Moralia in Job 1114

Verse 12. — 'There they will cry out, and He will not hear, because of the pride of the evil ones' (Job xxxv, 12). The just are permitted to be oppressed that they may be purged, and that the wickedness of their oppressors may be consummated. 'There,' namely, in tribulation, as, on the contrary, concerning joy it is written: 'The children of your servants shall dwell there' (Psalm ci, 29 [Ps. 102:28]). But it seems uncertain whether he says, 'Because of the pride of the evil ones He will not hear'; or, 'Because of the pride of the evil ones they will cry out.' It can, however, be better understood if 'because of the pride of the evil ones' is referred rather to 'He will not hear' than to 'they will cry out.' For that they cry out because of the pride of the evil ones has already been said above, in that verse in which it is said: 'Because of the multitude of the violent they will cry out.'

Something, therefore, is intimated to us in this verse which should be attended to somewhat more subtly: that often certain oppressed ones, when they cry out, deserve of themselves indeed to be heard, but nevertheless their desires are deferred on account of the pride of their oppressors. For the just God permits His own to be temporally oppressed, and the malice of the violent to be wickedly increased, so that while the life of these is worn down in purgation, the wickedness of those may be consummated. But it frequently happens that the just, caught in tribulation, receive even temporally the supernal solace, which nevertheless they do not implore temporally.

For they long to be saved, not for their own sake, but for the salvation of their adversaries, so that while Almighty God rescues them from immense perils by some wrought miracle, He may make His power known even to their persecutors themselves; and thence He may redeem their adversaries unto eternity, whence He temporally saves His own. Just as the Prophet also, taking up the voice of the martyrs, says: 'Because of my enemies deliver me' (Psalm lxviii, 19 [Ps. 69:18]). As though he said: For my own sake indeed I do not seek to be rescued from temporal tribulation, but nevertheless I long to be rescued for the sake of my adversaries, so that while my life is seen to be marvelously saved, by the very sight of the miracles the hardness of my enemies may be converted.

As therefore the Lord often temporally rescues the life of His own for the conversion of their enemies, so He often does not hear the voices of His own on account of the damnation of their persecutors, so that, namely, they may heap up their guilt from that very thing whence they wickedly rejoice to have prevailed. For those who despise invisible things can sometimes be moved by visible miracles. But for this reason nothing wondrous is for the most part visibly done with the just, because their adversaries do not deserve to be invisibly enlightened. Let it be said, then: 'There they cried out, and He will not hear, because of the pride of the evil ones.' As though he said: The guilt of the oppressors prohibits the voices of the oppressed from being heard. Nor are the just visibly rescued, because the unjust do not deserve to be invisibly saved.

Whence again it is said through the Prophet: 'When he shall have seen the wise dying, the unwise and the foolish shall perish together' (Psalm xlviii, 11 [Ps. 49:10]). For those whom they behold dying visibly, they do not believe able to live invisibly; and they heap up the guilt of their unbelief from this, that, having seen the death of the faithful, they despair concerning eternity. Therefore the violent fail unto the worse from that very thing whence outwardly they grow strong against the life of the innocent; and the inmost truth casts them forth from itself by as much as it permits them to be able to do against His own, temporally, what they will. The punishment of the evil is graver, namely, prosperity. It is a manifest token of reprobation.

Therefore whoever persecutes the life of the good is then condemned to a worse vengeance when no adversity resists him; and he then lies under the perils of a stronger wrath when he carries out prosperously what he wickedly desires, since plainly the vengeance of the heavenly judgment has abandoned him — reserving him for punishments to come — the very man whom it disdained to confront here in his evil. For hence the Lord says through the Prophet: 'I let them go according to the desires of their heart, and they shall walk in their own devices' (Ps. 80:13). Hence again it is said: 'The rod of God is not upon them' (Job 21:9). Hence also it is written of their very head: 'He shall do and shall prosper' (Dan. 8:12). Hence again it is said of the same one: 'And deceit shall be directed in his hand' (Dan. 8:25).

In the hand of Antichrist deceit is directed, because in what he has purposed against the good he is hindered by no adversity from carrying it out for a time. Hence again it is said through Solomon: 'The prosperity of fools shall destroy them' (Prov. 1:32). It is therefore a manifest sign of perdition when success attends upon iniquities that are eagerly pursued, and no opposition impedes what the perverse mind has conceived. For often, while the desires of wicked men are delayed, they are changed; and while they feel the difficulty of accomplishment, they come to recognize the guilt of their evil action; and those to whom at first, though unwilling, resistance was offered, afterward, when willing, they turn against the very thing they had conceived.

Since therefore, when the Lord forsakes the wicked, He permits them to prevail, and from that whereby the malice of the proud is brought to completion, thereby the long-suffering of the humble is perfected, it is rightly said: 'There they shall cry, and He will not hear, because of the pride of the wicked.' There follows: