Job 22

(מענה אליפז) — הלאל יסכן גבר. הלצורך ולהנאת היוצר יועיל גבר ויהנה כאשר ילמד דעת אל הבריות וחכמה, יסכן הראשון לשון הנייה כמו ותהי לו סוכנת (מלכים א א׳:ב׳) והשני לשון למוד כמו ההסכן הסכנתי (במדבר כ״ב:ל׳) וגם הראשון יתכן להיות נפתר לשון למוד הלטובת היוצר ולצרכו ילמד גבר כאשר ילמד השכל:

החפץ לשדי — כמו כי מה חפצו בביתו אחריו (לעיל כא) ההנאה וחשש לו אם תצדיק מעשיך בהתווכח לפניו שיבא עמך להתווכח בדבריך:

ואם בצע — ממון לו אם תתם דרכיך:

המיראתך יוכיחך — או אם מיראה שיירא מפניך יבא ויתווכח עמך:

הלא — יודע הוא כי רעתך רבה:

ואיש זרוע לו הארץ — בתמיה וכי מחמת שהיית גדול תירש את הארץ כלום הוא ראוי להתקיים:

ישב בה — יאריך בה כמו ותשבו בקדש (דברי' יא):

או חשך לא תראה — כלומר לא תתן עיניך ובטחונך בכח לאמר:

הלא אלוה גובה שמים — ולא ישפיל לראות:

וראה ראש כוכבים כי רמו — כמו וראה עניי שבסוף מענה החמישי (לעיל י) כלומר ונותן אתה עין בראש כוכבים כי רמו ובשביל כך אמרת:

מה ידע אל — במעשה החשך:

הבעד ערפל ישפוט — הכנגד החשך הזה יראה וישפוט, הנה:

עבים סתר — לפניו ולא יוכל לראות:

וחוג שמים יתהלך — ולא ידע את אשר בארץ:

חוג — עוגל מחוגת שמים כמו ובמחוגה יתארהו (ישעיהו מ״ד:י״ג) קומפ"ש בלע"ז:

האורח עולם — הדרך הראשונים אשר מאז:

תשמור — שמרת בלבך לזכור מה נהייתה בהם:

קומטו ולא עת — נגזרו בלא עתם:

נהר וגו' — ונהר של מבול או גפרית ואש של סדום הוצק ביסודם:

אם לא נכחד קימנו — התשמור וראית אם לא נכחד יקומם:

קימנו — כמו קומתו של אותו הדור כמו (הושע י״ב:ה׳) בית אל ימצאנו ושם ידבר עמנו כמו עמו:

ויתרם — גאותם:

אכלה אש — ברותחין נדונו ר' תנחומא דרש שהיו בעלי קומה ולא מתו בתהומות ובאו עליהם רותחין מלמעלה וזה יתרם קימה יתרה שלהם, כ"ש:

הסכן — למוד להיות עמו שלם:

ושלם — ותהיה שלם ולא תחסר בהם בדברים האלה:

תבואתך טובה — תבואך טובה:

ושית על עפר בצר — על אשר תשוב אליו תשית על הארץ חוסן ומבצרים:

ובצור נחלים — הסלעים גבוהים שבנחלים עמוקים יהיה לך אוסף צבירת אופיר היא סגולת מלכים שהיו מסגלים ואוצרים זהב הבא מאופיר:

והיה שדי בצריך — אם שדי זה קדש תמהתי על פתרונו שמשמעו קללה שימנה עם אויביו כמו ואת היית בעוכרי (שופטים י״א:ל״ה) עם עוכרי וע"י צורך נדוננו מן המקראות חסרים (כמו והיה שדי שופט בצריך, ואם נוכל לאמרו חול לשון דיין וחוסן זה פתרונו) והיה חוסן מבצריך כמו ושית על עפר בצר כלומר הון עתק תהיה נבצר ולפי הענין כן פתרונו שהרי סופו מוכיחו וכסף תועפות לך ל' חוסן כמו ותועפות ראם לו (במדבר כ״ג:כ״ב):

ותשא אל אלוה פניך — לא תבא להרים פניך אלא לשאול, צרכיך הימנו:

ונדריך תשלם — מובטח אתה שירצו קרבנות תשלומי נדריך:

ויקם לך — כמו ויקום לך:

כי השפילו ותאמר גוה — ואם רואך דורך שפל תאמר בהבטחה להגביהו ויגבה:

ושח עינים — בצרה הבאה (אליו) בעונו:

יושיע — אותו אלוה בידך ובתפילתך:

ימלט אי נקי — אין נקי כמו אי כבוד (שמואל א ד׳:כ״א) אין כבוד וכן (משלי לא) ולרוזנים אי שכר אין שכר אין נאה להם שכרות שלשתן חברם מנחם במחלוקת אחת ואע"פ שהן שתי תיבות מפרשין כן ונמלט את אי נקי בבור כפיך וכן שמעתי, ל' אחר שמעתי שהיו אומרים מפי ר' יעקב שהוא לשון אדם השרוי בצער ובאנקה והיו"ד יתירה בתיבה כמו היושבי בשמים (תלים קכג) אבל לא שמעתי מפי הרב:

The Fourteenth Oration — Eliphaz's Speech in the Third Round

With the completion of two rounds, six [orations] in each round, (Leviticus 24:6) the first concerning the suffering of the righteous and the second the prosperity of the wicked; and after the wrangler Job had triumphed over all of them with his answers, his bows and his arrows (Genesis 48:22) ; Eliphaz now tries, for one last time, to fit his arrow to the bowstring (Psalms 11:2) in order to counter-attack at the gate (Isaiah 28:6) in a single speech that addresses both issues. In doing so, he devises a new approach, one with fine insight and knowledge (Psalms 119:66), according to which it is out of wisdom on God's part, and with particular intent, that the rewards of the righteous and the punishments of the wicked are not immediately disbursed in this world. This is done so as to ensure that the worship of God may be selfless, motivated neither by love of reward nor by fear of punishment.

For the most important aspect of a person's worship of God is that he should do good for its own sake and for the sake of the Profound Statute issued by the Supreme Lawgiver; and principally for the sake of His great Name (2Chronicles 6:32). However, this would not be the case if a person's actions were guided by considerations of reward or fear of punishment. For he would then be serving not God but himself and this is not the sort of worship God desires. If the reaction to evil acts was immediate (Ecclesiastes 8:11) and God meted out punishment to the wicked at once, nobody would dare (Jeremiah 30:21) to do evil for fear of the immediate retribution that would follow. Similarly, everyone would try to do good because they knew they would be rewarded instantly. The deed would not be performed for the sake of God, nor would there be any meaning to reward and punishment, seeing that all would be bound to act as they did out of fear of punishment or hope of reward. Nor would there be any meaning to free-will and trial, though they were the substance of God's purpose in creating man: that the heart's inclination should tempt a person to do evil and he should feel free to do so, but that nevertheless he should refrain and turn away from evil (Psalms 34:15), out of respect for God and His divine ordinances. Therefore, He endowed man's mind with everything, except the knowledge of how God acts (Ecclesiastes 3:11) with regard to the reward of the righteous or the punishment of the wicked. And so there are evil-doers who prosper and wicked persons who are praised in public for what they have done and God's Providence is concealed and hidden from the sight of most people. Contrariness beguiles understanding, causing it to deny Providence and to declare that the world runs itself (TB Avodah Zarah 54b) ; that everything depends on heredity, nature and the stars; that the Lord is on high, His glory is above the heavens (Psalms 113:4), and He does not govern those down below; not to mention the other charges made by heretics. As proof, they all cite the disorder and capriciousness of Providence, namely, that the righteous languish and the wicked prosper.

But this is a test and a trial, intended to distinguish between those who worship God sincerely and those who are insincere. For he who serves God without thought of reward (TB Avodah Zarah 19a), the righteous person who lives in faithfulness (Habakkuk 2:4), he will not be moved. He will receive his reward in the world of recompense—an eternal spiritual reward in shimmering Paradise—for he has been tried and found perfect. For in the world of souls, scourges are also readied for the scorners (Proverbs 19:29); for God brings every secret thing to judgment (Ecclesiastes 12:14); a faithful just God, who does no wrong (Deuteronomy 32:4); all of whose work endures (Psalms 33:4). Thus, Eliphaz rebuilds and re-establishes (Ezra 2:68) his original theses:

• his assertions that the reason for the suffering of the righteous is to punish them in this world for any minor sins they may have committed so as to indemnify them in the world to come,

• and that though the wicked may prosper, their prosperity is imperfect for their hearts are filled with fear of the punishment that awaits them. Even though in most cases this will only befall them in the world of souls, their own hearts are already auguring evil for them.

In this way he also justifies his reproof of Job at the beginning of his first speech, when he had said: ' Was not your own security the reason for your piety? ' (Job 4:6). For the essence of correct worship is that it should be performed without any expectation of repayment or fear of retribution, and in this Job had sinned, Therefore his steps faltered (Psalms 37:31), and God poured His wrath upon him (Lamentations 4:11).

This reply encompasses all Job's rebuttals to Eliphaz's previous arguments — Namely, that it [the concealment of Providence] is an imperative of the Governance of beings who have free-will, ones that understand and know, (Isaiah 32:4) in order to show whether their worship is truly perfect, for the sake of God and His love alone.

God desires that man's worship of Him be for its own sake, altruistic. However, for this to be possible, He must remain elusive. Were He to reward and punish human actions directly or instantly in this world, virtue would be reduced to just a conditioned response. Eliphaz argues that instant reciprocity would make the achievement of true virtue impossible.

As Eliphaz sees it, being given enough rope to hang oneself is the essence of free-will. Hence, in His Wisdom, God may sometimes choose to ignore even the most heinous of crimes and leave them unpunished for the time being. However, this should not be interpreted as indicating that He has delegated governance. Rather, it is simply that Providence is not mechanical.

Nevertheless, sometimes retribution is immediate —

— such as when God hears the cries of the widows or orphans that the wicked person has oppressed or abused.

Before continuing, Eliphaz reviews the three arguments, as he sees them, put forward by those people who, like Job, deny Providence. The first, that God is so remote that He cannot see with what is going on down below nor is He concerned by it.

Secondly, that in any case man is so insignificant that his acts cannot possibly affect Nature. On this view, the Flood that devastated Noah's generation was just a natural event: a consequence of blind Nature, unrelated to the wickedness of that generation. And thirdly, if Providence exists, how come it bestows such prosperity on sinners

Job may be impressed by these arguments but the truly righteous are not. They worship God for His own sake, and interpret any apparent deficiencies in this world as evidence of the existence of another perfect world: the Hereafter; the eternal world of the souls where all wrongs will be righted. So they rejoice in their worship, scornful of those who see no more to existence than just their immediate physical surroundings, which, like everything else in this world, will soon pass away

Eliphaz calls on Job to repent — Not to rely just on his own intellect but to accept God's instruction instead. Not to listen only to what his body tells him but to fill his mind with God's instruction instead. Elevating his spirit over his flesh, and not the other way round. Making his mind master over his body, instructing it to act in accordance with God's wishes.

When a person's devotion to God is so great that his only wish is to cleave to Him, with no expectation of material or bodily benefit, the Divine Presence attends and hearkens to his prayers.

Nature becomes subject to that person's will.