Moralia in Job 1049

VERSE 5. — 'If thou canst, answer me, and stand up against my face.' 19. The insipid and immoderate boasting of the arrogant regarding themselves. — Behold, while he narrates the order of true condition, he suddenly bursts forth into the puffing-up of proud elation, and repeats this same thing in other words, saying: VERSES 6, 7. — 'Behold, God made me even as thee, and I too was formed from the same clay. Yet let not my wonder terrify thee, and let not my eloquence be burdensome to thee.' What is this, that Elihu acknowledges the order of true condition, and yet is ignorant of the manner of right speech?

What is it, that he both makes himself equal to blessed Job in creation and exalts himself as he is about to speak, if not this: that all the arrogant remember indeed that they were created equally with all men, but through pride of knowledge they disdain that their hearers should either be, or believe themselves to be, equal to them; and they compare themselves to others by the condition of nature, but set themselves above them by the swelling of knowledge? They judge indeed that they came to exist as equals in being born, but did not remain equals in living. And in that they are, as it were, no longer equals in living, they recall to a greater marvel the fact that they were equals in being born. Hence Elihu, puffed up, says: 'Behold, God made me even as thee, and I too was formed from the same clay.'

'Yet let not my wonder terrify thee, and let not my eloquence be burdensome to thee.' The arrogant have this also as their own property: that before they speak, they always esteem themselves to be saying wondrous things, and they forestall their own utterance by admiration, because they are ignorant, even in keen wits, how great a foolishness that very elation is. It is also to be noted that Paul, while admonishing the Hebrews wondrously, added: 'But I beseech you, brethren, that you bear with the word of consolation; for I have written to you in few words' (Hebrews XIII, 22). But Elihu brought forth empty things, and added as if consoling: 'Let not my wonder terrify thee, and let not my eloquence be burdensome to thee.' The one calls his words a 'word of consolation,' the other calls his an 'eloquence' and a 'wonder.'

Behold how distinct are the flavours of the fruits that come forth from the diverse root of thoughts. The one thinks humbly of great things, the other lifts himself up emptily over the least things. What then is to be shrewdly observed in these matters, if not this: that those about to ascend consider themselves to be in the depths, while those about to fall always stand upon a precipice? As Solomon testifies, who says: 'Before ruin the heart is exalted, and before glory it is humbled' (Proverbs XVI, 18). There follows: VERSES 8–11. — 'Thou hast said therefore in my ears, and I have heard the voice of thy words.' And joining that same voice, he says: 'I am clean and without offence, unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me. Because he has found complaints in me, therefore he has reckoned me an enemy to himself.'

'He has put my feet in the stocks, he has watched all my paths.' And presently, bringing forth his own opinion against these words which he narrated that blessed Job had spoken, he says: VERSE 12. — 'This then is that wherein thou art not justified.' 30. They are more eager to rebuke than to console. — For truly blessed Job had said that he was scourged without fault. For he says this of himself which was said of him to the devil: 'The Lord said: Thou hast moved me against him, that I should afflict him in vain' (Job II, 3). But Elihu did not believe that, with fault ceasing, he could be scourged even for the sake of grace. For he knew not that by his scourges the vice was not being blotted out but the merit increased; and for this, that Job had said he was scourged without offence, Elihu rebukes him with this sentence, saying:

'This then is that wherein thou art not justified.' For the arrogant have this as their own property: that they crave to accuse more than to console; and whatever they know to befall men, they suppose to have befallen them from iniquities alone. For they know not how to seek out subtly the hidden judgments, nor to search humbly into that which they do not understand, because often the very elation of their knowledge casts them down from the secret investigations of God's judgments, while it lifts them up. 31. Swelling of the mind is an obstacle to truth. The effect of true knowledge. — For the swelling of the mind is an obstacle to truth, because while it puffs up, it darkens. And even if such men sometimes seem to attain knowledge, they feed as it were on a certain rind of things, and not on the marrow of the secret sweetness;

and with their glittering wits they often reach only the outer things, but are ignorant of the taste of the inner savour; that is to say, they are outwardly keen-sighted, but inwardly blind. Nor do they perceive that of God which is sweet to the inner taste, but only that which resounds outwardly when struck. And even if by understanding they grasp certain secrets, they cannot experience their sweetness; and if they know how these things are, they are ignorant, as I said, how they taste. And it often happens that they speak forcefully, and yet know not how to live according to those things which they say. Whence a certain wise man well said: 'But may God grant me to speak according to the sentence [judgment]' (Wisdom VII, 15). For 'sentence' is named from 'sense' [feeling].

And he who rightly understands desires to speak the things he understands not from knowledge alone, but also from a sentence [inner sense], because he desires by no means merely to speak by knowing, but to experience by feeling what he says. But the mind of the arrogant does not penetrate the sense of its own sayings, because by right judgment it is thrust back from the inner taste into those outward favours which it loves. But true knowledge affects, it does not exalt; nor does it make proud those whom it has filled, but rather lamenting. When anyone has been filled with it, in the first place he desires to know himself; and now conscious of himself, he is the more robustly wise through it the more truly he recognizes himself weak in it; and humility itself opens for him a wider way of this knowledge;

and while he beholds his own feebleness, the very knowledge of sublime secrets spreads open its hidden recesses to him, and pressed down by that knowledge, he is rendered more subtle, until he is caught up to hidden things. Elihu therefore did not find in the scourges of blessed Job a truthful reason, because he knew not how to seek it humbly; and being readier to rebuke than to console, he says: 'This then is that wherein thou art not justified.' 32. The proud, in rebuking others, often lie. — It is also to be noted that blessed Job said his foot was placed in the stocks, but by no means did he mention that he was clean in this manner in which it is objected against him, without sin, or unspotted, and without iniquity.

But Elihu, while he strove with severity to rebuke the things that were said, lyingly added the things that were not said. For those who always crave to rebuke, and never to cherish, often lie in much of their rebuking. For, that they may seem to argue learnedly, they sometimes feign the things which they refute; and while they themselves boil into a course of ostentation after the manner of a horse, in their invectives against those subject to them they prepare for themselves a field out of the iniquities of others. Moreover it is to be known, as I have also said above (No. 31), that arrogant men often mingle strong sayings with their inflated words, and consider not at times how they live, but weigh diligently what they teach. Of whom Elihu now holds the likeness, who desires not to live rightly, but to teach.

Since therefore he speaks as one knowing but arrogant, let us now be silent about how puffed-up his living is, and let us hear what solid thing he says. After so many words of elation, therefore, at last beginning to display his knowledge, he says: