Commentary on Job 1 part 7/12

For at an appointed time it has been prepared for me to fall by the hands of others, and for my houses to be plundered by lawless men.

'For surely,' he says, 'because I have fallen into calamity, I have not thereby lost my understanding?' Here he calls himself righteous, not bearing witness to perfect virtue in himself, but that he has wronged no one, that no one of the others has any charge to bring against him.

And for my houses to be plundered by lawless men.

So it had to come to pass; this had been foreordained from above.

'Only,' he says, 'do not suppose that these things will stop with me.'

'For if I, having done no wrong, suffer such things, how much more the wicked man. Yet,' he says, 'let no wicked man be confident that he will go unpunished.'

As many as provoke the Lord to anger, how shall there not also be an examination of them? 'This is clear,' he says, 'and acknowledged and plain to all, that the wicked man must by all means be brought to examination before God.'

'And this,' he says, 'is clear not to men only, but even to the irrational creatures and to the insensible earth itself. Nay, ask the four-footed beasts,' he says, 'if they will tell you, or the birds of heaven, if they will declare it to you.'

'Recount it to the earth, if it will tell you, and if the fishes of the sea will explain it to you; for who among all these has not known that the hand of the Lord has made these things, that in His hand is the soul of all living things and the breath of every man?' he says.

'Why then do you carry yourselves as though you had discovered something great and wonderful? For such a man must by all means perish, and no one is ignorant of it; and this too we all know, that in His hand is the soul of all men.' Do you see how he bears witness not only to His creative power, but also to His providential care, that He holds together and upholds all things, both the life and the soul of men, so that He is able, whenever He wills, to chastise and to punish?

For the mind discerns words, but the throat tastes food.

If the irrational creatures know these things, how much more we who have understanding, and not merely a throat to eat with as they do. Or he means this: that I am not senseless, I know these things.

For just as God gave us a throat to discern food, so also a mind, with a view to reckonings and to time, in order to find out knowledge; for 'in much time,' he says, 'wisdom is found, and in a long life, knowledge.'

Here he signifies that prudence is according to nature for men, just as eating is.

And at the outset he says this:

Are you the only men? 'So long as I am a man,' he says, 'I am able to perceive the very same things that you do.' 'In much time,' he says, 'wisdom is found.'

It seems to me that he is taking hold of them.

'For do not suppose,' he says, 'that you have found out the whole.'

'For even if we have a discerning mind, yet nonetheless we also need much time in order to find out. With Him is wisdom,' he says, 'and power; with Him counsel and understanding.'

'For all wisdom,' he says, 'is with God; it is there all at once and apart from any lapse of time.'

For these things are according to nature — to discern and to taste, by the mind and by the throat — but to find out wisdom is a matter of time.

'For surely, because we know these things, do we know the whole? We know that the wicked are punished; but behold, I too, being righteous, am punished, so that there is need of time to learn these things from one who brings forward many such examples.' Do you see how great is experience in the Scriptures? What the aged possess from the experience of affairs, this you, though young, possess in great abundance from the narration of affairs.

Those men suffered many things, saw many things;

and you too shall see many things, if you are willing to go through the Scriptures with much attentiveness.

Be willing to give ear to every divine narration.

Do not overlook the tale of the elders;

for they themselves also learned from their fathers.

For if He Himself is willing to give it, there is no need even of time.

Then he discourses concerning His power, that which chastises and punishes:

'If He overthrows,' he says, 'who shall build up? And if He shuts against a man, who shall open? If He withholds the water, He dries up the earth; and if He lets it loose,'

He destroys it, overthrowing it.

With Him are might and strength; with Him knowledge and understanding.

Then also concerning His wisdom:

'Leading captive,' he says, 'the counsellors of the earth, and driving the judges of the earth out of their wits;'

'setting up kings upon thrones, and girding them with a girdle about their loins; He who sends forth priests as captives, and overthrew the mighty ones of the earth;'

'changing the lips of the faithful, and He knew the understanding of the elders;'

'pouring out dishonour upon rulers, but He healed the lowly.'

'Are not these also,' he says, 'the marvellous works of God's wisdom? I too know most of them,' he says.

'He who reveals,' he says, 'deep things out of darkness, and brought forth into light the shadow of death;'

'leading nations astray and destroying them, laying nations low and guiding them; changing the hearts of the rulers of the earth, and He led them astray in a way which they knew not.'

'Let them grope in darkness and not in light, and let them wander like a drunken man.'

'Behold, these things my eye has seen and my ear has heard; and I know as much as you also understand, and though I am younger than you, I am not less intelligent than you.'

'For what of it? Even if I am younger,' he says, 'I know these things clearly. Nevertheless, I will speak to the Lord, and I will make my defence before Him, if He is willing.'

Do you see? This is what he said:

'Do not suppose,' he says, 'that if I have said anything heavy and burdensome, I say these things out of ignorance;'

'yet I will not refrain from speaking to God.'

'For do I speak to a man?'

'To God, who knows the hidden things of the mind.'

'It is better for me,' he says, 'to be judged before God than before you. For you are unjust physicians, and healers of evils, all of you.'

'But would that you might be silent, and it would turn out to your wisdom.'

For whenever a man utters things devoid of reason, it is better to be silent; and by keeping silence he will be more wise than by speaking.

Hear now the reproof of my mouth, and attend to the judgement of my lips.

Do you not speak before the Lord, and utter deceit before Him, while speaking fair? What he means is this:

'Do you not think,' he says, 'that God hears what you say, that you converse with deceit, not out of a good purpose, but wishing only to strike me and to wound my honour?'

'For even if the words are right, yet they are not with a right intent — not so as to correct, not so as to admonish, not so as to make better (for you are not teaching one who is ignorant), but so as to cast down. Or do you shrink,' he says, 'from becoming judges yourselves, while speaking fair?'

'For if He searches you out, even if you do all things and are joined to His way, none the less He will reprove you.'

'If He searches you out,' he says.

'Now you who are speaking, if the matter were being judged in your own case, you would not have uttered these things.' That is to say:

'If you were in my place, and He examined your affairs strictly, you would not have become judges as you now are.' Or again, in another sense:

You who speak these things cannot become judges of my words.

For even if, he says, you should say more than these things and do everything so as to plead on his behalf, none the less he will convict you and demand of you an account and a reckoning. And if you also secretly show partiality, will not his terrors whirl you about? The fear of the Lord shall fall upon you, and your boasting shall vanish like ashes, and your body shall be but clay.

'Keep silence,' he says, 'that I may speak'—that is:

'Be silent'—'and I shall find rest,' he says, 'from my anger.'

Do you see that these words were not simply those of one justifying himself, but a kind of consolation for his grief? 'And I shall find rest,' he says, 'from my anger, taking up my flesh in my teeth.'

'Just as those who devour themselves have a certain consolation,' he says, 'as those who bite their own flesh in their pains have a certain consolation, so also do I in uttering these things. And I shall place my soul in my hands,' he says, 'though the Mighty One should lay hold of me, since indeed he has already begun.'

Do we not pity such men rather than demand a reckoning of them? Or do we call them man-eaters? By no means, but we weep and lament over them.

Keep this observation in mind throughout the whole passage.

'And I shall place my soul in my hands,' he says, that is:

Just as those who take their own lives, so also do I console myself; this is a consolation to me.

'Unless God slay me, this is my consolation—to speak out. Nay rather,' he says, 'I will speak and refute you before him, and this too shall turn out for my salvation.'

'For no deceit shall enter before him.'

This shall be a consolation to me. For no deceit shall enter before him.

Do you see that I do not speak, as you do, with a hidden purpose? I know that there is nothing insidious with him. 'Hear my words, for I will declare them while you listen.'

'Behold, I am near to my judgment.'

'I wish,' he says, 'to be brought to trial; I do not refuse the tribunal. I know that I shall be shown to be righteous.'

'For who is he that will contend with me in judgment, that I should now fall silent and expire? But I have need of two things; then I shall not hide myself from your face.'

'Withhold your hand from me, and let not your fear terrify me.'

'Then you will call, and I will answer you; you will speak, and I will give you a reply.'

'Do not frighten me, do not bring against me the majesty of God, and I will plead my case.'

'I too have sinned, I admit,' he says, 'but I am receiving back a punishment far greater than my sins.'

'How many are my sins, and what are my iniquities? Teach me.'

'What is this that has been done to me?' he says.

'Why do you hide yourself from me, and count me as your adversary? Or will you be wary of me as of a leaf moved by the wind, or as of grass carried along by a breath?' 'For what reason,' he says, 'do you not make the matter plain? For what reason do you not say:'

'For this cause I punish you'? It is no small consolation to those being punished to learn the cause of their punishment.

Therefore this man [Job] says:

'Teach me my sins.' But God will have no sins to teach him; yet what does he say? 'Do you suppose that I have dealt with you for any other reason than that you might be shown to be righteous?' 'And you consider me,' he says, 'as a leaf moved by the wind.'

'You make no account of me, you despise me, you spurn me.'

Teach them [my sins] to me in the present. 'Or will you be wary of me as of grass carried by the wind? But you set yourself against me, in that you have written down evils against me, and have laid upon me the sins of my youth.'

Do you see how he acknowledges himself a sinner, and wishes to obtain pardon on account of his age—or rather, from his age to show that he is a sinner? 'And you have set my foot in the stocks, and have watched all my works.'

'And you have come down to the very roots of my feet, which grow old like a wineskin, or like a garment eaten by moths.'

'You have set my foot,' he says, 'in the stocks.'

'And you have come down to the roots of my feet.'

You have gone over the whole of me and scrutinized me, and from the feet to the head you have smitten me; you have left not a single part in me sound. Again he speaks of the greatness of the calamity; again he makes sport of the meanness of [human] nature.

'They grow old,' he says, 'like a wineskin.'

For what reason did he bring forward a wineskin? Because a wineskin is empty, having in it only air.

So too is our body.

This too the common people are wont to say, that we are an inflated wineskin.

Do not look at the bulk of me, nor at the stretched skin, but consider what is within, and you will see how great is the emptiness.

Then he passes on to yet another illustration:

'Or like a garment,' he says, 'eaten by moths.'

'For a mortal born of woman is short-lived and full of wrath.'

Then, full of wrath even from his very birth—that is:

'Or, like a flower that has bloomed, he has fallen away; he has fled like a shadow and will not stay.'

'Have you not taken account of this man too, and made him to enter into judgment before you?' Do you see how it is not from being righteous, but from the meanness of his nature, that he wishes—

—to be released? 'Ought this man,' he says, 'to have been examined; ought this man to have been called to account—he who is here today and tomorrow is no more? For who shall be clean from defilement? No one, even if his life upon the earth be but a single day; and his months are numbered before you.'

'You have appointed him a set time, and he shall not pass beyond it.'

'Depart from me, that I may have quiet and take some pleasure in my life, like a hired laborer.'

Do you see him again taking refuge in [the frailty of] nature? For it is not even possible, he says, to be clean—not only because of its meanness, nor because of its brevity, nor because life is filled with despondency, but because it is simply not possible to be clean. 'Depart from me,' he says, 'that I may have quiet and take some pleasure in my life, like a hired laborer.'

This creature, short-lived again, and full of toil and misery, worn down and afflicted—give the command that it may be at rest. Then he shows that man is more wretched than all things, than trees and rivers and the sea:

'For there is,' he says, 'hope for a tree:'

'even if it be cut down, it will bloom again, and its shoot shall not fail.'

'For though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die among the rocks, yet from the scent of water it will bud, and produce a harvest like a newly planted thing.'

'But a man, when he has died, is gone; and a mortal, once fallen, shall be no more.'

'Does the sea grow scanty with time, and do rivers, once made desolate, dry up? But a man, once fallen asleep, shall not rise, and shall not be awakened, until heaven grows old; and they shall not be roused out of their sleep.'

By this he means that not even the sea suffers this [decay] with the passage of time, but these things are, as it were, deathless—as even some of those outside [the faith] have said:

'so long,' he says, 'as rivers shall flow and the shadows of trees shall be.' Neither the sea nor the river is cut off, but man undergoes this [dissolution].

For would that it were so, that we should die and live again:

but it is not so. 'For O that you would keep me in Hades,' he says, 'and would hide me until your wrath cease, and appoint me a set time in which you would remember me.'

'For if a man die, shall he live again, having completed the days of his life? I will wait until I come to be once more.'

'Then you will call me, and I will answer you.'

'But do not reject the works of your hands.'

'It is not, then, possible,' he says, 'to wait:'

'For if this were so, I would wait until I should rise again.'

'For O that,' he says, 'you would hide me in Hades, and then I would wait until I should become such [as I was], and when you called I would obey.'

What then? Even if none of these things be so, yet because I am the work [of your hands], do not cast me away. 'But you have numbered my doings, and none of my sins shall pass by you unnoticed.'

'And you have sealed up my sins in a bag, and have marked down whatever I have transgressed unwillingly.'

'From this I wish to be saved,' he says—'from being the work of your hands—but by no means [do I wish to be saved] on the ground of righteousness, nor on the ground of your being able to be deceived or to have forgotten my offenses.'

For it is not possible that any of my evils should escape your notice. Then he says:

'But indeed a falling mountain will crumble away, and a rock will grow old out of its place.'

Waters wear away stones, and floods overflow the surface of the earth's soil; and so You have destroyed the endurance of man.

You thrust him utterly away, and he departed; You set Your face against him, and he was sent forth.

And though his sons become many, he knows it not; and if they become few, he perceives it not.

But only his flesh has felt pain, and his soul has mourned over itself.

A man is punished, he says, in that though he has many sons, he does not know it.

For after he has died, he is often deprived even of the prosperity which, had he lived, he would have enjoyed.

For what profit is it to leave children behind, when he himself has departed? Do you see? Everywhere he laments the brevity of life, and the fact that one can no longer turn back nor return hither.

Let us grant, he says, that he leaves sons behind; yet he has no perception of the good things.

Whether the children become few or many, he knows it not.

What then is more wretched than this: when a man fares well yet is ignorant of it? When he departs alone, knowing only his own woes?

But if anything good should befall him after his death, this indeed he neither knows nor will come to know; only that his flesh has felt pain and his soul has mourned over itself. THEN ELIPHAZ THE TEMANITE ANSWERED AND SAID:

What answer of understanding of spirit will a wise man give? He fills his belly with pain, reproving me with empty words, with speeches that profit nothing.

This is of all things the most dreadful: that under the guise of pious words and in the order of consolation, the devil armed them to wound him.

And observe how they employ their speech in a scornful manner, mocking him as one bereft of sense.

For since he had said, 'I too have a heart, and wisdom shall not die with you, and I too have understanding, and I am not less intelligent than you though younger,' Eliphaz straightway attacks him from these very words and says:

What answer of understanding of spirit will a wise man give? Behold, he says, the wise man who claims to know all things — see what kind of answers he gives! And he has filled his belly with pain.

The words were spoken to him for consolation, yet they are laden with suffering.

This plea of yours, he says, has nothing sound in it.

All is confused, he says, and rash, and you will be able to impale yourself upon your own words. Do you see how ambitious he is, and upon what he takes his stand? For since Job had said:

Wisdom shall not die with you — this Eliphaz wishes to turn about and to show that Job knows nothing more than they do.

For you too, he says, have cast off fear, and have accomplished such words before the Lord, so that you are guilty by the words of your own mouth, and you have not discerned the words of the mighty.

Let your own mouth convict you, and not I; and your lips shall testify against you.

For what? he says. Were you the first man to be born, or were you fashioned before the hills? Or have you heard the ordinance of the Lord, or has wisdom come to you? For what do you know that we do not know? Or what do you understand that we do not? Indeed among us there is one both aged and advanced in years, heavier with days than your father.

You have been scourged for few of the sins you have committed; you have spoken exceedingly great things.

For surely you are not the first of all, that you should have learned from length of time.

Or have you heard anything from God? You exceed us in nothing as regards knowledge, since you said that in long time wisdom is found.

For surely you are not of long time, nor were you born before the world. Job said this because these men prided themselves greatly.

You have been scourged, he says, for few of the sins you have committed.

'What are my iniquities? Teach me' — Eliphaz, from another excess, says:

You have not paid even the smallest fraction. Then again he simply contends.

For did he say that 'I am blameless before God'? And yet he says, 'You have recorded my iniquities, You have kept my sins in remembrance.'

What has your heart dared, he says, or what have your eyes endured, that you have burst out in wrath before the Lord and have brought forth such words from your mouth? For what mortal shall be blameless, or who, being born of woman, shall be righteous as though he were destined to be so? If He puts no trust in the holy ones, there is blame.

Heaven is not clean before Him, and the stars are not blameless.

How much less the abominable and unclean man, who drinks iniquity like water!

Do you see how he smote him, how he shows that evil belongs to man's very nature? I will declare to you, therefore, and hear me:

The things I have seen I will declare to you, things which wise men have declared and did not hide from their fathers.

To them alone was the land given, and no stranger came upon them.

The whole life of the ungodly is spent in anxiety, and numbered years are given to the tyrant; and the sound of his terror is in his ears.

When he seems already to be at peace, then his overthrow shall come.

Let him not believe that he shall turn back from darkness.

For he is already appointed for the hands of the sword; he falls to be blotted out, and is destined to be food for vultures.

And he knows within himself that he awaits a downfall.

'In long time wisdom is found' — the things, he says, which their fathers spoke,

and did not hide among themselves. And no stranger came upon them.

The wise, enjoying peace and handing it down to their descendants, endured no war, saw no battle, and were not made outcasts; but they stood nobly and manfully, prevailed, and mastered great strength and power, enjoying abundant peace.

The whole life of the ungodly, he says, is spent in anxiety.

And even when they enjoy peace, their conscience is of such a kind.

And numbered years are given to the mighty.

For tyrants are short-lived.

When he seems to be at peace, then his overthrow shall come.

So that he may learn that the war is from on high, and there shall be for him no change from his miseries.

And he is destined to be food for vultures; he is appointed for the hands of the sword.

Observe: even his death is pitiable, not according to the common law of nature, but by violence and war and battle; and after death there is neither burial nor funeral rites; and not only is he left unburied, but he is even, he says, food for vultures.

And he knows within himself that a downfall awaits him.

This is the more grievous thing — the conscience — when it thus divines and foretells such things to him.

A dark day shall whirl him about, and distress and affliction shall lay hold of him.

Like a general, he says, a front-rank leader who has fallen — because he has lifted up his hands against the Lord, and against the Lord Almighty he has stiffened his neck, and has run against Him with insolence, with the thickness of the boss of his shield, because he has covered his face with his own fat.

Just as such a man is splendid and conspicuous, yet the moment he takes his stand in a perilous place he perishes at once; and just as such a leader, ruling over others, falls before the rest — so also does this man.

See what kind of example he has given:

What profit to him, he says, is his generalship and his rule, seeing that he has lifted up his hands against the Lord? Then he utters certain curses which shall assuredly come upon the ungodly.

And he has made a covering of fat upon his thighs; but his boasting is insolence.

May he lodge in desolate cities and enter into uninhabited houses.

What that man has prepared, others shall carry away.

Neither shall he be enriched, nor shall his possessions endure, nor shall he cast his shadow upon the earth, nor shall he escape the darkness.

May the wind wither his shoot, and may his blossom fall away.

Let him not believe that he shall endure.

His cutting shall be destroyed before its time, and his branch shall not be luxuriant.

May he be gathered like an unripe grape before its time, and may he fall like the blossom of the olive.

For the death of the ungodly is a testimony, and fire shall consume the houses of those who take bribes; and they shall conceive pains in the belly.

His labour shall come to nothing, and his belly shall bear pain.

Everywhere he sets before us what is untimely and unfinished.

For the death of the impious is a testimony, that is:

a reproof, an accusation, a testimony to the rest of mankind, that thus must all men suffer.

And again, the death of the impious is a testimony, that is:

manifest, conspicuous, unknown to no one.

'I have heard many such things; you are all miserable comforters.'

Since he speaks of this as of something exceptional, and recounts it as an ancient narrative, tracing the history back from of old, he says, in effect: Are these things then unknown?

'But since you speak carelessly and utter whatever comes to mind, and do not weigh your own words, neither will you begrudge me for saying what is in my soul.'

'For what? Is there any order, he says, in the words of the spirit? Or what will trouble you, that you answer? I too will speak as you do, if only your soul were set in the place of my soul.'

'Then I would leap upon you with words, and would shake my head against you.'

'But let there be strength in my mouth, and I will not spare the movement of my lips.'

'I would have wished, he says, that your circumstances were in my place, and that you were in my stead;'

'and then I too could shake my head and do the very things you do.'

'Then you would have learned not to philosophize amid the misfortunes of others.'

'For indeed the matter brings me consolation.'

'For if I speak, he says, I find comfort; but if I keep silent,'

'my terrors will in no way be lightened or lessened for me. For if I speak, I shall not feel the pain of the wound;'

'but if I also keep silent, how shall I be wounded any less? Or he means this: that if I were in your situation and outside these terrors, then you would have known.'

'For I did not feel pain in speaking.' Then again he recounts his calamity:

'But now he has made me utterly worn out, foolish, rotted;'

'and you have laid hold of me; it has become a testimony.'

'And my falsehood has risen up within me; it answered back against me to my face.'

'Using wrath he cast me down; he gnashed his teeth against me; the darts of his trials fell upon me.'

'He struck my eyes with barbs and leaped upon me with the bow.'

'With a sharp wound he smote me upon the knees, and with one accord they ran down upon me.'

'For the Lord has delivered me into the hands of the unrighteous, and cast me among the impious.'

'When I was at peace he scattered me; taking me by the hair he plucked me, and set me up as a target.'

'They surrounded me, casting their spears into my kidneys without sparing; they poured out my life upon the ground.'

'They cast me down, breach upon breach; mighty ones ran upon me.'

'It is not enough, he says, that I am punished, but I even seem to be senseless, or that:'

'I am driven out of my natural wits.' Then he presents him warring against him in human fashion, with anger:

'They have sewn, he says, sackcloth upon my hide, and my strength they have quenched into the ground.'

'He has blackened me, either from my sufferings or because the sackcloth prevailed.'

'My belly is scorched from weeping, and upon my eyelids is the shadow of death.'

'For there was no unrighteousness in my hands, and my prayer was pure.'

'O earth, do not cover the blood of my flesh.'

For this is the custom of those in dire straits, that their evils not be covered.

'So far am I, he says, from being conscious of guilt in myself, that I wish all men to see what I suffer. And let there be no place for my cry,'

'nor cover my cry. And now, behold, my witness is in the heavens, and he who knows my case is in the highest.'

'May my supplication come before the Lord, and before him let my eye drop tears.'

'May God hear these things, he says; may God see these things. And let my reproof be before the Lord, and the son of man be for his neighbor.'

'I plead my cause before him.' Again the same things:

'But numbered years have come to me, and I shall go by a way from which I shall not return.'

'I am perishing, borne away in spirit;'

'and I beg for burial, and do not obtain it;'

'I entreat in my weariness, and what shall I do? Strangers have stolen my possessions.'

'Who is this? Let him be bound to my hand, because they have hidden their heart from understanding.'

'Therefore you will not exalt them; to their portion he will announce evils.'

'But my eyes have wasted away over my sons.'

'You have made me a byword among the nations, and I have become a laughingstock to them.'

'My eyes are dimmed with wrath, and I am besieged greatly by all.'

'Astonishment has seized the true-hearted over me;'

'for against the righteous the transgressor has risen up.'

'For I cannot even say this common thing of the wretched, that I am pitied; but on the contrary I am mocked by the senseless. The righteous are amazed at me. But let the faithful man, he says, hold to his own way, and let him who is pure in hands take courage.'

'How, he says, can the faithful man henceforth hold to his own way? How shall the pure keep courage, when these things have thus turned out contrary to hope? Suppose my case counts for nothing;'

'how shall others stand firm in the way of virtue? Nevertheless I again summon you to judgment. But by all means press on and come, then.'

'For I do not find what is true among you.'

'My days have passed away in stench, and the joints of my heart are broken.'

'I have turned night into day; the light is near because of the darkness.'

'For if I wait, Hades is my house, and in gloom my bed is spread.'

'I have called upon death to be my father, and corruption to be my mother and sister.'

'Where then is my hope? Or shall I yet see my good things? Or will they go down with me to Hades? Or shall we go down together upon the mound? Tell me, he says, wait.'

'Where? To Hades? For that is what now awaits me.'

'For I have called upon death, he says, to be my father, that is:'

'Death is desirable to me; there I must by all means depart. THEN BALDAD THE SAUCHITE ANSWERED AND SAID:'

'How long will you not cease? Hold back, that we too may speak.'

'Why have we kept silent before you as though we were four-footed beasts, and you have used wrath?' See them contending with him; see them wishing to stop his mouth.

This is not the manner of those who comfort, but on the contrary of those who provoke and jeer at him.