Moralia in Job 1158

Verse 2. — 'He shall hear a hearing in the terror of his voice, and a sound proceeding from his mouth.' 33. God first chastens with the fear of judgment, and afterward restores with the consolation of heavenly sweetness. — It is the custom of sacred speech that, when it wishes to convey that something is heard by hearing, it calls that very hearing 'heard,' as Habakkuk says: 'Lord, I have heard thy hearing, and was afraid' (Habakkuk 3:2). Hence here too it is said: 'He shall hear a hearing in the terror of his voice.'

But it is to be noted that the voice of God is declared to be heard not in joy but in terror, because assuredly, when any sinner thinks only on the things that are earthly, when he bears a heart oppressed by lowest thoughts, if he is suddenly touched by the inspiration of divine grace, he first of all understands this: that all he does is weighed by the strict scrutiny of the eternal Judge. Therefore the hearing of God's voice comes first in terror, that afterward it may be turned into sweetness, because he first chastens us with the fear of strict judgment, that, being now chastened, he may restore us with the consolation of supernal sweetness.

For when a violent delight in temporal things possesses us, and presses the eyes of our mind down in the sleep of torpor, if we are aroused by the sudden hand of the supernal regard, we open to the light of truth those eyes of the mind that were long closed; we remember the evils we have done; we see how strict a judge comes against these things; there is turned over in the mind how great is that coming of so great a Judge, what shall then be that throng of men and angels, with what force the burning elements shall fight against the reprobate, how terribly the eternal sentence shall come forth from the mouth of the strict Judge, by which it is said to the reprobate: 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels' (Matthew 25:41).

The punishment of those same reprobate is turned over before the eyes, and what shall be the darkness of hell is pondered with the grievous gloom of bitterness. Because, therefore, the proud heart is first shaken with terror, that being shaken it may be made firm in love, rightly is it now said: 'He shall hear a hearing in the terror of his voice.' Where also it is well added: 'And a sound proceeding from his mouth.' 54. Both are bestowed by the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the mouth of the Lord. — The sound from the mouth of God is the force of fear rushing in from the supernal inspiration, because when the Lord fills us by inspiring concerning things to come, without doubt he terrifies us concerning the evils done in the past. Now by the mouth of God may be designated the only-begotten Son, who, just as he is called God's arm, because through him the Father works all things — of whom the prophet says:

'And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?' (Isaiah 53:1); of whom John says: 'All things were made by him' (John 1:3) — so also he is called the mouth. For hence it is that the prophet says: 'For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken these things' (Isaiah 58:14). Through him he speaks to us all things, as though under the name of mouth the Word were plainly meant, just as we too are wont to say 'tongue' for words: as when we speak of the Greek or Latin tongue, we point to Latin or Greek words. Not undeservedly, therefore, do we take the mouth of the Lord to be he himself. Hence also the bride in the Song of Songs says to him: 'Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth' (Song of Songs 1:1). As though she were to say: Let him touch me with the sweetness of the presence of the only-begotten Son, my Redeemer.

By the sound of the mouth, moreover, may be designated the Holy Spirit of the same Lord. Hence also elsewhere, in signification of that same Spirit, it is written: 'Suddenly there came from heaven a sound, as of a mighty wind coming' (Acts 2:2). The sound, therefore, proceeds from the mouth of the Lord, when the Spirit consubstantial with him, coming to us through the Son, breaks the deafness of our insensibility — just as the mouth of the Lord speaks concerning that same uncircumscribed and incorporeal sound, saying: 'He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you' (John 16:14).

There may therefore be understood both by the terror of the voice the force of dread, and by the sound of the mouth the sweetness of consolation, because those whom the Holy Spirit fills, he first terrifies concerning earthly action, and afterward consoles with the hope of heavenly things, so that they may rejoice all the more afterward in trusting concerning the rewards, the more they before feared in beholding the punishments alone. Hence it is that concerning the Spirit of the only-begotten, as concerning this sound of the mouth, Paul says: 'For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba, Father' (Romans 8:15). Hence through himself the Truth says: 'Receive ye the Holy Spirit: whose sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose ye retain, they are retained' (John 20:22-23).

Behold, the terror of the converted is turned into power, because while they punish their own evils by repenting, they ascend even to the exercising of judgment, so as to receive in God the power of that which they themselves before feared from God. For they become judges who have perfectly feared the supernal judgment, and they begin to remit the sins of others who before had dreaded lest their own be retained. But because this very judgment, which is spiritually exercised, is not now seen by carnal men, there are some who reckon that God does not care for human affairs, and think that these are borne along by chance motions. Against whom it is rightly subjoined: