Introduction: Eliphaz's Second Response
In this chapter, Eliphaz the Temanite responds to Iyov once again, and this time with greater sharpness. He comes to address four points: the very complaint regarding the order of Creation, Iyov's denial of the afterlife and of reward and punishment, the denial of free will, and the great dilemma of the wicked who prosper. We will proceed through the verses following the commentary of the Malbim.
"Were You Born the First Man?" - Who Are You to Express an Opinion on Creation?
הֲרִאישׁוֹן אָדָם תִּוָּלֵד וְלִפְנֵי גְבָעוֹת חוֹלָלְתָּ׃ - "Were you born the first man, or brought forth before the hills?"
Iyov complains about the very creation of man: Why did Hashem create him this way and not another? Why was man created to suffer? Eliphaz replies: Are you the first human being ever born into the world, that you now come to express an opinion on whether it was worthwhile to create man or not?
We can illustrate this with a parable of a car factory. When the factory rolls out its very first vehicle, and you take a test drive and come back saying, "Sir, the machines need calibration, this and that need fixing, the car has issues" - you spoke up in time. But if the factory has already manufactured ten thousand cars and everyone is satisfied and singing its praises, and suddenly one person comes along whose car has a defect, and he decides that the entire factory is useless, flawed, and produces inferior goods - that is a complete mistake. And that is precisely what Eliphaz is telling him.
"Or brought forth before the hills?" - Cholalta is from the language of birth pangs and conception. As if Hashem were about to give birth to you now, you being the very first in the world, and you are stepping in to offer an opinion on whether it is worthwhile or not.
הַבְסוֹד אֱלוֹהַּ תִּשְׁמָע וְתִגְרַע אֵלֶיךָ חׇכְמָה׃ - "Did you listen in on the secret counsel of God, and withhold wisdom to yourself?"
When the Holy One, Blessed be He, wished to bring humanity into reality, to create the first man - He said, "Let us make man," consulting with the angels. Eliphaz asks him: Were you there? Did you hear the consultations, did you know what arguments were voiced in favor and against? "Did you listen in on the secret counsel of God?"
"And withhold wisdom to yourself" - Gira'on means a lack or deficiency. You act as though you are saying: Master of the Universe, the wisdom here is incomplete, it is deficient; what You did is imperfect, it should not have been this way. Were you present during all the preliminary plans and in the decision to create man in the precise form and condition in which he exists, that you now come and say, "This does not seem right to me, this is improper"?
The Three Sources of Human Knowledge
מַה־יָּדַעְתָּ וְלֹא נֵדָע תָּבִין וְלֹא־עִמָּנוּ הוּא׃ - "What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not with us?"
What are you boasting about, Iyov, as though you are wiser than all men? We speak, and you are certain that you are the wisest of the group. But you cannot boast over us that you possess knowledge that we lack. How does a person acquire knowledge? Through the senses: "What do you know that we do not know?" - what do you perceive through your senses, through sight and hearing, that I do not perceive? And the second way is through contemplation and intellect, deducing one matter from another: "Do you understand, and it is not with us?" - what greater power of understanding do you possess than ours? Why do you think there are things that you comprehend and we do not?
And there is a third way: knowledge that comes from experience. The Gemara says that even an elderly non-Jew should be respected, because "how many adventures have passed over him" - how many events he has lived through, how much he has seen and grasped over the course of his life. Nowadays, people feel this less, because today we value technology: what does "how many events have passed over him" matter? Let us see if he knows how to use an iPhone! But in truth, what they had, we do not have. Note that as technology advances, we lose life wisdom. Who ever heard of a person needing a "coach" or a personal guide in the past? Today there is coaching for what to wear, coaching for how to organize the house, coaching for how to manage money. Did your grandfather have a coach? He knew how much he earned, he knew how to live within it, he knew to set aside a little money, and he lived with what he had. Today a person has holes in his pockets, advanced computers and electronic devices - but where is common sense? We have lost common sense. This is the elder's strength: he possesses practical life wisdom, which, unfortunately, is all but forgotten among the younger generation.
גַּם־שָׂב גַּם־יָשִׁישׁ בָּנוּ כַּבִּיר מֵאָבִיךָ יָמִים׃ - Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older in days than your father.
A person might argue: I am old, and I have this life wisdom; therefore, I have the authority to debate with you. Eliphaz answers him: That is not so. Among us is both gray-haired (sav) and aged (yashish) - who is older than a sav - and even one who is "older in days than your father" - older than your own father. In that case, what are you boasting over us, and over all preceding generations, that you understand better than anyone and have criticisms of the creation of man? The Targum explains that Eliphaz himself was the gray-haired one, Bildad the Shuhite was the elder who was older than he, and "older in days than your father" was Zophar the Naamathite, who was older than Iyov's father.
"The Consolations of God" - The Immortality of the Soul
הַמְעַט מִמְּךָ תַּנְחוּמוֹת אֵל וְדָבָר לָאַט עִמָּךְ׃ - Are the consolations of God too little for you, and a matter concealed within you?
Here he responds to Iyov's denial of reward and punishment and retribution in the World to Come. He says to him: Can you really deny the immortality of the soul? Do you not understand that the body is merely the external part, a garment and cloak for the spiritual inner essence, which is the soul? When a person passes away, he is essentially shedding his coat, his outer garment - this is the corpse - while the soul returns to live an eternal life.
"And a matter concealed (laat) within you" - laat is related to "wrapped (lotah) in a garment," covered and hidden away. The Holy One, blessed be He, is consoling you: the body will perish, but within you is something hidden and internal that is eternal and endures forever. Is this not enough to bring comfort for the afflictions of the body? Even when you suffer, it is only the external exterior that suffers, while the essence is the soul - that very entity that is "concealed" within you, that which He enveloped in you, the internal essence of man, his soul, which endures forever.
מַה־יִּקָּחֲךָ לִבֶּךָ וּמַה־יִּרְזְמוּן עֵינֶיךָ׃ - Why does your heart carry you away, and what do your eyes hint at?
Here he adds parenthetically: I know that you harbor heretical thoughts about this, and you do not believe what I am saying. "Why does your heart carry you away" - why does your heart sweep you into denying this? "And what do your eyes hint at (yirzemun)" - yirzemun is like yirmeizun (an anagrammatic transposition, like keves and kesev, or salmah and simlah), and it also relates to raz, a secret: what are your eyes hinting and secretly conveying; why are you winking your eyes? I sense that you reject the things I am saying.
כִּי־תָשִׁיב אֶל־אֵל רוּחֶךָ וְהֹצֵאתָ מִפִּיךָ מִלִּין׃ - That you turn your spirit against God, and let words issue from your mouth?
For in the end, that very entity which is "concealed" within you, that soul He hid inside you - "your spirit will return to God," it will return to the Holy One, blessed be He, to bask in the light of life and receive its eternal reward. If so, why does your heart carry you away, and what do your eyes hint at? Why do you utter words of heresy and complain against the Creator, thereby showing that you do not believe in the immortality of the soul and that man possesses an internal part that endures forever, "and let words issue from your mouth" - speaking insolently against the Creator?
"What is man that he should be pure?" - No Man is Pure in the Eyes of Hashem
מָה־אֱנוֹשׁ כִּי־יִזְכֶּה וְכִי־יִצְדַּק יְלוּד אִשָּׁה׃ - What is man, that he should be pure, and one born of woman, that he should be righteous?
Here Eliphaz returns to his opening premise: that the afflictions befalling the righteous come to cleanse and purge minor sins they have committed. And just as he argued initially, "Behold, He puts no trust in His servants, and His angels He charges with folly" - that even in His servants the Holy One, Blessed be He, puts no trust, for there is no righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin - so he says here: What is man, who is so minute compared to the Creator, that he should be deemed pure and say, "I am pure, I am righteous"? "And one born of woman, that he should be righteous" - the very fact of being born of woman is a flaw and an inferiority, since man is formed from a putrid drop, from a place of impurity. How can such a person claim: I am justified, and what has befallen me is unjust?
הֵן בִּקְדֹשָׁו לֹא יַאֲמִין וְשָׁמַיִם לֹא־זַכּוּ בְעֵינָיו׃ - Behold, He puts no trust in His holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in His sight.
Even in the angels, who are His holy ones, Hashem puts no trust. And the heavens, which are the celestial spheres, are not pure in His sight - even though they are composed of a refined substance compared to the turbidity and coarseness of man, nonetheless they are not pure in His eyes. If so, how can you, flesh and blood, expect to say: I am pure, righteous, worthy, and upright?
אַף כִּי־נִתְעָב וְנֶאֱלָח אִישׁ־שֹׁתֶה כַמַּיִם עַוְלָה׃ - How much less one who is abominable and corrupt, man who drinks iniquity like water!
How much more so man, who by virtue of his physical nature is abominable, and "corrupt" (ne'elach, meaning putrid and spoiled) due to his desires, his emotions, his physicality, and his material nature. "Who drinks iniquity like water" - just as it is ingrained in human nature to need water, so too it is ingrained in him to commit iniquities. "A wild donkey's colt is born a man" - if you do not bring forth a human being out of that wild donkey, what remains? A wild donkey. You must bring forth a human being from the wild donkey within you; otherwise, you remain a wild donkey. That is to say, naturally, if you leave a person without cultivation and education, he drinks iniquity like water - he commits iniquities just like someone drinking water. Does someone drinking water feel bad? On the contrary, he feels very good about it, having no pangs of conscience: "I was thirsty, so I drank." So too is the wrongdoer - he has no pangs of conscience, and he is perfectly content with it. Man is so lowly that he is abominable and corrupt, committing wrongs without even sensing them at all. And if He puts no trust in His holy ones and the heavens are not pure - all the more so is man not pure in the eyes of Hashem. How then can you come and argue: "I am pure, I am righteous, I am worthy - why did I receive punishments?"
"I will tell you, listen to me" - Free Will
אֲחַוְךָ שְׁמַע־לִי וְזֶה־חָזִיתִי וַאֲסַפֵּרָה׃ - I will tell you, listen to me; and that which I have seen I will declare.
As recalled, Eliphaz initially claimed to have received a prophetic message from Hashem ("Now a word was secretly brought to me"), and Iyov mocked him, saying: If you truly received a prophecy, why did that prophecy not come to me? If Hashem has a message for me, let Him come and tell me Himself - "Is my help not within me?" Now Eliphaz reiterates his words: I am revealing this to you; listen to me and accept it from me. This is what I saw in prophecy, and I wish to relate to you the vision I beheld.
אֲשֶׁר־חֲכָמִים יַגִּידוּ וְלֹא כִחֲדוּ מֵאֲבוֹתָם׃ - Which wise men relate, and have not concealed [that it is] from their will.
You, Iyov, claim that man is not free in his choice, but that all his actions are predetermined - that Hashem, through His foreknowledge, compels man to do whatever he does, leaving him with no choice. Eliphaz says to him: Your words contradict sound reason. "Which wise men relate, and have not concealed from their will" - note that "avotam" here is not derived from av (father), but from avah, meaning desire and will, as in "And if the woman will not be willing (to'veh) to follow me" (spelled with an alef, not an ayin). That is, the wise cannot conceal the truth that everything a person does stems "from their will" - from his own desire and free choice, for he wills and desires to act that way.
לָהֶם לְבַדָּם נִתְּנָה הָאָרֶץ וְלֹא־עָבַר זָר בְּתוֹכָם׃ - "To them alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them."
What is every person's inner sensation? That the earth was given to him to do with as he pleases, according to his will and desire. "And no stranger passed among them" - no one feels that some alien force is compelling him to lift a cup. Why did you lift the cup? Because I chose to lift it.
Dr. Penfield conducted complex neurological research on the brain, as noted by Rav Dessler. Electrodes were inserted into a subject's brain - for today, through electrodes and subtle electrical impulses, one can trigger various human actions, and psychiatric medications operate along similar pathways. An impulse is delivered to a specific area and the person is flooded with joy, happiness, and tranquility; to another area, and he plunges into depression, melancholy, or fear. A person's physical body can likewise be moved in this manner. Researchers stimulated a particular nerve, and suddenly the person raised his arm. They asked him, "Why did you raise your arm?" He replied, "I didn't raise it - you did."
From this, Rav Dessler drew the clearest conclusion: I and my physical body are two distinct entities. Could one imagine a car declaring, "I wasn't the one who turned the wheels"? If you and the body are one and the same, then it was indeed you. But if someone else takes control from the outside, the wheels were merely moved. Here, if the researcher moves my arm, it proves that the body is not "me." I perceive that my arm rose, yet I declare: "That was not me." If so, who are you? I am the soul, and the arm is merely something external to me.
From this it follows: when I lift a cup and do not say "you lifted it" - and we see that man is fully capable of making this distinction, for when an outsider crudely intervenes and triggers buttons in his brain, he knows to say "that was not me" - then when I lift my hand and say "it was I," that reality cannot be disputed. It is I, and it is my will. This is Eliphaz's argument: How can you claim that man is compelled in his actions? Did anyone force you to get out of bed this morning? Did anyone force you to come here, to open a sefer, to make a cup of coffee? Every human being senses that he possesses free will and acts according to his own desires; if he chooses, he acts, and if not, he desists. This is what the wise-hearted declare, hiding nothing of what was handed down from their ancestors: that they act out of their own free will. "To them alone the earth was given" - they act as they wish on earth; "and no stranger passed among them" - there is no foreign internal force within me of which I can say that it drove me or coerced me. Rather, I am the one who wills and acts.
"All the Days of the Wicked Man, He Writhes in Torment" - Outward Success Is Deceptive
כׇּל־יְמֵי רָשָׁע הוּא מִתְחוֹלֵל וּמִסְפַּר שָׁנִים נִצְפְּנוּ לֶעָרִיץ׃ - "All the days of the wicked man he writhes in torment, and a numbered count of years is stored up for the ruthless tyrant."
Now he addresses Iyov's question of "the wicked man who prospers" - how can it be that the wicked fare well in this world? As we saw in the premise to Eliphaz's words, his answer is straightforward: outward success, visible to the eyes, is deceptive. The wicked man may appear happy, cheerful, and smiling, but know that deep inside he enjoys no true success at all. He is a tormented, suffering individual, consumed by chronic misery and dread. Therefore, "all the days of the wicked man he writhes in torment" - from the root denoting trembling and panic; he has no inner tranquility. "And a numbered count of years is stored up for the ruthless tyrant" - those years reserved for that tyrant are years of profound suffering.
קוֹל־פְּחָדִים בְּאׇזְנָיו בַּשָּׁלוֹם שׁוֹדֵד יְבוֹאֶנּוּ׃ - "A sound of terrors is in his ears; in a time of peace, a plunderer comes upon him."
An incident illustrates this point clearly. A woman once recounted in a shiur that her brother had arrived from abroad with an ultra-luxury car, a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. Evidently, he found it difficult to part with his vehicle, so he had it shipped to Israel for his vacation, intending to take it back abroad afterward. In Israel, the insurance company demanded an exorbitant fortune, so the car remained completely uninsured. She related that every three minutes he would sprint to the window to ensure the car was still parked outside. At any noise, any faint car alarm, he would immediately dash out to check on the vehicle. He would even plead with her: "Do me a favor, keep an eye on the car." She told him: "I didn't buy it. I have a peaceful life; I sit quietly on the couch. You bought it - by all means, run to it, worry about it, let it consume your peace. I, Baruch Hashem, have no need for such headaches."
This is precisely what Eliphaz means by "a sound of terrors is in his ears" - at the sound of every windblown leaf, he panics: something went wrong, something happened in business, the stock market crashed. He lives in endless apprehension. "In a time of peace, a plunderer comes upon him" - even when all is peaceful, when there is no danger, no war, no missiles, and no thieves, and all is completely serene, he lives with the dread that a plunderer is about to strike, that catastrophe is imminent, that the markets are on the verge of collapsing. Such a person is constantly writhing, consumed by trembling and terror. Do not envy his apparent good fortune.
לֹא־יַאֲמִין שׁוּב מִנִּי־חֹשֶׁךְ וְצָפוּי הוּא אֱלֵי־חָרֶב׃ - "He does not believe he will return from darkness, and he is destined for the sword."
When he finds himself in a dark place, it seems to him that he will never return from there. And even though he is in the dark, he imagines that he is "watched for the sword" - that around the corner an assassin waits with a sword to rob him of his wealth. He cannot see him, yet he lives in perpetual terror: who knows what is about to happen to me, who knows who is about to bring me down, what business deal is about to strip me of all my assets.
נֹדֵד הוּא לַלֶּחֶם אַיֵּה יָדַע כִּי־נָכוֹן בְּיָדוֹ יוֹם־חֹשֶׁךְ׃ - He wanders for bread, [asking,] "Where is it?" He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand.
All of this occurs merely through the power of imagination during times of peace. How much more so when "he wanders for bread, [asking,] 'Where is it?'" - when he is actually forced to search for his sustenance and bread - then his fears are magnified sevenfold. And if until now these were mere baseless terrors, now, when a downfall and financial instability begin, already "a day of darkness is ready at his hand" - it is already clear to him that he stands before darkness, collapse, and ruin.
יְבַעֲתֻהוּ צַר וּמְצוּקָה תִּתְקְפֵהוּ כְּמֶלֶךְ עָתִיד לַכִּידוֹר׃ - Distress and anguish terrify him; they overpower him like a king destined for the ball [of ruin].
Anxiety and distress terrify him and dismay him with immense force and intensity. And what is the meaning of "like a king destined for the ball"? The Malbim explains that in Iyov's day there was a king who corrupted his ways, and judgment was executed upon him: they tossed him like a ball (kaddur) and rolled him from place to place until he met a gruesome death. This wicked man is so terrified, as if a decree had been issued to execute him like a ball, just like that king.
"For he stretched out his hand against God" - The Root Cause
כִּי־נָטָה אֶל־אֵל יָדוֹ וְאֶל־שַׁדַּי יִתְגַּבָּר׃ - For he stretched out his hand against God, and acted boastfully against the Almighty.
And why all of this? Because he raised his hand against God to fight against Him, as it were, and acted as though he could overpower Hashem.
יָרוּץ אֵלָיו בְּצַוָּאר בַּעֲבִי גַּבֵּי מָגִנָּיו׃ - He runs against him at the neck, through the thickness of his shield-bosses.
The Holy One, blessed be He, crushes him at his neck, as it were, and strikes into the thick flesh of his back, which served him like a protective shield.
כִּי־כִסָּה פָנָיו בְּחֶלְבּוֹ וַיַּעַשׂ פִּימָה עֲלֵי־כָסֶל׃ - For he covered his face with his fat, and formed folds of fat on his loins.
Even though his face was covered with an abundance of fat, nevertheless "he formed a mouth (pimatah) on his loins (kesel)": when his back is crushed, the flesh and fat split open, creating a sort of mouth and opening through the fat, and through that opening his interior is exposed. The kesalim (loins) represent the innermost organs, and the fat is the outer layer covering them - "the fat that covers the entrails upon the loins." The Holy One, blessed be He, strikes him until his inner reality is revealed. Everyone thought, "Look how successful he is," yet it was all external fat, all superficial appearance. Suddenly it turns out that that wealthy person committed suicide, or that this one never had any real wealth at all, merely rolling over other people's money, and so on. Do not be dazzled by fleeting success - the time will come when everything will be laid bare, and the kesel, the inner core, will be exposed as completely hollow and corrupt.
The Wicked Man's Dread and the Loss of His Wealth
וַיִּשְׁכּוֹן עָרִים נִכְחָדוֹת בָּתִּים לֹא־יֵשְׁבוּ לָמוֹ אֲשֶׁר הִתְעַתְּדוּ לְגַלִּים׃ - And he dwells in desolate cities, in houses where no one should live, which were destined to become heaps of ruins.
Out of intense dread, he is afraid to live in a city among other people lest they rob his wealth. Therefore, he dwells in desolate cities, in places where no one lives, in houses unfit for human habitation - places "destined to become heaps of ruins," what we would call today condemned buildings slated for demolition. And out of his overwhelming fear, he pinches his pennies so as not to build an ostentatious house, living instead in caves and barren rocks.
לֹא־יֶעְשַׁר וְלֹא־יָקוּם חֵילוֹ וְלֹא־יִטֶּה לָאָרֶץ מִנְלָם׃ - He will not grow rich, nor will his wealth endure, nor will their substance spread out across the land.
"He will not grow rich" - his wealth will not remain. "Nor will his wealth endure" - his strength will not stand, nor will it recover and rise again. "Nor will their substance spread out across the land" - the word minlam is related to kilyon (destruction); because of its destruction, for his wealth will perish and be lost to some disaster, and he will derive no enjoyment from it, like wealth which God has not empowered him to enjoy.
לֹא־יָסוּר מִנִּי־חֹשֶׁךְ יֹנַקְתּוֹ תְּיַבֵּשׁ שַׁלְהָבֶת וְיָסוּר בְּרוּחַ פִּיו׃ - He will not depart from darkness; a flame will dry up his tender shoot, and he will depart by the breath of his mouth.
In his great dread, he is afraid to sit in the light lest they see him and rob him; therefore, "he will not depart from darkness" - he always sits in a dark place. Even so, a flame finds him there that dries up his tender shoot: the flame dries up the moist branch that draws moisture from the ground and conveys it to the entire tree. "And he will depart by the breath of his mouth" - the very breath that emerges from his own mouth fans the flame and fuels it, and as the flame grows, it dries up his tender shoot and his roots even further, until he is utterly consumed.
And what is the lesson behind the parable? It is you, Iyov. Did not fire fall from the heavens and burn up the sheep and the young men? And as for you - you were constantly afraid of troubles coming upon you: "For the fear that I feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has overtaken me." Exactly as I said! In other words, with everything he presents here in the parable, he hints: this is you. Notice that he does not say this to him explicitly, but rather hopes that Iyov himself will see himself within the story: see, all of this has happened to you; terrors swept over you, and the plunderer and devastation indeed came upon you in the end. And why? Because you are wicked - for look how you speak against Hashem.
אַל־יַאֲמֵן בַּשָּׁו נִתְעָה כִּי־שָׁוְא תִּהְיֶה תְמוּרָתוֹ׃ - Let him who has strayed not trust in vanity, for vanity will be his recompense.
One who strays from the path of Hashem does not even believe in his own success, for he knows it is hollow and lacks substance. Therefore, he is constantly terrified: perhaps this is only temporary, perhaps it will be taken from me, perhaps it will not last. "For vanity will be his recompense" - in place of success, which was an illusion anyway, emptiness and nothingness will come upon him. You fear and dread the trouble that will come in place of this vanity - and that is precisely what happens: in exchange, he receives afflictions and calamities, just as happened to Iyov, whose body and health were struck with illness and severe boils.
בְּלֹא־יוֹמוֹ תִּמָּלֵא וְכִפָּתוֹ לֹא רַעֲנָנָה׃ - Before his day it will be withered, and his bough will not be green.
"His bough" (kipato) refers to the branches and leaves that shield the fruit. "It will be withered" (timmalei) is like timmallel, drying out prematurely - this tree will wither before its time, the sheltering branches will not remain green, and he will lose everything before his days are full.
יַחְמֹס כַּגֶּפֶן בִּסְרוֹ וְיַשְׁלֵךְ כַּזַּיִת נִצָּתוֹ׃ - "He will shake off his unripe grapes like a vine, and cast off his blossom like an olive tree."
He is like a vine that casts off its unripe grapes, fruit that is not yet mature; and like an olive tree that sheds its blossom - for the blossom is the flower, even before it turns into unripened fruit. So too with you: even before there is fruit, the blossom falls and the unripe fruit falls, and none of it will endure. And why? As we have said, because you were wicked and spoke evilly against Hashem.
כִּי־עֲדַת חָנֵף גַּלְמוּד וְאֵשׁ אָכְלָה אׇהֳלֵי־שֹׁחַד׃ - "For the assembly of the hypocrite shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery."
The assembly that you had - the children, the servants, the possessions - from this entire hypocritical assembly you have been left desolate; all of them have perished. "And fire shall consume the tents of bribery" - those tents that were your acquisitions, as it were your bribery, burned in fire.
הָרֹה עָמָל וְיָלֹד אָוֶן וּבִטְנָם תָּכִין מִרְמָה׃ - "Conceiving toil and giving birth to iniquity, and their belly prepares deceit."
Even though with your mouth you acted like a hypocrite, presenting yourself as righteous, what was the ultimate result? "Conceiving toil" - what was in this conception? Toil, heresy, and disbelief. And consequently, what is born of such a thing? "And giving birth to iniquity" - you gave birth to calamity. And ultimately, "and their belly prepares deceit": it is not enough that you do not regret conceiving toil and giving birth to ruin, paying a heavy price for negative thoughts and improper speech - but you further prepare in your belly thoughts of falsehood and deceit against Hashem, blessed is He, arguing why you are indeed righteous and why Hashem acted unfairly toward you. You should have observed the damage you suffered and understood that nothing good came of all this - that you conceived toil and, behold, gave birth to iniquity.
In summary:
In this chapter, Elifaz responds to Iyov on four planes. First, he rejects his right to pass judgment on Creation: Were you the first man? Were you privy to the secret council of God? And in what do you boast superiority over us - in sensory perception, in intellect, or in the life experience of elders, given that among us are both the gray-haired and the aged, older than your father? Next, he responds to the denial of reward and punishment: "the consolations of God" refer to the immortality of the soul, that gentle and concealed element within man that returns to God forever. From there, he returns to his premise that no human is pure in the eyes of Hashem - for He puts no trust even in His holy ones, and how much less in man who "drinks iniquity like water" without any pangs of conscience. Afterward, he proves free will from the basic intuition of every person, for "to them alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them." Finally, he lays out his answer to the question of "the wicked who prospers": the success of the wicked is purely external and illusory; all his days he writhes in terrors, a sound of dread in his ears, until his inner emptiness is laid bare and his wealth perishes before its time. And all these, through subtle allusion, are directed at Iyov himself - whom Elifaz expects to find himself within the portrait and acknowledge his deeds.