Job 5

Translator Notes

1. Eliphaz challenges Job to find an intercessor: qera na ('call out, please') — but who will answer (hayesh onekha, 'is there one answering you')? The qedoshim ('holy ones') are likely the members of the heavenly court, the divine council. Eliphaz implies that no celestial being will take Job's side against God. The irony is devastating for the reader: Job will eventually appeal directly to God and bypass every intermediary, and God will answer him — but not until chapter 38.

Translator Notes

1. Eliphaz warns that ka'as ('vexation, anger, resentment') kills the evil ('fool') and qin'ah ('jealousy, zeal, envy') kills the poteh ('simple, gullible one'). The evil in wisdom literature is not merely unintelligent but morally deficient — a person who rejects the fear of God. Eliphaz is implicitly warning Job: do not become the fool who is destroyed by his own resentment against God. The advice is pragmatic — anger at God will only make things worse — but it also trivializes Job's grief by categorizing it as foolishness.

Translator Notes

1. Eliphaz again appeals to personal observation: ani ra'iti ('I myself have seen'). The evil mashrish ('taking root') appeared to be flourishing — the agricultural metaphor describes apparent prosperity. But then pit'om ('suddenly') — the fool's dwelling (naveh, 'habitation, pasture') was cursed. The verb eqqov ('I cursed') is unexpected: did Eliphaz pronounce a curse, or did he recognize that the dwelling was already under a curse? The ambiguity is deliberate. Either way, the fool's security was an illusion.

Translator Notes

1. The fool's children (banav) are far from yesha ('safety, salvation, deliverance') and are crushed (yiddakk'u) bassha'ar ('at the gate') — the city gate being the place of legal proceedings and public judgment. With no deliverer (ein matstsil), they are defenseless. The mention of children being destroyed is staggeringly insensitive given that Job's ten children have just died, though Eliphaz frames this as the fate of the fool's children, not the righteous man's. The text does not tell us whether Eliphaz realizes the parallel.

Translator Notes

1. The fool's accumulated wealth is consumed by others: the ra'ev ('hungry') eats his harvest, taking it even from within the thorn-hedge (mi-tsinnim) that was meant to protect it. The verb sha'af ('to pant, to gasp') describes the tsamim ('thirsty ones') eagerly consuming his wealth (cheilam). The protective barriers the fool erected are useless — hunger and thirst (representing desperate people or perhaps divine agents of redistribution) penetrate every defense.

Translator Notes

1. Eliphaz's point: aven ('misery, iniquity') does not come from the afar ('dust') and amal ('trouble, toil') does not sprout (lo yitsmach) from the adamah ('ground'). Suffering is not random, not a natural event like a plant growing from soil. It has a cause — and the implied cause is human sin. This is the retribution doctrine in its purest form: trouble does not just happen; it is produced by something. The verse denies the possibility of meaningless suffering, which is exactly what Job is experiencing.

Translator Notes

1. This famous verse — adam le-amal yullad ('a human is born for trouble') — seems to contradict verse 6. There, Eliphaz said trouble does not spring from the ground; here, he says humans are born to trouble. The resolution: trouble does not arise randomly from nature but is inherent in the human condition. The phrase u-vnei reshef yagbihu uf ('and the sons of flame fly upward') compares trouble's inevitability to the physical law that sparks rise. The bene reshef ('sons of Resheph' or 'sons of flame') could be sparks, flames, or even mythological fire-beings. The image: just as fire naturally ascends, human beings naturally encounter trouble.

Translator Notes

1. Eliphaz models what he thinks Job should do: ulam ani edrosh el El ('but I, I would seek God'). The verb darash ('to seek, to inquire, to consult') implies going to God for answers and for help. The phrase asim divrati ('I would place my word/case') uses language of legal petition — presenting a case before a judge. The irony is that Job will eventually do exactly this (laying his case before God), but God's answer will vindicate Job, not Eliphaz's theology.

Translator Notes

1. The hymn to God's power begins. The phrase oseh gedolot ve-ein cheqer ('doing great things and there is no searching out') declares God's acts to be beyond human comprehension. The nifla'ot ('wonders, marvelous deeds') are ad ein mispar ('until there is no number') — infinite in quantity. This language echoes Psalm 145:3 and will be echoed by Job himself in 9:10, where he quotes Eliphaz's words verbatim but with a radically different meaning: for Job, God's unsearchable power is a source of terror, not praise.

Translator Notes

1. The hymn specifies God's power in concrete terms: rain (matar) on the earth and water (mayim) on the chutsot ('fields, open places, streets outside'). Rain in the ancient Near East was the fundamental sign of divine favor — without it, everything died. Eliphaz's theology begins with a truth no one disputes: God sends the rain. The question the book raises is whether this generous God also sends suffering, and if so, why.

Translator Notes

1. The social reversal: shefalim ('the lowly, the humble') are placed le-marom ('on high'). The qodrim ('those in dark clothing, those who mourn') are lifted to yesha ('safety, deliverance, salvation'). This echoes Hannah's song (1 Samuel 2:7-8) and anticipates Mary's Magnificat (Luke 1:52). Eliphaz's theology of divine reversal is not wrong — it is one of the deepest themes in Scripture. His error is assuming it operates mechanically: the lowly are always lifted, the suffering always rescued, in this life, on this timetable.

Translator Notes

1. The verb mefer ('frustrates, breaks, annuls') applied to the machshevot ('plans, schemes, devices') of the arumim ('crafty, shrewd') describes God dismantling human cleverness. The arumim are not merely intelligent but manipulative — the word arum describes the serpent in Genesis 3:1. Their hands cannot accomplish tushiyyah ('success, sound wisdom, lasting achievement'). God undoes the work of those who rely on their own cunning rather than on divine wisdom.

Translator Notes

1. This verse is quoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:19 — loked chakhamim be-ormam ('He catches the wise in their own craftiness'). The verb loked ('catches, seizes, traps') makes God a hunter who uses the wise man's own cleverness (ormah, 'craftiness, shrewdness') as the trap. Their plans become their snare. The niftallim ('twisted, perverse, crooked') find their counsel (atsah) swept away (nimharah, 'hurried along, carried headlong') — their carefully laid plans collapse in a rush. God does not need to introduce new obstacles; He simply lets the cunning trap themselves.

Translator Notes

1. The reversal of day and night: yomam yefagshu choshekh ('in the daytime they encounter darkness'). The cunning who thought they could see clearly are blinded in broad daylight. The verb yemasheshu ('they grope, feel about') describes the blind reaching out with their hands, unable to navigate. In the tsohorayim ('noon, the brightest point of the day'), they stumble like people in total darkness. This inversion of light and darkness echoes Deuteronomy 28:29 (a covenant curse) and contrasts with Job 3, where Job cursed the day's light — here Eliphaz describes the wicked losing light as punishment.

Translator Notes

1. God saves (vayyosha, from yasha, 'to deliver, to save') the evyon ('needy, poor, destitute') from the cherev mippihem ('sword from their mouth') — the weapon of the powerful is their speech, their legal arguments, their verbal accusations. The parallel miyyad chazaq ('from the hand of the strong') adds physical power to verbal power. God rescues those who have no defense against either words or force.

Translator Notes

1. The hymn concludes: the dal ('poor, weak, thin') has tiqvah ('hope, expectation') because God acts on their behalf. And olathah ('injustice, wickedness') qaftsah piha ('shuts its mouth') — injustice is personified as a speaker whose mouth is closed. Where Job wanted his birth-day silenced (chapter 3), Eliphaz says God silences injustice. The image is of a courtroom where the false accuser is finally made to be quiet.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. This is Eliphaz's central counsel: hinneh ashrei enosh yokichennu Eloah ('blessed is the mortal whom God reproves'). The word ashrei ('blessed, happy, fortunate') is the same word that opens Psalm 1 and the Beatitudes. The verb yokichennu ('reproves him, corrects him, argues with him') from yakach implies judicial correction — God identifies what is wrong and demands change. The musar Shaddai ('discipline of the Almighty') is the same concept found in Proverbs 3:11-12, later quoted in Hebrews 12:5-6. Eliphaz is offering Job what he considers the highest wisdom: suffering is discipline, and discipline is a sign of God's attention, not His abandonment. The problem is that Job's suffering is not discipline — it is a test whose nature Job cannot know.

Translator Notes

1. Eliphaz presents God as both wounder and healer: yakh'iv ('He causes pain') and yechbash ('He binds up, bandages'). The verb yimchats ('He strikes, wounds') is paired with yadav tirpeinah ('His hands heal'). The same God, the same hands — destruction and restoration come from the same source. This theology echoes Deuteronomy 32:39 ('I wound and I heal') and Hosea 6:1 ('He has torn, and He will heal us'). The principle is sound; the application to Job is not, because Job's suffering is not a wound meant to heal but a test meant to demonstrate.

Translator Notes

1. The numerical ladder x / x+1 ('six / seven') is a common wisdom device (Proverbs 6:16, 30:15, 18, 21, 29; Amos 1:3). It means 'in every possible trouble' — the number is not literal but comprehensive. The verb yatssilekha ('He will rescue you') and the promise lo yigga bekha ra ('no evil will touch you') constitute Eliphaz's core assurance: God will protect the disciplined person from all harm. The verb naga ('to touch, to strike') is once again the word the Adversary used in 1:11 — Eliphaz unknowingly promises that the very thing the Adversary was authorized to do will not happen to the righteous.

Translator Notes

1. The specific deliverances begin: be-ra'av padekha mimmaveth ('in famine He has redeemed you from death'). The verb padah ('to redeem, to ransom') is the language of liberation — the same verb used for the exodus. In war (milchamah), God delivers from the sword (cherev). Eliphaz is listing the classic threats of the ancient world — famine and warfare — and claiming that God's disciplined servant is immune to both.

Translator Notes

1. The shot lashon ('scourge/lash of the tongue') describes slander, verbal attack, and social destruction through speech. The verb techabei ('you will be hidden, sheltered') promises divine protection from the most painful social weapon. The second line — ve-lo tira mishshod ki yavo ('you will not fear destruction when it comes') — assures fearlessness in the face of shod ('devastation, violence, ruin'). For Job, who has already experienced both physical and social destruction, these promises must sound hollow at best.

Translator Notes

1. The verb tischaq ('you will laugh') elevates the promise from mere safety to joyful confidence — the disciplined person will find destruction (shod) and famine (kafan) laughable, not threatening. The chayyat ha-arets ('beasts of the earth, wild animals') were a real threat in the ancient world, representing the untamed forces of nature. Eliphaz promises immunity from every category of danger: speech, war, famine, and wild animals.

Translator Notes

1. The image of a covenant (berit) with the stones of the field is one of the most evocative in the chapter. The avnei hassadeh ('stones of the field') that normally make farming impossible will cooperate with the disciplined person. The chayyat hassadeh ('beasts of the field') will be hushlmah lakh ('at peace with you'). The verb from shalam ('to be whole, complete, at peace') describes perfect harmony between the human and the natural world. This is an Eden-like vision — creation itself enters into covenant with the righteous. The theology is beautiful; the timing is cruel.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The word shalom ('peace, wholeness, completeness') applied to the ohel ('tent') means the home is intact, safe, undisturbed. The verb paqad'ta ('you will inspect, visit, attend to') and navekha ('your dwelling, your fold') describe a shepherd checking on his flock and finding everything in order. The phrase ve-lo techeta ('and you will not miss, you will not fail') can mean 'you will not sin' or 'you will find nothing missing' — the verb chata in its basic sense means 'to miss the mark.' We chose the latter reading because it fits the pastoral context: nothing in your life will be lacking.
2. Register departure: shalom rendered as 'secure' rather than default 'peace' because the context describes the safety of one's tent/home — the 'wholeness/intact' sense of shalom applied to physical security.

Translator Notes

1. Eliphaz promises abundant descendants: rav zar'ekha ('your seed will be many') and tse'etsa'ekha ke-esev ha-arets ('your offspring like the grass/vegetation of the earth'). The language echoes the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 13:16, 15:5) — numerous descendants as a sign of divine blessing. For Job, whose ten children have just died, this promise of future offspring is either a source of hope (as 42:13 will fulfill) or an agonizing reminder of what he has lost. Eliphaz seems unaware of the knife-edge he walks.

Translator Notes

1. The final promise: tavo vekhelach elei qaver ('you will come in your full strength to the grave'). The word kelach ('ripeness, full vigor, full age') describes a long life completed in strength, not wasted by disease or cut short by violence. The simile ka-alot gadish be-itto ('like a sheaf going up in its time') compares a good death to a grain sheaf harvested at exactly the right moment — not too early, not too late. The image is of a life completed, not merely ended. This is the highest blessing the wisdom tradition can offer: a full life crowned by a timely, peaceful death. Remarkably, this is essentially what God does give Job in 42:16-17 — but not because Job accepted Eliphaz's theology.

Translator Notes

1. Eliphaz concludes with an appeal to tested wisdom: hinneh zot chaqarnuha ken hi ('behold, this we have investigated — so it is'). The verb chaqar ('to investigate, to search out, to examine') claims empirical verification — this is not speculation but researched conclusion. The plural chaqarnuha ('we have investigated it') suggests a tradition of sages, not just Eliphaz's personal opinion. His final command: shema'ennah ve-attah da lakh ('hear it, and you — know it for yourself'). The imperative da ('know') is both an invitation and a challenge: internalize this truth. Eliphaz has delivered his best wisdom with complete sincerity. The tragedy is that his best is not good enough for what Job is going through.