Job Chapter 3

מענה איוב ויען — ויצעק שכל ענייה האמורה בתורה אינה אלא לשון הרמת קול ואב לכולם וענו הלוים קול רם (דברים כ״ז:י״ד):

אולד בו — לשון עתיד שהיה אומר הלואי ויאבד היום שהייתי עתיד להולד בו ואז לא הייתי נולד:

והלילה — אף היא תאבד:

אמר — שיאמר המבשר אשר עליו הדבר מוטל:

הורה גבר — שעיבר אבי את אמי, בנקבה נוהג לומר הורתה ובזכר נוהג לומר הורה את הנקבה:

והלילה אמר — זה א' מן המקומות שחיסר המקרא את דבריו מפני שלא הוצרך לפרש מי הוא ומליצתו אמר האומר, (ודומה לו הירוצין בסלע סוסים אם יחרוש בבקרים) היה לו לומר אם יחרוש אדם בבקרים ורז"ל אמרו מלאך הממונה על ההריון לילה שמו:

היום ההוא יהי חשך — תמיד בכל שנה כשיגיע אותו יום:

אל ידרשהו אלוה ממעל — לטובה:

ואל תופע עליו — נהרה אורה כמו צוהר ומתרגמינן ניהור:

יגאלהו — כמו לחם מגואל (מלאכי א׳:ז׳) במה גאלנוך (שם) והוא ל' ליכלוך:

צלמות — צל של מות (חשך) שאינו מאיר לעולם:

עננה — אפילה:

כמרירי יום — שדים המושלים בצהרים כמו קטב מרירי והוא מושל בצהרים שנאמר ומקטב ישוד צהרים (תהילים צ״א:ו׳):

אל יחד — אל ישמח כמו ויחד יתרו (שמות יח) (פ"א אל יתאחד סא"א):

גלמוד — יחיד, וחסר מאדם ומכל בריה:

יקבוהו — יקללוהו כמו קבה לי (במדבר כב):

אוררי יום — המקללים את ימיהם, לפי שהם מכוונים לקלל קללה מתוך צערם:

העתידים עורר לויתן — להיות ערירים במחברתם ליחד ליווי שלהם מחברת איש ואשתו מאין בנים, ובגמ' ירושלמי ראיתי עורר לויתן לקונן על ליווי שלהם כשימות כמו לא יערער על מתו:

נשפו — חשך אישונו:

בעפעפי — בזהרורי כמו ועפעפינו יזלו מים (ירמיהו ט׳:י״ז):

כי לא סגר — מי שיכולת בידו לסגור וגם זה מן המקראות דומין להלילה אמר:

דלתי בטני — שיצאתי ממנו שאם עשה כן ויסתר עמל מעיני:

למה לא מרחם אמות — מיציאתי מרחם (הייתי סא"א) מוכן למות מיד ומדבר בלשון עתיד כאלו עומד עכשיו ביום יציאת הרחם ואומר (למה) לא אמות עתה ולמה לא מבטן יצאתי ואגוע. למה לא היתה לי גויעה מוכנת:

מדוע קדמוני — ברכי אמי קודם למיתה:

כי אינק — נגזר עלי לינק מהם לפי שהוא מדבר ביום לידה הוא מזכיר דברים של אחריו בלשון עתיד:

שכבתי — הייתי שוכב בקבר:

הבונים חרבות למו — זהו דרך למעמידי שם לבנות ערים נחרבות לזכרון להם כמו (ישעיה נח) ובנו ממך חרבות עולם וקורא לך גודר פרץ כלו' עם שרים ובעלי שם או הלואי שלא נודעתי ואהיה כנפל ומה שכתב לא אהיה כנפל טמון מפני שעומד על לשון שהתחיל לדבר בלשון תימה ומוסב על למה לא מדוע קדמוני ברכים או מדוע לא אהיה כנפל טמון:

כעוללים — תינוקות ולכך קורא אותם עוללים שכולם שחוק וליכלוך כמו (לקמן טז) ועוללתי בעפר וכמו ויתעללו בה כל הלילה (שופטים יט):

חדלו רוגז — נמנעים מרוגזם שהיו נוהגים ורגילים להרגיז בארץ:

ושם ינוחו — ושם נחו דבר ההווה כתבו בלשון עתיד:

קטן וגדול שם — שם ניכר מי חשוב ומי שפל ולפי שאותה גדולה גדולת עולם הוא ואותו שפלות שפלות עולם היא:

למה יתן — (הנותן והוא הקב"ה):

לעמל אור — למי שגדל בעמל וצרה למה נותן לו אור עולם ולא המיתו בהוולדו:

המחכים למות — למרי נפש התאבים ומתאוים למות וקובלים לאמר איננו:

ויחפרוהו — מרגלים אחריו:

ממטמונים — יותר משמרגלי' אחר מטמוני אוצרות והיו:

שמחים אלי גיל — וישישו אם היו מוצאים קבר:

אלי גיל — בשביל הגילה והששון של (מציאות) קבר:

לגבר אשר דרכו נסתרה — כל טובות אשר פעל נסתרו מאת בעל הגמול ולא הביט בהם:

ויסך אלוה בעדו — עשה מחיצה לפניו לסיגרו במסגר כמו (הושע ב׳:ח׳) הנני שך את דרכך:

תבא — באה:

ויתכו — לשון נתך ארצה נגרים ויורדים כמים ויש לפרש נתיכה ל' רבייה:

פחד פחדתי — כל ימי עמדתי בפחד על זה כמו שאמרנו (לעיל א) ויהי כי הקיפו וגו':

ואשר יגורתי — הן עתה הועתד ונגזר שיבא לי:

לא שלותי — מדאגה זו והנה ויבא רוגז:

The First Oration — Job's Opening Speech

In Sefer Ha-Ikarim (Part 4, Chapter 4), Joseph Albo notes that there are two ancient opinions concerning the workings of astrology.

• One is the view of the Philosopher, who says that the heavenly bodies and the stars exert an influence upon the lower world by means of their various motions, by which they cause the elements to move, and combine them and prepare them in various ways to receive the natural forms, so that some persons are prepared to acquire wisdom and others are not; some are prepared to receive the divine prophetic influence and others are not... As for any other signification the stars may have in relation to other things which have no connection with their elemental qualities, as for example in the determination of poverty or wealth, or whether a given person will marry one wife or more than one, or whether he will be virtuous or vicious - this school denies any such power. It is false, they say, and extremely unlikely that the stars should give indications of things which have nothing to do with them, like poverty, wealth love, hate, etc.

• The second view is that of the astrologers and star-gazers — They say that all things that happen to a man, do so by the decree of the stars. And they prove it by actual verification. The astrologer tells a person what will happen to him in all particulars, whether he will live long, whether he will be poor or rich, how many wives he will have and so on. This shows that all things that happen to a man are due to the decree of the stars, which it is impossible to escape...Some of the Rabbis hold this view: 'Luck makes one wise, and luck makes one rich' (TB Shabbat 156a).

Clearly, Job held the same opinion as the astrologers, namely, that all human affairs are prescribed and apportioned by the Cosmos. This is the principle he lays down at the beginning of his speech, when he curses the night of his conception and the day of his birth, for they had been his ruin (Judges 11:35) (Ch.3:3-10). If they had seen, at the time, that his horoscope prescribed that he was to be a failure during his life, they should have decided upon his extinction, for why should he come into existence just to see strife and sorrow (Jeremiah 20:18)? (Ch.3:10-14).

For man instinctively feels that non-existence is bad for him — Thus, he rues any degree of non-existence which may leave him in want of any object in existence, such as a lack of wealth and the like. Above all, he is frightened by the thought of his own total extinction. But all this is only the homeborn child (Leviticus 18:9) of his imagination, after he has already come into existence. This would not be so had he never existed in the first place, for then nothingness and the absence of presence would be equivalent. We could not then delineate the extent of the non-existence, namely, whether he became extinct never having been of great rank or never having been of low rank, for there is no difference between nothingness and nothingness (Ch.3:14-17).

And with this he broadens his argument and comes to the same conclusion as that attributed by Maimonides (Guide for the Perplexed Part 3, Chapter 12) to the scholar Al-Razi, namely, that there is more bad than good in the world. For if the happiness of man and his pleasure in the times of prosperity be compared with the mishaps that befall him, - such as grief, acute pain, defects, paralysis of the limbs, fears, anxieties and troubles, - it would seem as if the existence of man is a punishment and a great evil for him. This author commenced to verify his opinion by counting all the evils one by one. As the folk-songs and proverbs of many of the peoples of the world say: 'It is a wonder when anything good happens.' Yea, his misfortunes are many (Deuteronomy 31:17) and enduring too. Job makes much of this in his argument (Ch.3:17-20).

And even if some other person denies [that the bad outweighs the good] and says that he is bright-eyed with success, enjoying the passage of time as he laps the sweetness of the honeycomb, desirous of life and length of days, for ever and ever (Psalms 21.5). The question [asked by Job] still remains in full force. Why did [the night of his conception and the day of his birth] bring him into existence and give life to one who is only waiting to die? (Ch.3:20).

Moreover, consider the vagaries of destiny — For it is only by reason of this troublemaker (1 Kings 20:7) that a person, who had been desperately poor and destitute all his days, and had longed for and begged the release of death but to whom the stars gave life, suddenly comes upon great treasure and vast wealth, only to die soon after, just when he wanted to live and see the good (Job 7:7). (Ch.3:21).

This clearly shows that the governance of man is subject to the rule of astrology and its ordinances, for good or for bad. And, furthermore, that man is neither master of his actions nor has freedom over them. Choice and enterprise make no difference whatsoever, for his individual acts are prescribed by order and by reason of the stars, and he is incapable of doing good.nor bad other than at their behest (Ch.3:22-24). Job asserts that the proof of all this is in what had happened to him. He had considered himself to be a truly righteous man. Accordingly, he could not accept that what had happened to him was God's retribution for wicked deeds he had done. Nor, in the light of the unnatural way in which he had lost his possessions, could he consider that it was all accidental. In the space of just one hour he had been struck by a variety of agents—tempest, fire and hostile action—suddenly and all at once. Clearly, he was under attack from heaven itself. This must have happened because the stars had decreed that at that particular moment his fortune should reverse. (Ch.3:26) Further proof of this was the premonition he had always felt that the future would be bad. It was as if his mind foresaw that the fate decreed for him by his stars was bad and that he was destined for doom. (Ch.3:25).

Behold! Underlying all the postulates Job put forward was the conviction that God must know everything that happens in the world below. For no lack of knowledge can be ascribed to Him, nor can He be designated a source of injustice. The unfairness in reward or punishment does not ensue from God. It is caused by the stars. For man has no freedom over his actions; he is compelled in what he does. All of this will be further clarified by the proofs Job will be presenting in his coming arguments, one by one.

Convinced that the shattering series of catastrophes that had befallen him was totally unwarranted and that, as such, it could not have originated with God, for that would imply an imperfection in His Governance, Job attributes its occurrence to the bad luck of his birth, namely, to his horoscope. In which case, it would have been better had he never been conceived or born.

Job now argues that, in general, extinction is preferable to existence and that it would have been better for man had he never been created, for the bad in the world always outweighs the good. For persons who actually exist, differences of rank have meaning; one is a king, another a courtier. There are also many levels within existence, the weakest and frailest of which is that of a dead fetus, below which there is only extinction. But such distinctions are meaningless for one who has never existed. There are no degrees within nothingness. It is only man's imagination after he has come into existence which makes him feel that these distinctions are bad. But if he did not exist to begin with, these too would not exist.

But not everyone suffers all the time — There are some who are successful and happy and enjoy life. However, the distribution is random and indiscriminate and so their joy is either at the expense of others or a snare to themselves. The sunrise, at which they rejoice, marks the start of another day of drudgery for the manual worker forced to labor. The life that the fortunate enjoy others hate. The wheel of fortune raises a man's spirits only to crush him cruelly afterwards.

Malbim pictures the irony of the desperate and destitute man, who spends his entire life longing for the release of death, and who, upon discovering buried treasure in his old age, is buried alive when the walls of the pit in which he found the treasure cave in on him. Such is the caprice of destiny.

Job had had a premonition, but despite all he had done to try and prevent the calamities when their pre-appointed time came, his very worst fears were fulfilled. There was no way he could escape his destiny.