The Book of Job - Leonard S. Kravitz

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      3:16 The wicked cease their agitation there and the weary can rest.

      Everything ends in the grave. Trouble and troublers are no more. Pain and suffering cease.

      The Targum provides some hope to those who are wicked. If they repent, the pain of Gehinnom will be taken from them. Death promises reward to the righteous. Those students who have become “weary” in mastering their Torah studies will find rest.

      Rashi explains how “the wicked cease.” They are prevented from doing beneath the earth what they wouldn’t stop doing above the earth. Ibn Ezra suggests that “the wicked cease” moving about in the grave and so cease provoking the people with whom in life they came into contact. Gersonides offers a straightforward insight from life. After the death of “the wicked,” no one has to be afraid of them.

      3:17 Prisoners can relax together; they do not have to pay attention to the taskmaster’s voice.

      In the grave, even prisoners driven to toil are now at ease. They could not relax for a moment while they were still alive. They were unable to relate to one another. Every moment included pain. They had to listen to their jailors. Only death brought them to oblivion.

      3:18 There are great and small. And the slave is free from one’s master.

      While there are social distinctions in life, there are no such distinctions in death. All are equal in the grave. As in previous verses, the Targum changes the tone of the verse by referring to the Patriarchs: in the grave is Jacob (called a young lad) and Abraham (called the old man) and Isaac (called Servant of Adonai) who went free from the captivity of his master.

      For Rashi, the verse means that the distinctions that are made in life remain in death. The “great” are still great and the “small” are all small.

      3:19 Why does God give light to those who must toil and life to those who are ever embittered

      While it is not clear who is the subject of the verse, it is quite probable that the author intends Job to make reference to God. This is the position that Rashi takes. Thus, we have translated it gender neutral. The author has Job ask, “Why did God not kill them when they were born?” Verses 19–21 are one complete statement or rhetorical question.

      3:20 who long for death, but it does not come; who search for it more than for a hidden treasure,

      For some, life has become such a burden that death is preferable. For Rashi, those “who long for death” are those “bitter of soul” (from the previous verse). They yearn to die and complain when they don’t. More than any amount of wealth, they search for death.

      3:21 who are exceedingly happy, and indeed rejoice when they find the grave?

      It is a sad state of affairs when the ultimate expression of happiness is only found with death. But this is Job’s theme throughout this section of the book. For him, death seems to be the only antidote for life. But it is really life—and living it to its fullest—that can be the only response to death.

      3:22 To a person whose way is hidden and whom God has hedged in,

      This verse is connected to 3:23. Obviously, the way that is hidden is hidden to the person seeking his or her path in the world. To make clear the meaning, the Targum adds some words in its translation of the verse: all that is bitter [to the person . . .]. Rashi has a different sense of what is hidden. He suggests that all the good that a person has done is hidden from God. But the “hedging in” is related to the verb used in Hosea 2:8 (vayaasech), which is more like “putting a screen in front of that person to lock the person in.” For Ibn Ezra, it is indeed God who has locked the person in. Attributing his explanation to Saadya Gaon (late ninth-, early tenth-century philosopher/rabbi who was head of the academy in Sura), Ibn Ezra argues that the “way is hidden” means that a person receives no pleasure from anything, not even from eating. Gersonides is even more direct and claims that God has fenced off the way this person would go so that the person can attain none of his [or her] desires.

      3:23 my sighing comes before my food. My screams gush out like water.

      The author presents the reader with a picture of anguish, of one imprisoned by one’s circumstances. Before Job can eat, he must sigh and reflect on his suffering. As he thinks about his situation, a scream erupts from the depths of his soul. But there is no one to hear his cries or to help. As Gersonides notes, Job’s suffering—like water that continues to flow downward—was continuous.

      3:24 What I feared has happened to me, what I was afraid of, came upon me.

      Job’s suffering was intensified by the anticipation and then the realization of his worst fears. Rashi tells us that Job was afraid that something terrible would happen to him, a fear that consumed him throughout his entire life. He feared that something had already been decreed. Perhaps Rashi used his insights as a father when he said that Job was afraid that somehow his children had offended the Deity.

      3:25 I wasn’t at ease. I wasn’t quiet. I wasn’t at rest. Yet trouble came.

      Readers can feel Job’s anxiety in this verse—even if he has the right to be anxious because of what he suffered. It is as if Job knew the statement of Rabbi Aha (Genesis Rabbah 84:1) who quotes the verse that when the righteous wish to be at ease in this world, Satan accuses and “trouble” comes. Although Job was not at ease, still “trouble came” upon him. Rashi thinks that the author is trying to tell the reader that Job could simply not stop worrying about everything.

      Leviathan

      The Leviathan is a sea monster of sorts, as also noted in Psalm 74:13–14 and Isaiah 47:1. According to Rashi (in his commentary on Genesis 1:21), God created the Leviathan. As a result, this monster is subject to God’s direction and control. Some suggest that it was created on the fifth day of creation. This monster, interpreted in various ways, appears in a variety of contexts in rabbinic literature.

      Saadya Gaon

      Saadya ben Joseph (882–942), from Fayyum in Egypt, is considered by most to be the father of medieval Jewish philosophy. He was the first to develop the notions of Islamic theology and philosophy in a Judaic manner. Similarly, he was the first to develop a philosophic justification for Judaism. He received his training in Egypt, where he lived the first thirty years of his life. He subsequently lived in the land of Israel, Syria, and Babylonia. In 928, he became the gaon (head) of the well-known rabbinical academy in Sura, Babylonia.

      Chapter 4

      4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied,

      As readers of the book of Job have already learned (2:11), Eliphaz was one of Job’s friends. There was no real question asked, but Eliphaz is responding to Job’s predicament and anguished cries. In contemporary usage, the Hebrew place Tayman is identified with Yemen. The Targum translates the Hebrew v’yaanan . . . va-yomer (literally, he answered . . . and said), the Aramaic formula of response put into the mouth of Laban (Genesis 31:43) which we have translated as “replied” by rendering the first verb as v’aytiv (he replied) and the second verb as v’amar (and he said).

      Amos Hacham,

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