In this part of the chapter, Iyov continues to advance his central argument: man is not free in his actions. A person's deeds stem from Hashem's knowledge and His will, which compel him to do either good or evil. No one can do anything without Hashem's will. He bases his claim on two proofs: the first from the forces of nature, where everything is under the absolute control of the Creator of the universe, and the second - which forms the main focus of his elaboration - from the governance of nations, where we see leaders, counselors, and judges acting in ways that defy all rational explanation, forcing the conclusion that Someone above has confounded their judgment.
הֵן יַהֲרוֹס וְלֹא יִבָּנֶה, יִסְגֹּר עַל אִישׁ וְלֹא יִפָּתֵחַ׃ - Behold, He destroys, and it will not be rebuilt; He shuts a man in, and it cannot be opened.
Come and see, Iyov says: If Hashem destroys a house, can anyone rebuild it? And if Hashem shuts a man in, causing his house to be closed and barred, is there anyone who can open it? No man can do anything contrary to Hashem's will. If so, if he opened, it indicates this was Hashem's will; if he built, it indicates this was Hashem's will. This means that everything I did was willed by Hashem. Consequently, if I committed a sin, could I have possibly committed it without Hashem willing it? There is no such possibility. Therefore, Hashem willed that I commit the sin. With this, Iyov reiterates his claim that man has no free will.
הֵן יַעְצֹר בַּמַּיִם וְיִבָשׁוּ, וִישַׁלְּחֵם וְיַהַפְכוּ אָרֶץ׃ - Behold, He restrains the waters and they dry up; He sends them forth and they overturn the land.
Just as Hashem restrains the waters and they dry up, or conversely, releases them and causes a flood or a tsunami that overturns the land, and all this occurs solely by His will, Blessed be He, so too with human actions. When Hashem wants to close, you cannot open; when Hashem wants to open, you cannot close; when Hashem destroys, you cannot build; and when Hashem builds, you cannot destroy. Just as the forces of nature are under the absolute control of the Creator of the universe, so are the deeds of man. In every single situation. This is Iyov's contention.
עִמּוֹ עֹז וְתוּשִׁיָּה, לוֹ שֹׁגֵג וּמַשְׁגֶּה׃ - With Him are strength and sound wisdom; to Him belong the misled and the misleader.
"Tushiyah" derives from the word yesh (existence): everything that exists in creation, everything that comes into being and attains existence, stems solely from Hashem, Blessed be He, and He possesses the power to bring everything into actuality. If so, Iyov concludes, "to Him belong the misled and the misleader" - when a person errs and strays from his path, that too is from Hashem. And not only did you err, but He is the One Who caused you to err: you did not err on your own, rather Hashem misled you. It turns out that things are not done through man's free will.
מוֹלִיךְ יוֹעֲצִים שׁוֹלָל, וְשֹׁפְטִים יְהוֹלֵל׃ - He leads counselors away stripped, and makes fools of judges.
Sometimes we see entire nations doing things that defy logic, and any observer asks himself: How could an entire people commit such a foolish act, one that makes no rational sense whatsoever? Inevitably, you are forced to conclude that Someone altered their minds and controlled their wills, for their natural will and logical reasoning would never have consented to such a thing. When looking back today at Germany in perspective - an entire nation that simply went mad for a period of time, with no rational explanation for it.
And here it must be emphasized: this is not merely Job's claim. We agree with this premise in certain situations - even Zophar the Naamathite agrees, and so it is according to the Jewish outlook. There are circumstances in which the Holy One, blessed be He, deprives a person of free will. "Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger" - when we need to be chastised, the Holy One, blessed be He, brings Assyria to strike us. Did Assyria simply decide on its own to come? Hashem brought him. However, Job pushes this to the extreme: since you observe such situations, conclude from this that there is no free will at all.
The Malbim explains that there are two forms of state governance. There is a system where the nation is led by a man they have chosen as king - a form of monarchy, where we have effectively handed him the keys and he decides everything. And there is a system where leaders are appointed as a sort of council, administering the people not according to their own personal whim, but in accordance with the will of the people - something closer to a democracy.
Under monarchical rule, there were kings who put their own people to death and laid heavy taxes upon them. To prevent the king from mistreating them, the people would place limits on the monarchy. This was the case when Rehoboam son of Solomon came to reign: he went to consult the people, and they told him - we will no longer accept absolute monarchy; your father made our yoke heavy, and we are not willing to endure it. He mistakenly thought that the absolute monarchy would continue: "My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions" - yet the people were not willing. Therefore, they would appoint counselors and judges, so that the king could not simply do whatever he pleased.
One such limited monarch was Ahasuerus. When he wanted to execute Vashti, whom did he call? The seven ministers who saw the king's face, who sat first in the kingdom - "What should be done according to the law?" What does "according to the law" mean? She angered you, so off with her head! But the monarchy was limited; there was a plenum, and the matter had to be brought for a first and second reading. And there, Memuchan jumped to the forefront: "Vashti has not done wrong to the king alone" - and all the more so to all the ministers, "causing their husbands to be despised in their eyes."
And now consider this wonder: What does Haman advise? Let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media, and not be revoked. My lord the king, change the law: from now on you will not need us; all power will be in your hands, and if you wish to kill someone, you can have him killed in an instant. Would any king be handed the reins by his people and refuse to take them? Of course he would take them. But what about the ministers - were they fools? "And the proposal pleased the king and the ministers." How could they agree? Only because Hashem confounded their minds. Imagine all the cabinet ministers convening and transferring all their authority to the Prime Minister, or the Knesset gathering and handing all its power over to the Supreme Court - could anyone imagine such a thing? I possess power and I am going to forfeit it?
And to conclude the matter of Haman: when Harbonah came and said, "Behold also, the gallows that Haman prepared for Mordecai," the king said, "Hang him on it." And what of the seven ministers who see the king's face? Where were they? The law had been repealed - and who repealed it? Haman himself! "He dug a pit and hollowed it out, and fell into the trap he had made" - he himself, systematically all along the way, dug his own grave.
מוּסַר מְלָכִים פִּתֵּחַ, וַיֶּאְסֹר אֵזוֹר בְּמָתְנֵיהֶם׃ - He loosens the bonds of kings, and binds a belt about their loins.
"Bonds" (musar) comes from the word mosrot - the shackles by which kings are bound, preventing them from doing whatever enters their minds and from acting out against the welfare of the people. Yet sometimes you see that the Holy One, blessed be He, loosens these bonds and removes them, "and binds a belt on their loins" - He enables them to gird a belt around their waists, which is an allusion to strength, as in the verse, "Let not him who girds on his armor boast like him who unbinds it," and they rule over the people by force and according to their own desire.
And precisely the two watchdogs who are meant to ensure that the king does not exceed his authority - the counselors and the judges - are the very ones who grant the king unlimited power and allow him to do whatever he pleases, with the backing of those who were supposed to restrain him. Is it not clear that He "leads counselors away stripped"? Does it make any sense for an advisor to do the exact opposite of his job - the king seized power for himself, and the advisor tells him: take even more? You are supposed to restrain him, yet you hand the balance of power over to him? "And makes judges fools" - what the judges do is sheer madness. How did this happen? Inevitably, Hashem brought this about. Here you see that the Holy One, blessed be He, intervenes in free will, and from this Iyov deduces regarding every reality that appears to you as a person's free choice - know that there is no such thing; everything comes from Him, blessed be He.
מוֹלִיךְ כֹּהֲנִים שׁוֹלָל, וְאֵתָנִים יְסַלֵּף׃ - He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.
Here Iyov moves on to the second form of leadership - a nation that has no king, but rather a kind of council, which is supposed to ensure that one segment of the people does not mistreat another or rob them of their property. In such leadership, there are several types of leaders: there are those where religious priests rule the people through their authority, as was customary in many places - such as Ferdinand in Spain, who was in the hands of a priest who molded him like clay in the potter's hand, advising him as he did, and through whose influence came the Spanish Expulsion. There is leadership by prominent, powerful ministers, the "mighty" (eitanim). And there is leadership by "the trusted" (ne'emanim) - those who preach words of ethical guidance to the people and persuade them through the power of speech to follow a good path.
Regarding the first two, the verse says: "He leads priests away stripped" - the Holy One, blessed be He, confuses and nullifies the judgment of religious priests, causing them to do irrational things; "and overthrows the mighty" - this refers to another type of governance, the mighty, wealthy, and prominent figures, whose way the Holy One, blessed be He, subverts.
מֵסִיר שָׂפָה לְנֶאֱמָנִים, וְטַעַם זְקֵנִים יִקָּח׃ - He deprives the trusted of speech, and takes away the discernment of elders.
Those trusted leaders who possess rhetorical skill and guide the nation through their words - sometimes you see that the Holy One, blessed be He, deprives them of speech: you were supposed to speak out, yet you remain silent as a fish. Is it not clear that Hashem frustrated his mind and caused that person not to accomplish what he was supposed to accomplish? "And takes away the discernment of elders" - this is the fourth form of leadership, by the elders, whom the people respect because of their age and wisdom, heeding them as it is said, "Wisdom is with the aged." Yet sometimes you see that the mind of that elder becomes clouded, and he leads the nation to the brink of ruin. And when the discernment of the elders is taken away, no leader remains to restrain the people and guide them with intellect and understanding.
When looking back today at the Disengagement, there remain only a few individuals clinging to the horns of the altar and claiming it was a good thing. All honest people - if one can say such a thing about journalists and politicians - admit today that the act was a blunder. At the time, there were those who thought: perhaps it will help; but today it is clear to all that someone turned the leader's head, and that turn caused such monumental folly that everyone followed him like a herd. Is this not the very reality described here: "He leads priests away stripped, overthrows the mighty, deprives the trusted of speech, and takes away the discernment of elders"? "He leads counselors away stripped and makes judges fools" - how is it possible that advisors would offer such foolish and senseless advice, which brought upon us a deluge of missiles and caused such weakness, to the point that the other side understood that they merely have to wait: they withdrew from Lebanon, they withdrew from Gaza, slowly they are evacuating - and what did we receive in exchange for the evacuation? Nothing, more missiles. They say: you have elections, we have a hundred years; slowly we will wear you down. How is it possible that our minds were so clouded? Iyov says: He removes wisdom from the elders and from the counselors, and confounds their understanding.
It is worth reiterating: what Iyov argues here is accepted to some extent in Jewish hashkafah as well. We maintain that there is free will, yet "the heart of kings and ministers is in the hand of Hashem." Thus, liability was brought about through the guilty party. But it is a complete error to think that the event occurred "because of him" - anyone who says this is mistaken in belief. The Holy One, blessed be He, confounded his reasoning, and that is why he did what he did. And why? Because this is what we deserved; this is the reflection of our conduct. As the Gemara says: when the flock causes trouble, the shepherd places a blind sheep at their head.
And why specifically him? Harm is brought about through the guilty, and what his prior misdeeds were - Hashem knows. But it is clear that through him this liability was brought to pass. Furthermore, the Gemara teaches that when harm is brought about through a guilty party, retribution is ultimately exacted from that perpetrator himself. As the Gemara expresses it: when the Holy One, blessed be He, comes to destroy the Temple, as it were, He wipes His hands on that individual - the very person through whom the deed was done is ultimately punished. And this is what we have seen: liability was brought about through him, and his reckoning is long and drawn out.
שׁוֹפֵךְ בּוּז עַל נְדִיבִים, וּמְזִיחַ אֲפִיקִים רִפָּה׃ - "He pours contempt upon nobles, and loosens the belt of the mighty."
There are situations where the common masses wish to despise and plunder the nobles, something common in places without a king, where the wealthy live in constant fear. The mob sweeps over them like a mighty torrent of water - "He pours contempt upon nobles," the lower classes rise up to loot the rich. "And loosens the belt of the river channels" - the masses are compared to rushing channels. The riverbanks are what contain the stream and prevent it from overflowing. But here, the Holy One, blessed be He, loosens the belt that was meant to firmly bind the river's borders, and consequently the lower classes surge like an overflowing river, harming the nobles and taking their plunder. And through what means? Through that very same process: "He leads counselors away stripped, and makes judges fools; He removes speech from the trusty" - all of these leaders were meant to restrain the people and guide them, but when the leadership fails, the masses rise like a surging flood. This is a state of anarchy, where there is no king in Israel and no one to hold back the populace, and people plunder one another, stealing and robbing each from his fellow.
מְגַלֶּה עֲמֻקוֹת מִנִּי חֹשֶׁךְ, וַיֹּצֵא לָאוֹר צַלְמָוֶת׃ - "He reveals deep things out of darkness, and brings the shadow of death to light."
The shadow of death dwells, as it were, beneath the water - a place where sunlight cannot penetrate. When the rivers burst their confines and overflow their banks, the deep things concealed within the riverbed are exposed, and the shadow of death is brought to light. The underlying meaning is that the schemes of the lowliest and bitter-hearted elements of society, those merely waiting for an opportunity to pillage the nobles and commit robbery, all that hidden corruption that had been concealed until now, rises up and bursts into the open. And why? Because those who were supposed to serve as the embankments, the leaders who hold back the people, have had their judgment confounded. As a result, all the demons emerge into the open. Just as when a river floods its banks, exposing what lay deep and dark in the murky depths, so too the dark forces within the nation surface and spread across the land, because there is neither government nor authority.
מַשְׂגִּיא לַגּוֹיִם וַיְאַבְּדֵם, שֹׁטֵחַ לַגּוֹיִם וַיַּנְחֵם׃ - "He makes nations great and destroys them; He scatters nations and leads them away."
At times we see the Holy One, blessed be He, elevating nations and raising them to the greatest heights. One might assume He elevates them so they will attain lasting prominence, but sometimes it is precisely the opposite: their greatness itself is the cause of their destruction. One who falls from a height of a single meter is barely injured, but one thrown from a hundred-story building will crash with an immense impact. This was the case with Haman: "After these things King Achashverosh promoted Haman" - and why did he elevate him? So that his fall would come from the heights and hit with tremendous force. "He scatters nations and leads them away" - He disperses the nations and uproots them from their place, and through that very exile, He guides them to their intended destination.
מֵסִיר לֵב רָאשֵׁי עַם הָאָרֶץ, וַיַּתְעֵם בְּתֹהוּ לֹא דָרֶךְ׃ - He takes away the heart of the leaders of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a pathless wilderness.
יְמַשְׁשׁוּ חֹשֶׁךְ וְלֹא אוֹר, וַיַּתְעֵם כַּשִּׁכּוֹר׃ - They grope in the dark without light, and He makes them wander like a drunken man.
At times, the Holy One, Blessed is He, takes away the heart of the leaders of the people of the land, the rulers, and they go searching for a place to settle and rest, but the Holy One, Blessed is He, leads them astray so that they cannot find it. There are two aspects to this: "They grope in the dark without light" - they are like a blind person groping in the dark, lacking the light of sound counsel and understanding to find the way; or "He makes them wander like a drunken man" - a drunkard, even though he walks in the light, cannot control his feet. Thus they seek a place of rest, and ultimately not only do they fail to find it, but that very place becomes a stumbling block for them.
From all this, Iyov concludes: none of these things make sense, so how can such a thing happen? It must be that the Holy One, Blessed is He, turns wise men backward, confounds their judgment, and controls their wills, which is why such illogical things occur. If so, understand that there is no free will. And if there is no free will - why am I being punished? Even if you claim that I committed improper deeds, it was not truly I who did them, and I should not be held accountable for them, since I did not act of my own will, but through a higher power that frustrates the counsel of nations and thwarts their designs, while the counsel of Hashem stands forever. If so, why hold a person accountable for his evil deeds?
Chazal teach: Whoever distresses Israel becomes a leader. On the surface, this is astonishing: he causes us troubles, and Hashem says he deserves a reward and will become the leader? A wonderful explanation of this emerges based on what was discussed above. Iyov was correct regarding kings and ministers, whose hearts are in the hand of Hashem, but he was not correct regarding every person. A private individual possesses free will, and if someone seeks to distress us - woe to us from him, for how much trouble could he cause us! The Holy One, Blessed is He, says: You have nothing to fear. Even though I established in Creation that every person has free will, I will elevate and exalt him, making him a minister and king - and the moment he becomes a king, after all, I established in Creation that "a king's heart is in the hand of Hashem." Then he is no longer unrestrained; rather, he is limited, and who restricts him? The hand of the Holy One, Blessed is He. In the words of the holy Or HaChaim: the dog's chain is in the hand of its master.
In this section, Iyov argues his claim that there is no free will from two realms: from nature - that Hashem withholds the waters and unleashes them, tears down and none can rebuild, imprisons a man and none can release; and from human governance - counselors and judges, kings, priests, the mighty, the trusted, and elders, all of whom at times act completely without reason, until one is forced to say that Someone Above thwarted their judgment. And when leadership breaks down, the masses rise up like a sweeping torrent and all the dark forces emerge to the surface. His conclusion: if everything is in the hands of Heaven, why should a person be punished for his deeds? The truth, however, is that he was correct only to a certain extent: "A king's heart is in the hand of Hashem," and at times Hashem strips away free will to bring about guilt through the guilty - yet in the end, retribution is exacted from the guilty party himself, while the private individual retains his free will in his own hands.