וַיַּעַן אֱלִיפַז הַתֵּימָנִי וַיֹּאמַר׃ - Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
Who is Eliphaz the Temanite? There are various opinions among Chazal on this matter. One view is that Eliphaz the Temanite is Eliphaz the son of Esav. It is known that Eliphaz was raised in the bosom of Yitzchak and studied Torah with his grandfather, and on that merit the Shechinah rested upon him. "The Temanite" - from the land of Teman, which was Esav's territory, the chief of Teman. Eliphaz now delivers the first response to Iyov, seeking to counter his claim that Divine Providence has been removed from the world.
הֲנִסָּה דָבָר אֵלֶיךָ תִּלְאֶה וַעְצֹר בְּמִלִּין מִי יוּכָל׃ - If a trial has befallen you, will you faint? Yet who can hold back words?
Eliphaz asks Iyov: Did you ever have a previous trial? Have afflictions, troubles, and disasters struck you in the past, causing you now to be broken and weary beyond endurance? After all, until now you never experienced any trouble. This is the very first time something bad has happened to you - so how is it that you grew weary immediately, broke down immediately, and collapsed immediately? When a person takes blow after blow after blow, it is understandable for him to say, "Enough, I am broken, I can bear no more." But you - you never endured anything like this in your entire life, so why should you faint?
"Yet who can hold back words" - and now, who could possibly withhold words and refrain from answering you? You must be given an answer, so that you do not break down from what has shattered you so deeply.
הִנֵּה יִסַּרְתָּ רַבִּים וְיָדַיִם רָפוֹת תְּחַזֵּק׃ - Behold, you have admonished many, and you have strengthened slack hands.
כּוֹשֵׁל יְקִימוּן מִלֶּיךָ וּבִרְכַּיִם כֹּרְעוֹת תְּאַמֵּץ׃ - Your words would raise up the stumbling, and you would fortify feeble knees.
Eliphaz says to him: By opening your mouth to rebel against Divine Providence and claiming that providence was handed over to the celestial system - by that very act you have "admonished many"; through this, many will derive a moral lesson. How so? Anyone who is faltering in faith can now recognize that Hashem is righteous in His judgment. For he sees that Iyov was struck with suffering, and he immediately began to complain against the Creator of the world. What does this reveal about Iyov's inner essence? That he was not wholehearted with the Holy One, blessed be He. He received just one slap, and he immediately began to speak improperly. If so, everyone understands that your suffering came justly, and that this pain is truly deserved. Had you remained silent, however, everyone would have said: A righteous man such as this suffers - there is no judgment and no justice here!
"And you have strengthened slack hands" - your situation was supposed to weaken many people in their faith: How can it be that a righteous person suffers? But on the contrary, through your complaints you actually strengthened many, as people said: Here is a man who speaks this way toward the Creator of the world, so what wonder is it that he suffers? And likewise, "your words would raise up the stumbling" - one who stumbled in his faith, upon seeing that Iyov receives his suffering justly and hearing how he speaks, concludes that the suffering is deserved, and thus he is strengthened in his faith that Hashem rewards a person according to the fruit of his deeds. "And you would fortify feeble knees" - knees that were buckling in faith are fortified through you.
כִּי עַתָּה תָּבוֹא אֵלֶיךָ וַתֵּלֶא תִּגַּע עָדֶיךָ וַתִּבָּהֵל׃ - "For now it comes upon you, and you grow weary; it touches you, and you are dismayed."
This is the first time misfortune has struck you, and even this is merely "it comes upon you" - it is not yet fully upon you; the trouble has only begun to arrive. Furthermore, "it touches you" - it has not settled deeply into you, but is merely a light brush; the rod of Hashem has only begun to strike you. Yet immediately, "you grow weary" (from the root of weariness, le'ah) and immediately "you are dismayed" - you broke down instantly and were seized with terror.
הֲלֹא יִרְאָתְךָ כִּסְלָתֶךָ תִּקְוָתְךָ וְתֹם דְּרָכֶיךָ׃ - "Is not your fear your confidence, your hope and the integrity of your ways?"
Through this, everyone will now see that what appeared to us until today as your piety - as though you were truly righteous and God-fearing - was not genuine reverence, but merely "your confidence" (kislatcha). The word kesel denotes security and trust: you felt confident that no harm would reach you, and that is why you feared Hashem. But when calamity suddenly struck, that was not part of the arrangement. "I trusted in Hashem, I thought I had an insurance policy; it turns out the policy does not cover this, so I am canceling it." Your entire fear of Heaven was born out of the hope that no misfortune would befall you, not out of a sincere longing for Hashem or love for Him.
"Your hope and the integrity of your ways" - even what appeared to be your integrity turns out to have been driven merely by your hope: you expected reward, you anticipated compensation, and when Hashem did not fulfill your expectations, you shattered everything. It turns out that when people observe your reaction, their faith is actually strengthened, for it becomes clear to them that upon such self-serving piety and conditional faith, Hashem would certainly bring suffering upon Iyov. This is not the righteous Iyov we thought he was, and therefore the afflictions have come upon you justly.
Rashi explains this somewhat differently: "Is not your fear your foolishness?" - your fear of Heaven stemmed from foolishness (kesilut), rather than from a mature understanding of serving Hashem. Tosafot (Bava Metzia 58b) explains: You ought to have feared the Holy One, blessed be He, and then "your confidence" - you would have possessed true trust in Hashem, and Hashem would have fulfilled that trust and delivered you from evil; "and the integrity of your ways your hope" - had you walked in genuine integrity, you would have merited hope. But since you were granted neither hope nor protection from Hashem, it proves that you possessed neither fear of God, nor trust, nor integrity of ways.
זְכׇר־נָא מִי הוּא נָקִי אָבָד וְאֵיפֹה יְשָׁרִים נִכְחָדוּ׃ - "Remember, please, who was ever innocent and perished? Or where were the upright cut off?"
You claim, Iyov, that a righteous person perishes without justice, and from this you deny divine providence, asserting that Hashem has abandoned His world to the influence of the stars. But anyone wishing to arrive at such a conclusion requires careful investigation and proof - showing that many righteous people have indeed been destroyed and lost. Eliphaz therefore asks him: "Remember, please, who was ever innocent and perished" - do you recall any such instance? Can you point to innocent, righteous individuals in history to whom such a fate occurred? And if you cannot recall a specific name, at least tell me "or where were the upright cut off" - not who, but where did such a thing ever happen? Since no such case exists, what right do you have to claim that Hashem has removed His providence? There is no abandonment or chaos here, but a direct reckoning with you personally. A truly righteous person has never perished, and if this happened to you, it is evidence that you are not so righteous after all - the proof being that you opened your mouth without restraint the moment Hashem brought suffering upon you.
Midrash Tanchuma (Parashat Vayishlach) explains the dialogue between Elifaz and Iyov concerning the verse, "Behold, you have chastised many": You used to comfort all who suffered affliction. When a blind man would come to you, you would say to him: The Holy One, blessed be He, already knew what you were destined to do, which is why He blinded this person. And you would comfort him, saying: If you were building a house and did not want to open windows in it, who could protest against you? That is, Hashem knew that you were destined to stumble greatly through your eyes, and therefore He created you this way; and if you had created all the worlds, would anyone protest against you if you wanted a house without windows? So too, Hashem created you - a house - and decided not to make windows for it. And furthermore, you would comfort him: In the future, the Holy One, blessed be He, will be glorified through you, as it is said, "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened."
And when a deaf person would come to you, you would comfort him, saying: If you wanted to make a vessel and did not want to attach handles - "ears" - to it, who could protest against you? The "ears" of a vessel are its handles. (And from here comes the phrase, "The Sages came and made handles [oznayim] for the Torah" - the Torah was like a vessel that could not be grasped, and they made handles for it so it could be held; and from here also comes the title of the wonderful work *Oznayim LaTorah* by Rav Sorotzkin on the weekly Torah portions.) Hashem wanted to create a vessel without handles, so who can protest against Him? And likewise, the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to be glorified through you, as it is said, "And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped." And to the lame person he would offer words of comfort: "Then the lame shall leap like a deer."
And this is what Elifaz is saying to him: "Your words have upheld the stumbling" - when a person was faltering and stumbling, you would uplift him with your words and encouragement. But now, "For it has come upon you, and you falter; it touches you, and you are terrified" - as long as it involved others, you were a great and wonderful master of mussar, strengthening, encouraging, and offering words of consolation; suddenly, when it struck you, you broke down. Where are all those words of encouragement and comfort that you would say to others? Why did nothing of that remain for you? And now you come and argue: I am righteous, so why is Hashem afflicting me?
To this he says to him: Have you ever seen a tzaddik perish? "Remember now, who ever perished being innocent?" - Noach, who was a tzaddik, while his entire generation perished, was saved; Avraham was cast into the fiery furnace and emerged alive; Yitzchak escaped the slaughtering knife; Yaakov escaped the angel; Moshe escaped Pharaoh's sword. Look at all the tzaddikim throughout the generations - the Holy One, blessed be He, protects them. Hashem delivered Israel from Egypt and destroyed the Egyptians. If so, why do you complain about your plight?
Iyov said to him: Consider your father Esav - see what an evil person your father was! Elifaz replied to him: I have nothing to do with him; "a son shall not bear the iniquity of the father," and what do I care about my father? "The lion perishes for lack of prey" - this refers to Esav, who perishes for lack of good deeds. Iyov said to him: And as for you, from where do you derive all that you argue against me? Who told you these things? He replied: "Now a word was secretly brought to me" - I am a prophet, and I have nothing to do with my father Esav, but rather I came to rebuke you because I received prophecy "amid disquieting thoughts from visions of the night."
The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Elifaz: Did you rebuke My servant Iyov in a vision? I will raise up from your descendants a prophet who will exact retribution from the house of your father in a vision - "The vision of Ovadiah." And why was Ovadiah designated to prophesy only against Edom? The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Esav grew up between two righteous people and did not learn from their deeds, whereas Ovadiah lived between two wicked people and did not learn from their deeds - let Ovadiah come and exact retribution from Esav. And what is written in his prophecy? "The house of Yaakov shall be a fire, and the house of Yosef a flame, and the house of Esav shall be for stubble, and they shall kindle in them and devour them, and no survivor shall remain of the house of Esav, for Hashem has spoken." Thus far the words of the Midrash.
כַּאֲשֶׁר רָאִיתִי חֹרְשֵׁי אָוֶן וְזֹרְעֵי עָמָל יִקְצְרֻהוּ׃ - As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow mischief reap it.
Elifaz says to him: I will recall for you many instances of the wicked who perished and were destroyed, even by name; and you - cite for me even one single example of a tzaddik who perished. That is to say, if you see someone perish, that doomed person is wicked. A tzaddik may suffer, but only temporarily; perish - no tzaddik ever perishes. When the measure of the wicked person's guilt is full, he perishes forever and eternally, but the tzaddik will not perish, rather, "A righteous man falls seven times and rises up."
"Plowers of iniquity" are people who continually plow thoughts of iniquity and malice in their hearts. "And sow mischief" - amal is an expression of falsehood (as in "writings of mischief," deceitful and defamatory writings), and they "reap it" - the very thing they sowed is what they reap. In the end, the wicked person receives what he cooked up and what he sowed.
מִנִּשְׁמַת אֱלוֹהַּ יֹאבֵדוּ וּמֵרוּחַ אַפּוֹ יִכְלוּ׃ - By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His nostrils they are consumed.
"By the breath of God they perish" - they will perish completely from the world; "and by the blast of His nostrils they are consumed" - not a trace of them will remain. No such destruction ever befalls the righteous and the pure; rather, of the wicked it is said, "Yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; you will look closely at his place, and he is gone" - you cast your eyes upon him, and he is not there. A tzaddik may endure suffering, but he will not perish.
שַׁאֲגַת אַרְיֵה וְקוֹל שָׁחַל וְשִׁנֵּי כְפִירִים נִתָּעוּ׃ - The roar of a lion, the voice of a fierce lion, and the teeth of young lions are broken.
לַיִשׁ אֹבֵד מִבְּלִי־טָרֶף וּבְנֵי לָבִיא יִתְפָּרָדוּ׃ - The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
The wicked are compared to a predatory lion: with its roar it casts terror and dread upon all its surroundings, and then it seizes its prey with its teeth. But when the time of their downfall arrives - "the roar of a lion, the voice of a fierce lion, and the teeth of young lions are broken [nita'u]," meaning they are uprooted. The voice will no longer carry power or influence, its roar will make no impression, and the sound of the shachal (a type of lion) and the teeth of the young lions that once cast fear and dread - everything is uprooted and lost.
"The strong lion perishes for lack of prey" - they will be like a lion that perishes from lack of game and dies of hunger. "And the cubs of the lioness are scattered" - the lavi is also a species of lion, and its cubs will scatter and have no endurance. Thus, he is also speaking about the descendants of the wicked: the perishing lion is the father, and the cubs of the lioness are the children - and they too will have no continuity. Not so the righteous: even if you see him suffering, know that his afflictions are temporary, and of him it is said, "They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing." If so, Iyov, even though you suffer and find it difficult, this is a temporary affliction, and this suffering will pass. Up to this point, Eliphaz answered him from his own reasoning.
וְאֵלַי דָּבָר יְגֻנָּב וַתִּקַּח אׇזְנִי שֵׁמֶץ מֶנְהוּ׃ - Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a faint whisper of it.
From here onward, Eliphaz offers an answer that comes from Hashem. He says: I have another answer, which I attained through prophetic perception - yet it is not a complete prophecy. For to the question of "the righteous who suffers and the wicked who prospers," Hashem never gave a full answer to any prophet or seer, as the Malbim notes. This is what Moshe asked: "Show me now Your ways" - by what measure do You govern? And Hashem answered him: "And you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen." The divine guidance operates from within and from before, and one cannot grasp it from the front, but only from behind, that is, in concealment. In the reality of the world's existence, the world exists in concealment, and consequently one cannot fully comprehend His providence. Nonetheless, Moshe was given the principle of "a righteous person, son of a righteous person" and "a righteous person, son of a wicked person" - which is the doctrine of reincarnation (gilgul), as the kabbalists explain: "a righteous son of a righteous person" is someone who was righteous in a previous life as well, and therefore it is well with him; while a righteous person who suffers is someone who was wicked in a previous life - that is, "a righteous son of a wicked person" - and therefore it goes badly for him. The kabbalists explain that this was the core of Hashem's response to Moshe, but a complete explanation for the question of why the righteous suffer was never revealed by Hashem.
Here, however, there is a dim prophecy, like an unpolished lens (aspaklaria she-eina me'irah) - a dirty, clouded mirror in which the image cannot be seen clearly. This is what he means by, "A word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a faint whisper of it" (and the letter nun in the word menhu has a sheva nach) - meaning, I received a prophecy that was not entirely clear, but merely a fraction of the matter. Such perception carries all the shortcomings of dim prophecy, as the Rambam enumerates regarding the differences between the prophecy of Moshe Rabbeinu and that of all other prophets.
The first limitation: "A word was secretly brought [yegunav, literally stolen] to me." A powerful, authentic prophecy comes directly to the prophet, whereas this one came as if stolen. To what may this be compared? To one person who enters the boardroom, hears the decisions, and receives clear instructions on what to do and how; and another person who sits and eavesdrops behind the door. Both know the decisions, but to the first, the matter was delivered openly, while for the second - "a word was secretly brought to me," I received it clandestinely. The matter flashed like a bolt of lightning that illuminated for a split second, after which I was left in darkness.
The second limitation: the prophecy came by way of parable and riddle, rather than in an explicit manner. This was how many prophets received their visions - such as Yirmiyahu, who was shown a "rod of an almond tree" and a "seething pot." These are prophecies, yet they require interpretation. This is what is meant by "secretly brought" - namely, through parable and riddle rather than clearly. Therefore, I also cannot interpret it with complete certainty; rather, "my ear received a faint whisper of it." It is possible that the prophecy contains further parables whose deeper meanings I was not privileged to grasp, and what I received was merely a fraction, and that fraction is what I am conveying to you.
בִּשְׂעִפִּים מֵחֶזְיֹנוֹת לָיְלָה בִּנְפֹל תַּרְדֵּמָה עַל־אֲנָשִׁים׃ - In perplexing thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men.
The third flaw: the prophecy was not while awake, but in a dream and vision of the night - and not in a dream at the end of the night, which tends closer to truth. Se'ipim means thoughts; they are called this because they branch out (mist'afim) like tree branches and their fruit. You start thinking about one thing, and from there you move to a second and a third, until if you sat down to trace back where the thought began, it would take you a long time just to remember. Tomorrow I need to go to the bank, and from there to the person you met at the bank, and from there to so-and-so's well-being, and from there to the uncle who was in the hospital - and the thought branches out endlessly. Similarly, King David says, "I hate double-minded thoughts (se'afim)."
And when did this dream come to me? "In perplexing thoughts from visions of the night" - at a time when my thoughts were still filled with night visions, right as I went to sleep, "when deep sleep falls upon men." And dreams that come right at the beginning of the night, when the thoughts of the day are still fresh in the mind, have chaff mixed with the wheat, for most of what a person dreams at the beginning of the night are things experienced during the day, and my mind and thoughts were still full of the things I had witnessed.
פַּחַד קְרָאַנִי וּרְעָדָה וְרֹב עַצְמוֹתַי הִפְחִיד׃ - Dread befell me and trembling, which made all my bones shake with fright.
Another flaw: my limbs shook from immense fright. Moshe Rabbeinu's lofty level in prophecy was that he stood and spoke with the Creator of the world "in a vision and not in riddles," through the lucid, illuminated lens (ispaklaria hame'irah), and moreover, "mouth to mouth I speak with him" - as a man speaks to his fellow. And what does it mean to speak as a man to his fellow? When a friend speaks to you, you are not gripped by dread and terror. But if even the smallest of angels appears to a person, all the foundations of his physical body collapse, and he is gripped by dread, trembling, and terror, just as happened with Daniel. Eliphaz is saying: my level of prophecy was low, for "dread befell me and trembling" - the angel who appeared to me induced a terror that spread through all my limbs, to the point that "it made all my bones shake with fright," as my bones shifted out of place from sheer terror and trembling.
וְרוּחַ עַל־פָּנַי יַחֲלֹף תְּסַמֵּר שַׂעֲרַת בְּשָׂרִי׃ - A wind passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood on end.
Another flaw: I perceived what I did in my dream only through some of my physical senses, and through the power of imagination. A dream coming from Hashem, may He be blessed, without the faculty of imagination is a truer dream, but a dream that comes accompanied by imagination has illusions mingled within it. "A wind passed before my face" - a breeze swept across my face, creating such panic in me that "the hair of my flesh stood on end (tesamer)," related to nails (masmerim), meaning the hairs of my body stood stiff like nails. That is to say, I felt this dream through my physical senses, even through the sense of touch.
יַעֲמֹד וְלֹא־אַכִּיר מַרְאֵהוּ תְּמוּנָה לְנֶגֶד עֵינָי דְּמָמָה וָקוֹל אֶשְׁמָע׃ - It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form was before my eyes; there was silence, and I heard a voice.
I also perceived through the sense of sight, but with unclear vision: "It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance" - the angel stood before me, yet I could not recognize his appearance, only "a form before my eyes," nothing distinct. As an aside, it is told of the Gra, the Vilna Gaon, that at the age of thirteen, after studying Sefer Yetzirah, he sat down and began to create a golem from earth according to Sefer Yetzirah. At a certain point in the midst of his work, he saw an image pass before his eyes, and he immediately understood that this was not favored by Heaven, so he stopped and did not continue. He was shown a vision, an image, and he understood they were hinting to him that this was not the Divine will. So too here: the form was seen, but I did not clearly comprehend its essence.
The sense of hearing was also involved, as he perceived the event through all his senses - yet, as noted, in an indistinct manner. "There was silence, and I heard a voice": silence is quiet, and a voice is sound, which seemingly contradicts itself. The Malbim explains: I heard something intermediate between silence and a voice, meaning a sound so faint that I was left uncertain whether it was silence or a voice.
הַאֱנוֹשׁ מֵאֱלוֹהַּ יִצְדָּק אִם מֵעֹשֵׂהוּ יִטְהַר־גָּבֶר׃ - Can mortal man be righteous before God, or can a man be pure before his Maker?
Until this point, he described how he received the prophecy; from here on, he describes what he received, what he heard in that still, small voice. He was asked: Can mortal man be righteous before God? It is impossible for a person to be completely vindicated in judgment, for the service incumbent upon man is endless and boundless, and the gratitude incumbent upon him to thank Hashem, may He be blessed, for all the goodness He has bestowed upon him is likewise endless and boundless. This is what we recite in Nishmat Kol Chai: "Even if our mouth were as full of song as the sea, and our tongue with jubilation as its many waves, and our lips with praise as the breadth of the firmament, and our eyes radiant as the sun and the moon, and our hands spread out like the eagles of heaven, and our feet as swift as hinds - we would still be unable to thank You sufficiently even for one of the thousands of thousands and myriad myriads of favors, miracles, and wonders that You performed with us and with our forefathers."
If so, there is no end or limit at which a person could say: "I have done, I have paid, I have repaid the Creator of the world for what He has done for me." Such a possibility never exists. Because the Holy One, blessed be He, gives to man without end, man is always in debt. "Can mortal man be righteous before God" - do you, a mortal, think that you are in the right before God, that something is owed to you, asking, "Why did Hashem do this to me?" Nothing is given simply because you are entitled to it.
"Or can a man be pure before his Maker" - can you ever be purified in proportion to the debt you owe to serve Hashem, by virtue of His having created you, granted to you, given to you, perfected you, and fashioned you in your proper form? Whatever you may do, you can never say: "I have finished, I have completed everything, I am pure, I have fulfilled all my obligations."
הֵן בַּעֲבָדָיו לֹא יַאֲמִין וּבְמַלְאָכָיו יָשִׂים תׇּהֳלָה׃ - Behold, He puts no trust in His servants, and charges His angels with deficiency.
Furthermore, man cannot attain perfection due to his lowliness and because he dwells in houses of clay. "Behold, He puts no trust in His servants" - His servants are the celestial host, the stars and celestial spheres, who serve Hashem continually and have no pursuit other than His service, and yet they do not possess eternal existence. "And charges His angels with deficiency" - even the angels, who are elevated above the spheres, the stars, and the host of heaven, are not pure relative to God and do not shine compared to His light, may He be blessed. *Teholah* is related to *heilah* (halo) and light, as in "when His candle shined" (*behilo nero*) - meaning that even their light is considered faint and dim relative to Him.
אַף שֹׁכְנֵי בָתֵּי־חֹמֶר אֲשֶׁר־בֶּעָפָר יְסוֹדָם יְדַכְּאוּם לִפְנֵי־עָשׁ׃ - How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!
And if Hashem puts no trust in the lofty angels, the Seraphim and the Ophanim, and they do not have eternal existence and do not fully exhaust their obligation toward the Creator of the world, all the more so "how much more those who dwell in houses of clay" - which refers to man. Our body is material and physical, and our soul dwells inside a house of matter, which is to say a house of clay (*chomer*), for the human body was formed from clay, dust from the earth. All the more so man, whose physical matter is coarse and earthy, as the sacred books phrase it, cannot attain perfection or fulfill the infinite obligations he owes to his Creator.
And not only is our beginning so lowly - as the Tanna in Avot defines where man came from: from a putrid drop, the most repulsive substance, from which physical matter is formed - but the ultimate end of this matter is also to stand before maggots and worms: "They are crushed before the moth." The moth, maggots, and worms are what will crush him after death and consume his body. How, then, can such a person, physical and material, who began from nothing and ends as nothing, come to justify himself before God and imagine that he has fulfilled his obligation toward the Creator of the world?
מִבֹּקֶר לָעֶרֶב יֻכַּתּוּ מִבְּלִי מֵשִׂים לָנֶצַח יֹאבֵדוּ׃ - From morning to evening they are crushed; without anyone noticing, they perish forever.
See how fragile and fleeting man's existence is: in a brief span of time, "from morning to evening they are crushed" - an expression of crushing and grinding, as man is pulverized and perishes. And why does Hashem crush man in such a short time, and in Iyov's case, even in a matter of seconds? To this he says, "without being placed to perish forever" - because Hashem does not want to place you in a state where you would be lost forever. And since He does not want that, therefore "from morning to evening they are crushed": Hashem strikes you with such a harsh blow in order to rescue you from a far greater trouble, so that you receive a temporary punishment rather than an eternal punishment, a blow for the time being, through which you will be spared eternal perdition.
הֲלֹא־נִסַּע יִתְרָם בָּם יָמוּתוּ וְלֹא בְחׇכְמָה׃ - Is not their surplus removed from them? They die, and not in wisdom.
"Is not their surplus removed from them" - their excess is taken from them: wealth and possessions. None of these are intrinsic to man, nor are they part of his essence. And why does Hashem remove all these superfluous things from man - his money, his children, his property, and his body? So that "they die, and not in wisdom" will not be fulfilled in them; that is, so they do not incur the far heavier punishment, which is the punishment of death. Better for you is the penalty of poverty so that you do not reach the state of "they die," and better for you are temporary sufferings, from morning to evening, so that you are spared eternal suffering and punishment.
And indeed, is it not better for man to endure a brief suffering here in this world, rather than not suffer here and be lost and tormented forever? With wisdom did Hashem do to him as He did; had it been otherwise, it would not have been wise. For what would he have gained had he lived here in tranquility, only to be punished eternally in the end on account of whatever iniquities he had? Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, preferred to have "their surplus removed from them" - to take away from man all the things that are superfluous to him, wealth, health, and everything Iyov lost - so long as he remains in existence and does not perish forever.
Eliphaz opens his response by arguing that Iyov, who had never known hardship, shattered at the very first touch, thereby revealing that his piety was merely "your confidence" [kislatcha] - an insurance policy and an expectation of reward rather than inner awe. He challenges him: "Remember, please, who ever perished being innocent?" - produce even a single example of a righteous person who was destroyed! For the wicked perish forever, whereas the righteous person at most suffers temporarily and rises again. And the Midrash adds a stinging critique: You comforted the blind, the deaf, and the lame, so where are all your words of consolation now that it has come upon you? In the second part of his response, Eliphaz conveys an answer he received through an obscure prophecy - stealthily, through parable and riddle, in a dream at the beginning of the night, amid dread and trembling and with hazy sensory perception - whose message is: No mortal can be just before God, for the duty of divine service and thanksgiving is infinite; and if Hashem puts no trust in angels, how much more so in those who dwell in houses of clay. From this stems the consolation: suffering and the loss of external possessions are not an act of cruelty but an act of wisdom - a brief, temporary blow, in order to be spared from eternal perdition.