Kabbalah Library
Zohar for All, Volume 10
One Is Not Judged According to His Affliction
22. This is what Job said to the Creator, “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come to His throne! I would present my case before Him,” until Job threw words upward, speaking inappropriately.
23. Did he not throw more words upward? After all, in several places, he denied the revival of the dead, and threw words upward and removed the image of the king, spoke about the Providence of the Creator, which is the shape of the king.
24. However, at that time, the slanderer said to the Creator, “Job, of whom you said, ‘a blameless and upright man, who fears God and shuns evil,’ denied the revival of the dead, and threw words, and removed the shape of the king.” The Creator said, “Job did not speak with reason.”
25. when Job argued with the Creator, he said, “Does it seem good to You that You should oppress, that You should despise the work of Your hands,” meaning is the oppression that You do to me good? My father and mother made for me the body, and You became a guardian with them and placed the soul in me. And you said to the slanderer “but preserve his soul.” That which is Yours, You guarded, and that which is my father’s and my mother’s You said, “He is in your hands.” Is the oppression that You do to me good? Since You despise the work of Your hands, for the soul is loathsome from the perspective of the torments of the body, and You smile on the counsel of the wicked? He removed the shape of the king, demeaning the Providence of the Creator, which is the shape of the king.
26. The slanderer complained about all this to the Creator. The Creator said to him, “Job did not speak with reason, and he is not to be caught in his affliction.” When the Creator came and argued with him, Job retracted himself and said, “I spoke once, and I will not answer; and two, and I will not add,” he shut his mouth before the judge.
27. It is not written, “For you did not speak correctly like My servant Job,” but rather, “For you did not speak to Me correctly, like My servant Job.” You did not speak correctly to Me. Job stood and justified the judgment, and asked for himself for what he had said, and they did not ask for themselves, for misleading him with their words.
28. Anyone who suspects the upright deserves to be afflicted with leprosy, as it is written, “because we have done foolishly and have sinned.” It is also written, “Do not be as one who is dead.” Job’s friends suspected him of what was not in him, and did not ask him for forgiveness, and did not ask for their souls, until Job asked for mercy on them, and the Creator notified them that they sinned with what they suspected of him. This is why it is written, “And My servant Job will pray for you.”
29. “For I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your villainess.” Villainess is leprosy, as it is written, “And her father did indeed spat in her face,” meaning her father acts with villainess, will deal with villainess with her face.
