“If a lash causes death suddenly” (Job 9:23) – Antoninos asked Rabbeinu,4Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi he said to him: ‘What is the meaning of what is written: “If a lash causes death suddenly”?’ Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] said: ‘[If you were to] decree that one should receive one hundred lashes and they would give him one hundred dinars.5If he is able to withstand all one hundred lashes, he will receive one hundred dinars.
The total of this is the total of that, but he will not get anything from him, and in that way he makes a mockery of the one receiving the lashes.6The individual being lashed will not be able to withstand all of the lashes, and may even die, in which case he will not receive the dinars and will have suffered for naught. “He mocks at the undoing of the innocent” (Job 9:23) – Rav Aḥa said: When the righteous live in tranquility and seek to live in tranquility in this world,7It is the pursuit of tranquility, rather than the experience or enjoyment of tranquility, that is considered improper for the righteous (see Anaf Yosef). the accuser comes and accuses them.
He says: Is what is prepared for them in the World to Come not sufficient for them, that they seek to live in tranquility in this world? Know that it is so; Jacob our patriarch, because he sought to live in tranquility in this world, was confronted by the accuser regarding Joseph.8The heavenly accuser caused him to suffer distress due to the sale of Joseph. “I was not tranquil, was not silent” (Job 3:26).
“I was not tranquil” – from Esau; “was not silent” – from Laban. “And I did not rest” (Job 3:26) – from Dina. “But turmoil came” (Job 3:26) – the turmoil of Joseph came upon me.