Job’s Suffering

b. Sotah 11a

220–600

About This Entry

The biblical book of Job poses one of the most vexing questions of the human experience, the problem of theodicy: why do bad things happen to good people? Job is a genuinely righteous man who suffers tremendously for no apparent reason. The book presents Job’s friends orating at length to Job; they hold the traditional perspective that Job must have sinned since he is suffering so terribly. At the end of the book, God appears to Job from a whirlwind and explains that it is impossible for Job to know God’s will. Like Job’s friends, the rabbis argue that Job’s sin was truly terrible, and so he warranted his suffering. The rabbis endeavor to identify the specific nature of Job’s sins and suggest that he was Pharaoh’s advisor and stood idly by when he had an opportunity to protect the Israelites in Egypt.

[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

Translation adapted from the Noé Edition of the Koren Talmud Bavli.

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Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation unless otherwise noted.

[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.]

Credits

From Koren Talmud Bavli, Noé Edition, trans. Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz (Jerusalem: Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2019). Accessed via the William Davidson digital edition, sefaria.org. Adapted with permission of Koren Publishers Ltd.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.