Too Fatigued to Feed Each Other?

Job 22:7

Tired of the back and forth theological debates between Job and his faux-friends? Fatigue is a feature of our current existence, and the weariness of endlessly dissecting Job’s back-and-forth arguments also seems to be mirroring the exhaustion of grappling with the ongoing injustices of our world.

The word ‘fatigued’ shows up just six times in the Hebrew Bible - and one of them is in this chapter. It includes a surprising and subtle nod to the first time this word shows up in Scriptures and perhaps points at they ways in which we are often too tired to deal with what’s wrong - and yet, somehow, must.

Job’s friend Eliphaz delivers his final speech in chapter 22 --and it’s as sharp as it gets, blaming Job outright for moral failings that he insists led to divine punishment. This isn’t just tough love; it’s a verbal assault which also contradicts the earlier chapters that present God’s POV that Job is righteous and innocent.

Eliphaz accuses Job of immoral greed and avoiding the needs of others:

הֲלֹא רָעָתְךָ רַבָּה וְאֵין־קֵץ לַעֲוֺנֹתֶיךָ׃ כִּי־תַחְבֹּל אַחֶיךָ חִנָּם וּבִגְדֵי עֲרוּמִּים תַּפְשִׁיט׃ לֹא־מַיִם עָיֵף תַּשְׁקֶה וּמֵרָעֵב תִּמְנַע־לָחֶם׃

Is your wickedness not great? and your iniquities are infinite?

For you have taken pledges from your brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.

You have not given water to the fatigued to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.”

Job 22:5-7

Job’s supposed sin of preventing nourishment from the fatigued may be referencing another ancient moment of complex transactions. The Hebrew word ayef - weary, tired, fatigued - grabs our attention. It’s not just a tired trope but a weighty word that echoes across biblical landscapes.

Ayef first appears in Genesis, describing Esau’s exhaustion when he returns from the hunt and sells his birthright to his brother Jacob for a bowl of lentils. Esau’s fatigue becomes a defining moment, a symbol of desperation that leads to irreversible consequences. He is judged for valuing food over fate, the here/now over the eternal. Jacob’s choice is seen as cunning - he recognized his brother’s weakness and took advantage of it. But how moral and generous an act was it? What are its consequences?

Eliphaz (whose name first appears in the Bible as a grandson of Esau, another wink) weaponizes that same imagery to paint Job as callous and unjust. But Job, like Esau, and like Jacob, stands at a crossroads of human vulnerability and divine mystery that goes beyond mere binaries.

Shmuel Klitsner takes this link even further:

“The only other verse in the five books of the Torah in which “'ayef” is deployed (Deut. 25:18), describes the attack of Amalek on the weak and famished of the Israelites coming out of Egypt. As the progenitor of Amalek is the grandson of Esau taking advantage of the children of Jacob’s state of weariness ('ayef), there would seem to be a clear case of biblical karma or what the rabbis call “mida k’neged mida” (“tit for tat”).”

Is this a coincidence?

Eliphaz’s accusation reveals a timeless struggle: how we perceive justice when faced with suffering, and how we navigate our own immediate needs with those of others? Do we explain suffering away with oversimplified formulas, as Eliphaz does? Or do we, like Job, wrestle with its complexities, demanding a justice that feels elusive? Are we, like Jacob, complicit in one way or another, prioritizing our own needs over those of others - even our own brothers?

Eliphaz’s accusation, even if baseless, prompts us to ask hard questions about neglect, responsibility, and healing. Esau’s physical weariness leads to a transaction that defines generations. Eliphaz’s charge against Job implies a moral fatigue—a failure to care for the depleted. This echoes a broader biblical narrative: how societies handle the vulnerable reflects their moral fabric.

In our modern world, ayef surfaces in the fatigue of systemic injustice—worldwide and on our screens each moment and every day.

Are we offering water to the weary, or withholding it? Justice requires more than acknowledgment; it demands active engagement. Whether Eliphaz made up the accusations against Job or even if there was a kernel of truth in them - his words linger in a world where so many of us look away from need and often get away with it, and many suffer for no fault of their own at all.

Fatigue—ayef—is real, but it’s not an excuse to stop striving.

Where Eliphaz fails to hold his friend’s hands and offer his weary soul some support - we can step in. Jacob and Esau’s deal still matters today in a world tired by wars over inheritance and birthrights, and Job teaches us that justice isn’t just about divine judgment; it’s about human hands reaching out, with less judgment and more empath, to heal tired old wounds.

Image: Jacob and Esau, Adi Nes, 2006

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