Moralia in Job 239

Verse 7. — Remember, I beseech you, who that was innocent ever perished? or when were the upright destroyed? 34. Often the innocent perish here and the upright are destroyed. — Whether the heretics, whose likeness we have said the friends of blessed Job bear, or any perverse men whatever, as disorderly as they are in refuting, so reprehensibly do they exhort. For he says: Who that was innocent ever perished, or when were the upright destroyed? For often here both the innocent perish and the upright are utterly destroyed; yet nevertheless by perishing they are preserved unto eternal glory. For if no innocent man perished, the Prophet would not say: The just man has perished, and there is none who considers it (Isa. 57:1). If God did not by His providence snatch away the upright, Wisdom would by no means have said of the just man:

He was snatched away, lest wickedness should alter his understanding (Wis. 4:11). If no chastisement smote the just, Peter would by no means have foretold, saying: It is time that judgment should begin at the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17). Those, therefore, are truly upright who, out of love for the heavenly homeland, are made ready for all the adversities of the present life. For those who fear to endure evils here for the sake of eternal goods are plainly not upright. But Eliphaz does not reckon that the upright are destroyed here, or that the innocent perish here, because often those who serve God not in hope of heavenly glory but for an earthly recompense feign for themselves the very thing they seek;

and, presuming to teach, when they preach earthly security, they show by all their labors what they love. There follows: