Moralia in Job 240

Verses 8, 9. — Nay rather, I have seen those who work iniquity, and sow sorrows, and reap them, perish by the breath of God, and be consumed by the spirit of His wrath. 35. They sow and reap sorrows. Why God sometimes tolerates the wicked, sometimes strikes them at once. — To sow sorrows is to speak fraudulent things; but to reap sorrows is to prevail by speaking. Or certainly they sow sorrows who do perverse things; they reap sorrows when they are punished for that same perversity. For the fruit of sorrow is the recompense of damnation.

But when it is immediately added that those who sow and reap sorrows perish by the breath of God and are consumed by the spirit of His wrath, in this place the reaping of sorrow is shown to be not yet the punishment, but still the completion of iniquity, because from the spirit of the divine wrath the punishment of that same reaping is substituted. They sow sorrows here, then, and reap them, because the things they do are wicked, and in that very wickedness they prosper; as is said of the wicked man through the Psalmist: His ways are defiled at all times; your judgments are taken away from before his face; he shall lord it over all his enemies (Ps. 10:5, according to the Hebrew). Of whom a little after it is added: Under his tongue is toil and sorrow (Ibid., 7). Thus he sows sorrows when he does perverse things;

he reaps sorrows when from those same perversities he grows great for a time. How, then, do they perish by the breath of God, who for the most part are permitted to subsist here a long time, and more happily than the just? For hence again it is said of them through the Psalmist: They are not in the labors of men, and they shall not be scourged with men (Ps. 72:5). Hence Jeremiah says: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? (Jer. 12:1). For because, as it is written, the Lord is a patient repayer (Sir. 5:4), He often long tolerates those whom He damns forever; but sometimes He swiftly strikes, He who by consoling runs to the faint-heartedness of the innocent. Sometimes, therefore, almighty God suffers the wicked to prevail for a long time, so that the life of the just may be more purely cleansed.

But sometimes He swiftly slays the unjust, and by their destruction strengthens the hearts of the innocent. For if He now smote all evildoers, to whom would He then display the final judgment? But if He smote none at all, who would have believed that God cares for human affairs? Sometimes, therefore, He strikes the wicked, to show that He does not leave evils unavenged. But sometimes He long tolerates the wicked, to hint to those who consider it, for what judgment He reserves them. 36. In what sense it is false, and in what sense true, that the wicked are destroyed. — This sentence, therefore, concerning the destruction of the wicked, if it is not said of all in general with the end of the present world, is without doubt for the greater part emptied of the force of truth.

But then it will be true, when there will no longer be any deferral of iniquity. This can perhaps be understood more rightly in this way: that neither does the innocent perish, nor is the upright destroyed; because although here he is worn away in the flesh, in the sight of the eternal Judge he is restored in true salvation. And those who sow and reap sorrows perish by the breath of God; because the more loftily they advance here by acting perversely, the more harshly they are smitten by the ensuing damnation. But since the word Remember is placed before this same sentence, it is plainly evident that a past matter is recalled to mind, and not a future one announced. Then, therefore, Eliphaz would speak more truly, if he had believed these things to happen to the wicked in general by the final chastisement. 37. God is fittingly said to breathe when He renders vengeance.

Then He who is tranquil in Himself seems turbulent to those who are perishing. — But this, that God is said to breathe, presses us to discern it more subtly. For when we breathe, we draw air inward from the outer parts, and this that we have drawn inward we give back outward. God, then, is said to breathe in the recompense of vengeance, because from external causes He conceives inwardly the counsel of judgment, and from His inner counsel He sends forth the sentence outward. As it were, when God breathes, something is drawn inward from the outer parts, when He beholds our evils outwardly, and inwardly arranges judgment. And again, as it were, when God breathes, the breath is sent forth outward from the inner parts, when from the inner conception of counsel the outer judgment of damnation is brought in.

Well, therefore, is it said that those who sow sorrows perish by the breath of God; because from that very source whereby they do perverse things outwardly, they are rightly smitten from within. Or certainly, since God is said to breathe — because also the spirit of His wrath is at once brought in — by the appellation of that breath His very chastisement can be designated. For when we grow angry, we are inflamed by the breath of fury. That the Lord, therefore, may be shown to be devising vengeance, He is said to breathe by growing angry; not that He Himself receives in His own nature the vicissitude of mutability, but that after long patience, when He carries out the vengeance upon the sinner, He who in Himself is tranquil seems turbulent to those who are perishing.

For the reprobate mind, because it beholds the Judge as opposed to its own deeds, sees Him as though moved against it, because in His sight it is itself troubled by its own guilt. But after he has, as it were, mercifully admonished, he adds the words of open rebuke, saying: