Then Elihu continued I saw in the reasons of Rabbi Moshe Hadarshan (the preacher), that he delivered three addresses corresponding to Job’s three companions, and this is the fourth one. Therefore it is called an addition.

Wait awhile for me and I will tell you This is completely Aramaic: Wait for me a little and I will tell you. [The word] כַּתַּר is an expression of waiting, as Jonathan rendered (Isa. 42:4): “and for his instruction, islands shall long (יכתרון).”

God has Those representing Him have.

you have perfect knowledge Behold, I will now begin to speak with you since you think that your knowledge is perfect.

Behold God is great in wisdom and in mercy.

and will not despise the poor man.

He is great in strength of heart to take revenge. Therefore, He will not allow a wicked man to live.

He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous until He seats him with kings.

And if you see righteous men who are bound with chains of suffering and ailments, or caught with ropes of poverty. In an expression of lots or ropes, they are called חבלים, in an expression of worry, they are called חֶבְלֵי יוֹלֵדָה, pangs of a childbearing woman. with ropes of poverty Heb. בחבלי cordes in French. It is only because they sinned before Him, and He comes to requite them for their own good, to cleanse them and to admonish them to return to Him.

He tells them their deed With these sufferings, He lets them know that they sinned before Him. All the words of Elihu were complete consolations and not chidings; i.e., do not worry about the sufferings if you are righteous, because they are for your good,

and He says that with sufferings, they will repent of iniquity.

If they understand and worship Him.

But the wicked of heart who are wicked—they bring about wrath; when suffering comes upon them, they curse and blaspheme,

and they do not beg mercy with supplication

when He binds them with sufferings; therefore He does not heal them.

shall die by strangulation Their soul [shall die] by the strangulation that is upon them,

but the poor man, who makes himself poor in the matter of supplications...He extricates from Gehinnom because of his poverty, which He brought upon him.

and opens their ear through oppression Through the oppression that He brought upon him, He opens his ear to say, “Return to Me.”

Moreover This is yet another great benefit that He did for you with these sufferings: He allured you and enticed you out of Gehinnom, whose mouth is narrow and whose base is wide.

not cramped so that its smoke should be gathered into its midst, and furthermore, that you should merit the world to come; and the bedecking of your table shall be full of fatness.

And if you have had your fill of the sentence of the wicked And if you have had your fill of the sufferings of the wicked, the judgment and the sentence—which are [represented by] the sufferings—will support you in the future from Gehinnom, and you must accept them lovingly.

For wrath [There] shall be great [wrath].

lest it entice you [Lest] your evil inclination [entice you to speak] words.

to multiply Heb. בשפק, lit. with multiplicity; [i.e., with] which you multiply and increase your words toward God; and after you have raised His wrath, much ransom, [i.e.,] much money will not turn you away [rescue you] from it.

Will you set up your prayer so that no trouble Have you come to set up a cry that no trouble befall you, or any forces of strength to rob you? If so, with what will He collect His debt?

Do not yearn for the night That is to say that you should not choose other sufferings. Do not yearn for, or desire the night that came to Amraphel, to Egypt, and to Sennacherib, to take away peoples from the world when they are in their place in tranquility, for they perished both from this world and from the world to come.

are taken away Heb. לעלות, like (Ps. 102:25), “do not take me away (תעלני) in the midst of my days.”

Beware, do not turn to iniquity to contend and to say, “He should have judged me with the sufferings of poverty.”

for...this These sufferings are to be chosen above poverty. A man to whom people behaved with respect and who has been accustomed to wealth all his life, will now stand and bargain, and having no money [to pay with], will be embarrassed and return home in disappointment. Now if you say that Job was a poor man in addition to his sufferings, we do not find that he lost anything except his livestock, but not silver or gold. And even if he lost his cattle with silver and gold, it is better for him to be a poor sick man than to be healthy and go in the marketplaces empty-handed [and be embarrassed as well]. In this manner, it is explained in the midrash of Rabbi Tanchuma (Mishpatim 11) from this verse, that Job’s sufferings are preferable to the sufferings of poverty, and so in the Aggadoth of the Talmud (Baba Bathra 116a).

Behold God deals loftily in His power Because His power is great, and one cannot be saved from before Him. Therefore...who is a teacher like Him? When He teaches a sinner to return to Him, He warns Him before the plague because He knows that he cannot beware of His plague, as He would warn Pharaoh concerning each plague (Ex. 8:17), “I shall let loose the beasts of the wilderness upon you etc.”; (ibid. 10:4), “I will bring locusts...tomorrow,” and so all of them. [In contrast,] when a mortal king wishes to wreak vengeance upon his enemies, he comes upon him suddenly, for, if he warns him, he will repent and be saved from him.

Who charged Him with His way [Who] commanded Him from time immemorial, “You shall follow this way”?

Mention His ways, and when you mention [them], you will automatically magnify the praise of the works of His attributes.

which men have seen Heb. שררו, which men have seen, like (Num. 24:17), “I behold it (אשורנו), but it is not near.”

have seen it His work.

from afar from the Creation or the world until now.

the number of His years is unfathomable Therefore man must look from afar to ask what happened to the first people, and he will learn from them.

For He increases Heb. יגרע, for He increases, like (above 15:4), “and increase (ותגרע) speech.” Others interpret: He withdraws them from the heavens to bring them down to earth.

they pour The firmaments [pour] the rain.

into His cloud Heb. לְאֵדוֹ, into His cloud.

Or will one understand Or will man understand what is in the spreadings of the clouds? This is a question.

the darkness Heb. תשאות, an expression of the thick darkness of His pavilion.

Behold He spread (on the cloud His rain) and covered the roots of the sea therewith.

For...therewith With the clouds He judges peoples and chastises them by withholding rain, causing famine, as well as all sorts of plagues. When the Generation of the Flood sinned (Gen. 7:11), “and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.” As for the people of Sodom (Deut. 29:22), “Sulfur and salt, all the soil is burned up.” As for Sisera (Jud. 5:20), “From heaven they fought...against Sisera.”

He gives food to one who has many From there comes sustenance (Ex. 16:4): “See, I am about to have bread rain down from heaven for you.” This is to be compared to a baker who is standing before the oven. If an enemy comes in, he rakes coals and casts them at him; if his friend comes in, he takes out hot bread and gives it to him.

to the one who has many to the one whose children are many and numerous; to one who increases children and requires food.

Over the clouds Heb. כפים, over the clouds. Similarly (Lam. 3:41), “Let us lift our heart to the clouds (כפים),” based on (I Kings 18:44), “...a cloud as small as a man’s palm (ככף).” But our Rabbis said (Taanith 7b): Because of the sin of (the robbery of) the hands He covers the rain The rain is withheld.

and He commands it to come through one who entreats with prayer. (The beloved one of the generation, and the great man and sage thereof will relate to Him—before the Holy One, blessed be He—the straits of the generation and their necessities].

Their beloved one preaches to them He preaches to them to search their deeds for themselves and to return to Him.

the acquisition This is the acquisition whereby the rain is acquired.

it also ascends on high Heb. על. It also [ascends] higher and higher [in this manner], like (Hosea 7: 16), “They will return, but not to the Most High (על)” or (II Sam. 23:1), “raised on high (על).” [See Comm. Dig. to Hosea 7:16.] Our Sages, however, interpret it (Taanith 8a) as the acquisition of anger and wrath upon one who becomes haughty [after his prayers have been answered], but the vowelization, viz. that מִקְנֶה is vowelized with a “pattah” [meaning a “seggol”], does not substantiate [the theory] that it is connected to אַף, for were it connected to אַף, it would be vowelized with a “kamatz” [meaning a “tzeireh”], and it would not be punctuated by a cantillation sign that denotes a pause, viz. a revi’i.