Moralia in Job 150

Verse 6. — The Lord therefore said to Satan: Behold, he is in thy hand, but yet save his life. 6. Job is so delivered into the hand of the adversary that he is ever kept in the hand of his Helper. — Behold, again the permission of the scourge is accompanied by the guardianship of protection, and the divine dispensation, by guarding, forsakes its elect, and by forsaking, guards; it gives up some of his things, and protects others. For if He should wholly forsake Job in the hand of so great an adversary, what would man be? In the very justice of the permission, therefore, is mingled a certain balance of mercy, so that in one and the same contest both the humble servant may profit from the oppression, and the proud enemy may fall from the permission.

And so the holy man is delivered into the hand of the adversary, yet is inwardly kept in the hand of his Helper. For he was of those sheep, of whom Truth itself says in the Gospel: No man shall pluck them out of My hand (John 10:28); and yet to the demanding enemy it is said: Behold, he is in thy hand. The same man, therefore, is in the hand of God, and the same is in the hand of the devil. For when He says: He is in thy hand, and straightway adds: But yet save his life, the merciful Helper plainly made Himself known, because He held the one whom He granted, and by giving did not give up the one whom, snatching him from the darts of his adversary, He hid. [Old Version III.] Satan is said to save that into which he is not permitted to break in. — But what is this that is said to Satan: Save his life?

For by what agreement does he guard, who ever seeks to break in upon what is guarded? But Satan is said to save, in that he dares not break in, just as, on the contrary, we ask the Father in prayer, saying: Lead us not into temptation (Matt. 6:13). For neither does the Lord lead into temptation, who ever mercifully protects His subjects from temptation; but yet it is, as it were, to lead into temptation, not to fortify us against the enticement of temptation. And He then does not lead us into the snare of temptation, when He does not permit us to be tempted beyond what we are able. As, therefore, God is said to lead us into temptation, if He suffers us to be led by the adversary, so the adversary is said to save the soul when he is prohibited from overcoming it by tempting. Verse 7.

— So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. In what manner Satan goes forth from the presence of the Lord, those things which have been said above already make manifest. There follows: