Moralia in Job 666

Verse 16. — 'Below let his roots be dried up, but above let his harvest be crushed.' 24. The barrenness and sterility of the wicked. — For what do we understand by the name of roots, which are set in what is hidden and bring forth their shoot into the open, but thoughts, which, while they are not seen in the heart, produce visible works? Whence also by the name of harvest is signified that same open activity which, namely, is produced from the hidden root. And because every wicked man first withers in the thoughts of temptations, and afterwards falls away from good deeds, it is rightly said through Baldad: 'Below let his roots be dried up, but above let his harvest be crushed.'

For while any depraved person sets his thoughts on the lowest things and neglects to long for the joys of everlasting freshness, what else does he do but allow his roots to be dried up below? His harvest above is crushed, because his every work is accounted as nothing by the judgment from on high, even if before human eyes it appear good. In the depths, then, are the roots, and above is the harvest, because here we first send forth good thoughts, that at some time we may deserve to receive the fruit of good works in the eternal recompense. But every wicked man, when he abandons good thoughts and pours himself out upon those things which are external, his roots are dried up below.

But his harvest above is crushed, because he who here persists in barrenness is, after this life, called to no rewards. There follows: