תְּבַקְשֵׁם֙ וְלֹ֣א תִמְצָאֵ֔ם אַנְשֵׁ֖י מַצֻּתֶ֑ךָ יִהְי֥וּ כְאַ֛יִן וּכְאֶ֖פֶס אַנְשֵׁ֥י מִלְחַמְתֶּֽךָ׃
Tu les chercheras et tu ne les trouveras plus les gens qui se déclarent tes adversaires; ils seront comme le néant et le vide, les gens qui te font la guerre.
Malbim
Now let us see how Job employed this same postulate in a wider context, in an examination of the whole of existence, as follows: It has become apparent to modern scientists,3Written in or about 1865. that the stars fall under the category of 'becoming and demising';4The category that accounts for the transient quality of the terrestrial (sublunar) world. that they are not made of a quintessence as had been the opinion of the ancients, but of ordinary matter like that of the Earth's; and that they too will ultimately decay. This is clear from the words of the prophets too:5This is an example of Malbim's thesis that the Tnach had nothing to fear from the new, for it had anticipated the new For the heavens will vanish like smoke, and the earth age like a garment (Isaiah 51:6).
It has also been shown that the sun, queen of the heavens, (Jeremiah 7:18) together with the multitude of stars in orbit around it, is as nothing and as naught (Isaiah 41:12) compared to the many thousands and tens of thousands of suns that are scattered throughout immeasurable space and which we see as just small specks twinkling in the Milky Way. They are worlds without number, which are also complex structures and are also destined for decay and demise.6In his commentary on Proverbs 3:19, Malbim writes: When He created the world ex nihilo, the Maker had in mind a number of possibilities about the different ways in which the world might be formed and, in His immaculate wisdom, He chose to form it in this way.
It has also been shown that the sun, queen of the heavens, (Jeremiah 7:18) together with the multitude of stars in orbit around it, is as nothing and as naught (Isaiah 41:12) compared to the many thousands and tens of thousands of suns that are scattered throughout immeasurable space and which we see as just small specks twinkling in the Milky Way. They are worlds without number, which are also complex structures and are also destined for decay and demise.6In his commentary on Proverbs 3:19, Malbim writes: When He created the world ex nihilo, the Maker had in mind a number of possibilities about the different ways in which the world might be formed and, in His immaculate wisdom, He chose to form it in this way.