Commentary on Job 1 part 9/15

For when he says concerning the heretics that through smooth talk and fair speech they deceive the hearts of the guileless, he calls 'guileless' the simple-minded, those slow in understanding.

'The guileless and simple-minded clung to me' — which signifies the righteous, since the phrase 'the guileless man believes every word' indicates the one who is uncritical and unable to detect the falsehood in words, believing everything that is plausible.

'But because of my guilelessness you have taken hold of me' — it signifies virtue.

'And every gift of the ungodly he will not receive.'

It is fitting to the Lord, who does not reject the guileless man, that he should accept none of the gifts of the ungodly.

'For prayers from the hire of a harlot are not good, and the sinner who sacrifices to me a calf is like one who slays a dog.' It must be observed that the phrase 'every gift' is said in place of 'no gift' according to scriptural usage, as when God says in the prophet:

'If the righteous man commits a single sin, all his righteous deeds shall by no means be remembered' — that is to say, not one of them.

'But the mouth of the truthful He shall fill with laughter.'

Throughout the whole book he makes mention of the 'truthful man' in reference to the righteous man.

So indeed Job himself is attested at the very beginning to have been truthful, abstaining from every wicked deed.

And truly truthful is the man who does not play a part nor merely counterfeit virtue, who does not feign self-control but is genuinely self-controlled, who pursues justice justly. It is the mouth of such truthful men, then, that God shall fill with laughter.

And from this one may infer that perhaps this man too, in accordance with the saying 'Ask the former generation,' had come to learn something concerning the age to come, according to what is said in the Gospel:

'Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.' For laughter is of two kinds: the one, base, attended by pleasure, which weeping succeeds; the other, a gift of the Spirit, which is joy, and which in the life to come shall be rendered to those who now weep.

For 'Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh,' since even here below they possess the pledge of this on account of their virtue.

Having received, as I said, an experience of this even here below, the holy man said:

the one weeping through his affliction, yet resting in the bosom of Abraham;

but the rich man, who laughed through pleasure, wept, being bitterly tormented in punishment on account of that laughter of which we spoke.

he preferred it, deifying it in a certain manner — just as others deify the belly, concerning whom it is said:

'whose god is the belly.' And so it has likewise been said concerning laughter:

'The altars of laughter shall be taken away, the sins of Israel.' For the eager pursuits concerning the passions and pleasures are the altars of laughter;

as they send up in smoke, as it were, their very own passions … 'Who does great things and unsearchable, glorious things also and marvellous, of which there is no number.'

The Great One does great things of necessity;

yet it is not necessary that the one who does great things be himself great.

The disciples, at any rate, though they did great things, possessed these from the great God.

That I may use a human example as well, I say that the grammarian writes in a grammatical manner;

yet not everyone who writes correctly possesses this from grammar itself, but some do so even by chance and by habit.

He therefore makes clear, in accordance with the greatness, that He alone who acts, does great things, He who is great;

and analogously, according to our own capacity, we behold God from the greatness of created things and receive a conception of God Himself.

He said this so that his friends, who supposed there was but one cause of sufferings, might understand that He who does great things has also fearful and deep judgements, and unsearchable ones, which are also glorious, so that one may call them full of glory.

Like this, Paul also writes, saying:

'O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!'

'How unsearchable are His judgements, and His ways past finding out!'

'For who has known the mind of the Lord?' And in the Psalms there is something similar:

'Your judgements are a great deep.' For who, standing before heaven, sun, moon, stars, and their motions, will not marvel at the Creator? And if you should go through each thing even down to His smallest works, as that saying teaches:

'Go to the ant, O sluggard,' and what follows, you will exceedingly marvel at the wisdom of God.

'If He should pass over me, I shall not see Him; and if He should pass by me, not even so did I know it.'

Here too he signifies the incomprehensibility of God's judgements;

for it is impossible for a human being — or rather for any created nature — to grasp these by its own effort.

to him … this the holy man …

… coming … to the understanding, in order that from their not being able to comprehend the judgements of God they might reflect concerning Him also, and concerning the things that had befallen him as being incomprehensible, and that they might refrain from reckoning a single cause concerning the things that had befallen.

'Whether then,' he says, 'whether then the Lord should pass over me or pass by me' — so that He is even close beside me — 'I am not able to know it' by my mind, which belongs to men.

For one wishing to escape another's notice, passing over him and passing by, will not sufficiently escape notice.

It is possible also to say this: that even if the things above the earth should come near to me, I am able to know them according to our own capacity;

for how the governance of heaven and of the things in it comes about is unknown to me;

and if again I should come to earthly things, God passing by and in a certain manner exercising me in them, not even so am I sufficient to know.

'If He should take away, who shall turn Him back? Or who shall say to Him:

What have You done? For He Himself has turned away in wrath.'

The 'taking away' may be understood of every matter which God brings to completion;

for whether He should wish to dissolve human life, who is able to turn back His will? Or whether He should wish to bring on grievous things or to make them cease, no one at all is able to offer any hindrance to the things done by Him, since none is strong enough to say to Him:

What have You done? — according to the apostolic word:

'Shall the thing formed say to the one who formed it:

Why have You made me thus?' …

let them … those who blasphemously say to Him:

What have You done? For not …

… the oracle, but …

… of Him worthy of the …

What have You done? For those who out of fainthearted­ness reckon bitter things, not understanding their aim, blasphemously say:

What have You done? — like the fool who says in his own heart:

'There is no God.' And he adds also the reason why no one is able to say to Him:

For He Himself has turned away in wrath; for by a judgement of wrath He has effected the turning away.

In good conscience, then, one who recognized this said:

'I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him.' In wrath, then, He turns away from the one deserving it;

but the righteous man has nothing deserving of wrath; therefore He has not turned away from the righteous man.

And even if the righteous man suffers, he is not under wrath, but undergoes a contest.

For consider: if one man should be struck while contending, and another because he has stolen, is not the manner of the blows different?

So too, even if grievous things befall the righteous man and the base man, they do not befall in the same way; but the one is under wrath — the base man, I mean — while the other is not, but rather He has turned wrath away from the righteous man, wishing to prove him a victor, as the martyrs and Job himself.

For He who was making his virtue manifest turned away from him the wrath that is sent upon the base.

'And by Him were bowed down the sea-monsters that are under heaven.'

And by the account of the literal history this is true;

for unless He Himself had subjected them, these things would have been unbearable for men.

And you will find this same thing if in your reasoning you pass over to the other venomous beasts as well.

But He also bowed down the evil spirits, which are allegorically named 'sea-monsters';

for human nature was not able to stand against them, had they not been bowed down by God.

And with reason he said 'the things under heaven,' in order to make clear all things — those in the air, on the earth, and in the regions beneath the earth.

For by knowledge the sea-monster is laid low. And unless God had permitted it, not even to Job …

For the opposing powers do not come upon men by employing their own venomous purpose.

For they have no authority to do harm and to bring on afflictions, unless God should permit it.

But to instill wickedness they press on by their own impulse.

For thus also, by his own deliberate purpose, when the passions supplied it to him, he gathers up evils into the heart of Judas, abiding there.

'But if he should hearken to me, will he then discern my words?' He wishes to teach that it is not the case that whatever we pray for, this altogether and in accord with our words comes before God for judgement.

For 'what we should pray for as we ought, we do not know.' So then what he says means this: that even if He should hearken, He will not so discern human words as to approve them, but will wisely apply His own judgement to us, being both loving toward mankind and doing nothing without discernment.

'For even if I be righteous, He will not hearken to me;'

'I will make supplication for His judgement.'

He confirms what was said before, instructing that even if someone should be perfect among men, yet the eye of God, searching the things of the heart, apprehends even the hidden things.

Such a thing the Apostle says:

'I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet by this I am not justified;'

'but He who examines me is the Lord.' Therefore the holy one asks for His judgement, according to that word:

'Try my reins and my heart,' which no one who sins says.

Further, in addition to these things, he again instructs them not to take afflictions according to a single cause, suggesting the thought that, if someone be righteous and by hypothesis should pray for pleasant things, he will not altogether be hearkened to;

for this man too has need of the judgement of God.

There are some who read the verse without a comma, so that it reads:

'He will not hearken to my righteous one.'

But note that the rendering has a rationale, since the friend who spoke before was saying:

'But do you rise early to the Lord, making supplication;'

'if you are good and true, He will hearken to your supplication,' teaching him that God does not altogether give the things chosen by us, but the things that are profitable; and so hypothetically he says, 'For if I be righteous, He will not hearken to me;' for thus does His judgement prevail.

And I said 'hypothetically' because the holy man, knowing the judgement, submits to it and does not unseasonably demand its resolution.

'And if I call and He should hearken, I do not believe that He has heard me, lest He crush me with darkness.'

He addresses a word spoken concerning discernment, instructing that the one who prays does not altogether obtain, nor is it fitting to ask all things of God with unwashed hands;

for the one who rightly sends up a prayer to God asks to receive those things which are beneficial to him and fitting for the Giver.

For since the form of good things is twofold—some are goods in the proper sense, the virtues, while others are the pleasant and conventionally-reckoned goods—one must not ask God unseasonably for the things conventionally reckoned, but for the goods in the proper sense;

by God's decision either we are set free from grievous things or we are held fast in them.

And prudently the earnest man asks even for the goods in the proper sense, such as gifts of grace, knowing that 'to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of the Spirit.' At any rate, some often say:

a gift of healing or something else—I mean a word of knowledge and the rest? But they say these things in ignorance, not knowing that these things come from God profitably.

For not all use well the things they possess.

So then, in response to the supposition of these—I mean of the friends—he answers, again instructing hypothetically how one ought to pray.

For if, he says, when I have called through prayer for the things reckoned pleasant, He should hearken, there is fear lest, because I do not know the cause of the things given—a cause veiled in obscurity (for this is what the 'darkness' signifies)—He should crush me, that is, send me away from the...

so that one must make one's entreaty to God fittingly.

For if God grants the request, He does not altogether give according to the manner of the request, but according to a reason which He knows to be profitable.

And that the 'darkness' signifies obscurity, it is possible to establish clearly from other Scriptures as well:

'Moses,' it says, 'entered into the darkness where God was.' And the discourse concerning God is neither easily traced out, nor clear, nor known; but into this Moses entered, as one who was able.

But also in the seventeenth Psalm it is said concerning the Saviour:

'And He bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness was under His feet.' For the going of the descent is unclear only in this respect, that He sojourned among us; but the knowledge is not clear as to why at this particular time.

What the blessed Job says by way of hypothesis is this: that even if I should boldly call, and He should hearken, there is fear lest through the obscurity of the matters I should endure crushing.

'And He has multiplied my bruisings without cause;'

'for He does not let me take breath, but has filled me with bitterness.'

Again he says all these things with a view to their supposition.

For if you say that I have incurred punishment on account of sins, but the punishment remains, not permitting me even to take breath, how can I escape the charge of having lived badly?

For according to you the matter of this visitation has come about in vain, if indeed, being conscious of no sin in myself, I am punished as one who has sinned; and the things of correction are without result, since there is no time of respite.

'For that He is mighty in strength, who then will withstand His judgement?' If 'strength' is the noun, 'is mighty' is the verb;

but if 'strength' is a noun, it would be thus:

however it may stand, the same thing is signified:

for being strong God prevails, and prevailing He is strong; reigning He is strong, and being strong He reigns.

Therefore one must not say that on account of our sins He is strong so as to exercise authority;

neither do you lay down this, that... even without our having sinned...

as One who knows what is profitable.

It does not belong to a king to rule lawlessly; nor, having other things purposed, does he do other things out of weakness;

for the Lord is righteous, strong, and long-suffering; wherefore no one will withstand His judgement, since no one is able to say:

'What have you done?' just as we set forth the apostolic word in what preceded:

'Shall the thing formed say to Him who formed it,'

'Why have you made me thus?' 'For even if I be righteous, my mouth will speak impiety.'

Being righteous, I ought not to say this very thing, that I am righteous;

for the righteous man does not speak concerning himself as concerning another.

...of sins, but I am righteous.

For it is possible to find this form of speech in Scripture, just as Paul also writes to the Corinthians:

'If the dead do not rise, then neither has Christ been raised.' For he does not say this from his own person, but with a view to their surmise.

'And if I be blameless, I shall turn out crooked.'

This too belongs to the same thought, he making clear that if, being conscious of no sin in myself, I have been subjected to adversities, you say this comes about on account of sins;

being blameless, I shall turn out crooked according to you;

and 'blameless' and 'righteous' differ in conception.

The 'blameless' is twofold: the one by doing nothing at all, the other by acting righteously;

which latter is praiseworthy, as it was also said to Abraham:

'Be well-pleasing before Me and become blameless;' but the blamelessness of the Hebrews is not from virtue.

And this the authorial Spirit testified concerning him from the very beginning:

'For even if I have acted impiously, I do not know it in my soul; nevertheless my life is being taken away.'

Either, having acted impiously in soul, I do not know it, or I am not aware of myself as having acted impiously, nor is my soul conscious of this;

and Paul too says something similar to this:

I am conscious of nothing against myself. But even if I am not aware, he says, of having committed impiety, nevertheless my life is being taken from me.

He is beset with hardships even unto death.

He said this to bring them to their senses, namely that it is possible even for one who has not sinned to fall into grievous troubles.

It is a great testimony to be conscious of nothing against oneself.

Wrath destroys even the great man and the ruler, so that the wicked perish by an extraordinary death.

He wishes to teach that the troubles—which he calls 'wrath'—and even death alike are common both to kings and to private men.

He seems also to be rousing them not to suppose that, because of the honors that surround them, they are exempt from what befalls their fellows.

For these things are common to the diligent and to the vile, to the free man and to the slave, to the private man and to the ruler, and quite simply to all.

But the things sent upon men because of their wickedness are peculiar to sinners, wholly set apart from the righteous.

For 'precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones.' But concerning the wicked it is said:

'The death of sinners is evil.' And the separation of the soul from the body is one and the same for both.

But punishment awaits the vile man, so that on this account his death is extraordinary; whereas promise and divine recompense await the diligent.

For 'the Lord takes up the meek.' And to each of the righteous belongs a like utterance, according to which they say:

'You who lift me up from the gates of death.' From what death, then, but from that which drags the soul away from the blessed life? For he who is lifted up from the gates of death comes to the gates of the blessed life, adding next:

'That I may declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion.' These are virtuous deeds and entrances into good works.

But the righteous are mocked, and delivered into the hands of the wicked one.

The vile, he says, are truly in death, as has been said—the extraordinary death; but the righteous are mocked by the vile who do this, whenever they see them in adversities.

This is no reproach to the righteous, but to those who mock in ignorance, since they are delivered into the hands of the wicked one.

This he says, thus making clear in some measure the cause of his own misfortune.

For it would not have been fitting to say outright: 'For the sake of a contest I have been delivered into the hands of the wicked one, and such is the trial.'

For sometimes, as though vaunting himself, he gave the adversary a handhold against him.

He covers the faces of his judges.

He shows the harshness of the wicked one, who covers their faces so as to bring deceit upon them craftily.

'Who shall uncover the covering of his face, and into the folds of his breastplate, who could enter?' For sometimes, altering his faces by these very means through deceit, he often approaches someone, luring him into avarice by putting forward his needs.

There are those who appear one way to the timid, but present themselves otherwise to others.

But the diligent also often cover themselves—not out of malice, but that they may accommodate themselves to the weak, even as he says:

'I gave you milk to drink, not solid food.' And he spoke wisdom among the perfect, becoming to the Jews a Jew and to the lawless one lawless—though he would not have appeared such to Timothy or to Luke the evangelist.

By the 'judges of the devil' we must understand the demons under his sway.

But if not he, who is it? If the wicked one is not the one doing these things—mocking the diligent, covering the faces of his judges, according to the former interpretation—who else is it? It can also be understood thus:

If he did not boldly transform himself even into an angel of light and were not altogether manifold in wickedness, who would he be if plainly seen?—that is to say:

His intricate cunning harms those who fall under his power.

But my life is swifter than a runner.

The runner, by his swiftness, will seem not to touch the ground, but to be as a winged thing.

'My life, then, is swifter than a runner.'

For I look to the things above, running in such a way as not aimlessly, not stumbling on the ground.

By their longing for the goal, the righteous, even if they stumble—that is, even if they fall into afflictions—keep their course unbroken.

Thus also David ran, saying:

'Without iniquity I ran and kept straight'; and 'I ran the way of your commandments, when you enlarged my heart.' They fled away and did not see.

'Is there indeed a track of a way for ships, or for an eagle flying in search of prey?' He suggests that we understand: the life of the righteous man, being swifter than a runner, the judges—whose faces are covered by the one who leads them—flee at the fear of the righteous man and do not see the rightness of his running.

But if he says this also of the righteous—that having fled the judges, according to the words 'but spring away, do not tarry in the place,' they did not see, by reason of the keenness of virtue—consider whether it is fitting to compare with this the saying 'I did not know the wicked one turning away from me.' And observe whether even a third sense, as in a difficult passage, can be drawn from another text found in Amos the prophet, the second of the Twelve.

To those who live luxuriously and are lovers of pleasure and who rejoice in this very thing—in the delights of life—he says:

'You who lie on beds of ivory, who live luxuriously upon your couches, who beat time to the sounds of instruments and anoint yourselves with the finest perfumes, who drink the strained wine'—they reckoned these things as standing fast, not as fleeting. For they supposed that the pleasures of life are lasting, abiding, and unceasing.

He says, then, that those who marvel at prosperity—such as being healthy, being rich, ruling—do not consider that these things flee away so completely that men cannot even perceive them, just as neither is it possible to discern the way of a ship sailing the sea, nor that of an eagle flying swiftly in search of prey.

And in truth the pleasant and human things have a swift passing, as one may learn from what is said concerning wealth, when the psalmist says:

'Do not fear when a man grows rich, and when the glory of his house is increased; for at his death he shall take nothing, nor shall the glory of his house go down with him.' 'For even if I say, I will forget while speaking, and, bowing down my face, I will groan.'

A token of magnanimity is intimated in these words.

For he says that even if, having received some thought of unpleasant things, I say something concerning them, straightway I forget it—not being enslaved to that thought, but giving myself to the contemplation of virtue.

Like to this is what is said by David: 'I forgot to eat my bread.'

For the remembrance of divine and heavenly things produces forgetfulness of the things that drag one down from them.

And if I groan, he says, doing this while bowing down my face, thereby in a certain manner I display my worship toward God;

saying with boldness, according to the blessed Paul:

'In everything afflicted, but not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.' I am shaken in all my limbs.

This is plain to those who understand it in the sensible sense.

For no limb of his happened to be sound;

for from the feet even to the head he was smitten with sores.

But if you should call his 'limbs' all those who have kinship with him—who also were so shaken that some abandoned him, while others in a certain manner set upon him by their disposition, as though he suffered these things because of sin—consider this together as well.

For I know that you will not leave me unpunished.

The moderation of the holy man is made known through this, and his great good sense.

For he says that, since you become an exact examiner of me—for you are God—you will not leave me unpunished.

For even if he said 'I know that I shall be shown to be righteous,' nevertheless he knows and is persuaded that, before God as the tester, even the stars are not clean in his sight—and plainly neither is he himself.

Such a thing the blessed Paul says, writing:

Then, not granting it to himself, he adds:

'But I am not thereby justified; rather, he who examines me is the Lord.' And he knows, just as this holy man does, the weakness of human nature, saying that 'we were burdened beyond measure, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of living.'

'But we ourselves had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God.' And if the holy ones grow weary in their troubles, yet within themselves they bear the sentence, that they may render their trust to God and not to themselves;

as this same blessed man says:

I know that I do not have of myself the being unpunished, unless you work together with me—just as also the wise Paul says, 'yet not I, but the grace of God with me'; and holy David:

'I was troubled and did not speak.' 'But since I am impious, why did I not die?' He passes over to the supposition concerning his friends.

For since they are disposed to think that upon sinners follows the falling into calamities, and that worst of all is dying, according to those who love life, he asks them:

'Since, according to you, I am impious, why did I not die?'—so that in the question he might afford them the understanding that there is some other cause which brings on the troubles.

And he does the same thing in other places as well, asking again:

Why do the impious live on, and grow old in wealth? Their seed is according to their soul's desire; their cow does not miscarry. That through these things too he might instruct, he inquires from God after the true causes of the painful and the pleasant things that befall mankind.

For often the wicked have continued for so long in what is reckoned prosperity, that Solomon said concerning them that ——.

Even as the blessed Job also says, that they lay down to sleep even in the repose of Hades.

For if I wash myself with snow and cleanse myself with pure hands, you have dipped me sufficiently in filth, and my own garment has abhorred me.

Again, lest they suppose him to be self-conceited, he says these things: that even should I be pure in this way—that is, through virtuous deeds, which he called 'hands'—so as to cleanse myself, I still have filth.

Concerning which one must inquire by setting alongside it a similar saying:

No one is clean from filth, not even if his life on the earth be but a single hour. And the mind of men is diligently set upon evil things from youth—which discloses the innovating disposition, even as it has been said by someone that a young hearer is not to be admitted.

These things, then, will trouble those who set no store by this present life.

For how is the one now freshly formed not clean? And one must understand intelligently also the sin of the succession—that which pertains to Adam—which is brought forward by those men without understanding.

For indeed even the saints, even if they have come into this life for no other reason, in their childhood age possess the defilement, which is not a sin.

According to this it has been said concerning Samuel:

And Samuel, before he knew God.

Being an infant, he did not know God—not because he had wickedness, but because he had not yet attained the knowledge of the word.

'I have sinned'—you will understand this intelligently if you take it as referring to the things done in ignorance, the things belonging to the childhood age.

And let it be by way of an example:

When there are a hundred steps, the one who is at the hundredth, if he should descend three, would be said to fall short; while the one who begins from the first and comes to the third is not blamed.

The one, then, who has descended from the hundred, even if he has not departed from the steps, yet at least is in some filth.

Yet Job says that even if I am clean, I have filth—and not a small filth, but one resembling a dye.

Perhaps then—since it is possible to come into this life not only on account of sin, but also for the benefit of others, as, for instance, John or Jeremiah—on account of this he says that even if I am clean through my deeds, nevertheless I have filth.

For the earthly place is filth in comparison with the pure life, though not in itself.

All our righteousness is before you, Lord, as the rag of a woman set apart. This the Lord washes away, according to what is said in Isaiah:

The Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will purge the blood from their midst. Now the filth might be the involuntary sins, while the blood is the things done by deliberate intent.

And by what is it washed away, but by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning?—the spirit of judgment indicating discernment, and the spirit of burning indicating chastisement; and both effect a setting right.

And on account of this he says, 'And my garment has abhorred me,' hinting at the burden of the sojourn here.

This is disclosed also through the phrase 'hating even the tunic that is stained from the flesh,' which is the confusion arising from human affairs.

He says, then, that the human manner of life which I had has come to hate me.

And that the garment signifies the condition is clear from what was said by the father to the prodigal:

Bring out to him the first robe. And that the blood indicates sin is manifest from what was said to the devil: