full might of His mighty deeds and His wonders — no one can be found who fully grasps them. The general principle that emerges from these words is self-evident. Job did not wish to answer Bildad's words beyond this measure, in keeping with what we noted in the previous response; and in any case, had he answered them at greater length, it would have amounted to nothing but a repetition of what he had already said — since he had already answered this very argument earlier, and refuted it from experience.

'Lo, these are' — these matters are only a small part of His ways, and how very little is the word that has been let slip about Him. Meaning: we have known and heard only a little of His ways, not all of them, not even a great part of them. 'But the thunder' — even His mighty deeds, which are heard by everyone like the sound of thunder — who can grasp them so as to know the hidden wonders within them? And how much more so the deeds done in the heavens above and beneath the earth, which man does not know at all! It is as though he were saying: behold, I have told you more than you told me, and still I have not reached a great part of the wonders of Hashem. (The upshot of this speech: he mocks Bildad, who said things known to all and told very little of the wonders of Hashem, while he himself has told more than Bildad — yet says that even so, he too has not reached a great part of the wonders of Hashem, and does not trouble to answer further, for in the fullness of his mockery it is as though he were saying to him: what of it, that given the exaltedness of the Omnipresent and the lowliness of man, even a small amount of rebellion is accounted great — is it not all the more so that a great amount of rebellion from a wicked man is accounted great, and why then does He not repay him for it?)

'His ways' — [i.e.,] His deeds, His works. 'Whisper' [שמץ] — an expression of something slight, small, as in 'and my ear caught a whisper of it' (above, Job 4:12). 'Thunder' [רעם] — an expression of noise, roaring.

Lo, these are but the outskirts of His ways — everything I have said about this law traced upon the face of the waters, I have said only in part; it is but a portion of His ways, of what little has been heard of it. From this you have heard only a mere fragment of the matters and natural changes that come about through this law. ‘And how small a whisper is heard of Him’ — how much more so ‘the thunder of His mighty deeds, who can understand’ — for among the mighty acts that come about through this law are lightning and thunder, which likewise come about through the air's expansion within the clouds, as is known, and as will be explained further below, chapter 37. If so, since this law is a force that operates entirely on its own, not dependent on the celestial system or the laws of heaven — for even the pillars of heaven are astonished at its rebuke — why should Hashem not punish the wicked by a flood of water, or by withholding rain, or by lightning and thunder, or by some change in the air, and the like? Through all these He would not overturn the stars or the general order of nature. From this it is evident that Hashem has handed the whole of governance over to the celestial system, and that the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous proceed from it — not as you have said, that ‘dominion and fear are with Him’ (25:2), and that providence governs nature and the order of its workings.