Welcome to back to Nach Daily with Iyov, perek 7.

The previous perek ended with Iyov begging his friends to listen to his words. As the perek opens, Iyov has their attention and begins a heart- wrenching lament regarding his suffering.

Each person has a limited time here on earth, says Iyov. Our time here is like a person who works and is just waiting for his job to be over. He relates having sleepless nights wondering when he will “get up,” meaning that he’d prefer to die than live.

In verse 5 Iyov says, “My flesh was clothed in worms and clods of dirt. My skin cracked and festered.”

The Malbim explains that Iyov was essentially responding to Eliphaz. Eliphaz held that God brings suffering on man in this world so that he won’t suffer as much in the next world, where he’ll attain more fulfillment.

Iyov argued that this is not the case, as the ultimate purpose of creation is for people to reach fulfillment during their lifetimes. Therefore, even if people were to serve God every second of every day, they still would fall short. At the end of the day your fulfillment is dependent on your short lifespan. This is what is meant by “man’s time is limited.” How long we live is not really up to us.

Either way, continues the Malbim, according to Iyov’ s reasoning, if you were sick and ill you would be unable to fulfill your mission in this world. How can you claim that God inflicts pain on the righteous out of His love when the pain prevents a person from fulfilling the mission?

Iyov moves on to describe the finality of death. “My life is like the wind.” After he dies, he’ll no longer be visible to the human eye.

In verse 9 he says, “Like a cloud dissipates and is gone, so one who descends to the Netherworld does not re-ascend.” It is all over. There’s nothing to look forward to.

The Gemarah in Bava Basra 16a says that from here we see that Iyov denied techeyas hameisim, the resurrection of the dead. The Malbim explains that Iyov was saying that he was suffering so much that he couldn’t serve God anyway, so it’s as if he were dead. Wouldn’t it be better if he died now?

The Ramad Walli says that Iyov was asking Hashem what the point was of sending him into the depths if he had no way of lifting himself up and having an aliyah!

Iyov continues to claim that he would rather die than suffer. “Am I like a sea monster that needs to be muzzled for fear of hurting others?” Iyov asks God. “Do I really need to be restrained?”

In verse 15 Iyov says, “My soul prefers strangulation, death rather than these limbs.” He is suffering so badly that he’d prefer to die and leave this world.

Iyov then subtly shifts gears by stating the insignificance of man. The Ramban and Metsudos explain his question: Why should Divine Providence concern itself with individuals when human beings are so insignificant? The chapter ends with Iyov wondering if God can bear and tolerate our sins.

Verse 20 says, “Chatasi ma efal lach notseir ha’adom. Lamah somtani limifga lach v’ehyeh a’lai l’masah, If I have sinned, what effect can I have on You? Guardian of mankind, why have You set me up to receive your blows so that I am a burden to myself?”

The Ibn Ezra, Ralbag and Metsudos explain that you can read this passuk as, instead of Iyov saying “I’m a burden on myself,” as, “My life is too much for me to bear!”

The Living Nach explains that according to our tradition this verse is one of the 18 “tekkunei sofrim – verses embedded as respect.” The verse should really read “I am a burden to You, God!” God can’t tolerate my sins. It seems that the Anshei Kenneset Hagedolah, the Men of the Great Assembly, actually tampered with Iyov’s words to make them less disrespectful. Others maintain, however, that they did not alter the text at all.

I hope that you enjoyed today’s NachDaily. In the next perek we will see how Iyov’s second friend, Bildad, responds to Iyov’s suffering.

Stay tuned to the next episode of NachDaily.

Thank you for listening, and have a wonderful day.