In the passage before us, Elihu comes to answer Iyov's primary claim: why do the wicked prosper in this world? His answer rests on a fundamental distinction between an earthly king of flesh and blood and the Holy One, blessed be He. From this distinction, he builds our entire understanding of Divine providence: why punishment is concealed, why it is delayed, and why this very concealment is the prerequisite for free will.
כִּי־עֵינָיו עַל־דַּרְכֵי־אִישׁ וְכָל־צְעָדָיו יִרְאֶה׃ - "For His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He sees all his steps."
A king of flesh and blood is quick to punish those who rebel against him. The moment he detects pockets of rebellion, he suppresses them immediately, and for two reasons. First, he is never certain who is sinning against him and who is not. Therefore, when he hears that an injustice or act of treason was committed, he exacts retribution from everyone in the vicinity, fearing that the plague will spread and that tomorrow others in the realm will rebel without his knowledge. He crushes everything to ensure his own quiet. The second reason is limited ability: if he delays, the rebel will vanish underground, and they will pursue him for years without finding him.
Elihu says: these two reasons are completely inapplicable to the Holy One, blessed be He. One cannot say that Hashem hurries to exact punishment from the sinner because He does not know who sinned and therefore punishes whoever happens to be near. Regarding this it is said, "His eyes are upon the ways of man" - Hashem watches constantly, over a person's conduct, over his thoughts, and even his plans are laid bare before Him. "And He sees all his steps."
אֵין־חֹשֶׁךְ וְאֵין צַלְמָוֶת לְהִסָּתֶר שָׁם פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן׃ - "There is no darkness and no shadow of death where workers of iniquity may hide."
And should you say, perhaps the wicked will flee and hide? Before the Holy One, blessed be He, there is no place of darkness or shadow of death where workers of iniquity can hide to escape punishment. It turns out, then, that the Holy One, blessed be He, always sees and knows the deeds of the wicked, and He is always capable of punishing them. If so, why should man offer advice to the Holy One on how to punish the wicked? Hashem knows who committed evil and knows how to punish him, and the Holy One acts with patience and ultimately collects what is His. An earthly king must execute judgment immediately; with the Holy One, blessed be He, there is no need to execute judgment immediately and publicly, for He can always exact retribution from whomever He wishes, and there is no fear that those who must be punished will manage to escape.
כִּי לֹא עַל־אִישׁ יָשִׂים עוֹד לַהֲלֹךְ אֶל־אֵל בַּמִּשְׁפָּט׃ - "For He does not lay upon man further, to go before God in judgment."
The Holy One, blessed be He, did not place this matter upon man. It is not your responsibility to go before God in judgment, to confront the Holy One and ask Him: Master of the Universe, why do You not execute judgment? That is not your role.
יָרֹעַ כַּבִּירִים לֹא־חֵקֶר וַיַּעֲמֵד אֲחֵרִים תַּחְתָּם׃ לָכֵן יַכִּיר מַעְבָּדֵיהֶם וְהָפַךְ לַיְלָה וְיִדַּכָּאוּ׃ - "He shatters mighty men without investigation, and sets others in their place. Therefore He recognizes their deeds, and overturns them by night, and they are crushed."
Yaroa ("He shatters") is related to the phrase tero'em beshevet barzel ("You shall break them with an iron rod"), meaning to crush. Ostensibly, according to strict justice, it would be fitting for Hashem to crush the mighty wicked beyond measure, and in their stead appoint others who are not wicked - "and sets others in their place" - so that those leading the public and acting on behalf of the community would be God-fearing, wholesome people. And why? "Therefore He recognizes their deeds" - so that the entire world would recognize the evil deeds of those whom the Holy One, blessed be He, removed from worldly leadership, and everyone would know: look, this one acted wickedly, and Hashem brought upon him his punishment.
The Malbim explains: yaroa indicates that He would cause an earthquake, so that those corrupt individuals would be swallowed up on the spot, and Hashem would oversee with Divine Providence (hashgachah pratit) that all the wicked in that place perish, while the righteous stand firm and remain unharmed. This was precisely Iyov's constant argument: let it be visibly evident that there is Providence; let it be obvious that the wicked man receives his punishment and the righteous his reward! Yet Hashem does not act this way, but rather "overturns them by night, and they are crushed" - He does not crush them by day and in plain sight, but at night, quietly, not publicly, but as it were in concealment. And on this Iyov questioned: Why do You not exact retribution from them openly, making it clear to all that one who commits evil suffers?
תַּחַת־רְשָׁעִים סְפָקָם בִּמְקוֹם רֹאִים׃ - "He strikes them down as wicked men in the sight of onlookers."
The Holy One, blessed be He, desires that wherever wicked people are found, doubt should remain in their hearts, and it should not be clear to them that Hashem punishes the wicked. His will is that they continue to doubt whether reward and punishment exist, and whether Hashem, blessed be He, exacts retribution from the wicked according to their actions. And why? So that man retains free will. The moment a wicked person is punished immediately, he no longer has free choice: all the wicked would say, "Look, all the righteous endure, wealthy and happy, while the wicked suffer nothing but blows, illness, and troubles; who would be foolish enough to remain wicked?" Consequently, all of us would immediately become righteous.
And ostensibly, that sounds wonderful - wouldn't that be better? The Holy One, blessed be He, says: No. Had I wanted to create robots, I would have created robots. I want a person to be capable of doing evil, and even when he does evil, not to receive his punishment immediately, so that he is constantly left in doubt: "Will I be punished for what I am doing or not?" But according to your conception, Iyov, a person would have no doubts at all: he would see that the wicked receives his punishment and the righteous his reward, that it does not pay to be wicked and it is worthwhile to be righteous. The result would be that he serves Hashem out of compulsion and intimidation, out of fear that punishment will be inflicted upon him, and not out of free choice and the love of Hashem.
Therefore, "tachat resha'im sefakam bimkom ro'im": The Holy One, blessed be He, leaves doubt where there are onlookers, and does not openly take retribution there from the wicked according to their wickedness. Then people maintain their faith not out of dread of punishment, but out of faith that there is a Holy One, blessed be He, Who governs His world - not like a robot acting out of compulsion, but out of a genuine desire to fulfill Hashem's command.
אֲשֶׁר עַל־כֵּן סָרוּ מֵאַחֲרָיו וְכָל־דְּרָכָיו לֹא הִשְׂכִּילוּ׃ - "Who therefore turned away from following Him, and would not consider any of His ways."
Because the Holy One, blessed be He, does not punish the wicked openly, and doubt remains as to whether there is Providence, many people are emboldened in their hearts to do evil. They say: "Look, a person does evil and prospers; the wicked flourish like grass - see how they sprout and grow!" "And would not consider any of His ways" - they do not understand that the reason you see the wicked prosper is solely to preserve doubt in your heart. They do not realize that part of the spiritual work of choosing good is that you must witness a situation in which, ostensibly, the wicked suffer no evil and the righteous experience no good, but rather chaos, turmoil, and apparent disorder in creation. This is part of the difficult questions meant to accompany you in this world, and it is an obstacle you must navigate, overcome, and nevertheless believe in Hashem. They fail to understand that Hashem deliberately conceals the punishment of the wicked.
לְהָבִיא עָלָיו צַעֲקַת־דָּל וְצַעֲקַת עֲנִיִּים יִשְׁמָע׃ - "To bring upon Him the cry of the poor, and He hears the cry of the afflicted."
In doing so, they cause the cry of the poor to be brought before Him: the poor person, murdered and oppressed by the wicked, cries out in grievance to the Holy One, blessed be He, saying: Master of the Universe, why do You not exact retribution from the one who has done such evil to me? Why do You not save me from the hands of this corrupt villain? This is the very question Iyov asked in chapter 24 - that there are wicked people who destroy human society, and "the soul of the slain cries out," yet the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, does not heed their outcry or treat it as a prayer. From this arises the pressing question: Why does Hashem hear the cry of the poor yet seemingly fail to respond?
Elihu answers: The truth is that "He hears the cry of the afflicted." However, at times this wicked person is himself the rod of the Holy One, blessed be He, used to exact retribution from someone who acted improperly, just as it is written: "Woe, Assyria, rod of My anger." Whoever saw Ashur arriving and tormenting the people of Israel wondered: Master of the Universe, such a corrupt king, such cruel villains - how could You deliver us into their hands? The Holy One, blessed be He, replies: You deserved punishment, you acted wickedly, and this is My rod - through Ashur I am striking you.
Therefore, you see that not only does the Holy One, blessed be He, refrain from punishing the wicked immediately, He even grants him strength and power to succeed in his deeds. All the arrows he shot pointed toward Jerusalem; he arrived at the wall, they hung their garments on the wall, and saw that every day the wall of Jerusalem sank - until suddenly the hem of his garment was resting on the ground, for the wall had miraculously sunken; and the doors of the Sanctuary opened before them miraculously. Why? Because this wicked man is granted success, for at times he serves as Hashem's rod to exact retribution from those who acted improperly. And do not think that because the Holy One, blessed be He, uses the wicked man, that wicked man will escape suffering - in the end, Hashem will exact retribution from him as well.
וְהוּא יַשְׁקִט וּמִי יַרְשִׁעַ וְיַסְתֵּר פָּנִים וּמִי יְשׁוּרֶנּוּ וְעַל־גּוֹי וְעַל־אָדָם יָחַד׃ מִמְּלֹךְ אָדָם חָנֵף מִמֹּקְשֵׁי עָם׃ - "When He grants quiet, who can condemn? And when He hides His face, who can behold Him? Whether toward a nation or toward a man together; that a hypocritical man not reign, nor those who snare the people."
The verse should be read as though it said: "When He brings quiet, preventing a hypocritical man from reigning, or those who snare the people - who can condemn?" The Holy One, blessed be He, ordained that a hypocritical man should reign, a wicked ruler whose corrupt deeds shake the earth, and likewise appointed "the snares of the people" - numerous villains who arise to become a trap for the nation, murderers and bandits who serve as a snare and a pitfall for us. And all of this is in order to punish the world through them, so that they serve as the rod of His wrath, as in "Woe, Assyria, rod of My anger," by whose hands Hashem exacts retribution from those who must be punished.
Elihu says to Iyov: Know that for the wickedness of the tyrannical hypocrite who shakes the earth, and of the evildoers who are snares of the people, there is a fixed and limited time according to the decree of the Holy One, blessed be He. And when the time arrives, when we have drunk enough of the cup of poison and Hashem desires to redeem us from the evil of that hypocrite and put an end to their wickedness - "When He grants quiet, who can condemn?" Who will then be able to act wickedly, when the Holy One, blessed be He, decides to silence the wicked? Then the wicked will be cut off.
And as long as the Holy One, blessed be He, conceals His face, a hypocritical man will rule and a wicked tyrant will govern, so that through him those who deserve punishment will be punished. Thus, "When He hides His face, who can behold Him?" - Hashem allows the wicked to rule, hiding His face from us, and who can perceive His providence? Providence is hidden. And why? "Whether toward a nation or toward a man together": sometimes the Holy One, blessed be He, raises up a tyrant and snares of the people to punish a specific nation that sinned against Him, and sometimes to punish humanity as a whole, like Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar who conquered the entire world.
In any case, one cannot prove from this that there is no Divine providence simply because people commit evil and the Holy One, blessed be He, does not immediately exact retribution from them. On the contrary: they were appointed by the Holy One, blessed be He, to execute His plan, and their strength comes precisely from Hashem - they are not operating against Him. Who, then, could come to challenge Hashem in judgment and say: Master of the Universe, why did You do this? The Holy One, blessed be He, orchestrates these events in order to exact retribution through them from those who deserve it, and ultimately He will exact retribution from these very wicked people who currently serve as His rod.
כִּי־אֶל־אֵל הֶאָמַר נָשָׂאתִי לֹא אֶחְבֹּל׃ - "For should one say to God: 'I have borne it, I will not destroy'?"
Here Elihu returns to what he said earlier, that it is inappropriate for a person to enter into judgment with God. The first word "El" means "unto Him," and the second "El" refers to the Almighty, blessed be He. That is to say: Can one say to God, "I have borne [it], I will not destroy"? Even without all the reasons previously mentioned, a person cannot contend with God in judgment and question what He has done, for the Holy One, blessed be He, will say to him: "'I have borne, I will not destroy' - I choose to take upon Myself and endure the anger with which the wicked provoke Me; I choose to be patient with them and not destroy them." This is the world of the Holy One, blessed be He, and He has decided to bear their sins and iniquities without destroying them, and that is His exclusive right.
This is comparable to a person who is owed money, and someone else comes, gets angry at him, and shouts: "Why are you not collecting the money from him?" He replies: "What is it to you? The money is mine. When I wish, I will collect it, and if I do not wish, I will not collect it, and I have decided to grant him an extension of another two years. Why are you meddling - is this your world?" The Holy One, blessed be He, says: "The world is Mine." If so, who can come and ask Him, "Why do You bear their transgressions and show them patience?"
בִּלְעֲדֵי אֶחֱזֶה אַתָּה הֹרֵנִי אִם־עָוֶל פָּעַלְתִּי לֹא אֹסִיף׃ - "Beyond what I see, teach me; if I have done iniquity, I will do so no more."
The Holy One, blessed be He, says to one who enters into judgment against Him with a grievance: Will you teach Me? Will you instruct Me in something I do not see? Is there anything that I, the Holy One, blessed be He, am unable to see, and you will show it to Me? Do you know better than I, that you come to correct Me? "'If I have done iniquity, I will do so no more' - will you point out My mistake and say, 'Master of the Universe, there is an injustice here,' and I will answer, 'I did not notice; from now on I will be careful and do no more injustice'? Can such a thing even be conceived regarding Hashem, blessed be He?
הֲמֵעִמְּךָ יְשַׁלְּמֶנָּה כִּי־מָאַסְתָּ כִּי־אַתָּה תִבְחַר וְלֹא־אָנִי וּמַה־יָּדַעְתָּ דַבֵּר׃ - "Will He repay it from you, that you have rejected it? For you must choose, and not I; and what you know, speak."
To the one who enters into judgment against the Holy One, blessed be He, saying, "Master of the Universe, why do You not collect retribution?", Hashem says: "Am I collecting these payments from you? Is this on your account? 'Will He repay it from you, that you have rejected it?' - Is it because of this that you reject My governance, saying that what I have done is not good in your eyes? The payments of the wicked man's punishment do not come from your hand. Are you financing him? Are you supporting him out of your own pocket, that you have complaints? Why do you meddle in a dispute that is not yours?"
"'For you must choose, and not I' - do you want the choice of the type of punishment, its measure, and its timing to be in your hands and not Mine? Are you the one running the world? Since all of this stems from the will and infinite wisdom of the Holy One, blessed be He, who sees what reasons exist to punish immediately and what to postpone until later, when it is appropriate to exact retribution publicly and when privately, when to be forbearing and when to punish at once - the Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: 'What do you know that I do not know?' The payment is not out of your pocket and you suffer no loss from it, so why should you enter into judgment and demand an accounting of Hashem's governance? 'And what you know, speak' - if you have anything further to argue, speak; state what you believe you know that I do not know. Can there be anything that man knows and the Holy One, blessed be He, does not know?"
This verse is cited in the Gemara in Tractate Sanhedrin (104b). Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav: They sought to include yet another - and Rashi explains, to list another among the kings who have no share in the World to Come. The Gemara does not mention his name, but Rashi explains that the reference is to King Solomon. The image of the countenance of his father, King David, came and prostrated itself before them - yet they paid it no heed. A fire came down from heaven and licked around their benches - yet they were neither alarmed nor did they pay it heed.
A Heavenly voice (Bat Kol) went forth and said to them: "Have you seen a man diligent in his work? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before obscure men" (Mishlei 22:29). And who is "a man diligent in his work"? One who prioritized My house over his own house - Shlomo first built the House of Hashem and only afterward his own house. Moreover, he acted swiftly regarding My house: My house he built in seven years, whereas his own house took thirteen years. "He shall stand before kings" - he shall stand in Gan Eden; "he shall not stand before obscure men" - as it were, not before you. Yet they still paid no heed to it, continuing in their intention to include him.
A Heavenly voice went forth and said: "Will He repay it from you, that you have rejected it? For you must choose, and not I" (Iyov 34:33). Rashi explains: Is it your place to pay out a person's penalty, that you reject Shlomo and seek to declare that he has no portion in the World to Come? "For you must choose, and not I" - does the choice depend on you and not on Me? Do I not determine who has a share in the World to Come? Surely it depends on Me. This is precisely what is being said here: Tell me, is Shlomo HaMelech's World to Come coming out of your pocket, that you begrudge him and say, enough, he has no share in the World to Come? Does this depend on you?
And here a tremendous question arises: Why did the Sages care whether Shlomo had a share in the World to Come? Shlomo had already passed away, and everything rests in the hands of the Holy One, Blessed be He, whose judgment is just. Why sit and decide to remove him from Gan Eden and cast him into Gehinnom? Did the Sages begrudge Shlomo HaMelech? Let them list the wicked kings, and that is all; as for Shlomo, Hashem already knows what to do with him.
Rather, the Ben Ish Chai explains: on the contrary, the Sages wished to advocate on his behalf. They feared it might appear as if they refrained from listing Shlomo because they were covering for him, because he was "one of our own," as though favoritism and injustice were at play - since it is written of Shlomo that he built a high place for Chemosh, the detestable thing of Moav, introduced idolatry to Yerushalayim, and his wives turned his heart away. Therefore they said: Let us list Shlomo as well. And what did they hope to achieve? That a Bat Kol would go forth from Heaven and testify that Shlomo was righteous, leaving no room for complaint, since the Holy One, Blessed be He, Himself testifies that it is unfitting to count him. Thus, they sought to count him not so that he would actually be part of the list, but rather so that a Heavenly voice would issue forth and make it known to all that he is not part of it, providing divine testimony that Shlomo is not numbered among the wicked kings.
And as for his wives turning his heart away - as was explained there: his aim was to perfect the world under the sovereignty of the Almighty, marrying women from all across the world and fathering children who would be princes and return to their royal realms; since they would be raised by Shlomo and become God-fearing, the world would be rectified through them. And if there was idolatry - Shlomo reasoned that this was only temporary, for soon idolatry would be eradicated from the world through his grand plan. However, there is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against Hashem, for the Holy One, Blessed be He, explicitly said: "He shall not multiply wives for himself."
אַנְשֵׁי לֵבָב יֹאמְרוּ לִי וְגֶבֶר חָכָם שֹׁמֵעַ לִי׃ אִיּוֹב לֹא־בְדַעַת יְדַבֵּר וּדְבָרָיו לֹא בְהַשְׂכֵּיל׃ - Men of understanding will say to me, and any wise man who listens to me: Iyov speaks without knowledge, and his words are without discernment.
Elihu says to him: Speak as you will, but men of understanding who hear your words and my answers - they will say to me, as will any wise man listening - that Iyov speaks without knowledge. His words do not stem from the faculty of knowledge (Da'at), from empirical testing and experience; nor are his words "with discernment (Haskel)" - they do not derive from philosophical reasoning or proofs of intellect.
אָבִי יִבָּחֵן אִיּוֹב עַד־נֶצַח עַל־תְּשֻׁבֹת בְּאַנְשֵׁי־אָוֶן׃ - My desire is that Iyov be tested to the end, for his answers among wicked men.
"Avi" is related to evyonah, meaning longing and desire: It is my wish and desire that Iyov be tested to the end - that I debate him until I prevail over him in argument. "For his answers among wicked men" - regarding his responses, which are words of heresy and denial, notions fitting for wicked men and not for a righteous man like him: claiming a lack of Divine Providence, denying the World to Come, and asserting that man lacks free will. My wish is that he debate me until he is refuted and concedes his error.
כִּי־יֹסִיף עַל־חַטָּאתוֹ פֶשַׁע בֵּינֵינוּ יִשְׂפּוֹק וְיֶרֶב אֲמָרָיו לָאֵל׃ - For he adds transgression to his sin; among us he claps his hands, and multiplies his words against God.
If I do not debate him until I prevail over him, he will add transgression to his sin and persist in holding onto words of heresy and denial of faith. "Among us yispok" - even though he sits among us, and we continue to believe in Divine Providence and Hashem's governance, he casts doubts (sefeikot) upon the providence of the Holy One, blessed be He. "And multiplies his words against God" - he multiplies arguments against God. Therefore, my desire is to debate with him until he repents of his views and his doubts.
The Yalkut Shimoni states in Yirmiyahu (remez 334), on the verse "Israel is a scattered sheep": Israel is compared to a sheep. Just as with a sheep - a delicate animal - if one of its limbs is hurt, all of them feel it, and it immediately bleats; so too with Israel: one sins, and all are punished.
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai taught the famous parable: Two people were sitting in a boat. One of them took a drill and began drilling beneath him, making a hole in his own cabin. His companions said to him: "Why are you doing this?" He replied: "What do you care? Am I not drilling beneath myself? I am drilling in my own cabin! Mind your own business, live and let live, do not tell me what to do!" They said to him: "Because you are flooding the boat for all of us!"
Iyov likewise said: "And even if indeed I have erred, my error remains with me" - even if I have erred, the mistake is mine, private; only I have a problem. His companions replied: "For he adds transgression to his sin, among us yispok." Do you think that you add sin and transgression and your error remains only with you, that you alone are entangled and will be punished alone? No, rather "among us yispok" - you, as it were, distribute your sins among all of us, as if they are sufficient (maspikim) for everyone. When a person sins, he creates distress for the entire community, pulling down and degrading the standing of Klal Yisrael. Do not think that if you sin, you sin merely in private and that there is no cause for complaint because it is your personal reckoning. No, it is not solely your reckoning, for we will all pay the price for what you do.
Elihu answers Iyov regarding the question of the prosperity of the wicked: A mortal king rushes to exact punishment because he does not know who sinned and fears that the offender will escape, whereas the Holy One, blessed be He - "His eyes are upon the ways of man" and "there is no darkness nor shadow of death where workers of iniquity can hide" - knows everything and can always exact retribution, which is why He is patient and slow to anger. The concealment of Divine guidance is not a defect in Providence, but a prerequisite for free will: "He strikes them like the wicked" - so that a person will believe and serve out of love, rather than like a robot submitting out of terror. Sometimes the wicked person himself is the rod of God's wrath to exact justice from those who deserve punishment, and ultimately retribution will be visited upon him as well, for his evil has an allotted time - "When He gives quiet, who can condemn?" Above all: man has no standing to litigate against his Creator - "I have borne chastisement, I will not act corruptly," "That which I do not see, teach me," "Shall He recompense it according to your mind?" - for the ultimate reckoning and knowledge are not his. Finally, the Yalkut reminds us that no sin is merely private: the one who drills beneath himself floods the entire boat, and "among us yispok" - the sin of an individual takes its toll on the entire community.