(טו) אֲשֶׁ֣ר אִם־צָ֭דַקְתִּי לֹ֣א אֶעֱנֶ֑ה לִ֝מְשֹׁפְטִ֗י אֶתְחַנָּֽן׃ (טז) אִם־קָרָ֥אתִי וַֽיַּעֲנֵ֑נִי לֹֽא־אַ֝אֲמִ֗ין כִּֽי־יַאֲזִ֥ין קוֹלִֽי׃
(כ) אִם־אֶ֭צְדָּק פִּ֣י יַרְשִׁיעֵ֑נִי תׇּֽם־אָ֝֗נִי וַֽיַּעְקְשֵֽׁנִי׃ (כא) תׇּֽם־אָ֭נִי לֹֽא־אֵדַ֥ע נַפְשִׁ֗י אֶמְאַ֥ס חַיָּֽי׃ (כב) אַחַ֗ת הִ֥֫יא עַל־כֵּ֥ן אָמַ֑רְתִּי תָּ֥ם וְ֝רָשָׁ֗ע ה֣וּא מְכַלֶּֽה׃
(15) Though I were in the right, I could not speak out,
But I would plead for mercy with my judge. (16) If I summoned Him and He responded, I do not believe He would lend me His ear.
(20) Though I were innocent,
My mouth would condemn me;
Though I were blameless, God would prove me crooked. (21) I am blameless—I am distraught; I am sick of life.
(22) It is all one; therefore I say, “God destroys the blameless and the guilty.”
At first the friends try to comfort him, but then they wonder aloud if he hasn’t done something awful to merit this severe punishment. They cannot relinquish their fundamental worldview that the world is ordered by a just God and that people receive pain or reward in proportion to their deeds. Their words of “comfort” turn to words of accusation and become increasingly more painful to Job. Yet Job never wavers, staunchly maintaining his innocence.
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/summary-of-the-book-of-job/
(1) Then Job said in reply: (2) Indeed, you are the [voice of] the people,
And wisdom will die with you. (3) But I, like you, have a mind,
And am not less than you.
Who does not know such things? (4) I have become a laughingstock to my friend—
“One who calls to God and is answered,
Blamelessly innocent”—a laughingstock. (5) In the thought of the complacent there is contempt for calamity;
It is ready for those whose foot slips.- (6) Robbers live untroubled in their tents,
And those who provoke God are secure,
Those whom God’s hands have produced.-a
(7) But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; The birds of the sky, they will tell you,
(טו) רַבִּי יַנַּאי אוֹמֵר, אֵין בְּיָדֵינוּ לֹא מִשַּׁלְוַת הָרְשָׁעִים וְאַף לֹא מִיִּסּוּרֵי הַצַּדִּיקִים.
(15) Rabbi Yannai said: it is not in our hands [to explain the reason] either of the security of the wicked, or even of the afflictions of the righteous.
(1) Then Eliphaz the Temanite said in reply: (2) If one ventures a word with you, will it be too much? But who can hold back his words?
(6) Is not your piety your confidence,
Your integrity your hope? (7) Think now, what innocent man ever perished?
Where have the upright been destroyed? (8) As I have seen, those who plow evil
And sow mischief reap them. (9) They perish by a blast from God, Are gone at the breath of His nostrils. (10) The lion may roar, the cub may howl, But the teeth of the king of beasts are broken.-a
(א) וַ֭יַּעַן בִּלְדַּ֥ד הַשּׁוּחִ֗י וַיֹּאמַֽר׃ (ב) עַד־אָ֥ן תְּמַלֶּל־אֵ֑לֶּה וְר֥וּחַ כַּ֝בִּ֗יר אִמְרֵי־פִֽיךָ׃ (ג) הַ֭אֵל יְעַוֵּ֣ת מִשְׁפָּ֑ט וְאִם־שַׁ֝דַּ֗י יְעַוֵּת־צֶֽדֶק׃ (ד) אִם־בָּנֶ֥יךָ חָֽטְאוּ־ל֑וֹ וַֽ֝יְשַׁלְּחֵ֗ם בְּיַד־פִּשְׁעָֽם׃ (ה) אִם־אַ֭תָּה תְּשַׁחֵ֣ר אֶל־אֵ֑ל וְאֶל־שַׁ֝דַּ֗י תִּתְחַנָּֽן׃ (ו) אִם־זַ֥ךְ וְיָשָׁ֗ר אָ֥֫תָּה כִּֽי־עַ֭תָּה יָעִ֣יר עָלֶ֑יךָ וְ֝שִׁלַּ֗ם נְוַ֣ת צִדְקֶֽךָ׃
(יג) כֵּ֗ן אׇ֭רְחוֹת כׇּל־שֹׁ֣כְחֵי אֵ֑ל וְתִקְוַ֖ת חָנֵ֣ף תֹּאבֵֽד׃
(1) Bildad the Shuhite said in reply: (2) How long will you speak such things?
Your utterances are a mighty wind! (3) Will God pervert the right?
Will the Almighty pervert justice? (4) If your sons sinned against Him,
He dispatched them for their transgression. (5) But if you seek God
And supplicate the Almighty, (6) If you are blameless and upright,
He will protect you, And grant well-being to your righteous home.
(13) Such is the fate of all who forget God;
The hope of the impious man comes to naught—
(1) Then Zophar the Naamathite said in reply: (2) Is a multitude of words unanswerable?
Must a loquacious person be right? (3) Your prattle may silence men;
You may mock without being rebuked, (4) And say, “My doctrine is pure,
And I have been innocent in Your sight.” (5) But would that God might speak,
And talk to you Himself. (6) He would tell you the secrets of wisdom,
For there are many sides to sagacity;
And know that God has overlooked for you some of your iniquity.-a (7) Would you discover the mystery of God?
Would you discover the limit of the Almighty? (8) Higher than heaven—what can you do?
Deeper than Sheol—what can you know? (9) Its measure is longer than the earth
And broader than the sea.
Job loses his cool...
(1) I am disgusted with life;
I will give rein to my complaint,
Speak in the bitterness of my soul. (2) I say to God, “Do not condemn me;
Let me know what You charge me with. (3) Does it benefit You to defraud,
To despise the toil of Your hands,
While smiling on the counsel of the wicked? (4) Do You have the eyes of flesh?
Is Your vision that of mere men? (5) Are Your days the days of a mortal,
Are Your years the years of a man, (6) That You seek my iniquity
And search out my sin? (7) You know that I am not guilty,
And that there is none to deliver from Your hand.
(8) “Your hands shaped and fashioned me, Then destroyed every part of me.
“When shall I rise?”
Night drags on,-a
And I am sated with tossings till morning twilight.
My ear has heard and understood it. (2) What you know, I know also;
I am not less than you. (3) Indeed, I would speak to the Almighty;
I insist on arguing with God. (4) But you invent lies;
All of you are quacks. (5) If you would only keep quiet
It would be considered wisdom on your part.
I will give voice to the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Watcher of men?
Why make of me Your target,
And a burden to myself? Why do You not pardon my transgression
And forgive my iniquity?
For soon I shall lie down in the dust;
When You seek me, I shall be gone.
You bestowed on me life and care;
Your providence watched over my spirit. Yet these things You hid in Your heart;
I know that You had this in mind: To watch me when I sinned
And not clear me of my iniquity; Should I be guilty—the worse for me!
And even when innocent, I cannot lift my head;
So sated am I with shame,
And drenched in my misery. It is something to be proud of-a to hunt me like a lion,
To show Yourself wondrous through-b me time and again! You keep sending fresh witnesses against me,
Letting Your vexation with me grow.
I serve my term and am my own replacement.-a
Here is what Elie Wiesel wrote: “It is possible that Job kept his faith—and rebelled against it—at the same time. It is possible that, having reached the height of his despair and torment, he achieved something new: he showed us that faith is necessary to rebellion and, also, that rebellion is possible within faith. There exists a time when the two are intertwined so as to strengthen one another instead of negating one another.”
Professor Wiesel relates that right after the war, at liberation from Buchenwald, the American military and international aid agencies asked the orphans what they could get for them. He remembers that one girl asked for chocolate because she hadn’t had chocolate for three years and wanted to see if she remembered it correctly. Another boy asked for a sweater because he hadn’t been warm. And Elie Wiesel himself asked for a volume of Talmud, so he could return to his Jewish learning. Like Job, he had suffered, but he was not about to turn away from God — he expected answers.
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/what-elie-wiesel-taught-me-about-the-book-of-job/
Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?
Speak if you have understanding. Do you know who fixed its dimensions
Or who measured it with a line? Onto what were its bases sunk?
Who set its cornerstone When the morning stars sang together
And all the divine beings shouted for joy?
Who closed the sea behind doors
When it gushed forth out of the womb, When I clothed it in clouds,
Swaddled it in dense clouds, When I made breakers My limit for it,
And set up its bar and doors, And said, “You may come so far and no farther;
Here your surging waves will stop”?
Have you ever commanded the day to break,
Assigned the dawn its place, So that it seizes the corners of the earth
And shakes the wicked out of it? It changes like clay under the seal
Till [its hues] are fixed like those of a garment. Their light is withheld from the wicked,
And the upraised arm is broken.
Have you penetrated to the sources of the sea,
Or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been disclosed to you?
Have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you surveyed the expanses of the earth?
If you know of these—tell Me.
Which path leads to where light dwells,
And where is the place of darkness, That you may take it to its domain
And know the way to its home?
(1) Job said in reply to Adonai: (2) I know that You can do everything,
That nothing You propose is impossible for You. (3) Who is this who obscures counsel without knowledge?
Indeed, I spoke without understanding
Of things beyond me, which I did not know. (4) Hear now, and I will speak;
I will ask, and You will inform me. (5) I had heard You with my ears,
But now I see You with my eyes; (6) Therefore, I recant and relent,
Being but dust and ashes.
The end...
(7) After Adonai had spoken these words to Job, Adonai said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am incensed at you and your two friends, for you have not spoken the truth about Me as did My servant Job. (8) Now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to My servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. And let Job, My servant, pray for you; for to him I will show favor and not treat you vilely, since you have not spoken the truth about Me as did My servant Job.” (9) Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as Adonai had told them, and Adonai showed favor to Job.