Moralia in Job 60

Verse 5. — And when the days of feasting had gone round in turn, Job sent to them, and sanctified them, and rising up at dawn offered burnt-offerings for each one. 10. Scarcely any feasts are without fault, on account of pleasure and loquacity. — When it is said, 'he sent and sanctified them,' it is openly shown what strictness he exercised toward them when present, from whom, when absent, he was not wanting in solicitude. But this is to be carefully observed by us, that, when the days of feasting were over, a purgation by burnt-offering is applied for each one. For the holy man knew that feasts could scarcely be celebrated without fault. He knew that the banquets of feasts must be washed away with a great purgation of sacrifices;

and whatever the feasting sons had defiled in themselves, the father wiped away by immolating a sacrifice. For there are certain base things which either can scarcely be separated from feasts, or certainly cannot at all be. For pleasure almost always accompanies banquets. For while the body is relaxed in the delight of refreshment, the heart is loosened toward empty joy. Whence it is written: 'The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play' (Exod. xxxii, 6). 11. Loquacity almost always follows banquets; and when the belly is refreshed, the tongue is unbridled. Whence rightly the rich man is described as craving water among the dead, saying:

'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame' (Luke xvi, 24). He is first said to have fared sumptuously every day; and afterward he is recorded as begging water for his tongue. For because, as we have said, loquacity is wont to overflow greatly amid banquets, he indicates the fault by the punishment, when him whom Truth had said to have fared sumptuously every day, He declared to burn the more in his tongue. Those who tune the harmony of strings dispense it with such art, that oftentimes, when one is touched, another string set far off and with many intervening is made to quiver: and when this one gives sound, that one, which is tuned in the same pitch, though the others are not struck, trembles.

So, then, in holy Scripture very often it treats of virtues in such a way, and so of vices; that while by speaking it insinuates one thing, by keeping silence it makes another thing known. For nothing is recorded against the rich man concerning loquacity; but while the punishment is said to be in the tongue, it is shown what fault, graver than the others, had been present at the banquet. 12. Job, offering sacrifice on the eighth day, honours the mystery of the resurrection. — But when the seven brothers are described as making feasts on each single day, and when, the days of feasting being over, Job is reported to offer seven sacrifices; the history openly indicates that blessed Job, offering sacrifice on the eighth day, honours the mystery of the resurrection.

For the day which is now called the Lord's Day is the third from the death of the Redeemer, but in the order of creation the eighth, which is also the first in creation. But because, having come round again, it follows the seventh, it is rightly numbered as the eighth. Since, therefore, he is said to offer seven sacrifices on the eighth day, he is declared, full of the Spirit of sevenfold grace, to have served the Lord in hope of the resurrection. Whence also the psalm is inscribed 'for the octave,' in which the joy concerning the resurrection is announced. But because the sons of blessed Job had been girded with so great a discipline of good training, that they offended neither by deeds at feasts, nor by words, it is openly shown, when it is subjoined: