Job · Chapter 3

'and cursed his day' — even though a day cannot truly be reached by blessing or curse, nevertheless, out of great anguish, a person in pain will say: ‘cursed be the day I was born, and the hour in which I was born.’ There are also [certain] days that are indeed so, when the two great lights stand in a difficult configuration — but that requires a lengthy explanation. So too Jeremiah said: ‘cursed be the day in which I was born’ (Jeremiah 20:14). And some say that he meant [the name of] the day of the week, wishing that its memory never be heard again, that being the day on which he was born. But the correct view is the first one.

'After this' — when the seven days had passed. 'And cursed his day' — the day on which he was born, since he held that all of a person's events are bounded and arranged according to the constellations of the stars at the time of birth and conception. And so he too was proven right through his own suffering, for he found in himself no sin for which he was guilty; therefore, out of bitterness of heart, he cursed his day, because on it the constellations of the stars had decreed evil for him.

Introduction to the First Speech — Job's Response The Sefer HaIkkarim (Part 4, ch. 4) writes that, according to what is found among the ancients, people's opinions about the significance of the celestial order are of two kinds: • One is the view of the philosopher, who holds that the heavenly bodies and stars act upon the lower world in that, through their ever-changing configurations, they set the elements in motion, combine them, and prepare them in various ways to receive the natural forms — so that some people become fit to acquire wisdom and others do not, and some become fit to receive the divine, prophetic influence and others do not. But regarding other matters that have nothing to do with such qualities — such as poverty or wealth, whether a man marries one wife or several, whether he is a person of virtue or of deficiency — this school holds that it is false and untrue to claim that the stars indicate things outside their province, such as poverty, wealth, love, hatred, and the like. • The second view is that of the stargazers who divine by the stars, who hold that the astrologer can tell a person everything that will happen to him in every particular of his affairs — whether he will live many years, whether he will be poor or rich, whether he will have children or be childless, how many wives he will marry, and so on. This is proof that everything that happens to a person comes by the decree of the stars, and that their decree cannot be escaped. This is also the view of some of our Sages, who say (Shabbat 156a): 'Mazal makes one wise, mazal makes one rich.' Now it is clear and evident that Job's view was that of the stargazers: that all of a person's affairs are fixed and apportioned by the celestial order. This is the foundation he laid at the very start of his response, when he cursed the night of his conception and the day of his birth, for they had been his undoing (vv. 3-10). For had it already been foreseen that his mazal decreed he would be an unsuccessful man throughout his days, then surely it would have been fitting to decree his non-existence — for why should he have come into being only to see toil and sorrow (vv. 10-14)? For the impression stamped on man's heart is that non-existence is bad for him: he grieves even over the absence of some measure of the things that exist which he lacks — such as a lack of wealth and the like — and all the more so is he pained when he pictures his whole existence as absent. But all of this is merely the offspring of his imagination once he already exists; it would not be so had he never come into existence at all, for then nothingness and a diminished existence would be equal, and we could not then measure the degree of the absence — whether he was absent without ever having attained a high rank, or absent without ever having attained a low rank — for there is no difference between nothing and nothing (vv. 14-17). And with this he broadens his argument to a firm conclusion, in line with what the Guide for the Perplexed (Part 3, ch. 12) records in the name of the sage Al-Razi: that there is more evil than good in existence. For if you weigh a person's rest and pleasure in his time of ease against what befalls him in the way of pains, harsh afflictions, worries, and troubles, you will find that existence is, for man, a kind of vengeance and a great evil. This sage sought to prove this view by tallying these evils one by one, and most nations, in their riddles and songs, say that it is a wonder for anything good to be found in this world, whereas its evils are many and constant. Job, too, presses this very point in his argument (vv. 17-20). And the question presses all the more even if a person disputes this and claims that in his own success his eyes shine with the pleasantness of the time, that he tastes of its honeyed sweetness and seeks life and length of days forever — the question still stands in full force: why bring him into existence, and why give life to a man who is only waiting for death (v. 20)? Moreover, the reversals of fate appear even more starkly here, for fate seems bent only on harm: there is a man who, all his days, out of the depths of his poverty and destitution, longs for death and pursues it, and yet the stars grant him life. Then suddenly he finds a great treasure and abundant wealth, so that now he wants to live and see good things — and it is then that death overtakes him (v. 21). From this it is clear that man's governance is placed under the rule and dictate of the celestial order, whether for good or for bad, and from this it likewise follows that man is not master over his own deeds and free in them; choice and effort avail nothing at all, for his individual acts are fixed according to the dictate and workings of the celestial order, and he has no ability to do harm or good apart from it (vv. 22-24). And he brought the comprehensive proof of this from what had happened to him: after he had held himself to be a perfectly righteous man, so that he could not attribute the evil that came upon him to Providence punishing him for the wickedness of his deeds, and he also could not attribute it to sheer chance — for the fact that his possessions were lost in a manner contrary to nature, in that within a single hour a variety of causes came upon him, a wind, a fire, and a raiding band of enemies, all of it suddenly and all at once — this shows that heaven itself made war against him, and it must therefore have come by the compulsion of the celestial order, decreed against him that at that very moment, under those circumstances, his fortune would be overturned (v. 26). He also had proof of this from the fact that his heart had always been afraid of coming evil, as though his heart had foretold that his mazal was bad and that he was destined for ruin (v. 25). Now, in all these premises that he laid down, he took it as settled that Hashem knows everything that happens in this lower world, for a lack of knowledge cannot be ascribed to Hashem, nor can one say that injustice issues from Him; rather, this injustice comes by way of the celestial order. Thus there is no injustice from Hashem in the matter of reward and punishment, since man is not free in his actions but is compelled in them. All of this will be further clarified, with proofs, in his coming arguments, one by one. Cursed his day — for he held that everything depends on the verdict of the celestial order and one's mazal, as explained above in the introduction to this discourse.

Job’s Address Now Job raised his voice Heb. ויען, he cried out, for every expression of עניה in the Torah is only an expression of raising the voice, and the “father” of them all is (Deut. 27:14): “The Levites shall raise their voices (וענו) etc. with a loud voice.”

'And Job spoke' — like ‘and you shall speak and say,’ [said] when he brings the first-fruits (Deuteronomy 26:5), where its sense is that of beginning to speak [without a prior question]. Or, alternatively, his friends asked him, once the seven days were completed, ‘What is the matter with you?’ — and then he answered them. So too with ‘and you shall speak and say,’ [said] when he brings the first-fruits: the priests would ask him, ‘What is this?’ [and only then would he answer]. It is known that the Holy Tongue has no form that indicates the present tense, and that it has nothing but future and past; and wherever you find in the book of Job [a verb] in the form of the future, it functions as a participle or as a past tense.

'And Job spoke' [vaya'an] — its meaning is the raising of the voice; so too, 'and the Levites shall speak ... with a loud voice' (Deuteronomy 27:14).

in which I was to be born This is a future expression, that he was saying, “Would that the day in which I was destined to be born be lost, and then I would not have been born.” and the night That too should have been lost. when one said that the reporter, upon whom it was incumbent [to report] would say. “A man has impregnated.” That my father impregnated my mother. Concerning a female, it is customary to say הרתה, she conceived, and concerning a male, it is customary to say, הורה, he impregnated the female. and the night when one said This is one of the places where Scripture abbreviates its words because it is unnecessary to explain who [the subject] is, and the expression means, “the sayer said.” [Similar to this is (Amos. 6:12), “Will horses run on the rock, or will one plow with cattle?” He should have said, “Will a man plow with cattle?”] However, our Sages said, “The angel appointed over conception is named Laylah.”

'Let the day perish' — he wished, first of all, that the day on which he was born should perish, if he was born by day; and if he was born at night, that the night should perish — the night when the herald said, 'A man-child is brought forth,' similar to 'and it was told Joseph' (Genesis 48:1). 'Brought forth' [horah] — is like 'was born' [yivaled], and similarly 'she bore Miriam' (1 Chronicles 4:17) — for the day on which he was born would then be a day of darkness. But the correct view is that he wished it to become a day of darkness, to the point of not being day at all; that is the sense of 'let the day perish.' 'Day' and 'night' pertain to the earth in relation to the sun, because the earth is situated in the middle of the spheres and the hosts above, which have no darkness whatsoever. Likewise, the darkening of the moon comes from the earth, which is below it — for there is no light except from above. This is the meaning of 'let not God inquire after it from above,' for the earth is darkness.

‘And the night on which it was said: “A man-child is brought forth”’ — the meaning is: the night of which the herald announced that a male was conceived in it — that is, the night of conception. Scripture attributes the conception to the night because that is the time of intercourse, following human custom. Our Sages, of blessed memory, said that the angel appointed over conception is named ‘Laylah’ [Night].

'Let [the day] perish' — the day on which I was born shall be lost; meaning, every year when that day comes around, there shall be such darkness in it that the name 'day' will be lost from it. 'And the night on which it was said, "A man-child is brought forth"' — meaning: so too shall be lost that night about which one skilled enough to know the time of conception would say, 'On that night my father conceived me with my mother' (for the time of birth is visible and known to all, but the time of conception is understood only by one skilled in that wisdom).

'I was born' — he speaks his words as though speaking before his own birth.

Let the day perish — for the fixed judgment of a child who is born depends on the mazal and the position of the stars on the night of his conception and the day of his birth. Therefore Job cursed the day appointed for his birth, and the night on which his conception was pronounced and sealed.

May that day be dark constantly; every year, when that day arrives. let God not seek it from above for good. and let no light shine upon it Heb. נהרה, light, like צהר, which is translated נהור.

'Shine' [tofa] — is like 'tashkif' [look down upon], meaning light — 'nehorah'; similarly, 'and light dwells with Him' (Daniel 2:22). Some say instead that it resembles 'the dens that are in the mountains' (Judges 6:2).

'Let not God inquire after it' — to bestow good upon it from above. 'Neither let the light shine' — let no light dawn upon it.

'Shine' — [may it] rise and dawn, as in 'He shone forth from Mount Paran' (Deuteronomy 33:2). 'The light' — light, as in 'and light dwells with Him' (Daniel 2:22).

That day — he begins by first cursing the day itself, that it be darkness. ‘Let not God inquire after it’ — the pronoun refers back to the darkness, not to the day: for sometimes darkness comes about through Hashem’s providence, as it did in Egypt, where the darkness worked to Israel’s benefit. He says that this darkness — Hashem should not seek it out for any purpose. And although on most cloudy days some gleam of brightness shows through the clouds, he says: let not even a little brightness shine upon it either — let it be darkness only, and not light.

defile it Heb. יגאלהו, like (Malachi 1:7), “defiled (מגאל) bread”; “How have we defiled You (גאלנוך)?” an expression of contamination. the shadow of death Heb. צלמות, the shadow of death, darkness that never lights up. like demons of the day Heb. כמרירי, demons who rule at noon, like (Deut. 32: 34), “Ketev Meriri,” who rules at noon; as it is stated (Ps. 91:6): “from Ketev, who rules at noontime.”

'Claim it for their own' [yig'alehu] — from 'defiled bread' (Malachi 1:7). Some say it is from the root ga'al [redeem], meaning that they would redeem it and draw it to themselves — but that is farfetched. 'Terrify it' [yeva'atuhu] — they would frighten it so that it could not stand, as in 'an evil spirit terrified him' (1 Samuel 16:14). 'All that makes black the day' [kamrirei yom] — is like 'bitter destruction' (Deuteronomy 32:24). Some say that the letter kaf [prefix] functions as it does in 'about midnight' (Exodus 11:4) or 'like those who move a boundary' (Hosea 5:10). The meaning of 'that which makes black the day' is the intensity of heat, which resembles a deadly poison. And if he had been born at night, then that night — darkness would seize it.

‘Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it’ — the meaning may be that they will defile it and soil it; or it may be that darkness and the shadow of death will be its redeeming kin, dwelling with it always. Either way, it comes out to the same sense. ‘Let all that makes black the day terrify it’ — this is of the same sense as ‘our skin glows hot like an oven’ (Lamentations 5:10), meaning the heat of the day; the word follows the same noun-pattern as ‘sagrir’ [a stormy day]. The meaning is that the vapors rising from the day’s heat will terrify it, until they block out its light. (On verse 6:) ‘Let it not be one among the days of the year’ — the meaning is that it should not be counted as one of the days, so that it will not come into the number together with them.

'Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it' — let them soil and defile it, and let the darkness of cloud dwell upon it. 'Let it terrify' — let the intensity of the day's heat frighten it; meaning, the vapors that rise on account of the intense heat shall hold back its light.

'Claim it for their own' [yig'aluhu] — like yiga'aluhu with an ayin, meaning filth and defilement; so too, 'polluted bread' (Malachi 1:7). 'The shadow of death' — the shadow of death, that is, the darkness of the grave. 'Terrify it' — an expression of sudden dread and terror. 'All that makes black the day' [kimrirei] — an expression of heat, as in 'our skin grew hot [nichmaru] like an oven' (Lamentations 5:10); and it comes with the final root-letter doubled, on the pattern of sagrir (Proverbs 27:15).

Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own — he adds that the darkness should not be a mere absence [of light], but a darkness that takes possession, until it stains the day by having a cloud settle upon it. And even so, none of the benefit that clouds usually bring — casting shade against the heat — should come from them, for ‘all that makes black the day’ should terrify it, that is, the burning heat of day: so that despite the cloud, there will still be heat and the day’s scorching blaze.

it shall not rejoice among the days Heb. אל יחד, it shall not rejoice, as in (Exod. 18:9), “And Jethro rejoiced (וַיִחַד).” (Another explanation is: It shall not join. This does not appear in certain editions.)

'Let it not rejoice' [yachad] — [some say] it means 'joins together,' from 'yachad' [together]. But correct, in my view, is that it means 'let it not rejoice,' as in 'and Jethro rejoiced' (Exodus 18:9); the sense is: let it not rejoice at being counted among the days of the year.

'As for that night' — the night on which my father conceived me with my mother. 'Let thick darkness seize upon it' — let the thick darkness take it as its own, to make use of it. 'Let it not rejoice' [lit. 'let it not join'] — let it not be joined among the days of the year, uniting with them to be like them, and let it not enter into the number of the months. The matter is stated twice, in different words.

'Thick darkness' — dense darkness. 'Rejoice' [yichad] — an expression of echad (one); [that is, let it not be joined together with, or counted among, the days of the year].

As for that night — he begins to curse the night of his conception, that gloom be in it, which is worse than darkness, since darkness is present on every night. ‘Let it not rejoice’ [i.e., let it not be joined] — the night, taken together with the day that follows it, is counted as one of the days of the year, whose total is 365 days: the sun completes its daily circuit 365 times, and from these 365 circuits, all told, a complete year is formed. Second, the night also comes by itself into the reckoning of nights, which combine through the moon’s motion into a complete lunar month. And he curses the night, that it be joined neither the first way — into the count of the days of the year, together with the day that follows it — nor the second way — by itself, into the count of nights reckoned toward the cycle of the moon.

lonely Alone and lacking any man or creature.

'Desolate' [galmud] — means desolate, like 'galmudah' (Isaiah 49:21).

'Desolate' — the sense is solitude, meaning that people should not go about together in company at night.

'Lo, let that night be desolate' — let the darkness in it grow so great that it becomes utterly alone; meaning, let no groups of people walk together in it to stroll about, and so no joyous sound will come into it — for it is the way of groups of people walking together to stroll that they sing and make joyous sound along their way; but when no groups walk in it, no joyous sound is heard in it.

'Desolate' — solitary, as in 'the company of the godless is desolate' (Job 15:34).

Lo — since it is determined by the cosmic order that the child conceived on this night will be a man who does not prosper in his days, and those born of this conception will in the end curse their day, and curse the union of their parents’ conceiving and coupling, who mated on this night — wishing that this union and coupling had been childless, and that no offspring of such unsuccessful men had ever come from it — it is fitting, then, that this night be barren, that no matings and unions of man and woman come about in it, and also that no joyful voice enter it, namely the joy of weddings, the voice of bridegroom and the voice of bride.

curse it Heb. יקבהו, curse it, as in (Num. 22:17), “curse (קבה) for me.” those who curse the day Those who curse their days, since they intend to pronounce a curse because of their anguish. those destined to be childless in their union Heb. ערר לויתן, to be childless (ערירים) in their union; to join their mate in the union of man and wife, without children. And I saw in the Jerusalem Talmud (Moed Katan 1:5) that עֹרֵר means, to lament their mate when he dies, as in (Moed Katan 1:6): A person may not inspire lamentations (יערער) for his dead relative.

'Who are ready' [ha'atidim] — those who are prepared to arouse mourning for them, as in 'and it is ready for you in the field' (Proverbs 24:27), and 'and I have plundered their treasures' (Isaiah 10:13). And the nun of 'leviathan' [livyatan] stands in place of a mem, its sense being 'mourning' [related to levayah, the funeral accompaniment]. And in the words of our Sages, of blessed memory: 'A woman may not raise her lament during a festival.' Some say that this refers to sailors whose ship, they thought, was about to break apart [the Hebrew term here ('midbar') is obscure and rendered generally], so that they cursed the day they had boarded it, since they were destined to be devoured by leviathan, a kind of large fish. But the more plausible view is that 'those who curse the day' are eulogizers, in every language, who curse [ill-fated] days.

'leviathan' — meaning, their mourning.

'Let them curse it,' etc. — the mourners, who in their eulogies curse the day of death of the deceased whom they eulogize, and who are ready to arouse mourning, and have trained their tongues to curse and revile — they are the ones who shall curse that night.

'Curse it' — an expression of cursing, as in 'come, curse me' (Numbers 22:11). 'Who are ready' — those who are prepared, as in 'to be ready against that day' (Esther 3:14). 'Rouse up' — an expression of arousal, stirring. 'Leviathan' — an expression of mourning; and in the Jerusalem Talmud: 'a woman may not raise her lament during the festival week' (Jerusalem Talmud, Moed Katan, chapter Mashkin).

Let them curse it — since in the end, those who curse the day — the very children who will be born through this union — will curse and execrate it. ‘Who are ready to rouse leviathan’ — meaning that all who are destined to mate on this night, may their union and coupling be barren, and may no offspring be born of it — only barrenness, without children.

its evening Heb. נשפו, the darkness of its night. the rays of Heb. עפעפי, rays of, like (Jer. 9:17), “and our eyelids (or pupils) (ועפעפינו) gush water.”

'Its twilight' [nishpo] — you will find the word 'neshef' used both for the beginning of the night and for its end. 'The eyelids of the morning' — some say it is like 'hashkafah' [gazing down], comparable to 'will you set your eyes upon it, and it is gone' (Proverbs 23:5). But the correct view, in my opinion, is that it is a figure of speech drawn from the eyes: the dawn is likened to them, the idea being that the dawn 'opens its eyelids' as eyes do — for eyes have eyelids, and the pupil [is called] 'ishon'; and it [the eyelid] is called 'af'af' on account of the aperture [it opens onto].

'the stars of its twilight' — these refer to the great stars that are visible at the start of the night and at its end; the light present at that hour does not prevent them from being seen. 'Neither let it behold the eyelids of the morning' — meaning, let the dawn not break.

'Let the stars of its twilight be dark' — even the great stars that are visible at the start of the night and at its end shall also be darkened on that night, even though their light is ordinarily so strong that it is not kept from being seen on account of the residual light that remains at the start and end of the night. 'Let it look' — let that night hope that the light of the sun will come after it, and let it not come, for the sun shall not rise on the day that follows it; and even at the break of dawn and its glow, that night shall not see light, for the light of dawn shall not shine after it.

'Its twilight' [nishpo] — both the beginning of the night and its end are called nesheph; and in the words of our Sages, of blessed memory, 'there are two neshafim,' etc. (Berakhot 3); and it is an expression of darkness, as in 'in the twilight, in the evening of the day' (Proverbs 7:9). 'The eyelids' — this term ordinarily denotes the pupil of the eye, and is borrowed here for the breaking forth of the dawn light — the glimmering light at the eastern horizon before the sun is revealed, which looks like the opening of an eye.

Let the stars of its twilight be dark — after cursing the day by itself and the night by itself, he begins to curse also the time of dusk and dawn, in which day and night are joined together at their start and their end. ‘The stars of its twilight be dark’ — these are the stars that shine at the start of night, when the sun sets. And this night should also hope for the light of dawn, which shines at the end of night, and have none, for dawn should not rise upon it. And here, in his poetic figure, he pictures the night as blind, without eyes — for on every other morning it ‘sees’ light because dawn gives it eyes and eyelids, and through dawn’s eyelids it sees the light shining forth at the first rays of daybreak. He says that on this night, dawn will not give it its eyelids, so that it might see through them the light of morning, for morning will not shine upon it.

For He did not shut He Who was able to shut. This too is one of the verses that resemble “the night when one said” (verse 2). the doors of my womb from which I emerged, for had He done so, He would have hidden trouble from my eyes.

'It shut not up' — the word 'that opens' [the womb] is elided [understood though not stated]. 'The doors of my mother's womb' — the navel, through which nourishment would come to the child before it was born.

'the doors of my mother's womb' — meaning, [my] 'belly' here refers to the womb in which my gestation took place, that is, my mother's womb.

'Because it shut not up' — meaning, for this reason they [that day and night] deserve to be cursed thus: because the arrangement of the heavens did not then decree the closing of the doors of my belly — that is, the navel, through which food would pass to nourish the fetus — for had it been closed, I would have died then in my mother's womb, and so the suffering in which I now find myself would have been hidden from my eyes.

Because it shut not — he explains the reason he cursed the night of his conception: it is because that night did not shut the doors of his mother’s womb, through which the seed entered from which he was formed. That is, since the night knew that the fortune of the child to be formed would be evil, by the necessity of the cosmic order, it should have closed the mouth of the womb so that it would not receive the conception — and in so doing it would have hidden trouble from his eyes, and he would not have been born to toil and sorrow.

Why did I not die from the womb? why was I not ready to die immediately upon my emergence from the womb? He speaks in the future tense, as though he were standing now on the day of his emergence from the womb and saying, “Why will I not die now, and why did I not... emerge from the belly and perish?” Why was my death not imminent?

'Why did I not die from the womb?' — as if to say: and if, for the sake of my mother's safety, I remained alive in her belly, why did I not die immediately upon coming forth from the womb? 'From the belly' — when I came forth from the belly, I should have expired and died. The matter is stated twice, in different words.

'Die' — he speaks his words as though speaking before he was born. 'Perish' — and I would die, as in 'that Aaron had perished' (Numbers 20:29).

Why — now he explains the reason he cursed the day of his birth: that even though the conception had already taken hold, the day of birth should still have delayed his being born. And why did fortune not decree that he die from the womb — that is, that he be strangled at the moment he stirred to emerge from the womb, and never come out into the air of the world at all? And if the birth was bound to happen by the necessity of the cosmic order, then at least, why did fortune not decree that at the very moment I came forth from the womb into the air of the world, I would perish at once?

Why did knees receive me Why did the knees of my mother receive me before my death? that I should suck [Why] was it decreed upon me to suck them? As he is speaking on the day of his birth, he mentions those subsequent events in the future tense.

'Why the breasts' — here 'mah' has the sense of 'why,' similarly 'why should a living man complain' (Lamentations 3:39).

'Why did the knees receive me?' — why did the knees of the midwife come forward to meet me, as is the midwife's practice, to receive me as I came forth from the womb? Would it not have been better for me to fall to the ground and die? 'And why the breasts' — why were there breasts for my mother, to nurse me? Would it not have been better for me had they been absent, for then I would have died immediately of hunger?

'Receive me' — [literally,] came before me, as in 'nor come before it with a shield' (Isaiah 37:33). 'And why' — its meaning is like lamah (why); so too, 'why does a living man complain' (Lamentations 3:39).

Why — that is, and if you answer that it was not necessary, by the cosmic order, that I perish upon coming out of the womb, since I was born healthy — for not every child dies from infancy — then still, why did my father’s knees come to receive me, the knees upon which I was born, and why were my mother’s breasts made ready for me to suck milk? Fortune should have held my father back from receiving me upon his knees, and I would have died falling from the womb onto the ground; or at least, my mother’s breasts should have been shriveled, and I would have died of hunger.

I would be lying Heb. ושכבתי, I would be lying in the grave.

'For now' — if so, I would now be lying in the grave in quiet, and as I lay asleep in the grave, then I would have rest. The matter is stated twice, in different words.

For now — that is: had I slept then, I would have had rest (from the ceaseless motion of existence, which never rests a single moment in one state) — if so, by now I would already be lying still and at ease.

who build ruins for themselves It is customary for those who seek fame to rebuild ruined cities as a memorial for themselves, as in (Isa. 58: 12), “And those coming from you shall be called the repairer of the breaches.” That is to say, with princes and famous people. Or, would that I was unknown, and I would be like a stillborn. What Scripture states: I was not like a hidden stillborn, is because it continues with the language with which it started to speak, viz. in the interrogative, and it refers to “Why did knees receive me...or why was I not like a hidden stillborn child?”

'Who built up waste places for themselves' — meaning that they build in the places that had lain in ruins, so that their name would be attached to those buildings.

'With kings' — I would then be lying with kings and be like them, for in the grave no advantage of one over another is discernible. 'Who built up waste places,' etc. — it is the way of kings and great men to build ruined and desolate cities, so as to have a memorial for themselves.

'For themselves' — for their own sake.

With kings and counselors of the earth — the whole verse hinges on the words ‘I would not have been,’ [carried over from verse 13]: the verse is to be read, ‘with kings and counselors of the earth [I would not have been],’ or ‘with nobles I would not have been,’ or ‘like a hidden stillbirth, and like infants [who never saw light,] I would not have been.’ Its meaning is this: now that he actually exists, there are ranks among people — one is a king, another only a noble — and so there are many ranks, one below the other, down to the lowest rank of all, the hidden stillbirth, whose degree of existence is so weak and slight that immediately beneath it lies nothing but absence and nothingness. Not so had I never existed and never come into being at all: nothingness cannot be measured by quantity or quality, so that one could say that this nothingness was not a king, or was not a noble, or was not even a hidden stillbirth — for there is no difference of rank in a thing that never entered existence at all. That is: had I slept, I would have had rest, and it would have made no difference to me whether I ‘would not have been’ with kings, or ‘would not have been’ with nobles, or ‘would not have been’ even like a hidden stillbirth — that is, had the pregnancy never taken hold at all, as he said, ‘because it did not shut the doors of my womb’ — or whether I ‘would not have been’ like infants who never saw light — that is, had the pregnancy taken hold and the child died on emerging into the world’s air, as he said, ‘why did I not die from the womb.’ It would all have been the same to him, for either way it is nothingness and naught.

'Or with princes' — or I would be lying like the princes who possess gold; as if to say: in the grave, no advantage over me would be discernible either in those who hold power or in those who possess wealth; but now, to whom shall I be likened and compared?

like infants Heb. כעוללים, infants. He calls them עוללים because they are all play and dirt, like (below 16:15), “And I sullied (ועללתי) with dust,” and like (Jud. 19:25), “and abused (ויתעללו) her the entire night.”

'Or as a hidden untimely birth' — this refers back to the 'why' stated at the beginning of the passage, as if to say: why was I not like a hidden stillbirth? That is, why was I not a stillborn child — one who falls from the womb before its time, before its months are completed, while its limbs have not yet spread out, and it is still folded up, hidden one part within another. 'As infants,' etc. — these are the stillborn who never saw the light of the world; this repeats the same idea in different words.

'Hidden' — covered and concealed. 'As infants' — thus is a young child called, as in 'the children that were dandled' (Lamentations 2:20); and thus is a child also called while still in its mother's womb.

cease from anger They restrain their anger, with which they were accustomed and wont to cause anger in the earth. and there...rest Heb. ינוחו, and there rested. Something that occurs regularly is written in the future tense.

'There the wicked' — meaning those who are forever stirring — cease from their raging.

'cease from troubling' — meaning, cease from fear, as in the phrase 'a trembling heart,' where the sense is a fearful heart; and the meaning here is that after death, fear of the wicked departs from people.

'There' — meaning: the reason I long to dwell in the grave is that there the wicked cease from their raging and no longer go on raging and being angry at people; so those who dwell in the grave find rest from the wicked. 'The weary' — those whose strength grew tired and worn out from toil — there they will rest in peace.

There — Now Job comes to show that non-being is better than being, and that it would have been better for a person never to have been created than to have been created; and he comes to lay down, as a general rule about human existence, that it is only to man's detriment. For when all his affairs are reckoned and weighed in the balance — his success, the joy of his heart, and his pleasure in the days of his life on one side, against the evils he is destined to meet on the other — it is always found that the evils outweigh the goods in number. Now he divides the evils that come upon a person into two kinds: 1) Those that reach him through the natural and moral feelings of his own soul, through the character of his traits and desires planted within him — such as covetousness, lust, envy, pride, and the like. Of these he says, ‘there the wicked cease from troubling’ — meaning, in the state of non-being one will not find the turmoil of the wicked, who are like a sea driven by the storm of their own soul's envy, lust, and covetousness for excess and so forth. If so, non-being is better than being. 2) The evils he encounters in seeking his basic needs, for he must forever labor to obtain his sustenance and necessities — not so had he never existed, for ‘there the weary are at rest.’

'Together' — the men who were held in confinement before they died are all there together, in quiet and ease, and no one there hears the voice of a taskmaster proclaiming a summons to the king's labor.

'Are at ease' — an expression of sha'anan (tranquility) and quiet. 'The taskmaster' — an expression of pressing and coercion.

Together — The second kind of evil that comes upon a person from others among mankind consists of three things. (The first) is oppression, where the strong rules over the weak and confines him in a pit of captivity and drives him to forced labor; but in the state of non-being, ‘the prisoners are at ease together.’ (Here he refines his imagery by picturing even those who do not exist as prisoners — for one who does not exist has no motion, no passage from place to place, just like one bound in chains; but these non-existent ‘prisoners’ differ from real prisoners in that they are at ease and do not hear the voice of a taskmaster.) (The second) is the evils that arise from the differences in rank among people, that the rich rules over the poor and the honored over the lowly and so forth — but in the state of non-being.

Small and great are there There it is obvious who is esteemed and who is humble, and since that greatness is perpetual greatness, and that humility is perpetual humility...

'The small,' etc. — meaning, there the small is equal to the great, with no advantage of one over the other; and there the servant becomes free of his master, for he no longer serves him.

'Free' — an expression of liberty, as in 'he shall go out free without payment' (Exodus 21:2).

The small and great, there — meaning, there all are equal, and there is no difference between one person and another. (The third) is the evils that come from law and custom, whereby some become masters and others slaves through the acquisition of money — but there, in the state of non-being, ‘the servant is free from his master.’ With this he has explained every kind of evil that befalls people in their lifetime, and it would have been better for them never to have come into the world and to have remained non-existent.

Why does He give (the giver, i.e., the Holy One, blessed be He.) the toiler light He who grew up with toil and trouble—why did He give him perpetual light and not slay him at birth?

'With what is light given' — meaning: if indeed the grave is a place of quiet and rest, why then is the light of the world given to one whose soul labors in troubles? And why is life given, etc.? This repeats the same idea in different words.

'With what is ... given' — [Scripture does not name] the One in whose power it is to give; it speaks tersely of something whose meaning is understood on its own, and there are many such instances.

With what is light given to him who is in misery — that is, if you say that despite all this there are also some fortunate people who are never overtaken by these evils, and who prefer life to death, the question still remains: why does He give light to the laborer? The light that shines at sunrise, though it exists for the benefit and good of people in general, is to the laborer under forced toil nothing but a torment — for when the light shines he must go out to his labor and his hard work until evening, when the light dims and he can finally rest. If so, why does he need light, merely in order to labor? And more than this: why does He give life to the bitter of soul? For the bitter of soul loathe their lives, and gain nothing from living but the affliction and distress they feel — why do they need life at all? Would they not rather seek death, in which they could forget their bitterness of soul? And if you answer that even the bitter of soul mostly prefer life to death, I would still ask…

Who await death to those of bitter spirit, who long for and desire death and complain, saying, “it is not here.” and they spy after it Heb. ויתפרהו, and they spy after it. more than after hidden treasures More than people spy after hidden treasures.

'Dig for it' — they seek it more eagerly than those who dig to find a hidden treasure.

'And dig for it more than for hid treasures' — meaning, they seek death more than they seek hidden treasures.

'Who long' — are they not the ones who hope for death, and yet it does not come? Indeed, they search after it more than one searches after hidden treasures.

'Who long for' — those who hope, as in 'and I will wait for Hashem' (Isaiah 8:17). 'And dig for it' — an expression of digging; meaning, they search [for it], for one who searches digs in the ground. 'Than for hid treasures' — than for stores of wealth, for the practice is to place them in a hidden and concealed place.

Who long for death — and why does it ‘not come’? Do we not find among them those who loathe their bitter life and long for death — why does it not come? He adds to his complaint here to expose the treachery of fate and its cruelty: it can happen that a man, out of the depth of his affliction and distress, waits his whole life long for death and despises his life, and yet death never draws near him; then, at the end of his days, he digs in the ground and finds treasures of royal store and great wealth — and just as he digs to bring the treasure out, a heap of stones falls on him and he dies. In this the cruelty of fate and its reversals are plainly seen: all the while he was poor and destitute and waited for death, he did not die, but once he had prospered and wanted to live, then the bitterness of death overtook him. This is the meaning of ‘at the time when they wait for death, then it does not come’ — but how, afterward, do they ‘dig for it more than for hidden treasures’? Because in digging to take out the treasure, they brought death up from beneath it. And this is an especially great evil: that as long as the desire for death lived within him, death held off — but the moment he desired to enjoy his life, he met death.

Those who are happy over joyous occurrences and rejoice if they find a grave. over joyous occurrences Because of the joy and the happiness of finding a grave.

'To exultation' [elei gil] — some say that 'gil' is a term used for both joy and mourning, like 'rinnah' [a cry that likewise can be either joyous or mournful]. Others say its sense is: like those who are glad to go to a celebration, so do they exult [at finding the grave]. Scripture then goes on to specify which of those who wait for death is meant: it is he [Job himself].

'Who rejoice' — behold, men of perfect understanding, who rejoice over what is truly fitting to rejoice in — do they not exult when they find a grave and a cause of death?

'To exultation' [elei gil] — equivalent to el gil (to exultation).

Who rejoice — Therefore I conclude and declare: people who rejoice with the joy and gladness found in this world — it would be better for them to exult when they find a grave, for a man whose way is hidden. There is nothing better in the world than for such a man to die and find a grave and find rest from his affliction and troubles.

for a man whose way is hidden All the good deeds that he performed were hidden from the Great Recompenser, and He did not look at them. and God hedged him in He made a wall in front of him to shut him up in a prison, as in (Hos. 2:8) “Behold I will close off your way.”

'A man whose way is hid' — hidden from him, and God has closed it off before him; this is the sense of 'and whom God has hedged in,' like one who shuts a person in. Rav Saadiah Gaon, however, explained it the opposite way, saying that its sense is: there is no desire for life except on the part of the man whose way is hidden — he takes no pleasure even in eating.

'whom God has hedged in' — meaning that Hashem has hedged in his way, the path by which he walks, until all that he seeks is withheld from him.

'To a man' — this refers back to the above, as if to say: do they not exult when they find a grave for a man whose way is hidden from him, because harsh fate keeps him from carrying out his path and completing the deed he had begun, and God has made a hedge across his way so that he cannot pass through it? For this reason, men of perfect understanding exult when they find him a grave, for they say his death is better than his life. And since this is so, why then is light given to one who labors in misery?

'Has hedged in' — an expression of fencing, as in 'have You not made a hedge about him' (Job 1:10).

To a man whose way is hid — hidden through his own nature, and God has also hedged him in so that he cannot search out his way. That is, by his own nature he is prone to misfortune, and the celestial order further hedges in his choices, since it is not within his power to guard himself and escape the mishaps that are decreed and ordained for him by his evil star.

comes Heb. תבא, lit. shall come. pour An expression of (Exod. 9:33) “pour (נתך) to the ground.” They run and descend like water. The word ויתכו may also be interpreted as an expression denoting abundance.

'My roarings are poured out like water' — until he weeps; or it is a figure of speech, meaning that they do not blend into one another but rather crash one after another without pause.

'And my roarings are poured out like water' — meaning that they have already poured forth one after another, like flowing water in which each runner races to meet the next, without pause.

'For my sighing comes instead of my food' — why should I have life? Is it not exceedingly bitter for me, that even before my food comes my sighing, and my sorrow does not depart amid the pleasure and delight of eating; and my roarings follow one another without pause, like water that flows and pours down?

'Are poured out' — an expression of pouring and pouring out, as in 'until water was poured' (II Samuel 21:10). 'My roarings' — my cries.

For my sighing comes instead of my food — He brings proof from what actually happened to him: that even though he is righteous in his own eyes, these great evils befell him. (He pictures the sighing as a separate, personified being that stations itself, with its crowd of griefs, opposite his bread and before him — meaning, at the moment he eats his bread the sighing is stirred, and then his roarings, which until that moment had been frozen and held back, pour out and flow like water, with nothing left to restrain his spirit.)

the thing I feared All my life, I stood in fear of this, as I said (1:5): “Now it would come about, when the cycle of the feasting would days be over, etc.” What I dreaded—Behold!

'For the thing which I feared' — the fear that I feared in my time of ease, lest these evils come upon me — behold, so they have come upon me. 'And that which I was afraid of' — this repeats the same idea in different words.

'For the thing which I feared' [ki fachad pachadeti] — [the word ki here means] asher (that/which); so too [ki used in the sense of 'that'] in 'that Aaron had perished' (Numbers 20:29). 'Has come upon me' — it came upon me, as in 'morning has come' (Isaiah 21:12). 'I was afraid of' — an expression of dread, as in 'and Moab was in dread' (Numbers 22:3). 'Has overtaken me' [yavo li] — equivalent to ba li (has come upon me).

For the thing which I feared has come upon me — It is not possible to attribute the evil that befell me to my having failed to guard against it, or to my not having prepared the means necessary to protect myself from harm — for I was always afraid of evil and did everything one ought to do to guard against misfortune, and yet ‘it came upon me,’ and my effort was of no avail. (He also alludes here to what the ancients wrote, who believed in the rule of the celestial order: that the fixed decree imposed on a person by that order leaves an impression and imprint on his heart, so that he is always afraid of the evil decreed against him — for his heart foretells to him the future that is coming upon him; and it was from this that people were always fearful, from the dread they sensed within their own soul about something.) From this he brings proof that, since his fear and dread were in fact fulfilled upon him, it is clear that the decree is true and that diligence is futile.

I was not at ease from this worry, and behold, trouble has come.

'But trouble came' — that is, what I had feared came upon me. Here 'rogez' carries the sense of fear, in the manner of the phrase 'there the wicked cease from fear' (Job 3:17). Explanation of the words of the response: Job cried out and said: Let the day on which I was born perish, and also the night in which my mother's pregnancy with me began. Let that day be darkness — the very day I was born — let God above take no trouble to make the sun shine on it, and let no light whatsoever shine upon it; let darkness and the shadow of death rest with that day, so that no glow of light remains in it at all; let it be terrified by the fierce vapors that rise up on account of the intensity of the day's own heat. As for that night in which my mother conceived me, let darkness seize it, so that no starlight is in it; let it not be counted as one of the days of the year, joined to the year's reckoning, and let it not enter into the count of the months, joined to the month. Let that night be desolate, so that no company of people passes through it in the approaches of the city and in its streets, and let no glad song enter into it — and indeed he says this because it is the way of those who travel by night to sing and make merry. Let that night be cursed by all the people who are wont to voice their lament over the hardship of their own day — since it is out of the bitterness of their soul that they curse time itself. Let the great stars that appear in that night, at its beginning and at its end, be darkened, along with the disappearance of the other stars because of the light then present, and let the darkness of that night persist without ever lifting. Let it hope for light, yet let the sun not rise upon it, and let the dawn not break through it, so that no day follows it — for that night did not shut the doors of my mother's womb to keep her from conceiving, nor did it thereby hide trouble from my eyes. And since she had indeed conceived, why did I not die the moment I came out of my mother's womb — why did I not perish the instant I emerged from the belly? For that would have been better for me than living to see this evil that has found me. Why did knees receive me — the midwife's knees, acting to save me at the time of birth — and why were there breasts for my mother, to nurse me and keep me alive? For now, had I died from the womb, I would be quiet and at rest from these evils in the grave — with kings and counselors of the earth, who rebuild the ruined places for themselves so that their name be called upon them; or with princes who possess gold, who gather for themselves treasuries of silver. These men, for all their apparent good fortune, would have no advantage over me in the grave. Or why was I not like a stillborn child that dies before the pregnancy comes to term? For like infants who die in their mother's belly and never see light, death there is greatly to be preferred. This is because, at the time of death, fear of the wicked departs from people — meaning that the dead no longer fear the wicked — and there the weary find rest. All prisoners alike are at ease in the grave and do not hear the voice of the taskmaster. Death is the same for small and great; it gives no one any advantage over another, and there the slave is free of his master — he no longer serves him, and his master has no rule over him. So Job wonders: why does Hashem give the light of life to a man whose day is hard, and why does He give life to people bitter of soul? Death is better for them, so much so that they wait for death to find rest for their souls, yet do not find it, and search for it more eagerly than for buried treasure, out of their great longing for it. Now, should someone object that their mere longing for death is not sufficient proof that death is truly better for them — since it is likewise the way of the sick to long for what actually harms them, and one cannot say that the things that harm them are good for them just because they long for them — we would answer: we find that other people, the kind who rightly rejoice at what deserves rejoicing, are indeed glad and exult when a man whose day is hard dies — one whose way Hashem has hedged about, so that he can no longer attain anything he seeks — which shows that death is good for him. Note, however, that mention was made specifically of those 'who rejoice at what deserves rejoicing,' for it is only their joy that serves as evidence in this matter; there are, after all, people of base character who rejoice when misfortune befalls someone else, and their joy does not prove that the misfortune in question is actually good for the one who suffers it — this much is self-evident. Now that it has been established that death is good for people of bitter soul such as these, Job continues: I am amazed that Hashem troubled to give me life, for such bitterness has already overtaken me that I sigh continually — even when my food is set before me, which should have made me forget my trouble as I occupied myself with eating — and my groans pour out like water, one after another, like water flowing without pause, for there is no interval between one groan and the next. I was afraid, even while at ease, that these very evils that have now come upon me would come, and what I dreaded has indeed come to me. I had no ease, no quiet, no rest — I lived instead with this fear — until what I feared came to pass. The general principle that emerges from all this is that Job's view was that all the events that befall a person are ordered and fixed according to the arrangement of the stars at the time of his birth. For this reason he cursed the day on which he was born, holding it to be the cause of the evils that befell him, and he cursed the night of his conception as well, since it indicates the character of what will happen to the fetus in the womb and at the time it emerges from the womb — a matter already noted by the astrologers. Thus the night of conception, on this view, points to the time of birth, which in turn, according to their view, points to all the events of a person's life. He cursed the day of birth first, since it points most directly to the events of a person's life, and cursed the night of conception afterward, since it points to them only secondarily — indicating, as it does, the time of birth, which itself indicates these events. He further complained against the night of conception because its signification was not, instead, that his mother would fail to conceive at all, or that she would not carry the pregnancy to term and would miscarry, or that he would die on emerging from his mother's womb — for these outcomes too, according to the astrologers, are determined by the arrangement of the stars at the very moment the seed enters the womb. So Job preferred non-being to being, because of these events that had befallen him, and he complained against Hashem — who orders this governance through the arrangement of the stars — over the fact that this arrangement contains such an absence of order and fairness, whereby evil comes upon the good and good upon the wicked, as Job will go on to say later; he complained that Hashem did not so arrange things that one born under such a constellation would die from the womb and never see evil — since, in his thinking, that would have been better for such people — and he attributes this supposed failing to an error on Hashem's part, or to weariness and a lack of capacity. Now, Job was mistaken in this assumption in two respects. First, this ordered determination arising from the arrangement of the stars does not, in every case, necessitate that the events it signifies actually come about; rather, they remain merely possible, since human free choice can still intervene, as we noted in our introduction to this commentary. Second, he was mistaken in regarding these apparent evils as human evils properly speaking, to the point that one who suffers them should prefer death to life. This would indeed have been correct had these evils been human evils in the strict sense, for death is preferable to a life that is not truly human, according to the view of some of the ancients, as is stated in the Ethics. Genuine human goods, however, together with non-human evils, are inherently praiseworthy in themselves. It is possible to say that Job did not err in this second respect, for he believed in the survival of the soul, as we shall explain further on, God willing; and that what he meant was only to lament the pain of the life he was living and its degradation — that in his own eyes, the absence of human flourishing together with the absence of these evils would have been better than the sweetness of possessing human flourishing together with the possession of these evils, even though the latter are non-human evils. But in the first respect he was without doubt mistaken, as his friends' replies to him, and his own reply to them, will go on to prove; and were it not for this, we would not say that he erred in it at all — for we see that Jeremiah, peace be upon him, also cursed his own day (Jeremiah 20:14), yet Jeremiah was not led to this by any belief that such determination comes from the arrangement of the stars, as is clear from his words in many places in his prophecy; rather, he said this only by way of exaggeration and hyperbole, out of the intensity of his soul's bitterness. Now, Job's actual view — as will become clear later on — was that divine providence does not extend to human individuals at all, and certainly not to the individuals of other living creatures; rather, all of them are left loose and unattended, governed only by the ordered rule that derives from the causation of the heavenly bodies. Two things led him to believe this: sense-experience and reasoning. From sense-experience, because of the bad ordering he observed befalling human individuals with regard to good and evil; and from reasoning, because, in his thinking, it is impossible for these particular, time-bound matters to be known to Hashem, since it is impossible that there be in Him forms of knowledge that come into being and pass away — and one who has no relation to time at all cannot, therefore, know time-bound matters. This lies behind his statement, 'Why are times not hidden from Shaddai, and why do those who know Him not see His days?' (Job 24:1) — meaning: why should time-bound matters and times themselves not be hidden from Hashem? Indeed He has no relation to time at all — so much so that even 'those who know Him do not see His days,' but instead perceive Him as existing and enduring, utterly remote from every kind of change; and one whose nature is such cannot be characterized by time at all, as will be shown in the study of nature. Furthermore, these natural, earthly matters, because their rank is so distant from Hashem, are necessarily disdained and abhorred by Hashem on account of their lowliness — for it is not the way of one who is perfect in the utmost degree to attend to things that are utterly deficient. And furthermore, the intellect does not apprehend things insofar as they are particular; the apprehension of particulars belongs instead to other faculties, such as imagination and sense — and since Hashem possesses no such faculties, by which the particular is apprehended, it is impossible for Him to apprehend these particular things. This is the sense of his statement, 'Have You eyes of flesh? Or do You see as man sees?' (Job 10:4) and so on. These, then, are the arguments by which you will find Job maintaining his view on this question. Now, one might raise a doubt: if this was truly Job's view, why did he offer burnt-offerings out of fear that his sons had sinned (Job 1:5), when, on his own view, repentance and prayer to Hashem would be of no avail, since He does not watch over this lowly world? We answer that Job did believe in the survival of the soul, as will be seen from his words further on, and that this is why he offered sacrifices on behalf of his sons for the service of Hashem, to the extent he was able, even though he did not believe there would be any bodily reward for it. Added to this is the fact that Job wanted to cover both possibilities: since he was perplexed and confused about the question of Hashem's providence, he wanted to act appropriately according to each view. For this reason he performed the acts of one who believes in reward and punishment, so as to safeguard his possessions — until what befell him actually befell him; and then this belief receded from him, since he was himself convinced that he was righteous, and that these evils had not come upon him as punishment for any prior act of rebellion on his part.

'I was not at ease' — I never sat in ease, quiet, and repose, for I feared the misfortune that was coming and stirring in the world; and behold, agitation and dread have come upon me. (What emerges from this speech is that Job was bewildered in his understanding, inclined to say that everything that happens to a person is fixed and ordered according to the arrangement of the heavens, which is set at the time of conception and birth. For this he cursed the day of his birth and the night of his conception, and even complained against God, who arranges that governance, saying: why did He not so order it that whoever is destined to be born under the very constellation under which he himself was born should die — either in his mother's womb or at the moment he came forth — so that he would not see evil, since death would be better for him?)

'Had I rest' — an expression of ease and repose.

I was not at ease — that is to say: one also cannot say that the misfortunes that befell him were sheer chance, since these evils came upon him three times in a row — the loss of his possessions, the loss of his children, and the afflictions of his own body — and that is why he repeats himself, 'I was not at ease,' etc. This shows that it was not chance at all, but a fixed decree of the cosmic order, through which he fell from his high station by a rapid succession of different causes. And since this cannot have come from providence as punishment for his sins — seeing that he is righteous in his own eyes — it must be that all of this came from his own cosmic order and his evil fortune, which makes no distinction between good and evil. From this it is clear that there is no reward and punishment, for the cosmic order governs all of man's deeds, and he is compelled in all his actions, both good and evil.