Job Chapter 25

(מענה בלדד) — המשל ופחד עמו. כלפי שאמר איוב אערכה לפניו משפט אמר לו המשל ופחד עמו, המשל זה מיכאל ופחד זה גבריאל כלום אתה יכול להשיב את אחד מהם:

עושה שלום במרומיו — כשהמזלות עולים כל א' סובר אני עולה ראשון לפי שאינו רואה מה שלפניו לפיכך אינו מתקנא, כ"ש, ל"א עושה שלום במרומיו אש ומים בלולין ואין מים מכבין את האש, כ"ש:

ומה יצדק וגו' — ילוד אשה שאמרת בחנני כזהב אצא (לעיל כג):

עד ירח — כמו ולא עדה עליו שחל (לקמן כח):

ולא יאהיל — כמו לא יהלו אורם (ישעיהו י״ג:י׳) ואל"ף זו באה כמו ולאדיב את נפשך (שמואל א ב׳:ל״ג) אל"ף יתירה, ל"א לא יאהיל לא יהיה לו צל כשאינו מאיר אין לו צל והראשון נראה ושניהם שמעתי:

The Sixteenth Oration — Bildad’s Speech in the Third Round

Bildad too makes one final effort to find a remedy (Jeremiah 51:8) for the theories he had put forward: his hypothesis that reparation is ultimately made for the suffering of the righteous, and his assertion with regard to the prosperity of the wicked, that the greater part of their punishment—the perdition of their souls and that of their offspring—is reserved for the world to come. Though Job had rebuffed all of this, Bildad now gathers his strength (Isaiah 27:5) to re-engage battle at the gate (Isaiah 28:6) in the following way:

Whilst continuing to maintain that everything is subject to Individual Providence and that God, who surely pays deserts (Isaiah 59:18 et alia), will reward the righteous according to his righteousness and the wicked according to his wickedness, Bildad now adds the rider that He is sometimes prevented, by the nature of Universal Governance, from making immediate and individual recompense or retribution, because Universal Governance precludes it. For example:

• Though rainfall is Providential and comes at God's command, for good and for loving-kindness (Psalms 23:6), to make meadows green and fields flourish, it is quite possible that a righteous person out walking at the same time is discomfited by the rain. Would we then say that God should stop the rain because of him?

• Similarly, light is meant for the good of all and yet an evil-doer also makes use of it: to light the way to his destination, there to murder and rob.

• Darkness is intended to give rest to the weary but a thief uses it to steal into homes unseen.

Nevertheless, there is no question of God altering Universal Nature, which is meant for the benefit of the whole, for the sake of a particular individual. For Universal Nature encompasses everything and is sustained in wisdom, ability and loving-kindness as is required for the general good. God will not modify Universal Governance for the sake of an individual person, notwithstanding that, as a result, bad may sometimes befall a righteous person or good may chance upon a wicked person.

Nevertheless, God neither short-changes the righteous nor does He let the wicked go scot-free, but rewards and punishes them in singular ways that require no change in Nature, either in this world or in the world to come.

And so, it is quite possible that a righteous person may suffer if he is born with a bad horoscope and his destiny ordains adversities and troubles, for God will not change Universal Nature for his sake. As was said with regard to Rav Hanina ben Dosa: 'Would you be contented were I to destroy the world because of you?' Still the righteous person will yet be rewarded, whether for his righteousness or for the suffering he has endured without cause. For there is another world, a spiritual one, that is not subject to the cosmic forces of this world or to its fortunes, where he will glow in the light of life (Job 33:30). This is consistent with the opinion he expounded in his first speech, namely, that the sufferings of the righteous are by way of a quid pro quo and he will be rewarded for his suffering in the future. Except that there he had not explained his opinion well and so Job had dismissed it off hand. He now explains that this quid pro quo is not because God wants to afflict him now so as to be good to him later, for this would prompt the reply neither your sting nor your honey! (Numbers Rabbah 20) Rather, that if the righteous person's luck and the nature of his location, his horoscope, his birth and situation ordain that evil befall him—that he be poor, sick and starving—God will not change Universal Nature for his sake but will instead compensate him, in the future, for the evil he endured because of his bad luck and bad horoscope.

This also bears out the metaphor of a plant that he had previously used in this matter, one that a gardener uproots and replants elsewhere, in another spot, where it will grow and flourish (Job 8:11-19). And so, in a similar way, God uproots the righteous person from the land of scorching heat (Hosea 13:5), where he is destined to misery and scarcity and replants him in the land of the living (Job 28:13). In the world of the spirit where He will satisfy his soul in the shimmering light and he will be like a watered garden (Isaiah 58:11) producing fruit and produce.

Likewise, God will not alter Universal Governance in order to punish a wicked person whose destiny ordains that he be rich and successful, and sound in limb (Psalms 73:4). Rather, He will leave the world to its Nature, as it was said: The world goes on in its own way but the fools who sin will be brought to justice (Avodah Zarah 54b). The wicked person will be punished in the future, in the eternal world, as he explained in his second speech. And so there is no problem as to why he prospers in this world: his stars are the reason. And yet, he will wither quicker than any other plant (Job 8:12) as in the analogy with the rushes and reed-grass. And God will then compound his punishment in proportion to the measure of the good he had enjoyed and according to his wickedness.

Although God has delegated certain powers to the innumerable forces of Nature, they remain subject to His overall charge and control, thus ensuring that they operate in harmony.

An individual human being, whose mortal life on earth lasts no more than a second on the cosmic time-scale, cannot expect God to alter the structure of the Universe just for him. The essence of man is his spiritual soul and it is with this that the ultimate reckoning will be done, after its release from its earthly raiment.