Moralia in Job 1406

3. Whatever in created things is compared to God becomes empty and nothing. — All human wisdom, however much it may prevail in acuteness, compared to the divine wisdom, is foolishness. For all human things which are just, which are beautiful, compared to the justice and beauty of God, are neither just nor beautiful, nor do they exist at all. Blessed Job, therefore, would have believed that he had spoken wisely the things he had said, had he not heard the words of the higher wisdom. In comparison to which all that is wise in us is foolish. And he who had indeed spoken wisely to men, yet hearing the divine sayings, recognizes more wisely that he is not wise. Hence it is that Abraham, amid the Lord's words, saw himself to be nothing but dust, saying:

I will speak to my Lord, whereas I am dust and ashes (Gen. 18:27). Hence it is that Moses, instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, from the time he heard the Lord speaking, perceived himself to be of more impeded and slower tongue, saying: I beseech Thee, Lord, I am not eloquent; for from yesterday and the day before, since Thou hast spoken to Thy servant, I am of more impeded and slower tongue (Exod. 4:10). Hence it is that Isaiah, after he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, after he beheld the seraphim covering the face with two wings, the feet with two, and flying with two, after he heard the one crying to the other that which is, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of hosts (Isa. 6), returning to himself, said:

Woe is me, because I have held my peace, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people that has unclean lips (Isa. 6:5). And immediately, subjoining that very uncleanness whence he had come to know it, he says: And I have seen with my eyes the King, the Lord of hosts (Isa. 6:5). Hence too Jeremiah, hearing the divine words, recognized that he had no words, saying: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God, behold I know not how to speak, for I am a child (Jer. 1:6). Hence Ezekiel, speaking of the four living creatures, says: When a voice came from above the firmament that was over their head, they stood and let down their wings (Ezek. 1:25). For what is designated by the flying of the living creatures, save the sublimity of the evangelists and doctors?

But what are the wings of the living creatures, save the contemplations of the saints, lifting them up to heavenly things? But when there is a voice above the firmament which is over their head, standing, they let down their wings, because when they hear the inward voice of the supernal wisdom, they lay down, as it were, the wings of their flight, since evidently they recognize that they are less able to contemplate the very height of the truth. Therefore, to let down the wings at the voice coming from above is, when the supernal power is known, to humble one's own virtues, and, in the consideration of the Creator, to feel nothing of oneself other than abject things.

Holy men, therefore, while they hear the sentences of the Divinity, the more they profit in contemplating, the more, in despising what they are, they recognize themselves to be either nothing or almost nothing. Let blessed Job, then, answer the divine words, and, wisely profiting, let him detect that he is foolish, saying: I have spoken unwisely, and things which exceeded my knowledge beyond measure. Behold, he reproves himself the more, the more he profits, and he believed that his knowledge had exceeded beyond measure, because in the words of the Lord he recognized the secrets of His wisdom more than he had estimated. There follows: