Chapter 5 is a direct continuation of the words of Eliphaz the Temanite from the previous chapter. Eliphaz opened by informing Iyov that he was not speaking from his own intellect, but from what he had received through prophecy from Hashem, Blessed is He: "Now a word was stolen unto me, and my ear received a whisper of it," "In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men," "Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake," "Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up," "It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form was before my eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice." The essence of the answer he received was: "Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be purer than his Maker?" - that no man can complete his entire task, and suffering comes to atone for whatever he leaves incomplete.
To such a claim, Iyov has an immediate objection: If God has an answer to this question, why did He send it to you and not to me? After all, I am the one raising the question; I am the one tormented and suffering. How can your words be true, when the answer ought to have reached me directly? At the opening of Chapter 5, Eliphaz answers him on this point.
(א) קְרָא־נָא הֲיֵשׁ עוֹנֶךָּ וְאֶל־מִי מִקְּדֹשִׁים תִּפְנֶה׃ - Call now; is there any who answers you? And to which of the holy ones will you turn?
Eliphaz says to him: Go ahead, call out and pray that an answer reaches you. "Is there any who answers you" - will you truly receive a response? "And to which of the holy ones will you turn" - which of the holy angels will speak with you and reveal anything to you in a vision or a dream? Try it, and see. And why do I believe they will not answer you? The next verse addresses this.
(ב) כִּי־לֶאֱוִיל יַהֲרָג־כָּעַשׂ וּפֹתֶה תָּמִית קִנְאָה׃ - For anger kills the foolish man, and envy slays the simple one.
There are two intentions in this verse. First: you were an evil (a fool), doubting Hashem's Divine Providence, believing that providence was handed over to the heavenly spheres - and therefore you are unworthy of having the word of Hashem appear to you or of an angel revealing itself to you. Second: from the verse itself, it becomes clear that your premise is refuted. You claim that there is no free will and that man is forced in his actions, yet here we see otherwise: "For anger kills the foolish man" - anger kills the fool. Not because it was decreed upon him from Heaven, but because it is the natural consequence of his deeds: a person who is not calm, who lives under constant stress, shortens his own life, may the Merciful One protect us, and today this is even proven by scientific studies. It emerges that man is free in his actions and pays the price for his own deeds.
"And envy slays the simple one (poteh)" - a poteh is someone who is enticed by his desires. In such a person, envy of the tranquility of the wicked grows strong, as it is written: "Do not be envious of evildoers," "to be like workers of iniquity." "Do not be envious" means: do not say, "How wonderful for them, I want to be like them too." But the simpleton does say: how wonderful for that wealthy person, how wonderful for that wicked person, and is enticed to want to be like them.
The Malbim notes a precise distinction: there is a difference between the term harigah (killing) and mitah (death). Mitah can refer to a natural death as well as being struck down by others, whereas harigah occurs through an external cause - someone killed him - and the term harigah is not used for someone who died of natural causes. Therefore, "for anger kills (yaharog) the foolish man" - anger kills the fool by way of punishment, for he angers Hashem. In contrast, "and envy slays (tamit) the simple one" - envy brings death to the simpleton naturally: "and envy is rottenness of the bones," the envy consumes him from within and causes his death through natural means.
According to the Malbim, an evil (fool) is someone plagued by doubts in faith, one who wavers in his emunah. Here, it is worth emphasizing a fundamental point: Shlomo HaMelech speaks extensively of the evil, the kesil, the shoteh, and the pesi. Some mistakenly assume he refers to people lacking intelligence, and wonder: Is it not enough that the Holy One, blessed be He, did not grant them wisdom, that Shlomo comes along and disparages them? But this is not so. Shlomo is speaking of someone who, in terms of intellectual capacity, could be a professor, and in his mental acuity could be a genius - but in his conduct, he is a fool and simpleton. He lives only for the moment, pursues fleeting pleasures, and does not think about his future.
To what can this be compared? A person who suffers, Heaven forbid, from severe diabetes, and you see him sitting before a table full of sweets, eating whipped cream and all sorts of sugary treats. What would you say about him? A fool! He is not thinking even ten minutes ahead; in ten minutes, sirens will be wailing. And if someone tells you, "But he is a professor" - of what use is his professorship if in his daily conduct he acts like a fool and a simpleton? He has knowledge, he has memory, his mind is sharp, but in his behavior, he is an evil. Therefore, even though Iyov was a very wise man, Eliphaz refers to him here as an "evil," because his folly is expressed in his doubts regarding Hashem's providence - and consequently, he is unworthy of having an angel of Hashem appear to him.
(ג) אֲנִי־רָאִיתִי אֱוִיל מַשְׁרִישׁ וָאֶקּוֹב נָוֵהוּ פִתְאֹם׃ (ד) יִרְחֲקוּ בָנָיו מִיֶּשַׁע וְיִדַּכְּאוּ בַשַּׁעַר וְאֵין מַצִּיל׃ - "(3) I have seen a fool taking root, and suddenly I cursed his habitation. (4) His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, with no one to rescue them."
Here, Eliphaz comes to refute the claim of the astrologers, the stargazers. Their claim is: human effort does not determine anything, only what is decreed by the stars. And what is their proof? Sometimes a person becomes rich in a single day: he did not exert himself, did not toil, made no effort - and suddenly everything fell into his lap. In contrast, another person makes every effort to become wealthy and does not succeed. If so, they argue, astrological fate (mazal) determines the outcome, not effort - mazal makes poor and mazal makes rich. Otherwise, how is it possible that this one strove all his life and attained nothing, while the lazy idler who never lifted a finger suddenly had millions fall upon him? From this they conclude that everything is decreed by the celestial order, by the stars and constellations, and human actions have no impact in the world - as though man has no free choice. This was Iyov's contention.
Eliphaz responded: "I have seen a fool taking root" - indeed, I have seen a foolish man succeed without toil and without exertion, suddenly taking root, digging deep roots, with success smiling upon him. However, "and suddenly I cursed his habitation" - do not be impressed by this, for his wealth is fleeting, and the roots he struck are temporary. To use an analogy: immediately after the first rain, weeds sprout up, but under the first harsh sun, they instantly wither. A tree does not sprout overnight after the first rain - it grows over many years, but when the scorching sun comes, it endures for decades. The weed, however, is here today and gone tomorrow. This teaches you that whatever comes quickly and easily does not last over time.
"And suddenly I cursed his habitation" - this is an expression of a curse, meaning that I saw his dwelling become ruined and accursed, and his punishment and demise arrived suddenly. Consequently, "his children are far from safety" - the wealth did not endure in the hands of his children. "And they are crushed in the gate, with no one to rescue them" - even if they approach the gate of justice to seek judgment against those who oppress them, there is no savior and no one to champion their cause. Their wealth arrived in an instant, unjustly and without effort, and likewise it will be lost in a fleeting moment without effort, leaving his children destitute.
(ה) אֲשֶׁר קְצִירוֹ רָעֵב יֹאכֵל וְאֶל־מִצִּנִּים יִקָּחֵהוּ וְשָׁאַף צַמִּים חֵילָם׃ - "(5) Whose harvest the hungry eats, taking it even out of the thorns, and the snare swallows their wealth."
I have also seen the opposite, Eliphaz says. "Whose harvest the hungry eats" - a person who toiled and labored, eating his harvest when he is hungry; he has nothing to eat until harvest time arrives, and then he harvests what he labored for with his own ten fingers. "Taking it even out of the thorns" - tzinim are thorns, and he sifts the grain from the thorns tangled within it; he works arduously for every single grain, wealth did not fall upon him from heaven, by the sweat of his brow he eats bread. "And the snare swallows their wealth" - tzamim is related to tzamah, a braid or tied bundle; this person who enjoys the toil of his hands absorbs and draws into himself the wealth and strength of those who took root quickly. Those who became rich in a short time see their wealth vanish, whereas the one who works meticulously and steadily is the one who truly succeeds, absorbing their wealth. The fool's riches did not endure in his possession, but were ultimately preserved for the one who toiled steadily and enjoys the fruit of his labor.
(ו) כִּי לֹא־יֵצֵא מֵעָפָר אָוֶן וּמֵאֲדָמָה לֹא־יִצְמַח עָמָל׃ - "(6) For affliction does not come forth from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground."
A person who takes root all of a sudden gained his wealth through iniquity, unjustly. Eliphaz tells him: Iniquity does not emerge from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the earth. What grows from the dust and the earth is righteousness and uprightness - acquire your wealth through justice, sow righteously, and it will flourish beautifully. But iniquity does not sprout and does not bear fruit. Here, "amal" (trouble) means falsehood, as in the phrase "kotevei amal" (those who write fraudulent decrees) - libelous writings. Deceitful matters do not grow from the earth; they do not suddenly sprout, and if you see them sprout, know that they will quickly wither.
(ז) כִּי־אָדָם לְעָמָל יוּלָּד וּבְנֵי־רֶשֶׁף יַגְבִּיהוּ עוּף׃ - For man is born to toil, and sparks soar on high.
Man was born to toil through the labor of his hands, and through toil he is meant to earn his bread. One who amasses wealth unjustly, without toil and without the labor of his hands, his wealth will not endure for his children, and nothing of it will remain for them. The overarching principle is this: man's success depends primarily on his hishtadlut (personal effort), on his toil, and on the labor of his hands - not, as you claimed, that human success is decreed by the stars and the angels. "And sparks soar on high" - the "bnei reshef" are the stars that send forth their fiery light; they soar high above and do not govern what happens down here.
We must not misunderstand: he does not mean that everything depends solely on effort, for one certainly needs siyata di'Shemaya (Heavenly assistance). Rather, his entire point is that one must make an effort, contrary to Iyov's understanding that everything is decreed by celestial constellations, that man has no free will and is not free to choose his actions, and that there is no place for reward and punishment - with Iyov's proof being, "Look, I was righteous and yet was punished." Eliphaz replies: You are mistaken. Man has free will; it is in his power to act or to refrain, and he must choose good deeds and distance himself from evil ones, and according to his deeds, so it shall be with him. And if you see someone who suddenly became rich overnight, know that this is not wealth that endures over time; lasting wealth is that which a person attains gradually through diligent effort.
(ח) אוּלָם אֲנִי אֶדְרֹשׁ אֶל־אֵל וְאֶל־אֱלֹהִים אָשִׂים דִּבְרָתִי׃ - But as for me, I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause.
Incidentally, some ask: Where in Tanach do we find two letters repeated four consecutive times? The verse is right here: "Ulam ani edrosh el El ve'el Elokim" - four times aleph-lamed in succession.
To return to our subject: After Eliphaz refuted Iyov's claims and established that celestial constellations do not determine events and stars do not hold sway, but rather man possesses free will to act or refrain and his effort bears fruit, he anticipates and addresses a difficulty. Sometimes, you see that a person has no control over the outcome of his choices: he did everything right, yet not only did he fail to achieve his goal, but on the contrary, the very actions he took brought about the exact opposite of what he had planned. On the surface, this would seem to support Iyov: if one can make every possible investment and end up with the opposite result, it must be a sign that everything is predetermined from Above - and according to Iyov, decreed by the constellations and stars.
To this, Eliphaz responds: Do not bring proof from here that human actions are determined by the stars. Know that there are certain matters in which human choice is superseded and actions are compelled, and that is Hashem's Divine Providence. This is the meaning of "I would seek God" - only through the Providence of God is man's free choice sometimes overridden. "And to God I would commit my cause (dibrati)" - dibrati means my direction and conduct: even when I made every effort and the outcome proved opposite, I attribute it to God, not to the constellations. At times God intervenes in human free will, but this is no proof that celestial alignments determine fate or that everything is decreed by the heavenly bodies.
(ט) עֹשֶׂה גְדֹלוֹת וְאֵין חֵקֶר נִפְלָאוֹת עַד־אֵין מִסְפָּר׃ - Who does great things past finding out, wondrous deeds without number.
And the proof of this: Observe nature and you will see tremendous greatness and wonders arranged for us since the Six Days of Creation, "wondrous deeds without number." All the phenomena we witness in nature are works that only a Being without limits - infinite and boundless - could perform. A finite human being cannot perform such wonders as Hashem performs in nature, and the marvels of nature are things there would never be enough time to describe. From here on, Eliphaz brings two proofs: one from general Providence over nature, and one from individual Providence over mankind.
(י) הַנֹּתֵן מָטָר עַל־פְּנֵי־אָרֶץ וְשֹׁלֵחַ מַיִם עַל־פְּנֵי חוּצוֹת׃ - "Who gives rain upon the face of the earth, and sends water upon the open places."
There is no doubt that there is a supreme Providence and general guidance of the Creator of the world, contrary to your view that celestial mechanisms guide the world. There are places that drink water from the rain of heaven, and the Holy One, blessed be He, sustains them through rains - a country like Britain has no shortage of rain; its problem is sunshine: clouds and rain all day. On the other hand, there are arid lands that are unsuitable for rain to fall upon them because they do not generate vapor, and no vapors rise to bring down rain. What does the Holy One, blessed be He, do for them? "And sends water upon the open places." Egypt is sustained by the Nile: you have no rain - I send you a river. And likewise in Africa, countries that are naturally dry, the Holy One, blessed be He, sends them water in another way: springs, or melting snows from distant places. These rivers flow to this day and do not run dry. This is the purposeful, general guidance: dry places receive water through another channel.
(יא) לָשׂוּם שְׁפָלִים לְמָרוֹם וְקֹדְרִים שָׂגְבוּ יֶשַׁע׃ - "To place the lowly on high, and those who are scorched are exalted in safety."
The rain and rivers serve two purposes. First: "To place the lowly on high" - the lowly are the plants, vegetation, and trees, which start from a low place and grow upward, with rain and irrigation elevating them. And second: "and those who are scorched are exalted in safety" - koderim (darkened or scorched) denotes heat and burning, like the tents of Kedar standing in the scorching sun. The koderim are the bodies of animals that the sun bakes all day, and rain is their salvation, a stronghold and rescue. Thus, we see here general Providence over the entire world. Now let us turn to individual Providence.
(יב) מֵפֵר מַחְשְׁבוֹת עֲרוּמִים וְלֹא־תַעֲשֶׂנָה יְדֵיהֶם תּוּשִׁיָּה׃ - "He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success."
The word arumim here is spelled with an unstressed mem (without a dagesh), and there is a distinction between arumim (crafty) and arummim (naked). Arummim with a dagesh in the mem means unclothed, which is why one must be precise in the Morning Blessings to say "Malbish arummim" with a dagesh in the mem; for if you say it without a dagesh, you would be speaking of cunning schemers. Here the verse refers to cunning people - the schemers, manipulators, and connivers who harbor all sorts of crafty plots to harm others. Hashem frustrates their plans, "so that their hands achieve no success" - no achievement comes from their hands, and their actions yield no fruit.
Where do we see this? In Achitophel. Achitophel was extraordinarily crafty and wise, to the point that whoever consulted Achitophel was as if inquiring of the word of God - a wondrous thing to say, and thus the prophet testifies of him. Even so, when he advised killing David immediately, Avshalom did not accept his advice, but instead accepted the counsel of Chushai HaArki. Chushai HaArki was a fifth column, a close ally of David, and he came to Avshalom and advised him: Do not go out like this; wait, assemble the army, and come with massive forces. Achitophel, by contrast, had said: Surprise him right now, tonight. Once his advice was rejected, Achitophel immediately understood that the matter was finished and that they were doomed to fall, so he went and hanged himself. "So may all Your enemies perish, Hashem."
And who brought about the frustration of Achitophel's counsel? Hashem, may He be blessed. For David prayed: "Please, Hashem, turn the counsel of Achitophel into foolishness." This is a tremendous wonder - David needed a special prayer specifically for this matter. This indicates that Achitophel's counsel was so foolproof that the mere fact that David was being persecuted was not enough for Hashem to thwart it; he had to plead specifically. His advice was the winning card, and when David learned that Achitophel was with Avshalom, he was deeply alarmed. And Hashem frustrated his counsel: "He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success" - they attain no triumph.
(יג) לֹכֵד חֲכָמִים בְּעָרְמָם וַעֲצַת נִפְתָּלִים נִמְהָרָה׃ - "He catches the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the devious is swiftly thwarted."
Sometimes the crafty plan a scheme and devise cunning to harm someone, and the Holy One, blessed be He, does not thwart their counsel. On the contrary, He says to them: By all means, proceed and succeed in your counsel - except that this success will be such that the boomerang will come right back at you. The plan will succeed, and only at the final stage will it collapse upon you.
The first example is the brothers of Yosef. What was their plan? You exalt yourself over us? You want to reign and see yourself ruling over us? We will bring you to a state where you could never become king. And what is an irreversible state? A slave. A slave never ascends to royalty. Yet had they not sold him as a slave and brought him down to Egypt, would Yosef ever have attained royalty? Could the king of Egypt possibly have sent a letter to Yaakov: "I heard you have a talented son named Yosef, send him to me, I want him to reign"? There is no such possibility. Thus it turns out that the very schemes they devised to prevent him from ruling were the very things that propelled him to royalty, and God meant it for good.
So too with Pharaoh, who decreed, "Every son that is born you shall cast into the river," in order to eliminate Moshe. And what did he cause by this? That you yourself will raise Moshe in your own home. What would have been the chance of Moshe growing up in Pharaoh's palace and learning royal statecraft? None whatsoever. Your decree caused his mother to hide him, and finally, when there was nowhere left to hide him - since Pharaoh's secret police raided and monitored every home - she placed him in the river, causing Pharaoh's daughter to see him and adopt him. "He will eat of your bread, dine at your table, drink from your cup" - and bring you down. And who caused this? You did.
So too with Haman. Who made Esther queen? Achashverosh, through Haman's scheme. Haman advocated for Vashti's downfall, for he had a daughter and thought: If my daughter enters the palace, my position is secured. Therefore he leaped forward - "And Memuchan said," and a fool jumps forward first - immediately advising to eliminate Vashti. And she was eliminated. And whom did they bring in her stead? Esther, who would eliminate him. So too the gallows he built, fifty cubits high, "which he had prepared for him" - the simple meaning is for Mordechai, but Chazal explain: "which he had prepared for him" - for himself. This is "He traps the wise in their cunning": the scheme succeeds, but in the sense of "He dug a pit and hollowed it out, and fell into the ditch he made" - the ditch you made and the pit you dug is where your downfall will be.
"And the counsel of the devious is carried out rashly" - here Hashem rushes their counsel rather than thwarting it. For when a person devises an evil counsel, a crafty scheme, and Hashem's will is that "their hands cannot achieve success," Hashem must act to nullify it. But when the action itself will be overturned for good, on the contrary: Hashem, as it were, hastens to fulfill your counsel, giving you the strength and motivation to do it quickly, since ultimately this is what will harm you yourself. Go ahead, build yourself a gallows quickly - after all, it is for you.
(יד) יוֹמָם יְפַגְּשׁוּ־חֹשֶׁךְ וְכַלַּיְלָה יְמַשְׁשׁוּ בַצָּהֳרָיִם׃ - "By day they meet with darkness, and grope at noon as in the night."
The verse encompasses both matters mentioned above. "By day they meet with darkness" corresponds to "He thwarts the devices of the crafty": they see broad daylight before them, having an excellent plan, and suddenly Hashem surprises them with darkness, and the counsel is not carried out. Such was the case with Achitophel: he had a foolproof plan for how to kill David, and suddenly darkness descended and Avshalom did not accept it.
"And grope at noon as in the night" corresponds to "He traps the wise in their cunning," where Hashem fulfills their counsel, and specifically through that brings harm upon them. It is noon and there is light, meaning your counsel is shining and working: you wanted a gallows - the gallows stands; you wanted to depose - you deposed; you wanted to sell into slavery - you sold; you wanted to kill the newborn males - you killed. And yet you grope in the day as in the night, for the counsel has turned against you for harm. The light shines for everyone, but for you it becomes a personal darkness, because that very light harms you: the counsel was realized - and boomeranged back onto you.
(טו) וַיֹּשַׁע מֵחֶרֶב מִפִּיהֶם וּמִיַּד חָזָק אֶבְיוֹן׃ - "And He saves the needy from the sword of their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty."
The question arises: Why does Hashem intervene through Divine Providence in free will, rather than letting the world run according to its natural course? After all, I, Eliphaz, repeatedly emphasize that man possesses free will, and matters depend on his own effort - how much he draws close to Hashem, how much he acts and achieves. How then does this reconcile with my own words, that at times the Holy One, blessed be He, influences free choice and intervenes in it?
The answer is: there is no choice. If Hashem were to leave the world to run according to nature, the strong and the tyrannical would rule the world and embitter life, leaving only the wicked here. For the destitute would always be trampled under their feet, the rich would swallow the poor, and the wicked the righteous - just like in the sea: the whale swims with an open mouth, and whatever enters does not come out; fish enter its jaws and are lost. In a state without Divine Providence, chaos and utter void emerge; the wickedness of the evil person grows and intensifies, and he does whatever he pleases. Therefore Hashem says: sometimes I intervene in free will, sometimes I thwart the counsel of the wicked, and sometimes I let their counsel unfold so that it turns back upon them and harms them.
And this is "So He saves from the sword of their mouth" - sometimes the sword is a literal sword, and sometimes it is a sword that is "from their mouth," through speech and slander. "And the needy from the hand of the strong" - Hashem rescues the needy from the hand of the powerful.
(טז) וַתְּהִי לַדַּל תִּקְוָה וְעֹלָתָה קָפְצָה פִּיהָ׃ - So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.
This phrase is familiar to us from the Rosh Hashanah prayers, in the Kedushah: "and all iniquity shall shut its mouth." Rashi explains: olatah is related to fabrication, slander, and wickedness, for they seek out injustices and false accusations.
If human effort were effective in all matters, and man had absolute free choice with which Hashem never intervened, the destitute would have no hope. For he is the weak one, no one stands behind him, and he has no money to defend and save himself. The wicked and tyrannical, whose entire aim is to kill the weak and plunder their spoils, invest endless energy into this; if so, the poor would certainly be ruined and the world would be destroyed. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? Despite the abundance of wicked people in the world, He gave the impoverished person the ability to survive as well, so that he would not fall before the wicked, and He rescues them from their evil. Through this, "and injustice shuts its mouth" - the wicked see that there is a Supervisor from Above, and the wicked person is forced to shut his mouth, as he sees that he cannot succeed indefinitely.
A parable illustrates this: if mobsters and extortionists were truly able to act according to their full strength and criminality, no one would be saved from them. Rather, part of Hashem's providence is that He did not give the wicked all possible power. Instead, He intervenes, as it were, in creation and in human free choice, preventing the wicked from doing things that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not desire to be done - so that the poor, too, may have hope.
The evyon (needy) is in a worse state than the dal (poor). A dal is someone whose assets have dwindled - dal comes from the root for "scant" or "diminished"; he has lost wealth, but something remains. An evyon, however, is related to longing and craving, desiring everything, as in the phrase "if the woman will not be willing [lo toveh]." You ask him: "Do you want this?" He takes it. "Do you want a slice of bread?" He takes it. He craves everything, and his situation is far worse. Therefore, the Malbim notes regarding verse 15: it first speaks of the salvation of the evyon - "and the needy from the hand of the strong" - and from this, "so the dal has hope": if Hashem saves the utterly destitute evyon, all the more so will the dal, whose situation is comparatively better, have hope.