In the passage before us, Eliphaz the Temanite continues his words to Iyov, delving into the depths of the arguments of those who deny divine providence. First, he presents their claim: observing the apparent lack of order in the world, where the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer, the skeptics conclude that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not exercise providence at all, and that everything taking place here is merely the fixed motion of the celestial bodies. Afterwards, Eliphaz turns the tables and demonstrates that precisely from this apparent disorder, one is compelled to arrive at belief in the immortality of the soul and the World of Reward. From there, he proceeds to practical conclusions for Iyov: how to serve Hashem for the sake of Heaven, and what constitutes man's true delight.
אוֹ־חֹשֶׁךְ לֹא־תִרְאֶה וְשִׁפְעַת־מַיִם תְּכַסֶּךָּ׃ - "Or darkness that you cannot see, and an abundance of water covers you."
Eliphaz says to him: Because you see disorder in Hashem's governance, where one wicked person prospers while another stumbles, you think in your heart that there is no providence, that the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, does not see what occurs down below. Perhaps there is darkness separating between Him and what takes place on earth, or perhaps "an abundance of water covers you" - as though there were water or clouds concealing the world from before Him. Just as in your case darkness prevents you from seeing, and a torrent of water covers and hides things from your eyes, so you imagine that if divine governance seems devoid of justice, perhaps it is, so to speak, difficult for Him to see from afar.
הֲלֹא־אֱלוֹהַּ גֹּבַהּ שָׁמָיִם וּרְאֵה רֹאשׁ כּוֹכָבִים כִּי־רָמּוּ׃ - "Is not God in the height of heaven? Behold the highest of the stars, how lofty they are!"
The heavens are, so to speak, the dwelling place of the Creator of the world, and they are high above the earth. "Behold the highest of the stars, how lofty they are" - the stars themselves are lofty and immensely distant from the earth; and if they are so high, all the more so the Master of the stars, Who is far above them. From this, the flawed thought leaps forth: the distance is so vast, how could He possibly see all the way down here?
וְאָמַרְתָּ מַה־יָּדַע אֵל הַבְעַד עֲרָפֶל יִשְׁפּוֹט׃ - "And you say, 'What does God know? Can He judge through the thick cloud?'"
"What does God know?" - you think to yourself that perhaps Hashem, as it were, does not know what is done here, for otherwise you have no explanation for how His governance appears so disordered. "Can He judge through the thick cloud?" - is it conceivable that He sees through the cloud all that people do here, all the injustice and wickedness, and remains silent? Therefore, they conclude, perhaps He does not see at all.
עָבִים סֵתֶר־לוֹ וְלֹא יִרְאֶה וְחוּג שָׁמַיִם יִתְהַלָּךְ׃ - "Thick clouds are a veil to Him, so that He does not see, and He walks in the circuit of heaven."
"Clouds are a hiding place for Him, so that He does not see" - they claim that the clouds conceal from Him what happens on earth. In the second half of the verse, Elifaz moves to another argument of the deniers. Sometimes one sees wicked people receiving their punishment, such as the Generation of the Flood who were wiped out in the waters. To this the deniers claim that this does not stem at all from their evil deeds, but rather "and He walks on the circuit of heaven": even the phenomena you witness do not come about through design or by way of a miracle, but are part of a fixed cycle whose time has arrived. Just as a solar or lunar eclipse can be calculated and predicted to the exact date, and is not regarded as a supernatural phenomenon, so too any catastrophe that strikes the wicked - this, they say, stems from the arrangement of the stars and celestial order, the influence of this constellation on that horizon, producing effects that lead to extraordinary precipitation and a deluge. "The circuit of heaven" (chug shamayim) - like a compass (mechugah): the stars always move in a fixed, recurring order.
הַאֹרַח עוֹלָם תִּשְׁמוֹר אֲשֶׁר דָּרְכוּ מְתֵי־אָוֶן׃ - "Will you keep the path of the world which iniquitous men have trodden?"
Can it really be that the fixed order of the world would change on account of "men of iniquity," a handful of people who turned to evil ways? Would the stars deviate from the order of Creation because of the changing deeds of the wicked? Quite the contrary - "and He walks on the circuit of heaven"; reality is not altered by human actions. This is the deniers' claim: do not assert that there is reward and punishment, and do not assert that Hashem exacts retribution from the wicked, even miraculously. And when you tell them: Behold, I have seen empirical proof, behold the Splitting of the Red Sea, where Israel crossed and Egypt drowned - they will always offer a natural explanation: high and low tide, and Moshe was a great astrologer who knew and recognized the precise moment. For the heavens are like a compass, operating steadily according to the influence of the celestial bodies, and precisely at that hour such an influence occurred. Everything that happens in the world is a fixed routine, and whether you are righteous or wicked, nothing will change.
אֲשֶׁר־קֻמְּטוּ וְלֹא־עֵת נָהָר יוּצַק יְסוֹדָם׃ - "Who were cut off before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream."
Those wicked men who deny Divine Providence make this claim even regarding those cut down by the waters of the Flood. "Kumtu" means they were cut off. "Velo et" - was it not that very time that dictated that "their foundation was poured out as a stream," that the foundation of the world, the primordial waters from the Six Days of Creation, melted from its congealed state and turned into the springs of the deep and a deluge? In simple terms, they ask: What connection is there between this and their deeds? According to the celestial timing of that era, a global catastrophe was destined to occur, and so it did. The state of the planetary system, the stars, and the ceaseless motion of the heavenly spheres were what brought it about, and it had nothing at all to do with the deeds of the wicked of that generation.
הָאֹמְרִים לָאֵל סוּר מִמֶּנּוּ וּמַה־יִּפְעַל שַׁדַּי לָמוֹ׃ - "Who said to God: Depart from us; and what can the Almighty do to them?"
Now the deniers bring proof for their words: Behold, the wicked say to the Holy One, blessed be He, "Depart from us, we have no desire for You or Your providence," and despite all this - "and what can the Almighty do to them?" What did Hashem do to them? Did He bring distress upon them? On the contrary, you see them prospering greatly. From this they argue that there is no Divine Providence over the deeds of man, for no matter how wickedly they acted, He did nothing against them.
וְהוּא מִלֵּא בָתֵּיהֶם טוֹב וַעֲצַת רְשָׁעִים רָחֲקָה מֶנִּי׃ - "Yet He filled their houses with good things; but the counsel of the wicked is far from me."
Not only does He not exact retribution from them, but "He filled their houses with good things." According to your view that good comes through Hashem's providence, goodness ought to have been withheld from these people, for they are wicked. "And the counsel of the wicked is far from me" - after all we have seen, understanding how the Holy One, blessed be He, conducts the affairs of the wicked and bestows good upon them is far from me, beyond our capacity to fathom.
And what is Elifaz driving at with all this? Has he suddenly become wicked? Rather, he is sharpening and emphasizing what he stated earlier. Do you think the wicked prosper for no reason? Their prosperity possesses no intrinsic worldly logic, and it does not occur by chance. They prosper so that through this, the righteous person will be tested: Will he remain wholehearted in his faith, or will he be swayed by the prosperity of the wicked, alter his ways, and say, "It is useless to serve God; why should I toil when it goes so well for the wicked while the righteous suffers?" Thus, on the contrary, the apparent lack of order demonstrates Divine Providence, for the Holy One, blessed be He, in His providence, ensured that there would be a reality that arouses bewilderment, so that the faith and devotion of the righteous would be tested. For when everything goes well for the righteous, what greatness is there in trusting in Hashem and cleaving to Him?
יִרְאוּ צַדִּיקִים וְיִשְׂמָחוּ וְנָקִי יִלְעַג־לָמוֹ׃ - "The righteous shall see it and rejoice, and the innocent shall mock them."
When the righteous observe this apparent disorder, they understand that the Holy One, Blessed is He, cannot possibly conclude reality here in this world. After all, the wicked receive good here while the righteous endure hardship, and there appears to be no justice. From this very observation, one is compelled to conclude that another world exists - the World of Reward - in which the Holy One, Blessed is He, brings every hidden matter to judgment, whether good or evil. And when this is known, "the righteous shall see it and rejoice" - the time will come when we rejoice and receive eternal reward and delight for all our labor. "And the innocent shall mock them" - the innocent person mocks the wicked. Even though the wicked walk about in joy and delight here, singing, appearing successful, and riding the wave of fortune, the innocent person says to them: Your joy is fleeting, and eternity follows it. Why do you rejoice as though you have committed evil and succeeded? You are mistaken; you will eventually receive your punishment in the afterlife, in the persistence of the soul.
אִם־לֹא נִכְחַד קִימָנוּ וְיִתְרָם אָכְלָה אֵשׁ׃ - "Surely our enduring essence is not cut off, while fire consumed their remnant."
The clauses here parallel one another, explains the Malbim: "The righteous shall see it and rejoice" corresponds to "Surely our enduring essence is not cut off"; "and the innocent shall mock them" corresponds to "while fire consumed their remnant." Why does the righteous person rejoice? Because "our enduring essence is not cut off" - that which exists within us eternally, the soul, is not obliterated, but endures forever. And the proof, as stated, is that it is impossible for the righteous to endure evil here and the wicked to enjoy good without justice; perforce, the soul endures and will receive its reward in the World of Reward. Kimenu ("our enduring essence") is related to kiyumenu ("our endurance"), that which endures within us, which is the soul, for the physical body rots away. And why does the innocent mock? "While fire consumed their remnant" - what is man's preeminence over the beast? It is the spiritual soul. The innocent person says to the wicked: Even though you succeeded here and see no punishment for your actions, your preeminence over the beast - the Divine soul - will ultimately be consumed by the fire of Gehinnom, for the soul indeed endures. If so, what reason do you have to rejoice, when you are destined to receive such a dreadful punishment?
This is the fundamental principle that Eliphaz establishes: the very fact that one sees the righteous suffering and the wicked prospering compels the conclusion that the soul endures after death, and that ultimately the Holy One, Blessed is He, will bestow good upon the righteous and retribution upon the wicked - in the World of Reward. From here, he draws practical conclusions for Iyov.
הַסְכֶּן־נָא עִמּוֹ וּשְׁלָם בָּהֶם תְּבוֹאַתְךָ טוֹבָה׃ - "Accustom yourself with Him, please, and be whole; thereby your harvest shall be good."
Iyov, my friend: "Accustom yourself with Him, please" - accustom yourself to being with God and walking with Him, and do all your deeds for the sake of Heaven, not out of hope for reward, for reward is not found here. Indeed, this is precisely why Hashem did not place reward in this world: so that your service would be performed with wholeness. "And be whole" - then you will attain the level of perfection, free of any motive to receive a prize. "Thereby your harvest shall be good" - specifically through the wicked who receive good in this world, it will be recognized: "My service was motivated by love and done for the sake of Heaven. For the proof is right before me: I could have acted as they did - look how pleasant their lives are and how they succeed - yet I chose the path that seems far more difficult. Why forgo the pleasures of life and suffer here without receiving compensation? Surely it testifies to the greatness of my faith, that my Employer is faithful to pay the reward of my labor." And through this, you will receive good in the World of Reward and in the World of Souls, for this demonstrates that your service was genuine.
קַח־נָא מִפִּיו תּוֹרָה וְשִׂים אֲמָרָיו בִּלְבָבֶךָ׃ - "Receive, please, instruction from His mouth, and place His words in your heart."
Do not conduct yourself according to rational conventions, according to what you comprehend with your own intellect and what seems logical to you; rather, "Receive, please, instruction from His mouth" - receive the Divine Torah that comes through prophecy. "And place His words in your heart" - the heart symbolizes free will; "in your heart" (bi-levavecha, with a double beit) implies with both inclinations, the Good Inclination and the Evil Inclination. Your heart, which chooses and desires, should not chase after bodily welfare and its pleasures, after what pays off in this world or serves your personal benefit. Instead, the words of Hashem should dwell in your heart and guide you to do what is right according to Hashem's commandments, free of ulterior motives. Thus, precisely from observing the wicked prospering while the righteous suffer, one is strengthened in the faith that an eternal reward awaits after a person's passing, knowing that Hashem is testing him: Will he chase after their temporary success, or will he cling to His service?
אִם־תָּשׁוּב עַד־שַׁדַּי תִּבָּנֶה תַּרְחִיק עַוְלָה מֵאָהֳלֶךָ׃ - If you return to the Almighty you shall be built up; you will keep injustice far from your tents.
On the one hand, he told him to bring the Torah down from above to below: receive Torah from His mouth, conduct yourself according to God's commandment even when it seems more profitable to do otherwise, until the Torah dwells within your heart. On the other hand, he tells him to elevate your soul from below to above and draw it close to God. We find these two dimensions at Mount Sinai: "And Hashem descended upon Mount Sinai" - the Holy One, blessed be He, descends toward man; "and Moses went up to God" - man, from his own side, elevates himself to Hashem, blessed be He. That is, you must elevate all your material affairs to Hashem, so that your sole focus is to fulfill His will, blessed be He, and not to yield a profit or pursue a physical objective.
"If you return to the Almighty" - then "you shall be built up": you will become an abode and dwelling place for the Shechinah, in the sense of "and I will dwell among them." For when your entire purpose is the service of Hashem and your entire desire is to fulfill His will, through this you ensure that the Holy Presence will rest within you. The holy Forefathers were called a chariot for the Shechinah because they nullified themselves: when a person takes up no space, the Holy One, blessed be He, can dwell there. But a person who takes up space, who has physical desires, yearnings, ambitions, and worldly pursuits, has cleared less room for Hashem, blessed be He.
"You shall keep injustice far from your tents" - and thereby your very existence will be far removed from wrongdoing. For a material person, driven by ambitions and desires, ultimately stoops to wrongdoing: injustice, dishonesty, theft, flattery, and falsehood, in order to attain his desires and goals. But if all your desires and ambitions are to fulfill His will, blessed be He, with wholeness and for the sake of Heaven, out of faith that the ultimate reward lies in the future, you are guaranteed to distance yourself from deeds of injustice and wickedness. There is also an additional point here: when a person is drawn after physical matters, even permitted ones, this inevitably leads him to transgression. This is the Ramban's meaning regarding "You shall be holy" - be separated, sanctify yourself with what is permitted to you. Scripture is not speaking of explicit prohibitions, but of restraint beyond what is forbidden, for if you do not sanctify yourself within what is permitted and instead accustom yourself to constantly satisfy your cravings through permissible means, there is a risk that when your craving cannot be satisfied permissibly, you will come to transgression. Consequently, if a person distances himself even within the realm of the permitted and does not partake of everything the Torah allowed, all the more so will he not stumble into what it prohibited.
וְשִׁית־עַל־עָפָר בָּצֶר וּכְצוּר נְחָלִים אוֹפִיר׃ - And lay treasure in the dust, and the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.
All the acquisitions of this world will be as nothing in your eyes, to the point that even great fortresses will seem like dust to you. And fine gold, the gold of Ophir, you will leave among the rocks of the streams - you will say to this gold: remain in the ravines. That is, you will no longer seek to amass wealth, you will not search for fortified cities, nor will you aspire to build yourself a villa and a castle. And why? Because your entire purpose is to do Hashem's will, to "return to the Almighty," and what you seek is to "be built up" - to build your spirituality rather than your materiality.
וְהָיָה שַׁדַּי בְּצָרֶיךָ וְכֶסֶף תּוֹעָפוֹת לָךְ׃ - And the Almighty shall be your fortress, and precious silver to you.
And who will be your fortress? "The Almighty will be your fortress." It will be sevenfold more precious in your eyes to do Hashem's will and build Him a home - "in my heart I shall build a sanctuary" - this will be your fortress, and in it you will find strength and shelter from every foe and adversary. For a fortress signifies protection; one can build a fortress of stone and feel confident of being protected, but when a person draws close to Hashem, his fortresses are Hashem, blessed be He. When one trusts in Him, "Hashem is for me, I shall not fear; what can man do to me?" "And precious silver to you" - not physical, material, earthly silver or money, but kesef from the language of kisufim (yearning), and to'afot from the language of soaring and elevation: instead of yearning until now for physical pursuits, building houses, and seeking the gold of Ophir, now that you draw close to Hashem and know that your service is not for reward in this world, you will yearn to soar and reach toward God, rather than yearning for the physical things of this world.
כִּי־אָז עַל־שַׁדַּי תִּתְעַנָּג וְתִשָּׂא אֶל־אֱלוֹהַּ פָּנֶיךָ׃ - For then you will delight in the Almighty, and lift up your face to God.
In this state, you will no longer have physical pleasures, but spiritual pleasures. In truth, man's genuine pleasure is spiritual pleasure, and physical pleasure is nothing compared to it. The same is true in reverse: physical pain is nothing compared to emotional anguish. A person who suffers physical pain, even very severe pain, is capable of overcoming it; but someone plunged into an emotional crisis can reach a state where he cannot bear it at all. Likewise, if someone becomes disabled, Heaven forbid, one can live and manage with it; but if someone suffers from an illness of the soul, it is exceedingly difficult to live with it. This is because what happens in the soul is incomparably more severe than what happens in the body.
The same applies to pleasure. What is a person willing to suffer so much for? For honor. How much humiliation is a person willing to endure for a little bit of honor: to run and chase and beg that they say this about him, that they mention his name, that they call him up on the loudspeaker and announce to everyone that he has arrived! How much he is willing to degrade himself just so they will honor him a little. People are willing to work, invest, and spend money - and what does a person yearn for most? Money; yet what is he willing to spend it on? To buy honor. Some are willing to endure severe hardship and backbreaking labor, just so long as they receive honor. The reason: honor is a spiritual pleasure, and therefore it is a tremendous pleasure.
Notice the difference. When a person enjoys a physical pleasure, it quickly passes and is gone; if anything remains from yesterday's pizza, it might be a stomachache. You enjoyed it, certainly, but it is over. In contrast, someone who was honored at an event, who won a great prize and was celebrated - every time he remembers it, he is filled anew with joy, excitement, and satisfaction. Honor is a real pleasure. The pleasures of this world are like seawater: you drink, you swallow, and in the first moment it cools your throat, but immediately you create a thirst to drink more. No man dies with even half his desires in hand; he who has a hundred desires two hundred. Every fulfillment of physical desire creates a deficiency and a further need to satisfy that desire. But spiritual yearning - "you shall delight in the Almighty" - is a pleasure that fills a person without depleting him.
This is what he is telling him: the soul is spiritual, and the greatest pleasure, as the Ramchal writes, is attachment to Hashem (deveikus). The highest level a person can attain is clinging to the Creator, and this is what the soul yearns for. When you are no longer interested in physical matters, in silver and gold, profits and strongholds, then "you shall delight in the Almighty" and attain true pleasure. "And lift up your face to God" - all your turning and intentions will be directed toward God, not for the sake of physical and material pleasure, but for pure spiritual delight. For every physical pleasure is inherently flawed, since in experiencing it, a person merely paves the way for the desire that follows it.
תַּעְתִּיר אֵלָיו וְיִשְׁמָעֶךָּ וּנְדָרֶיךָ תְשַׁלֵּם׃ - You shall pray to Him, and He will hear you, and you will pay your vows.
וְתִגְזַר־אֹמֶר וְיָקָם־לָךְ וְעַל־דְּרָכֶיךָ נָגַהּ אוֹר׃ - You will decree something, and it will be established for you, and light will shine upon your ways.
It is told of the Chofetz Chaim's son that a group of Chassidim once met him and asked him to tell them about wonder-stories (mofesim). For Chassidim love to hear wonder-stories, and their stories of tzaddikim are based primarily on what wonder the tzaddik performed and what miracle he brought about; unlike stories in the yeshivah world, which are mussar stories - how he broke his character traits and how he overcame his yetzer hara. They said to him: "Tell us a wonder-story about your father." He said to them: "My father, more than being impressed by 'a tzaddik decrees and the Holy One fulfills,' was impressed by 'the Holy One decrees and the tzaddik fulfills.' That is what is truly wondrous - that Hashem commanded, and man, despite all his desires and lusts, despite all the physicality and materialism he is immersed in, and despite all the trials and temptations surrounding him, managed to overcome everything and fulfill the will of Hashem. What is there to marvel at if a tzaddik said, 'Master of the Universe, do such-and-such,' and Hashem did it? Is it such great wisdom to issue decrees to the Holy One? The real wisdom is for a person to break his natural inclinations, and that is what should inspire awe: to see a tzaddik who broke his nature and did what you and I are unable to do, through mastering his nature."
כִּי־הִשְׁפִּילוּ וַתֹּאמֶר גֵּוָה וְשַׁח עֵינַיִם יוֹשִׁעַ׃ - When they cast down, you will say, "There is exaltation," and He will save the downcast of eyes.
Until now, your conduct and path were low: you pursued the matters of this lowly world, physicality occupied you, material pursuits and earthly acquisitions - "when they cast down." But now, the moment you cleave to Hashem, "you will say, 'There is exaltation'" - you will elevate everything to a spiritual, heavenly, and divine plane; you will turn away from matter and its desires, and your soul will soar high. By diminishing this world's pleasures and desires, you connect and draw closer to Him, blessed be He. This is "and He will save the downcast of eyes": when you no longer gaze upon physicality and materialism but cast your eyes down from them, Hashem will grant you a spiritual salvation. Precisely because you harbor no ambitions to rise high in physical pursuits, you will merit salvation in spirituality, "and you will say, 'There is exaltation'" - elevation in the spiritual realm.
יְמַלֵּט אִי־נָקִי וְנִמְלַט בְּבֹר כַּפֶּיךָ׃ - He will deliver even one who is not innocent, and he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.
And all this is on condition that this person of "downcast eyes" rescues and casts out from his body and thoughts the "not innocent" - that which is not clean: negative character traits, corrupt practices, and desires. If he rids himself of the flawed and corrupted, then "he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands" - through the cleanness of his hands, meaning purity and integrity, he will be saved from all harm. First, as we have seen, "You will pray to Him, and He will hear you, and you will pay your vows." And second, he will be saved from all evil thoughts, transgressions, and stumbling blocks, for the purity of his hands is what will preserve him from all sin and iniquity.
Eliphaz first presents the claims of those who deny divine providence: that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not see because of the darkness and distance, and that everything that happens in the world is merely "walking the circuit of heaven" - a fixed course unaffected by human deeds, and that even the Flood did not come as a punishment but at its appointed natural time. Yet from this very premise, he turns the tables: it is specifically this lack of apparent order, where the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer, that proves there is divine providence and a world of reward and punishment. For the Holy One, blessed be He, arranged a perplexing reality in order to test the faith and devotion of the righteous. "Our substance is not cut off" - the soul endures eternally and will receive its reward, while "fire consumed their remnant" - the wicked are destined to face judgment. From here comes the practical conclusion: "Acquaint yourself with Him and be at peace," to serve Hashem for the sake of Heaven without expecting reward; "Receive, please, the Torah from His mouth," not according to the rational conventions of the intellect; "If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up," to become a dwelling place for the Shechinah and distance oneself from iniquity; to cast away fortresses and gold, and to yearn for spiritual elevation; and then "you will delight in the Almighty" - to merit true delight, a delight that fills without ever diminishing. And most importantly, as the Chafetz Chaim taught, the true marvel is not the righteous person whose decrees are fulfilled, but the person who breaks his nature and fulfills the decrees of his Creator.