we are dealing with an idiom in this verse that might have made sense to tent-dwellers and their descendants but did not fit the city world in which the book of Job is played out.
Ibn Ezra tells us that this verse is about the money that people will lose at the time of their deaths. He contends that these people will die without wisdom, because they thought that they should amass wealth rather than knowledge, forgetting that humans were created to acquire wisdom.
God’s Attribute of Justice
According to rabbinic tradition, God’s attribute of justice (called midat hadin) is held in balance by God’s attribute of compassion (called midat harachamim). These are God’s two primary attributes. This notion is consistent with the rabbinic idea of opposing categories and the search for the Golden Mean at their center. The goal of prayer is to move God from the state of hadin to the implementation of harachamim. According to the Rabbis, God’s own prayer is “May my attribute of compassion overcome my attribute of justice.” We live in a relationship with God that is contextualized by the tension between these two attributes.
Chapter 5
5:1 Call out now. Who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?
Eliphaz continues his presentation from the previous chapter. By using Eliphaz to raise these questions, the author has raised others. Job has suffered. Does he expect his suffering to be justified? Does he expect to be saved from his present difficulty by a miraculous intervention? Moreover, does anyone who suffers expect to be justified? Can anyone expect divine intervention?
5:2 Anger will kill a fool and jealousy will slay the simple.
While it is difficult to discern the relationship of this verse to Job’s situation, the author is clearly quoting some sort of proverb or truism. Perhaps he is simply telling Job that anger—however deserved—will not help him to resolve his predicament. Only a fool would think that the expression of anger can make a difference. Jealousy of good fortune comes from looking at others without seeing deeply inside of the individual and his or her situation. Those who were jealous of Job were jealous when he was well-off. They ceased being jealous once they discerned his later predicament.
5:3 Although I saw such a fool put down roots, suddenly I cursed the fool’s home.
Why would Eliphaz curse the fool’s home? Perhaps Eliphaz is suggesting that the fool’s actions bring a curse to the home in which the fool lives—or to the fool’s family that lives in the fool’s home. That would mean that Eliphaz is implying that Job brought the curse to his family (read: his home).
5:4 The fool’s children will be far from any help. Wronged in court, they will be without a defender.
Eliphaz considers Job to be a simple fool. As a result, Job, like others like him, pass down their punishment to their children. Even in a court of law, presumed to be sensitive to children who are at a disadvantage, no one will help them. The “court” for Ibn Ezra (b’shaar, literally, the gate) is simply “in public.”
5:5 The hungry eat what the fool harvested. Picking out the thorns, the thirsty pant after what the fool has.
This verse has to be translated in the context of the previous verses. The first clause of this verse suggests that the fool cannot even control his or her own property. As a result, someone who is hungry can just come and eat. And even the harvest is of poor quality since it is full of “thorns.” Whatever the specifics, this is clearly a continuation of Eliphaz’s attack against his so-called friend Job.
5:6 Disaster does not come from the dust nor does trouble sprout out of the ground.
Quoting some sort of a proverb or idiom, the author is suggesting that trouble is not due to nature; instead it is a result of human activity.
5:7 To be human is to be born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
This verse has a far deeper meaning than might be seen at first glance. The vicissitudes of the human situation are linked to bnai reshef (sparks). Rashi contends that it is impossible for a human being to refrain from sinning and therefore be punished. He explains that bnai reshef are angels. Because of their supernal status they are untouched by the blandishments of Satan and the Evil Inclination. So they are able to fly on high.
5:8 If it were me, I would seek God. I would place my plea before God.
While the literal translation of this verse could yield “However, I would seek God,” we are following Rashi’s explanation of “Were these chastisements to have come upon me, ‘I would seek God.’” After all, this is a theological text whose ultimate goal is to urge the individual to develop a closer relationship with God. This would be the author’s suggestion even had Eliphaz not explained the cause of Job’s problems as Job’s own fault. It is what we would suggest, as well, although the context in which it is made—the game being played with Job by God and Satan—continually threatens to undermine the suggestion.
5:9 God does great things beyond understanding, wonders beyond counting.
While this reads as a general description of God, it continues the message of the previous verse. It is as if to say, “Place your faith in God even if you have concerns about what took place between God and Satan that impacted on Job.” If what happened to Job reflects an act of the divine will which we cannot question or an act of divine wisdom which is beyond understanding, we end up with a faith which ultimately will allow everything for God and for us.
5:10 God gives rain to the earth and sends water to the fields.
Again these are general statements about the role of God in the universe. But it is also an explanation as if to say, “Irrespective of what God allowed Satan to do to Job, ‘remember that God gives rain to the earth and sends water to the fields.’ Thus, you should seek out God [as per 5:8].”
5:11 God brings up those who are low and brings to safety those who are in distress.
These descriptions of God may remind the reader of some of the descriptors used in the second paragraph of the Amidah prayer, the central prayer of Jewish liturgy, repeated three times daily.
5:12 God foils the plans of the cunning so that their hands can achieve no success.
If the book of Job is an example of the Bible’s wisdom literature (defined as those books that emerge from the experience of humans rather than through divine revelation), this statement seems to run counter to such a notion.
5:13 God traps the cunning by their guile and the advice of the clever is made precipitous.
This reads more like the author’s wish than a statement of fact. The Targum relates this verse to what happened to Pharaoh in Egypt—just as it had done in the previous verse: “By their own wisdom, God captured the wise men of Pharaoh and God directed against them the advice of the insidious astrologers.” The reader should be reminded of Pharaoh’s words referring to the Israelites who had grown numerous in ancient Egypt: “Come let us deal wisely with them” (Exodus 1:10).
Rashi offers folk wisdom in the context of this verse. It emerges from his understanding of the last word of the verse nimharah (literally, speedily—which we have rendered as “made precipitous”): any advice given in haste is ultimately folly.
5:14 They will encounter darkness during the day. They will fumble about at noon as if it were night.
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