Job Chapter 16

(מענה איוב) — ימריצך. ישערך פיך לחשוב דברים נמרצים על אופניהם:

ככם אדברה — ככם אני יודע לקנתר:

לו יש נפשכם — ביסורין תחת נפשי גם אני הייתי מחבר עליכם במילין ומניע עליכם ראשי בצעקתכם ומאמץ אתכם במו פי לאמר החרישו התאמצו ועמדו ביסוריכ' כאשר אתם תאמרו אלי:

וניד שפתי — שאני נד וקובל עתה וצועק אז יחשוך ולא אזעוק ולא אנוד עוד, אבל עתה:

אם אדברה — וגו':

השימות — לשון שתיקה כמו אשתומם וכמו שומו שמים (ירמיהו ב׳:י״ב) שתקו והתמהו:

ותקמטני לעד היה — הקמטתני והקדרתני בשביל עד שהיה לעד על עוני להשטינני:

צרי — השטן הוא הצר:

ילטוש — יחדד כמו לוטש כל חורש וגומר (בראשית ד):

פערו עלי בפיהם — פתחו כמו ופערה פיה (ישעיה ה):

יתמלאון — יתאספון והרבה לו דומין במקרא קראו אחריך מלא (ירמיה ה) אשר יקראו עליו מלא רועים (ישעיהו ל״א:ד׳) ואינו משתנה מלשונו כי כל מילוי נאסף הוא:

יסגירני אל אל עויל — הסגירני הקב"ה אל אויל לץ עולל ללוץ בי:

ועל ידי רשעים ירטני — רטיית תנחומיו ורפואתי מסר לרשעים שאינן אלא מקניטים, ד"א ירטני כמו ירצני לשון רצוי ותנחומים:

ויפרפרני — אותו עויל ל' פירורין:

ויפצפצני — לשון נשבר לשברים הרבה בחבטה רבה כמו ונפצתם איש אל אחיו (ירמיה יד) ונפץ עולליך אל הסלע (תהילים קל״ז:ט׳):

רביו — מורה חציו כמו רובה קשת (בראשית כא):

מררתי — מרה שלי:

גלדי — מכה יבשה והעלאת גלד ול' משנה (ר"ה כ"ז) והעמידו על גלדו:

ועוללי — ולכלכתי וגנותי כמו ויתעללו בה (שופטים י״ט:כ״ה) ל' בזיון וגנאי וכמו עוללה לנפשי (איכה ג):

קרני — זיוי לשון וקרנים מידו לו (חבקוק ג׳:ד׳):

חמרמרו — נקמטו כמו נחמרו בני מיעיה בל' משנה (חולין י) וכן מעי חמרמרו (איכה א):

צלמות — שחשכו מחמת בכי ודמע':

ותפלתי זכה — לא קיללתי חבירי ולא פיללתי לו רעה:

ואל יהי מקום — בארץ להבליע בו צעקתי כי לשמים תעלה:

הנה בשמים עדי — יוצרי היודע דרכי:

דלפה — דומעת וזולפת דמעה ל' דילוף:

ויוכח לגבר — והלואי יעשה לי זאת שיתן לי מקום להתווכח גבר עם אלוה להשוות שני הריבים ריב גבר עם קונו וריב בין אדם לרעהו:

כי שנות וגו' — הקצובים מספר לימי חיי:

יאתיו — יגיעו, ואז ארח לא אשוב אהלך:

The Ninth Oration — Job’s Second Reply to Eliphaz

Job does not reply at once to the resolution of the question of the prosperity of the wicked advanced by Eliphaz, nor to the thesis Bildad adopts on his issue, preferring to wait until all three of his companions have addressed the subject. He then answers them all (in Chapter 21) in comprehensive response that rebuts everything they had said on the subject.

Nor does he react to Eliphaz's repetition of the claim he had made in his first oration, namely, that he had received a prophetic vision concerning the suffering of the righteous, as he had already replied to it at the time. He just rebukes him for repeating himself and for adding nothing new, as though all he wanted to do was to drown him with words, which is not the way of the wise (Ch.16:2-5).

Neither does he comment on the ideas Eliphaz repeats concerning free-will, there being no point in reiterating what he had already said.

And so he limits himself, at this point, to dealing to just two matters:

• The first, that Eliphaz had now sought to brand him as a totally evil person; one deserving of the condemnation and punishment due to the wicked. For everything he had described about the fears that possess a wicked person and his ultimate collapse had pointed the finger (Proverbs 6:13) at Job, for it had all happened to him. Job cries out and fiercely protests against this (Ch.16:7-21).

And the second, Eliphaz’s attempt to reinforce his previous thesis that the essential reward [of the righteous] is the survival of the soul after death, as when he said (Job 15:11): Are God's consolations inadequate for you; For you will return your spirit to God. Job rejects this completely, saying that since the essential quality of the soul is a hidden matter and most people cannot understand this mystery and see only that which is sensed, i.e., that the righteous person is tormented with suffering in real-life; and since as regards this other spiritual life, there is nobody who can give them a guarantee that the soul lives on after death, for such things are hidden from the seeing eye; and since even the intellect can make no sense of it, as he says (Job 17:4): But You have hidden comprehension from their minds, and since all human beings only set store by what is seen in real-life, there are those who, when they see a righteous person suffer, pass a perverse judgment over him and conclude from this that he must have sinned, as happened in the case of Job, whereas others will maintain that the person was indeed righteous and so complain about the workings of Providence. It follows that this disposal of the suffering of the righteous and the prosperity of the wicked [viz. reward or punishment of the soul after death in the Hereafter] leads people to dissent and reproach, and to barren thought: it is a shadow of death in Governance; incoherent (Job 10:22). The righteous and the wicked should be given their just deserts in this world, for all to see, to learn and to take note; so that injustice be gagged (Psalms 107:42).

Replying to Eliphaz’s taunt 'Your own mouth condemns you, not I; your own lips testify against you', Job rejects the notion that his ordeal and his refusal to bear it stoically are of themselves proof of his wickedness

As is known from the annals of ancient peoples, when they wanted to investigate someone who was suspected of robbery or murder or of committing some such crime but who denied it, they would torture the suspect and look for his reaction. If they saw that he endured the suffering as though feeling nothing, they would conclude that the accusation was false. However, if they saw that he felt the effects of the torture and cried out, they judged the accusation to be true and so they continued to torture him still more. And when, in turn, he cried out still more, they became even more convinced of his guilt. Hence, the witness that they brought against the suspect to show that their suspicions were justified, was the torment that they themselves inflicted upon him.

Job once again describes the suffering his ordeal has brought upon him, the ordeal that Eliphaz has suggested is the very proof of his wrong-doing. What he is enduring is not proof of any wrong-doing but is just an act of brutality.

Job's outcry was no more than should be expected from someone who has endured such an ordeal.

In heaven they know that he is guiltless; that his suffering is not proof of sin.

Eliphaz had argued that the true reward of the righteous is the survival of the soul after death. Job now challenges Eliphaz to bring proof that there is a life after death.