Job’s Suffering
[Pharaoh said:] Come, let us deal wisely with him [the Israelites—Ed.], [lest he multiply, and it come to pass that when there befalls us any war, he will also join our enemies and fight against us (Exodus 1:10).] He should have [said] “with them” [rather than “with him”]. R. Ḥama son of R. Ḥanina says [that Pharaoh was saying], “Come, let us deal wisely with regard to the savior of Israel [i.e., God].”
[His advisors asked,] “With what [form of death] shall we judge [and decree upon] them? [If] we shall judge them with fire, [perhaps we will be punished measure for measure by fire, as] it is written: For behold, the Lord will come in fire (Isaiah 66:15), [and] it is written [in the verse that follows]: For by fire will the Lord contend (Isaiah 66:16). [Similarly, we cannot judge them] with the sword, [as] it is written [in the continuation of that verse]: and by His sword with all flesh (Isaiah 66:16). Rather, let us come and judge them with water [by drowning the Israelite babies], for the Holy One already took an oath that He will not bring a flood upon the world, as it is stated: For this is as the waters of Noah unto Me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth (Isaiah 54:9).” And [Pharaoh’s advisors] did not know that He will not bring a flood upon all the world, but He [may] bring [destruction by water] upon one nation.
Alternatively, he does not bring [a flood upon them], but they [may] come and fall into [water], and so it says: And the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled toward it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea (Exodus 14:27). And this is what R. Eleazar says: What is the [meaning of that] which is written: [Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods,] for in that which they conspired [zadu] against them (Exodus 18:11)? [The phrase means:] In the pot in which they cooked, they [themselves] were cooked, [as they were punished through drowning, measure for measure, for drowning the Israelite babies]. From where may [it] be inferred that this [word] zadu is a term [meaning] a pot? As it is written: And Jacob simmered a pot [vayyazed Ya‘akov nazid] (Genesis 25:29).
R. Ḥiyya bar Abba says [that] R. Simai says: Three [people] were [consulted by Pharaoh] in that council [where Pharaoh questioned what should be done with the Israelites]: Balaam, and Job, and Jethro. Balaam, who advised [Pharaoh to kill all sons born to the Israelites], was killed [in the war with Midian (see Numbers 31:8)]. Job, who was silent, was punished by suffering. Jethro, who ran away [in protest], merited that [some] of his children’s children sat [in the Sanhedrin] in the Chamber of Hewn Stone, as it is stated: And the families of scribes who dwelt at Jabez, Tirathites, Shimeathites, and Sucathites, these were the Kenites who descended from Hammath, the father of the house of Rehab (1 Chronicles 2:55). And it is written: The children of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law (Judges 1:16).1
Notes
[Taken together, the two verses indicate that the Kenites, who were descended from Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, dwelled in Jabez. The rabbis derive the name Jabez (Ya‘bets) from the word ‘etsah, council, and take it as a reference to the Sanhedrin, where Jews held their councils. —Ed.]
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
