Moralia in Job 344

Verse 26.— You frame words merely to chide, and you cast your words to the wind. 57. Two kinds of speech harmful to men.— There are two kinds of speech exceedingly troublesome and harmful to the human race: the one which takes care to praise even perverse things, the other which is eager always to censure even upright things. The former is borne downward with the current; the latter, on the contrary, strives to dam up and block the stream against the flowings of truth. The former fear presses down; the latter pride lifts up. The former courts favour out of applause; the latter, in wrath, stirs itself up that it may be displayed as from a contest. The former lies ready at hand; the latter always swells in opposition. It was from the character of this latter kind that blessed Job convicted his friends of having spoken, when he says: You frame words merely to chide.

But whence one comes even to the audacity of unjust rebuke, he straightway made known, when he added: And you cast your words to the wind. For to cast words to the wind is to speak idle things. For often, while the tongue is by no means restrained from idle words, it is unbridled even to the rashness of foolish rebuke. For by certain steps of its own ruin the slothful mind is driven into the pit of its fall. For while we neglect to guard against idle words, we come to harmful ones, so that first it pleases us to speak of others' affairs, and afterward the tongue gnaws with detractions the life of those of whom it speaks, and at times bursts out even into open insults.

Hence are sown the goads of angers, quarrels arise, the torches of hatreds are kindled, all the peace of hearts is extinguished. Whence it is well said by Solomon: He who lets out water is the source of strifes (Prov. 17:14). For to let out water is to relax the tongue into the flow of speech. On the contrary, in a good sense he asserts, saying: The words from the mouth of a man are deep water (Prov. 18:4). He therefore who lets out water is the source of strifes, because he who does not curb his tongue scatters concord. Whence, on the other hand, it is written: He who imposes silence upon a fool assuages angers (Prov. 26:10). [Old Version, chapter 25.] 58. The evils of much speaking.

The idle word.— But that whoever is a slave to much speaking cannot hold to the rectitude of justice, the Prophet testifies, when he says: A man full of tongue shall not be directed upon the earth (Ps. 139:12). Hence Solomon again says: In much speaking sin shall not be lacking (Prov. 10:19). Hence Isaiah says: The cultivation of justice is silence (Isa. 32:17), plainly indicating that the justice of the mind is laid waste when there is no sparing of immoderate speech. Hence James says: If any man thinks himself religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain (James 1:26). Hence again he says: Let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak (Ibid., 19).

Hence again he adds: The tongue is a restless evil, full of deadly poison (James 3:8). Hence through Himself the Truth admonishes us, saying: Every idle word that men shall have spoken, they shall render an account of it in the day of judgment (Matt. 12:36). For an idle word is that which lacks either the reason of just necessity or the intention of pious usefulness. If therefore an account is exacted for an idle word, it must be very seriously weighed what punishment follows that much speaking in which sin is committed even through words of pride. 59. Without the censorship of silence the whole mind lies open to the enemy. It must also be known that they fall away from every state of rectitude who slip through harmful words.

For the human mind, after the manner of water, when enclosed round about is gathered up toward the higher things, because it seeks again that whence it descended; but when relaxed it perishes, because it uselessly scatters itself over lower things. For by as many superfluous words as it is dissipated from the censorship of its silence, by so many channels, as it were, is it led outside itself. Whence it is not able to return within to the knowledge of itself, because, scattered abroad through much speaking, it loses the power of inner consideration. It therefore exposes its whole self to the wounds of the plotting enemy, because it encloses itself with no defence of guarding. Whence it is written: Like a city that lies open and without a compass of walls, so is the man who cannot restrain his spirit in speaking (Prov. 25:28).

For because it has not the wall of silence, the city of the mind lies open to the darts of the enemy; and when it casts itself outside itself through words, it shows itself open to the adversary, whom he overcomes with the less labour in proportion as this very mind that is conquered fights against itself through much speaking. 60. The disadvantages of immoderate silence.— But amid these things it must be known that when by excessive fear we are restrained from speaking, we are sometimes confined within the cloisters of silence more than is needful; and while we incautiously flee the vices of the tongue, we are secretly entangled in worse ones.

For often, while we immoderately restrain ourselves from speech, we endure grievous much-speaking in the heart, so that our thoughts seethe the more in the mind in proportion as the violent custody of indiscreet silence straitens them; and for the most part they flow abroad the more widely in proportion as they reckon themselves the more secure, because they are not seen outwardly by reprovers. Whence the mind is sometimes lifted up into pride, and it regards those whom it hears speaking as though they were weak. And while it closes the mouth of the body, it does not recognize how much it opens itself to vices by being proud. For it presses down the tongue, but raises up the thought; and while through negligence it least of all considers itself, it accuses all the more freely with itself as it does so the more secretly. [Old Version, chapter 26.]

But for the most part the too-silent, when they suffer some unjust things, come forth into a sharper grief in proportion as they do not speak of the things they endure. For if the tongue tranquilly told the troubles inflicted, the grief would flow away from the conscience. For closed wounds torment more, because when the putrid matter that seethes within is cast out, the pain is opened toward health. For the most part the too-silent, while they behold the evils of certain persons, and yet in silence press down the tongue, as it were withdraw the use of medicine from wounds they have beheld. For they become authors of death in this, that they were unwilling to cast out by speaking the poison which they could have cast out. Whence, if immoderate silence were not blameworthy, the prophet would not say: Woe is me, because I have kept silence (Isa. 6:5). 61.

Let the tongue be held in by discipline, and loosed out of necessity.— What then, amid these things, but that the tongue must be diligently bridled under the balancing of great governance, not indissolubly bound, lest either loosed it flow down into vice, or restricted it grow torpid even from usefulness? For hence it is said by a certain one: The wise man will keep silence until the time (Sirach 20:7), namely that when he considers it opportune, laying aside the censorship of silence, by speaking the things that are fitting, he may spend himself unto the use of profit. Hence Solomon says: A time to be silent, and a time to speak (Eccles. 3:7). For the times of vicissitudes are to be discreetly weighed, lest either, when the tongue ought to be restrained, it uselessly loose itself through words;

or, when it can speak usefully, it sluggishly restrain itself. And this the Psalmist, well considering, embraced in a brief petition, saying: Set, O Lord, a guard to my mouth, and a door of circumspection to my lips (Ps. 141:3). For a door is both opened and closed. He therefore who asked not that an obstacle, but a door, be set to his mouth, openly taught that the tongue ought both to be held in by discipline and to be loosed out of necessity, so that the discreet mouth may open the voice at the fitting time, and again at the fitting time silence may close it.

And because either the friends of blessed Job, or all heretics, of whom these hold the likeness, know not how to keep this, they are declared to cast their words to the wind, because assuredly the breeze of levity carries off words which the weight of discretion does not make solid.