איוב, פרק ט׳, פסוק כ״ב

Job expresses a deep despair regarding the existence of divine justice in the world. Overwhelmed by his pain, he reaches the firm conclusion that human destiny is entirely uniform, completely disconnected from a person's moral behavior. This outcry serves as a direct response to Bildad, who argued that when good people suffer, it is ultimately for their own benefit, unlike the suffering of the wicked. Job rejects this idea entirely, arguing that the end result is identical for everyone and that no good ever comes from this pain [מצודת דוד].

Job insists that there is only one reality. Commentators offer complementary views to explain this concept. Some view it as Job's single, uncompromising conclusion [ביאור שטיינזלץ], while others understand it as a statement that there is only one absolute reality governing the world [רש"י]. A broader perspective explains that everyone simply walks a single shared path toward an identical fate, with no distinction made between the good and the sinful [רמב״ן, מצודת דוד].

This worldview is rooted in the belief that God does not exercise individual oversight to judge people based on their actions. Instead, the world operates on general, fixed natural laws that are entirely blind to good and evil [מלבי״ם]. As a result, the destruction and loss naturally built into the world strike the innocent and the wicked in exactly the same measure, leaving no room for true justice [ביאור שטיינזלץ, מלבי״ם]. The reason God does not separate the righteous from the wicked is due to the vast gap between humanity and the Creator. Compared to God, human beings are so inferior and lacking in value that any moral differences between them become entirely meaningless to Him [רמב״ן].