In Chapter 19, we will first explain the core of Iyov's argument, and then proceed according to the verses. At this stage, Iyov does not yet offer a substantive reply to Bildad the Shuchite; he waits until all three friends finish speaking, and only then will he present his counterarguments. Rather, in this chapter, he expresses bitterness and deep pain over the very assault against him: the harsh words, the insults, and the humiliation. Even if I spoke inappropriately - a person is not held liable for what he utters in his grief and anguish, so why do you treat me with such severity?
Iyov laments that everyone has turned into his enemy. As if his afflictions were not enough, he must also endure these "friends" in quotation marks, who come and speak ill against him without mercy. Not only that, but he asks that his trial be preserved for future generations: when those who come after me hear what I endured and see what I received unjustly, they will vindicate me. In essence, this is an appeal to Heaven: how can you pursue a stricken, afflicted, suffering, and tormented man? Finally, he tells them that they should fear and tremble before Hashem's punishment, for He will hold them accountable for treating him this way.
וַיַּעַן אִיּוֹב וַיֹּאמַר. עַד־אָנָה תּוֹגְיוּן נַפְשִׁי וּתְדַכְּאוּנַנִי בְמִלִּים. - Then Iyov answered and said: How long will you grieve my soul, and crush me with words?
Iyov says to them: How long will you grieve my soul - from the root meaning sorrow and grief - how long will you cause me pain? "And crush me with words" - you crush me with the harsh and biting words you direct at me.
זֶה עֶשֶׂר פְּעָמִים תַּכְלִימוּנִי לֹא־תֵבֹשׁוּ תַּהְכְּרוּ־לִי. - These ten times you have humiliated me; are you not ashamed that you wrong me?
"These ten times you have humiliated me" - this is already the tenth time you humiliate me. Indeed, up to this point there have been ten speeches, and according to Rashi, even Iyov's own speeches are included in this count: although those were not their words, the very fact that I am forced to confront what you say proves that you are speaking harsh words against me, and therefore my own responses are included in the ten.
"Are you not ashamed that you wrong me" - you speak in veiled, poetic language about a wicked person, about a man who received heavenly retribution and against whom Hashem's hand was raised because of his wickedness, all indirectly. You do not say: "You, Iyov, did such-and-such." Iyov tells them: Are you not ashamed to speak this way when it is obvious you mean me? As if you were speaking in the third person about some anonymous wicked man receiving heavenly judgment, when in truth it is clear that all those descriptions of the wicked man's judgment are aimed directly at what has befallen me.
וְאַף־אָמְנָם שָׁגִיתִי אִתִּי תָּלִין מְשׁוּגָתִי. - And even if indeed I have erred, my error remains with me.
Even if I were to accept your claim that I erred in the fundamentals of faith, that I erred in asserting that the Holy One, Blessed is He, does not exercise providence and that my punishment is undeserved - this does not warrant such severe punishment. You claim that I am suffering because of my arguments, but my arguments are at most an unintentional error, and one does not receive such terrible torment and suffering for an honest mistake.
Furthermore: "My error remains with me." There are people who err and mislead others, and to such a person we say: it is one thing if you erred privately - one can apologize for an honest mistake - but what possessed you to go and mislead others? To this Iyov answers: my entire mistake is private. Even if I was mistaken, I misled no one. My error lodges with me; I did not publicize my words, nor did I lead others astray. If so, why do I deserve such a terrible punishment merely for an error?
אִם־אָמְנָם עָלַי תַּגְדִּילוּ וְתוֹכִיחוּ עָלַי חֶרְפָּתִי. - If indeed you magnify yourselves against me, and prove my disgrace against me.
You wish to magnify my sins so that there will be a correspondence between the punishment and the iniquity. Therefore you say: surely you must have committed some terrible and monstrous sin, for otherwise there is no parallel between the punishment and the guilt. You feel compelled to explain why I am afflicted with such severe suffering, and so "you magnify against me" - you inflate my sin to draw an equivalence between it and the dreadful suffering I endure. "And prove my disgrace against me" - and from where do you prove that I am wicked? From the very afflictions I suffer! From them you ostensibly prove that I must be guilty. Iyov tells them: this is no proof at all.
דְּעוּ־אֵפוֹ כִּי־אֱלוֹהַּ עִוְּתָנִי וּמְצוּדוֹ עָלַי הִקִּיף. - Know then that God has subverted me, and has enclosed me in His net.
Know that you are mistaken. The suffering I endure is not in accordance with justice, but through a perversion of justice; it is an injustice. "Has subverted me" - He has dealt perversely with my judgment; "and enclosed me in His net" - He trapped me in a net outside the law, without fair trial and unjustly. Therefore, do not judge me and do not draw conclusions about my sins from my afflictions, for my suffering is neither just nor lawful.
הֵן אֶצְעַק חָמָס וְלֹא אֵעָנֶה אֲשַׁוַּע וְאֵין מִשְׁפָּט. - Behold, I cry out, "Violence!" but I am not answered; I cry aloud, but there is no justice.
Over this very matter I cry out in protest - that an unlawful robbery and injustice has been done to me - "and I am not answered." This is like a person set upon by bandits who cries out for help, yet no one responds and there is no one to rescue him. If so, there is no choice but to appeal to the judges of the land: "I cry aloud" - I go and cry out to the seat of judgment, "yet there is no justice" - there is no one to judge the wicked according to the law, and no court before which to bring my case.
אָרְחִי גָדַר וְלֹא אֶעֱבוֹר וְעַל נְתִיבוֹתַי חֹשֶׁךְ יָשִׂים. - He has fenced up my way so that I cannot pass, and He has placed darkness upon my paths.
One hope still remained for me: true, bandits rule here and there is no justice, but I will go to the metropolis, where there are great courts and where I can demand justice. Yet when I set out on the road to the courts - "He has fenced up my way so that I cannot pass." They placed barriers in front of me; there is no way out, and you cannot approach to lodge a complaint. I said to myself: I will not travel by the main highway, but through the trails, via side roads, if only I can reach the great city to present my case before the supreme judges. But "He has placed darkness upon my paths" - He darkens my way so that I cannot find the trails, preventing me from reaching the city and submitting my grievance over the injustice done to me.
כְּבוֹדִי מֵעָלַי הִפְשִׁיט וַיָּסַר עֲטֶרֶת רֹאשִׁי. - He has stripped my glory from me, and taken the crown from my head.
Up to this point, he describes a tightening noose that the Holy One, blessed be He, has closed around him with severe and horrific suffering, without even the right to plead his case: there are no judges, there are no law courts in the big city, and there is no way to get there. All of this is a metaphor for being told, as it were: suffer in silence; you do not even have the right to come and justify yourself in any way. And he adds: after Hashem encompassed me in His net and fenced in my paths, He also "stripped my glory from me, and removed the crown of my head" - He took away the crown of my head. Iyov was a very distinguished man of great wealth, and both his wealth and his greatness were taken from him.
יִתְּצֵנִי סָבִיב וָאֵלַךְ וַיַּסַּע כָּעֵץ תִּקְוָתִי. - He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone; and He has uprooted my hope like a tree.
He killed my children all around me, "and He has uprooted my hope like a tree" - like a tree torn out by its roots. And although sometimes when a tree is uprooted, some roots remain in the ground from which a new tree can grow, here that was not the case: the Holy One, blessed be He, inflicted upon me afflictions from which there is no recovery; no roots remained from which I could sprout salvation and healing.
וַיַּחַר עָלַי אַפּוֹ וַיַּחְשְׁבֵנִי לוֹ כְצָרָיו. - He has kindled His wrath against me, and He counts me among His adversaries.
As it were, Hashem incited His wrath against me, and "His wrath" (apo) here is treated as an abstract entity in its own right: He stirred His anger against me to such an extent that the wrath itself regarded me as though I were its foe and adversary.
יַחַד יָבֹאוּ גְדוּדָיו וַיָּסֹלּוּ עָלַי דַּרְכָּם וַיַּחֲנוּ סָבִיב לְאׇהֳלִי. - His troops come together and pave their way against me, and encamp around my tent.
He sent legions against me, all marching to wage war upon me; "and pave their way against me" from the word mesilah (highway) - they paved their path against me until they encamped around my tent. Here he alludes to the troubles that relentlessly overtook him: the bands of Sheba, the Chaldeans, all those who arrived one after another, like troops encamping around him who refuse to leave until they have destroyed him. It is also possible that he is referring to his companions: the friends who were supposed to serve as a help and a shield to him not only failed to protect or assist him, but they also advance against him like legions. They view him as one who battles against Hashem and denies His providence, coming forth with zeal for Hashem's sake to fight him.
אַחַי מֵעָלַי הִרְחִיק וְיֹדְעַי אַךְ־זָרוּ מִמֶּנִּי. חָדְלוּ קְרוֹבָי וּמְיֻדָּעַי שְׁכֵחוּנִי. - He has removed my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My relatives have failed, and my acquaintances have forgotten me.
Since legions of wrath and fury encamp around me, having taken me on as a "project," as it were, it naturally follows that "He has removed my brothers far from me." Who wants to come to such a place? Who wants to enter such distress and danger? "And my acquaintances" - those who know me - "zaru from me," meaning they have scattered away. This is related to the word mazor, meaning a cure or remedy, since they would scatter medicinal ingredients onto wounds, as Scripture states: "they have not been pressed (zoru), neither bound up, neither softened with oil." Part of the treatment was to scatter medicines over the wound, which is why a cure is called mazor. Here as well, "zaru from me" is an expression of scattering.
"My relatives have failed" - those close to me have ceased to come; "and my acquaintances have forgotten me" - those who knew me have already forgotten all about Iyov. For as is well known, when a person is successful he has many friends and relatives, but when he falls, he suddenly finds that there is no one at his side.
There is a beautiful insight on this regarding the verse, "After he is sold, he shall have redemption," and regarding the Jubilee year (Yovel), "Each of you shall return to his ancestral holding, and each of you shall return to his family." It is asked: "each of you shall return to his ancestral holding" is easily understood, for lands revert in the Jubilee; but what is the meaning of "each of you shall return to his family"? It is explained: when a person is downtrodden, impoverished, destitute, poor, and needy, everyone distances themselves from him. Everyone says, "Him? A relative? I don't think he is related to me." But if they suddenly see that he has become wealthy - "You know, don't we share a cousin?" Suddenly he recognizes him, inquires after his welfare, and greets him with a glowing "good morning!" What happened? He has money. And that is the meaning of "each of you shall return to his ancestral holding" - once you return to your estate and people suddenly say, "Look at how many properties he has! For twenty years we did not know he owned such estates!" then automatically, "and each of you shall return to his family" - suddenly you discover what a massive family you have, and even people you never knew turn out to be your relatives. Why? There is money, so everyone comes along.
It is like what they tell about the kibbutzim: there are people nobody heard from for years, and suddenly they show up and remind everyone, "Gentlemen, we are members of the kibbutz!" - you have lived in the city for thirty years already! But they heard that privatization is about to happen, that they are about to sell off the assets of the kibbutz, and then everyone arrives and says, "Do you remember that I'm here? My father was one of the founders." Suddenly everyone remembers that he is also a partner. This is what Iyov is saying: when such troubles befell me, naturally my brothers were distanced, my acquaintances became alienated from me, and all who knew and loved me drew far away.
גָּרֵי בֵיתִי וְאַמְהֹתַי לְזָר תַּחְשְׁבֻנִי נׇכְרִי הָיִיתִי בְעֵינֵיהֶם. - The dwellers of my house and my maidservants consider me a stranger; I have become an alien in their eyes.
"My maidservants" (*amhotai*) is related to the word *amahot*, female servants. And he says to them: If only you considered me a stranger! If only you treated me with the respect due to a stranger, rather than the respect you are supposed to accord the master of your house. But in their eyes I was like an alien, like someone arriving from a distant land whom no one knows at all, knowing neither his nationality nor his tongue. If only you would treat me as a stranger rather than as your master - I would already be far better off.
לְעַבְדִּי קָרָאתִי וְלֹא יַעֲנֶה בְּמוֹ־פִי אֶתְחַנֶּן־לוֹ. - I called to my servant, but he would not answer; with my own mouth I must plead with him.
Even when I call my servant - who naturally ought to fear and respect his master - "I called, but he would not answer." I call ten times, and at last he says, "I didn't hear." Suddenly he cannot hear. My condition has sunk so low that even the members of my household and my servants, who should always carry out my will, do not answer me when I call them. "With my own mouth I must plead with him" - I plead and beg, but to no avail; I call him, and he neither comes nor answers.
רוּחִי זָרָה לְאִשְׁתִּי וְחַנֹּתִי לִבְנֵי בִטְנִי. - My breath is loathsome to my wife, and my supplication to the children of my body.
And do not think this applies only to servants: even to my wife my breath is loathsome, as though I were a stranger to her. "And my supplication" (*ve-chanoti*) - my pleas - are also repulsive to the children of my body. And since his children had died, we must understand who "the children of my body" are: either grandchildren, sons of sons, or other children he had through concubines. In any case, my pleading with them has become foreign and repulsive to them.
גַּם־עֲוִילִים מָאֲסוּ בִי אָקוּמָה וַיְדַבְּרוּ־בִי. - Even base youths despised me; when I arise, they speak against me.
"Base youths" (*avilim*) is a combination of two low ranks. A youth (*na'ar*) is of low status, as was said of Yosef, "And there was with us a Hebrew youth" - said disparagingly, a youth who acts childishly. Another low degree is a wrongdoer (*oseh avel*). Depraved youths - a combination of two low levels. "Even base youths despised me" - even wicked youngsters have spurned me. Not only that, but "when I arise, they speak against me" - when I finish the debate and get up, they speak about me behind my back. Look at the lowest of men: even they have criticisms of me, even they speak against me.
תִּעֲבוּנִי כׇּל־מְתֵי סוֹדִי וְזֶה־אָהַבְתִּי נֶהְפְּכוּ־בִי. - All my confidants abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.
All those "confidants" (*mete sodi*), the men of my inner circle with whom I would converse about my most personal affairs - they speak disparagingly of me; they abhor me. And to whom does he refer? To his three companions, who spoke harshly to him and did not treat him appropriately. And who is "this one whom I loved"? That is Bildad the Shuchite, whom he held dearest of all, because in the first debate he did not follow the approach of Eliphaz and Tzofar, who immediately pinned guilt and sin upon him and claimed that he was suffering because of his iniquities. Bildad initially did not adopt that line, and so Iyov said: I felt a certain affection toward him; I thought, here at least is one who does not seek out faults in me. But he too "turned against me" - he too turned against me for the worse.
בְּעוֹרִי וּבִבְשָׂרִי דָּבְקָה עַצְמִי וָאֶתְמַלְּטָה בְּעוֹר שִׁנָּי. - "My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth."
What happens to a person who becomes extremely emaciated? The skin clings to the flesh. Sometimes we see such photographs, and they are truly horrifying: no flesh is visible anymore, only skin and the outline of bones - photographs from Biafra, photographs from the Holocaust, may Hashem protect us, terrible and dreadful sights. That is on one hand. On the other hand, the flesh clings to the bones, for there is no fat left to separate them. This is the meaning of "My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh": my bones cling to my skin from the outside and to my flesh from the inside, because there is no longer any fat or flesh, and everything is pressed against the bones.
"And I have escaped by the skin of my teeth [ve'etmaltah be'or shinai]" - "etmaltah" is related to discharging or expelling (lehaflit / lehamlit), meaning that I cast out through my teeth the food I have eaten; and "be'or" is related to "be'ir" (a beast). He tells them: I have become like an animal, like a beast that brings up its cud and grinds again with its teeth what it had already eaten. Yet an animal brings up its cud because it lacks upper teeth and did not grind properly at first, whereas I vomit up my food even though I have teeth. In other words, whatever I eat is expelled from me. The intestines and digestive organs no longer function, because they are wasted and already stuck to the bones from extreme starvation and disease, so that if I eat anything - I vomit it up.
חׇנֻּנִי חׇנֻּנִי אַתֶּם רֵעָי כִּי יַד־אֱלוֹהַּ נָגְעָה בִּי. לָמָּה תִּרְדְּפֻנִי כְמוֹ־אֵל וּמִבְּשָׂרִי לֹא תִשְׂבָּעוּ. - "Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me. Why do you pursue me like God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?"
He pleads with them: My friends and companions, have mercy on me. You see that "the hand of God has struck me," that I am afflicted with severe plagues from the hand of Hashem. He draws an analogy: when prey is plump and fat, one understands why predators pounce upon it - there is meat on it, there is something to consume. But as for me, my entire body is covered with afflictions, my skin clings to my bone, and my flesh clings to my bone from within. Why, then, do you pursue me? What will you gain? "And are not satisfied with my flesh" - I have no flesh left for you to devour.
"Why do you pursue me like God" - you pursue me without any enjoyment and without any benefit, and in this you act like God; for according to Iyov's claim, God too pursued him without benefit, without enjoyment, and without any cause. So what do you gain from this, he asks them.
מִי־יִתֵּן אֵפוֹ וְיִכָּתְבוּן מִלָּי מִי־יִתֵּן בַּסֵּפֶר וְיֻחָקוּ. - "Oh that my words were written now! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!"
He says to them: True, in this generation you condemn me, finding flaws and shortcomings in me, each of you fabricating a different accusation against me, and I have no hope of being vindicated in your eyes. But I ask for one thing: would that my words and arguments be written down and inscribed in a book! Why? So that they will be preserved for future generations, for I am certain that in future generations someone with an honest, discerning mind will arise and recognize the justice of my cause and the righteousness of my deeds.
בְּעֵט־בַּרְזֶל וְעֹפָרֶת לָעַד בַּצּוּר יֵחָצְבוּן. - "That with an iron pen and lead they were hewn in the rock forever!"
I am not satisfied with them merely being inscribed in a book, for a book can fade or be erased. I want them engraved with an iron pen and lead, and not just anywhere, but carved into solid rock - "hewn in the rock" - so that they endure until the final generation.
וַאֲנִי יָדַעְתִּי גֹּאֲלִי חָי וְאַחֲרוֹן עַל־עָפָר יָקוּם. - But I know that my redeemer lives, and in the end, he will arise upon the dust.
I am confident that at some point in time, a person will be found who will read the words I wrote, champion my cause, vindicate my case, and prove that you are mistaken in your accusations regarding my wickedness, and that I truly received my punishment unjustly. "And at the end he will arise upon the dust" - even if it is someone from the very last generation to arise upon the earth, in the end someone will be found who will vindicate me and declare that justice is on my side, not with the claims you have made.
וְאַחַר עוֹרִי נִקְּפוּ־זֹאת וּמִבְּשָׂרִי אֶחֱזֶה אֱלוֹהַּ. אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי אֶחֱזֶה־לִּי וְעֵינַי רָאוּ וְלֹא־זָר כָּלוּ כִלְיֹתַי בְּחֵקִי. כִּי תֹאמְרוּ מַה־נִּרְדׇּף־לוֹ וְשֹׁרֶשׁ דָּבָר נִמְצָא־בִי. - And after my skin has been struck off like this, from my flesh would I see God? Whom I would behold for myself, and my eyes would see and not a stranger; my kidneys are consumed within my bosom. For you say, 'How shall we pursue him, when the root of the matter is found in me?'
They had said to him: Know that the soul endures, and in the end you will delight in Hashem and receive twofold goodness; the body is merely physical and transient, belonging only to this world, whereas the essence is the spiritual reality - there is an afterlife, Olam Haba. But Iyov, as we recall, denied the immortality of the soul and denied life in the World to Come, and therefore he responds to them based on the appearance of his body.
"Nikfu" is like nigeftu (stricken), as in the phrase of Chazal, "A person does not stub (nokeif) his finger below unless it is decreed about him from Above" - meaning that a person receives a wound on his finger or cuts his finger only after it was decreed upon him from Heaven. And this is his meaning: Now that you see that my skin has been struck and battered with sores and pus, and has already melted away with nothing left of it, and as he described earlier that my flesh is entirely shriveled and cleaving to bone - how could it be that "from my flesh would I see God"? How could this flesh ever stand before God and receive retribution and reward for the good deeds he performed?
גּוּרוּ לָכֶם מִפְּנֵי־חֶרֶב כִּי־חֵמָה עֲוֺנוֹת חָרֶב לְמַעַן תֵּדְעוּן שַׁדּוּן. - Be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the iniquities of the sword, so that you may know there is judgment.
Now Iyov comes to them with a rebuke: Tremble before the sword and the judgment hanging over you, because you are guilty of improper speech. You have caused me pain for no reason, and that is why you should be very, very afraid.
"For wrath brings the iniquities of the sword" - when a person distresses and causes grief to another, let him know that for such an act he will receive severe and dreadful punishment in wrath, and the punishment comes in full measure. It is well known that there are many stories about this, that when people suffered severe punishments, it was often because they had distressed someone in the past and caused another person anguish. And so it is written in the Torah: "You shall not mistreat any widow or orphan. If you mistreat him... My anger will flare and I will kill you with the sword." From here you learn that causing pain to another carries a terrible punishment.
"So that you may know there is judgment (shaddun)" - so that you will know that there is judgment in the world and justice in the world. The written text (ketiv) is shedin - that there is judgment, and the reading (keri) is shaddun - that Hashem judges His world. Iyov says to them: You claim that everything is with law and judgment and everything is just, and it is very nice to recite this, but you still do not know it with clear knowledge. And when will you know? When the Holy One, Blessed is He, exacts retribution from you and chastises you for what you are doing to me now and for the pain you are causing me - then you will know that there is judgment in the world. You will not merely recite it, you will not just tell me, "Know that you are receiving what you deserve, there is judgment and a person sins and pays" - but rather, when you suffer it yourselves for having caused me pain, then you will have clear knowledge that there is judgment in the world and that a person pays for his deeds.
In Chapter 19, Iyov does not yet offer an orderly response to Bildad, but cries out the anguish of the aggrieved: ten times his companions have shamed him with high-flown rhetoric entirely aimed at him, exaggerating his sin to match his punishment and deducing his disgrace from his afflictions themselves. He argues that even if he did err, his error was his own and misled no one, and that justice has been perverted against him: he is trapped in a siege, he cries out but receives no answer, there is no justice and no way to reach it. He describes his fall from dignity to destitution, the alienation of his brothers, relatives, acquaintances, maidservants, and servants, his estrangement from his wife and his own children, the contempt of base scoundrels, and the betrayal of his confidants, including Bildad whom he loved. From a body so melted away that his bones cling to his skin and flesh, he pleads for mercy: Why are you not satisfied with flesh that is no longer there? In despair of the present, he entrusts his cause to posterity and to Heaven - that his words be inscribed with an iron pen and lead upon the rock, for he is confident that one will arise to vindicate him - and he warns his friends: Beware the sword, for causing another pain is avenged in fury, and then you will know with lucid, genuine certainty, not mere lip service, that there is judgment and there is a Judge.