Commentary on Job 1 part 14/15

'For thou hast appointed a time, and it shall not pass beyond.'

Here he makes clear the providence concerning man — that he does not remain in life by chance and at random, but that by the judgement of God he does not overstep the time appointed for him by Him.

But these things are not to be spoken of as though fate were master, but as of God's will, which has ordered all things by bounds and measures. And if he speaks allegorically of the man who is virtuously led by the hand of God, that he does not overstep what is fitting because virtue is measured out, consider this together.

'Depart from him, that he may rest and take pleasure in his life like a hired labourer.'

Since God is present to him through hardships, he said 'Depart' in the sense of 'Cease thy wrath.'

For to draw near to God is of different kinds: both according to participation and according to wrath.

For while his friends held that he suffered because of sin, and though he had spoken so harshly of the things that had befallen him — that man is short-lived, and like a falling flower, and like a shadow, and that God takes account of him — he shows them that it is not because of sin that he is afflicted, and says: Depart from him.

Man has no leisure for repentance.

He therefore instructs them that they do not conceive this rightly, by means of the words: Depart from him, that he may rest.

For neither can he, amid so many calamities, have leisure, nor take pleasure in his life.

'That He may render as a wage to a labourer.'

If he suffered because of sin, the rebukes would have sufficed, that from this there might come rest and that he might henceforth labour like a hired man.

But these things are again spoken with reference to them, it being plain that God grants a respite unto repentance, so that Paul says:

Or despisest thou the riches of His forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? And that 'to rest' is used in the sense of ceasing from wickedness and taking up virtue, is clear from the saying: Thou hast sinned, be still; and from: The earth feared and was still, when God arose to judgement.

For men, when they have conceived the thought that God is judge, cease from sinning.

'For if it be cut down, it shall yet blossom again, and its tender shoot shall not fail.'

By many arguments he shows that it was not because of wickedness that he endured his griefs, the argument becoming so clear:

For let this stand thus by way of supposition:

The chastisements have sufficiently taken place, so that there is time for departing.

For neither has the possibility of repentance been despaired of, nor does God chastise without measure as though the will were unchangeable.

For the fitness lies within the souls, even if a great flood of sins should come about;

repentance is therefore able to come to pass.

He calls man a tree, as also in many places of the Scriptures, according to which it is said:

Now already the axe is laid unto the root of the trees;

Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. And again:

Either make the tree good and its fruits good, or make the tree corrupt and its fruits corrupt. But having once set this forth, we shall not leave it untested.

For the Saviour does not command anyone to become a corrupt tree or to bring forth corrupt fruit, but that the disposition of each one be made manifest through his works, and that one should not prejudge his dissembling.

But it is possible also to understand this otherwise:

The Jews said concerning the Saviour:

By Beelzebul the prince of the demons he casts out the demons. Wherefore the Saviour Himself says to them:

Either make the tree good, and so forth.

For if to cast out demons is good, then good is he who works this; but if he who works it is evil, then evil also is that which is done.

'For if its root grow old in the earth, and its stock die in the rock, from the scent of water it shall blossom, and shall bring forth a harvest as a newly-planted thing.'

When the tree is transferred to man, it will be plain that the soul endures weakness, which is signified by the phrase 'if its root grow old in the earth.'

It has again the expectation of repentance, even if its stock — that is, the man's — die in the rock.

For even if a sin should dash against the soul so as to work death for it, and drag it down from the height of virtue — which the 'stock' signifies — yet it does not cut off the fitness for virtue; and this the Lord signified when He said:

The kingdom of God is within you, indicating the power that lies within, which the present reading also teaches.

'From the scent of water' means from the divine word, which is fragrant.

For thy name is as ointment poured forth. It takes up drink and is renewed through repentance, so as even to make a harvest, like those who from the beginning hear the word without stumbling, so that it is said concerning them:

They shall come again with rejoicing, bearing their sheaves. And it is plain, from the saying that the tree makes a harvest, that it is not spoken of the perceptible tree:

for one would not say that trees are harvested, but rather that they are gathered; so that the verses set forth are spoken concerning the labours of a soul that has been neglected and that, through repentance, is kindled anew by reason of the saving word.

of that word which the Lord, calling it water, spoke of:

Out of his belly shall flow water springing up unto eternal life. 'But a man having died is gone, and a mortal having fallen is no more.'

Take heed whether the words spoken also unto him — 'Depart from him, that he may rest' — fit here in this way:

For if the friends asserted that he was afflicted because of sin, he reasonably said 'Depart from him' in the sense of 'Grant a remission of evils, that from this there may come the resting' — that is, that the soul may in calm become virtuous.

Then next, as though an objection were to follow — 'Why not long ago, but only now dost thou repent, having long been held fast in sin?' — he brings in: For there is hope for a tree, and so forth, upon which, as a consequence, he set:

But a man having died is gone; also signifying by what follows that, so long as he continues in this life, according to the tender shoot and the tree he has the expectation of repentance;

but when he has died, he hears:

Now dost thou repent, when it is not the time for repentance — so that it be like the saying: Take me not away in the midst of my days.

For the saint does not suppose that the continuance is only according to those who have hoped in this life and reaches only as far as things here, when in what follows he says:

I will wait until I come to be again. In time the sea is emptied, and a river left desolate is dried up.

Take heed whether these things too fit the aforesaid meaning, in the manner of a defence, as though those speaking without voice had said:

On account of what sins are the penalties — why then dost thou say that there is hope for a tree? For they do not think that so great a growth of wickedness can be undone; and wishing to show, in reply to this, that even those held fast in many evils are able to come to repentance, he added:

In time the sea is emptied. For the manner and character that resembles the sea and the instability of its surge . . . a condition . . . by reason; and likewise the river, which signifies the fluid affairs of life, being left desolate is dried up — this being wrought by the teaching word.

'But a man having lain down to sleep shall not rise, until the heaven be no more sewn together, and they shall not be awakened out of their sleep.'

'O that Thou hadst kept me in Hades, and hidden me, until Thy wrath should cease, and Thou shouldest appoint me a time in which Thou wouldest remember me.'

It is an emphasis made plain from what precedes, of the greatness of his griefs, from which he sets before his friends a notion of the cause of the things brought upon him — they supposing that so great a chastisement did not come to pass save upon one who had sinned.

And he shows that he was afflicted beyond measure, from his preferring the sojourn and keeping in Hades — not that which is by way of punishment, but a hiding here for a time among those guarded . . . until the wrath should pass by, God promising to remember him — so that he is saying more plainly that he would rather await the time of the resurrection in Hades . . .

. . . himself, than endure such great pains.

For in truth even one who is in Hades, being righteous in every respect according to the time before the coming of Christ, fares better there, inasmuch as he has been released from the perishable and disease-ridden body, and is destined to receive it back incorruptible.

For the Saviour alone, as regards His humanity, was not subject to being in Hades, even though He came to be there for the sake of others.

For it is said, spoken in His person:

'I became as a man without help, free among the dead.' For light-bearing angels lead away the saints, but dark spirits lead away the wicked.

But the Saviour had no need of angels, being free and their Lord, served and led by the hand by them.

'No one takes my soul from me, but I lay it down of myself.' And moreover in the Song of Songs, calling death 'myrrh' through symbols, He speaks, showing His own freedom:

'I will go by myself to the mountain of myrrh.' And likewise the phrase concerning the nations, 'there is no man with me,' shows His self-sufficiency, even in respect of His humanity.

In place of this there is transmitted, in the version of another translator: 'I alone drank down the potsherd-cup.'

But also, when Peter said:

'I will lay down my soul for you,' He rebuked him and said:

'Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.' That the saints are led in light by angels, and the wicked by the dark demons, it is said:

'Fool, this night they demand your soul from you' — clearly meaning the tormentors.

'And it came to pass that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom' — and it is plain that this was by good angels.

'For if a man die, he shall live, having completed the days of his life.'

Not unreasonably does he set forth departure from here as more to be chosen than a life of pain, being convinced concerning the resurrection of the dead, and knowing that it is better to depart and be with Christ, saying:

'For if a man die, he shall live, having completed the days of his life.' From this there is established both a doctrine concerning the resurrection and a judgement of each person's life in this present existence, since death does not come about idly and by mere chance.

But whether the phrase 'having completed the days of his life' can also indicate the days before the resurrection, after which eternal life will succeed, consider together as well.

'I will endure, until I come to be again.'

By this same sequence of arguments he sets forth both the opinions of those who reason with him and hold the contrary view, and the true opinions, so that, with them laid side by side, we may see which are being refuted and which are being established.

For he said against that erroneous opinion of theirs:

'A man that has fallen asleep shall not rise again, and a man that has died is gone, and a mortal that has fallen is no more.' For the nature of man was not such as they supposed — namely, that man, having his existence only up to the present life, once he has cast off this life, is no longer anything, in like manner as the irrational animals.

For the souls of the irrational animals are sown together with their bodies, and therefore also perish together with them.

But since that of man is not sown together with the body, neither does it perish together with it.

And since the friends were not disposed to consider that painful things can befall a person on account of a contest, as they befell that blessed man himself, but reckoned that he suffered on account of sins, opposing their opinion he says that the reasoning which enables one to bear painful things is 'to come to be again.'

'For I will endure,' he says, 'until I come to be again,' signifying the resurrection — which those do not accept who say that the soul is something that perishes together with the body, and certain of the ...

... nature ...

... and the phrase 'I will endure, until I come to be again' is equivalent to 'For if a man die, he shall live, having completed the days of his life.'

Holding this same supposition, the blessed Paul too wrote:

'If in this life only we have hoped, we are of all men most to be pitied. And if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me, if the dead are not raised?' Thus, as spoken against the opinion of the friends who did not grant that one may suffer on account of virtue, the words 'a man that has fallen asleep shall not rise again' were said; while 'I will endure, until I come to be again' was said as opposing the mind of those who declare:

'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.' And the phrase 'until I come to be again' must be worked through thus:

The resurrection is a certain coming-to-be.

For this reason it is called 'regeneration' by the Saviour.

For the former coming-to-be, having a different mode, was constituted by a change of matter — either of dust, as in the first-formed man, or of the rib, as in Eve, or of the seeds, as in those who are begotten, or from a virgin without seed, she having changed something of herself into the saving temple, the change coming about in this way.

So too, at the season of the resurrection — whether the body has changed into dust or into something else by transformation — He raises up out of these the risen body as incorruptible.

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

Wishing to show that not only the body is raised, but also the soul, which holds the conceptions concerning God, he speaks the phrase 'Then you will call, and I will answer you.'

For to answer when God calls is proper to a rational substance.

Having taught concerning the resurrection of the whole man and the immortality of the soul, he instructs the friends not to think that he has been judged worthless before God.

'You have numbered my practices, and not one of my sins shall pass you by.'

Teaching by these words that His knowledge is inescapable, he furthermore in a certain manner instructs the friends who were disposed to think that he suffers on account of sins, how one ought to repent and not boast in the purity that is present in oneself — for the sake of his own humility and of rousing them to repentance, saying these things.

'And you have taken note if I have transgressed at all unwillingly.'

As again addressing them, who were disposed to think that he undergoes these things as a sinner, he says this, both out of humility and for their instruction, that they might imitate him, being thus pure and yet uttering words of repentance.

'You have sealed up my iniquities in a bag.'

You have comprehended both their quality and their number.

And these things too must be understood as similar to the foregoing.

'But indeed a falling mountain shall fall.'

Trusting in the Cause of all things — that He will set right the contest, once the mountain here called forth as making its demand has been crushed — he says to them that it will grow weak in such a way as to fall away from the expectation which it had expected, in attempting to seize me.

For also ... as has been said before, but he knows that the counsel of the adversary will fall through.

'And a rock shall be worn old out of its place.'

Even if the adversary supposes himself to be a rock, yet he shall be 'worn old' — that is, shall be shown to be stale — once the setting-right has appeared.

And he is called a 'rock' because he sends forth an appearance as though he were unconquerable, and because he feigns himself to be Christ and an imitator of the true Rock, concerning which it is said:

'And that Rock was Christ.' And by 'place' here he calls the condition according to which he wishes to seize the virtuous man.

And that 'place' is also used in the sense of 'rank,' it is said in the Acts:

'Lord, who knows the hearts of all, show which one is to take the place of this ministry, from which Judas transgressed.' But whether, even after saying 'You have sealed up my iniquities in a bag' and having spoken the things set forth above as concerning himself as a sinner, he then added 'But a falling mountain shall fall, and a rock shall be worn old out of its place' — showing that even if one become a mountain through pride, or rather through hardness, his condemnation will follow — consider together.

'Waters wear smooth stones, and waters flood the level surface of the earth's soil;'

'and have you destroyed the endurance of man?' By these words he confirms what was said before, showing that repentance has power.

For by 'waters wear smooth stones' he sets forth that one who begins repentance and perseveres in it, like the water that strips away the excess from the stone, rids himself of the superfluities of sin, so as no longer to have the roughness that comes from it; and just as when clods lie on a level place, he works the flooding-away of sin.

But if these things are in this manner, do not despair of a man's endurance, nor say that it perishes, having thrust him away, and that it is gone forever.

He shifts the discourse to God.

For after saying that repentance is possible and that one ought not to despair of a man's endurance, he adds 'having thrust him away, and it is gone forever,' teaching that unless God be a fellow-worker, the labours of endurance are in vain.

'For unless the Lord build the house, in vain have those laboured who build it.' But God thrusts away not the unworthy, but the one subject to Him, in such a manner, saying:

'Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you.' 'You set your face against him and sent him away.'

'The face of the Lord is against those who do evil.' And again the saints, praying, say:

'Make your face to shine, and we shall be saved.' And in another place:

'May He make His face to shine upon you and give you peace.' When therefore, on account of the great long-suffering of God, the sinner, growing insensible, remains in his faults, let him not suppose that there is a God, but think to escape notice, and say:

'I am a God near at hand, and not a God far off.'

'Shall anyone hide himself in secret places, and I not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth?' says the Lord. Having set His face against the sinner, He sends him away — that is, He declares him to be alien to Himself — according to the saying: 'God shall thrust them away, because they did not hearken to Him, and they shall be wanderers among the nations,' and 'as slain men cast off, sleeping in the grave, whom you remember no more, and they were thrust away from your hand.'

'And when his sons become many, he does not know it; and if they become few, he is not aware.'

Attend closely, whether these words indicate the incomprehensibility of the judgements of God.

'But rather his flesh was in pain, and his soul mourned.'

He shows that, when wrath advances against the sinner according to the hidden purposes of providence, the one who falls into it grieves and mourns, yet is ignorant of the reasons for what has been handed to him.

These things are corrective, so that the friends should not speak as though they knew that he suffers because of sin.

Now the man who cannot endure grieves and laments when he falls into distresses; but the courageous man, even if he feels the painful things, nevertheless bears them nobly, keeping his eye fixed on the goal.

For only the man who looks to nothing good or profitable merely grieves when he is afflicted.

But the virtuous man, like a garland-crowned athlete, counts his toils as nothing, because of his expectation of the crown.

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

'Will a wise man give as his answer a knowledge of spirit?' This man too, sharing the same supposition and thinking that Job suffers because of sin, begins his words by asserting that it belongs to a wise man to answer with understanding — hinting that Job does not answer with understanding.

This one too, then, is burdensome, striking the holy man on the charge of want of understanding.

'And he has filled his belly with pain, reproving with words that are not fitting, and with speeches in which there is no profit.'

As has been said, he begins in a stinging manner.

For he says that it belongs to the wise to answer with understanding, but that Job 'has filled his belly with pain, reproving with words that are not fitting' — meaning that, out of the pains which he held in his heart and could not restrain, he brings forth words which he ought not, and speeches in which there is no profit — mocking his words as fruitless and uttered in vain.

'Have you too not cast off fear?' He confirms what was said before;

for he reproves him, forsooth, as one who has not held fear — clearly the fear of God — this man too again insinuating that it is because Job has not held fear, but has been in sins, that he has suffered these things, and that to use such words belongs to one who has no fear.

For they reckoned his words to be reckless, being ignorant of his virtue and supposing that it was because he had cast off fear that he spoke these things.

'And have you completed such words before the Lord?' Perhaps because of the boldness of his speech, which he uttered from a pure conscience, he says these things, which this man deems to be blasphemous — laying down as his premise the false assumption that he suffers because of sin.

'You are guilty by the words of your mouth.'

He speaks to him rashly, bringing forth his words as though against an unrighteous man.

And he thinks to convict him even out of his own words, asserting: 'You shall be convicted by your own words.'

'Nor did you discern the words of the mighty.'

Consider carefully whether by 'the mighty' he means those who surpass in understanding, whether in his own generation or in the one before him, as is said in the passages above:

'For inquire of the former generation, and search out according to the family of the fathers' — so that what he says may be of this sort:

'You did not discern the words of the wise, so as to order by them your words and your whole life.' For it has often been said that they rebuke him as one suffering because of sins.

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

These things too are brought forth out of rashness;

for he had no way to convict him thus.

For these things too are advanced in accordance with the supposition held from the beginning.

'Nor are you outside their nature, so as to have grasped something more than the others' — that they may present themselves as attaining to exactness concerning the cause for which he grieves.

But those who introduce the soul as being coiled together will make use of this — among whom are the Hieracites and the Soldiers and their like — saying, 'if not before the dunes' (meaning before the earth,

for by a part he named the whole), 'you were fixed after the dunes' — from which they will suppose they can gather that the soul is coiled together with the body; while another refutes them, from the fact that congealing is understood to be a compacting of a fluid, which does not befit the soul but the body.

'Or have you heard the ordinance of the Lord, and has wisdom come to you?' Setting forth the unsearchableness of the judgments, he thinks by this to turn him aside, so that he should not suppose he suffers for any cause other than sin — while he himself is caught in this very error.

For he himself had not heard the ordinance of the Lord, nor had wisdom come to him, so as to have any judgment concerning the holy man as suffering because of sin.

'For what do you know that we do not know, or what do you understand that we too do not?' He fittingly makes him common with all men, inasmuch as he is ignorant of the greatness of his virtue — thereby, as was said before, forsooth overturning his supposing himself to be righteous;

which he himself, being ignorant, ought not to have done — namely, to prejudge the verdict and to be persuaded that Job is afflicted as one who has sinned.

'Both the elder and the aged is among us, heavier than your father in days.'

'Even if you are an elder,' he says, 'and aged among us, being of earlier birth, so as to have become even heavier' — meaning older — 'than your father, yet you know nothing more than we.' And these things too he says out of a boastful presumption of authority.

We have 'heavy' set down in the sense of 'old' in the Books of Kings;

for indeed, when the account wishes to show concerning Eli, who fell, that he was old, it says:

'and the man was heavy.' It signifies also that which is honourable, and a multitude, as when it says:

'I will confess to you, O Lord, in a great congregation; among a heavy people I will praise you' — meaning among an honourable and numerous people.

'You have been scourged with few of the things in which you have sinned.'

This is what he says: 'You have sinned, and for this reason you endure scourgings.'

'And since, in undergoing this, you attach injustice to God, the transgression has become heavier for you.' And these things too he says without understanding;

for he did not know Job's true condition, so that he spoke falsely.

And lying is a manifold thing.

For it is possible to speak a falsehood without lying;

for often we are disposed toward something as being thus, and we say it holding the disposition that it is true; and what is reported is by its own nature false, yet not spoken by one who is lying.

And it is also possible for one who knows nothing at all to bring forth a false statement out of boastfulness — which is what has happened to this man.

And there are also others who lie in yet another way, as one who has taken his stand upon knowledge.

'You have spoken greatly, beyond measure.'

'What has your heart dared, or what have your eyes endured?' And, being disposed toward him as one who had sinned, both in what they heard and in his words of frank speech, they brought these things forward.

For since the blessed man brought forth his words out of purity, they reckoned this to be daring and an excess of boastfulness — vainly and senselessly.

'For you have burst forth in anger before the Lord, and have brought forth such words from your mouth.'

They reckoned as anger the frank speech that came from surpassing purity — which befell them out of the rotten premise which they themselves had laid down for themselves, deeming to be blasphemy the reasonable and, as has been shown beforehand, the freedom of his words.

'For what mortal is there, that he should be blameless, or, as one who shall be righteous, born of woman?' It is proper to those who do not possess virtue to reckon the attaining of it as difficult, and to be disposed as though no one possesses it — just as the man before us says, erring on account of the weakness, as is likely, of the body.

But if he had been looking according to the soul and according to the mind, he would have beheld the greatness of the nature of man — which the psalmist, knowing, teaches both things, saying:

He has spoken of the weakness of the body, comparing it with the divine things.

And, instructing us concerning the greatness, he again says:

'You made him a little lower than the angels, with glory and honour you crowned him.' And again another saying: 'A great thing is man,' it says, 'and an honourable thing is a merciful man' — which he has not by being born, but by his being, in the composite, receptive of righteousness.

'If he does not put trust in the holy ones' —

Like this is the saying: 'if he does not put trust in his servants, and against his angels he has devised something crooked.'

So here he calls the angels 'the holy ones,' setting forth that, if even angels are mutable, how is it possible for a man to be blameless. It is to be noted that 'to trust' often signifies 'the firm,' according to what is said:

'All his commandments are faithful.' And it interprets their faithfulness, saying:

'Established for ever and ever.' And again:

'The word is faithful and worthy of all acceptance.' And still:

'God is faithful, and there is no injustice.' For God is not faithful by partaking of faith, but by possessing firmness.

'And the heaven is not clean before him.'

Just as not even the stars, in comparison with God who is light and has no darkness whatsoever, so also the heaven itself is not clean — not absolutely, but before God.

But it is possible here to say that 'heaven' means those very ones who left the heavenly dwelling, whom he called his servants, against whom he does not put trust.

At any rate God himself says in Isaiah, from his own person:

'My sword has been made drunk in heaven.' Now the sword signifies punishment, according to what is said:

'My sword shall devour blood, and I will make my arrows drunk with blood.' So it is with regard to the angels who transgressed that he says the sword is made drunk, bringing punishment upon those who are called heavens.

This heaven, then, is not clean in his sight.

Alas for the man who is abominable and unclean, who drinks up iniquity like drink.

And if any heaven that is such becomes earthly through transgression, he is made like a man, no longer counted worthy to be an angel, because he reckons iniquity as his drink;

for the unrighteous man gorges himself on iniquity without measure.

And this shows that evil does not exist by nature;

for evil is something adventitious, an accretion from without.

He says, then, that heaven is not clean in relation to God.

And if this is so, man would be ranked among those who drink iniquity.

By 'iniquity' here he means vice in its general sense;