Moralia in Job 1352

'By uncovering his most cunning snares, holy men, as it were, bore through his nostrils.' What else do we understand by the stakes, that is, the sharpened points which are honed so as to be driven in, but the keen counsels of the saints? These pierce through the nostrils of this Behemoth, while they both watchfully scan his most cunning snares and, by overcoming them, transfix them. Now by the nostrils an odor is drawn, and by the breath being led in, it comes to pass that even a thing set far off is perceived. Therefore by the nostrils of Behemoth his crafty snares are signified, through which he most cunningly strives both to discern the hidden goods of our heart and to scatter these by his most wicked persuasion.

And so with stakes the Lord bores through his nostrils, because, penetrating his crafty snares by the keen perceptions of the saints, He unnerves them. Often, moreover, he circles about the ways of the good with such lurking art that, through the very things he has learned were well done by them, he seeks an approach to malice. For where he sees one bestow something, thence he inflames another in the flame of discord; and while he looks upon this one to have pity, he persuades that one to be angry, so that, by insinuating that a good deed was not done in common, he may cut apart concordant souls from the good of a common grace. For since he cannot break the minds of the just by persuading them to evil, he busies himself to sow evils among them through their good deeds. But holy men conquer these snares of his the more swiftly, the more subtly they detect them.

This we show better if we call as witness, from among the many defenders of truth, Paul, under whom, when a certain Corinthian had committed the crime of incest, that eminent teacher delivered him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, unto the satisfaction of penance, and reserved his spirit safe for the day of the man (1 Cor. 5:5). For by the great art of his teaching he was delivered over, being forced into punishment for that to which he had of his own will subjected himself in guilt, so that he who had been an author of wickedness in vice might himself become a scourge of discipline. Yet when this penance had been well performed, and when he had learned that the Corinthians were already mercifully moved toward him, he said: 'To whom you have pardoned anything, I also; for what I have pardoned, if I have pardoned anything, for your sakes have I done it in the person of Christ' (2 Cor.

2:10). Now, considering the grace of communion, he says: 'To whom you have pardoned anything, I also.' As if he said: I do not dissent from your good; let whatever you yourselves have done be mine also. And presently he added: 'And I, if I have pardoned anything, for your sakes.' As if he said: To your deeds I have added good, whatever mercifully I have done for your sakes. Therefore your good is my profit, and my good is your profit. And joining at once that very bond of hearts in which he is thus held, he added: 'In the person of Christ.' To whom, as though we might presume to say: Why do you join yourself so warily to the disciples? why do you conform yourself, both to them and them to your actions, with so anxious a mind? he at once subjoined: 'That we be not circumvented by Satan' (ibid., 11). Whose cunning

snares—with how keen a perception he pierces them through he intimates by adding: 'For we are not ignorant of his devices.' As if he said in other words: Sharpened stakes are we, with the Lord as our author, and by subtly scanning around we penetrate the nostrils of this Behemoth, lest this which the mind well begins, he turn to a malicious end. [Old translation, ch. 12.] 16. 'Probing the divinity of Christ, he was pierced and caught by His words in the nose.' By the stakes there can be signified the words of wisdom made manifest through the flesh of that very One, so that, since by the nostrils an odor is drawn, by the nostrils of Behemoth may be figured that exploration of the ancient enemy. He, since he doubted that God had become incarnate, wished by tempting to learn this through miracles sought after, saying:

'If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread' (Matt. 4:3). Because, therefore, by the tokens of signs he lusted to discern the odor of His divinity, he drew, as it were, the scent through his nostrils. But when it was at once answered him: 'Not by bread alone doth man live'; and: 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God' (ibid., 4, 7), because the truth smites the searching of the ancient enemy with the sharp points of its sentences, He bored through, as it were, his nostrils with stakes. But because this Behemoth is stretched out through the various devices of his frauds, he is marked also by yet another added name; for there is subjoined: