In this part of Chapter 10, Iyov continues to lay out his great argument: If the Holy One, blessed be He, knows everything in advance, and if every single action of mine occurs solely through His power and His will, how can He hold grievances against me for my sins? From here, he moves on to describe the stages of human formation in the womb, complains about the very fact of his birth, and makes the final plea of the chapter: At least let me live the few remaining days in peace. We will proceed through the verses in order, following the commentary of the Malbim.
כִּי־תְבַקֵּשׁ לַעֲוֺנִי וּלְחַטָּאתִי תִדְרוֹשׁ׃ עַל־דַּעְתְּךָ כִּי־לֹא אֶרְשָׁע וְאֵין מִיָּדְךָ מַצִּיל׃ - That You seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, though You know that I will not be wicked, and there is no one who can rescue from Your hand.
Iyov says to the Holy One, blessed be He: The very fact that You seek and search out my iniquity and my sin - the very question, "Why did you sin? How could you stumble?" - implies that You supposedly did not expect me to stumble. When one asks a person, "Why did you do that?", it implies they assumed he would not do so. This is the meaning of "though You know that I will not be wicked": I infer from Your words as if I were not supposed to act wickedly. Yet that is impossible, for then I would be attributing an error to God's foreknowledge, as if You did not know that I would stumble and it suddenly became known to You that I had failed. And yet, the Holy One, blessed be He, declares the generations from the beginning.
And from here Iyov continues: "And there is no one who can rescue from Your hand" - I was compelled to sin. For if You knew in advance that I would do this, I must inevitably do so, and I cannot act contrary to Your knowledge. And if so, where is my free will?
This is precisely the claim that Chazal quote in Iyov's name: You created an ox with split hooves, You created a donkey with uncloven hooves - likewise, You created the wicked and You created the righteous. In other words, there is no free will. Just as an ox cannot decide to be a donkey, and a donkey cannot decide to be an ox, so too, according to him, a righteous person cannot decide to be wicked and a wicked person cannot decide to be righteous. Iyov denied free will because Hashem knows everything in advance, and if He knows in advance, it is impossible for me to act otherwise. And if so, how can You punish me for things You knew in advance, and come seeking out my sin as though You did not know I would stumble? I could not even desire to do otherwise, for Your foreknowledge compels me to act as You already knew.
It must be emphasized: we are only presenting Iyov's arguments, and one should not be persuaded by them. What Iyov says is completely incorrect, and how his claims are refuted will be explained later. But we do not refute his arguments while he is speaking. A person is given the floor to express himself; we listen to everything he has to say, and afterward we will see how these arguments crumble.
יָדֶיךָ עִצְּבוּנִי וַיַּעֲשׂוּנִי יַחַד סָבִיב וַתְּבַלְּעֵנִי׃ - Your hands fashioned me and made me, together round about, yet You destroy me.
Here Iyov argues: You are not like other craftsmen. When a person manufactures a cup, his presence is not required in order to drink from it; he went home long ago, perhaps he has even passed away, yet the cup still exists. The contractor who framed a building may no longer be alive, yet the building stands. But with the Holy One, blessed be He, this is not the case. He did not build the world and then cease to act within it.
To use a slightly crude analogy that will help us understand: consider inflatable bounce houses for children - castles, slides. How do they stay up? There is a blower constantly pumping air inside. When the power cuts out, the tower collapses. As it were, the Holy One, blessed be He, "blows" into the world at every single moment. Except that with Him, if He were to cease for even a single moment, the world would not merely collapse, but simply cease to exist: everything would revert to absolute nothingness and void, just as it was before the world was created. Everything that exists does so solely by virtue of His blessed will, and that very will is what gives life to all.
Therefore, Iyov says: "Your hands fashioned me and made me" - they did not only shape my form in the past, but "together round about" - they now stand together all around me. Just as Your hand was upon me back then to form my shape, so too right now they surround me for the sake of my very existence. And if so, every action of mine stems from You. I am not independent at all, but rather held at every single moment in the hands of the Holy One, blessed be He.
This is another argument of Iyov: not only does Your foreknowledge compel me, but so does the very act itself. If I raised a hand - did I do that on my own? If Hashem had not willed it, my hand would not have lifted. If I raised my hand through Hashem's will, it must mean Hashem wanted me to raise it; and if I flipped a light switch with it, it means He wanted me to turn it on; and if I desecrated Shabbat with it, it means He wanted me to desecrate it. Therefore - "yet You destroy me"? If You are together with me and around me at all times, why do You afflict me for actions performed by Your hand, when without You I could not have even raised my hand?
Yet this, too, is not a valid claim. For from the moment Hashem granted free will, He gave man the ability, as it were, to operate the Creator of the universe according to his will: if you want to lift a hand, I will lift it for you; and if you kill with that same hand, I will give you that capability as well. But do not infer from this that this is My will, for I explicitly told you what My will is. What you did was your own free choice. Iyov, on the other hand, understands: if I acted through Hashem's power, then Hashem did it, so why does He now come to me with complaints and afflictions?
זְכׇר־נָא כִּי־כַחֹמֶר עֲשִׂיתָנִי וְאֶל־עָפָר תְּשִׁיבֵנִי׃ - Remember, please, that You have made me like clay, and will You return me to dust?
You made me in such a way that I am always in Your hand like clay in the hands of the potter, where the potter alters it at will and shapes it according to his understanding. And if I am always like clay in the potter's hand, why "will You return me to dust"? After all, all my actions are compelled by You and are not subject to change through my free choice. Just as You prepared my physical strength and my actions, so do I act; and just as You knew in advance, so do I do. How then can You come to me with complaints that I have acted wickedly?
הֲלֹא כֶחָלָב תַּתִּיכֵנִי וְכַגְּבִנָּה תַּקְפִּיאֵנִי׃ עוֹר וּבָשָׂר תַּלְבִּישֵׁנִי וּבַעֲצָמוֹת וְגִידִים תְּשֹׂכְכֵנִי׃ - Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
Here Iyov recounts how the Holy One, blessed be He, brought him from nothingness and void into tangible existence, step by step. First, "Did You not pour me out like milk" - the seed is poured out like milk. Afterwards, "and curdle me like cheese" - there in the mother's womb, the matter begins to solidify; until now it was a liquid, and here it begins to curdle like cheese. The third stage: "You clothed me with skin and flesh." And the fourth stage: "and knit me together with bones and sinews" - gradually it develops from within as well, bones and sinews.
חַיִּים וָחֶסֶד עָשִׂיתָ עִמָּדִי וּפְקֻדָּתְךָ שָׁמְרָה רוּחִי׃ - You have granted me life and lovingkindness, and Your providence has preserved my spirit.
The life You gave me at the beginning of my creation is pure lovingkindness from You. The Holy One, blessed be He, owes us nothing, and was under no obligation to create us. It is written that for the mere fact that man was created, even if one were to serve Hashem all his days, he would not even begin to sufficiently thank Him for the very act of his creation. What merit did I possess before I was created that could warrant my being brought into existence? None at all. It is entirely from Your lovingkindness alone.
"And Your providence watched over my spirit" - for this too I must give thanks. "Your providence" (*pekudatecha*) stems from the language of deposit, or from the language of command and charge: this is what guarded my spirit so that it would remain within me and not depart from the body. For by natural means, when I was in my mother's womb, how could the spirit have remained in my body? A fetus's mouth is closed. What is open in it? Only the navel. And this is man's most physical state: entirely nourished by physical matter, connected through the umbilical cord to the belly. Even in common parlance, when people speak of someone who is attached to another merely because of food, they say he is connected through the belly; and the infant knows his mother through the belly. He is entirely physical and material. Afterwards, when he emerges into the world's air, he already has independent breathing, he has a mouth, and he has the ability to speak - he receives a spirit, and he receives the power to serve Hashem as well, having already acquired a spiritual dimension. But inside his mother's womb, he is a mass of flesh that is entirely physical; yet despite all this, Hashem enclosed the spirit within him even though he had no mouth to breathe, and he was sustained there. Through what? By Hashem's decree. And that is "and Your providence watched over my spirit."
וְאֵלֶּה צָפַנְתָּ בִלְבָבֶךָ יָדַעְתִּי כִּי־זֹאת עִמָּךְ׃ - Yet these things You concealed in Your heart; I know that this was with You.
Even though already then, while I was in my mother's womb, You knew that I was destined to sin - You acted as if You did not know, and You did not decree that I should not emerge. And this is Iyov's initial claim: why was his placenta not turned over his face? If You knew in advance that I was destined to sin, why do You act, as it were, like one who does not know, bringing me forth into the air of the world? "Yet these things" - that I was destined to sin - "You hid in Your heart"; "I know that this was with You" - this foreknowledge was already with You then, and nevertheless You fashioned me. Why did You not decree that I should never be born?
אִם־חָטָאתִי וּשְׁמַרְתָּנִי וּמֵעֲוֺנִי לֹא תְנַקֵּנִי׃ - If I sinned, You watched me, and You will not clear me of my iniquity.
Iyov adds: Not only did You create me even though You knew I would sin, but even after I sinned, You did not remove Your watchful care from me; rather, Your spirit was still with me. If so, how can it be that "You will not clear me of my iniquity"? The foreknowledge that I would sin did not prevent You from bringing me into existence; and now, when I already exist, does this sin suddenly cause me to suffer worlds of torment? What has changed? The sin? You knew of it in advance! Why did You not turn a blind eye now as well?
Had I sinned by my own free will, I would understand Your telling me that I did something wrong. But Iyov maintains that his sin was brought about by Hashem's will, and therefore he does not understand why he must suffer now. Furthermore: what is more difficult, to create something from nothing (*yesh me'ayin*) or to sustain an existing entity? Creating something from nothing is far more difficult. And when You created me from nothing, You decided to do so despite knowing that I would sin. If so, now that I already exist, and it is far easier to sustain my existence, why do You decide, "You have sinned, so I will afflict you"? After all, the sin was not by my own will, You knew in advance that I would sin, and no new knowledge came to You as a result of it.
אִם־רָשַׁעְתִּי אַלְלַי לִי וְצָדַקְתִּי לֹא־אֶשָּׂא רֹאשִׁי שְׂבַע קָלוֹן וּרְאֵה עׇנְיִי׃ - If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, I cannot lift up my head, filled with disgrace and seeing my misery.
Iyov argues: How can it be that when I commit a wicked act, they accuse me and cry out at me, "woe unto me" - an expression of crying out, "woe is me for having sinned" - as though I acted of my own free choice, and they come against me with complaints and demands; while on the other hand, "and if I be righteous, I cannot lift up my head" - when I perform an act of righteousness and a mitzvah, they tell me that I have no free choice, and there is no reward for it. Master of the Universe, this is not fair! For transgressions I am told it was my own free choice and therefore punishment is due, while for mitzvos I am told that I was compelled, that Hashem foreknew I would fulfill them, and therefore there is no reward. "I cannot lift up my head" - my head cannot be held high by virtue of my good deeds. And thus, "filled with disgrace and seeing my misery": all my days I am destined to see only my misery and distress, for only the bad is ever held against me, while the good is judged as having been compelled.
וְיִגְאֶה כַּשַּׁחַל תְּצוּדֵנִי וְתָשֹׁב תִּתְפַּלָּא־בִי׃ - "And if it rises up, like a fierce lion You hunt me, and You return and display wonders against me."
The disgrace, shame, and poverty in which I am immersed grow even greater from what I see that "like a lion You hunt me." A shachal is a type of lion. To what can this be compared? I am like a lion caught in the hunter's grip, bound in his hand, unable to move as I please until he releases me. Yet that very hunter holding it is astonished: How is it that it does not move? Why does it do nothing? Is such a thing conceivable? You Yourself are holding it, and yet You ask questions?
And this is the meaning of "and You return and display wonders against me": Master of the Universe, You hunt me like a lion, I am trapped in Your hand - and despite all this, You are, as it were, astonished: "Iyov, how could you do such deeds?" What does it mean, how could I do them? After all, I am in Your hands, everything comes from Your hand, Your foreknowledge causes everything, I am like clay in the hands of the potter, and I do not move a finger without Your will! And if I committed sins - it stems from You, not from me.
תְּחַדֵּשׁ עֵדֶיךָ נֶגְדִּי וְתֶרֶב כַּעַשְׂךָ עִמָּדִי חֲלִיפוֹת וְצָבָא עִמִּי׃ - "You renew Your witnesses against me, and increase Your anger with me; changes and a host are with me."
I see that You renew witnesses against me - bringing upon me more troubles and afflictions that testify, as it were, that I have sinned and deserve punishment, and You increase Your wrath toward me. And why? "Changes and a host are with me" - because it appears as though I have free will. For changes are observed in me; chalifot are changes and alternating states, and tzava refers to time. And since I seem to be placed within a framework of time and undergo changes, it appears as though I possess free choice, and for this I am punished. But in truth, I have no free choice, and everything comes from You, blessed be He.
וְלָמָּה מֵרֶחֶם הֹצֵאתָנִי אֶגְוַע וְעַיִן לֹא־תִרְאֵנִי׃ כַּאֲשֶׁר לֹא־הָיִיתִי אֶהְיֶה מִבֶּטֶן לַקֶּבֶר אוּבָל׃ - "Why then did You bring me out of the womb? Would that I had perished and no eye had seen me! I would be as though I had never been; I would have been carried from the womb to the grave."
Here Iyov returns to his original argument: Why did You create me at all? After all, by the very nature of my creation I was primed and destined for all these troubles and sins, and I have no free choice because everything stems from You. If so, would it not have been better had You not brought me out of the womb? It would have been better that "from the womb to the grave I would be carried" - that my mother would miscarry me, and the newborn would be taken directly to the grave. Why did the Holy One, blessed be He, bring me into this miserable existence, in which death is better than life? I would have preferred that "no eye had seen me," and just as I did not exist originally, so would I be now. That would be far better for me than living in a reality where I endure such horrific suffering.
הֲלֹא־מְעַט יָמַי וַחֲדָל וְשִׁית מִמֶּנִּי וְאַבְלִיגָה מְּעָט׃ בְּטֶרֶם אֵלֵךְ וְלֹא אָשׁוּב אֶל־אֶרֶץ חֹשֶׁךְ וְצַלְמָוֶת׃ - "Are not my days few? Let Him cease, let Him turn away from me, that I may find a little relief; before I go whence I shall not return, to a land of darkness and the shadow of death."
Now that I already exist, and You have already created me, I plead: Are not my days few, and they are also drawing to a close and ending, and in the end I will reach cessation. How many years do I have left? Let me live them without affliction. "Turn away from me" - remove the suffering from me; "that I may find a little relief" - that I may have a little respite, a little quiet life before I pass from this world. Note that Iyov did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, nor in the immortality of the soul; therefore, in his eyes, after his few days there is nothing but cessation.
And he adds in his poetic phrasing: "Before I go and shall not return" - before I depart and do not return, grant me to live properly for the little time that remains to me. And after I go and die, I will never wish to return here, to "a land of darkness and the shadow of death" - to the life of this world, which is a life of gloom and shadow of death, an evil and darkened life.
אֶרֶץ עֵפָתָה כְּמוֹ אֹפֶל צַלְמָוֶת וְלֹא סְדָרִים וַתֹּפַע כְּמוֹ־אֹפֶל׃ - A land of gloom like darkness itself, shadow of death without order, and where light shines like darkness.
This land in which I live is "gloom like darkness": even the little light within it, when dawn begins to break, resembles thick darkness (ofel) - which is darker even than ordinary darkness (choshech). That is to say, even the light that exists here is dark. And do not tell me that this is merely the order of Creation established by Hashem - light and darkness, day and night; to this he says, "shadow of death without order" - the shadow of death here follows no orderly pattern. "And where light shines like darkness" - even the emergence of light in this world is like thick darkness.
In simple words: a world without order, a world in which even the light is dark - I have no desire for it. Therefore, when I go to cessation, "I shall not return to a land of darkness and the shadow of death"; I do not wish to return here; what I have had until today is enough for me. But as for what remains to me, Master of the Universe, grant me at least this: that I should no longer suffer here, and that I may live the remainder of my days in tranquility. "Are not my days few? Let Him cease!" - therefore "and let me take a little comfort," leave me alone so that I may find a little rest.
In this chapter, Iyov constructs an entire system of claims: from the very fact that Hashem investigates his sin, he deduces that He allegedly did not know in advance, and since He surely did know - then there is no free will and "none can deliver from Your hand," as Chazal formulated on his behalf: You created an ox and You created a donkey, You created righteous people and You created wicked people. Furthermore, he argues that every action of his is performed at this very moment by the Creator Who sustains creation at every instant, so the act is attributable to the Creator. He describes the loving-kindness of creation - from milk to cheese, skin and flesh, bones and sinews, and Hashem's providence that preserved his spirit in the womb - and specifically from this he demands: if You knew I would sin and yet brought me into the world, why do You not now absolve me? He cries out over the injustice between "if I am wicked, woe to me" and "if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head," likens himself to a lion hunted by a hunter who marvels at why it does not move, and concludes with two pleas: it would have been better had I never emerged from the womb, and if I have already emerged - remove the suffering from me and let me find a little relief before I go to a place from which I will not return. And we must emphasize once again: all of this is merely the presentation of Iyov's arguments, and these assertions are not true; their refutation will be explained later, after allowing him to voice his full perspective.