Moralia in Job 708

Verses 4, 5. — This I know from the beginning, since man was placed upon the earth, that the praise of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment. 3. Whatever comes to an end is brief. — It is now plain that, being puffed up by the spirit of his own understanding, he bends the sentences which he utters against the wicked into reproaches of blessed Job. For him whom he had first beheld doing just things and afterward enduring punishments, he reckons that all in him which he saw was hypocrisy, because forsooth he did not believe that a just servant could be afflicted by a just God. But let us, weighing with anxious attention those same sentences which, not being right himself, he uttered as right, follow them out;

and, despising what he falsely speaks against blessed Job, let us behold how true the things are which he says, if he were speaking these against the wicked. He says therefore: This I know from the beginning, since man was placed upon the earth, that the praise of the wicked is short. [Old div. II.] About to speak of the brevity of the present life, he led the eye of the heart back to the very outset of its origin, that from things past he might gather how nothing are the things that seem to be something while they are. For if from the very rise of the human race up to this present time in which we are we lead the eyes of the mind, we see how brief was everything that could be brought to an end.

For let us suppose any man to lead his life from the first day of the world's founding up to the present day, yet today to end that same life which he seemed to lead so long — lo, the end is at hand, the past things are now nothing, because all have passed away. In this world there is nothing future, because not even the briefest moment remains for life. Where then is the long time which, caught between the beginning and the end, is so consumed as if it had never even been brief? 4. Many are careful not to be, but to be called, good. The joy of the hypocrite passes, the punishment remains. The wicked, then, because they love the present life, being without doubt puffed up in it, seek to receive praise. They are exalted by the favors of the tongue, and desire not to be good, but to be called so.

This praise indeed they esteem to be long while they attain it, but understand it to have been brief when they lose it. For in the end it is shown to them how nothing was that which they loved. Whence it is rightly said against those same wicked: This I know from the beginning, since man was placed upon the earth, that the praise of the wicked is short. Where it is aptly subjoined: And the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment. Often the hypocrite, while he feigns himself holy, and yet by no means fears to show himself wicked, is honored by all, and the glory of sanctity is rendered to him by those who behold outward things but cannot perceive the inward.

Whence it comes to pass that he rejoices in the first seat, is made merry in the first couch, is puffed up at the first greeting, is elated at the reverent voice of those who wait upon him, and swells with proud thought in the service of his subjects; as also by the voice of Truth it is said of such: But all their works they do to be seen of men. For they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge their fringes. And they love the first couches at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues, and greetings in the marketplace, and to be called of men, Rabbi (Matt. xxiii, 5). But this their joy, compared to eternity, what will it be, when, at the sudden onset of death, it is so consumed as if it had never been at all?

For the gladness of that joy passes away, and the punishment remains; and when the thing is lost, the cause endures. But it is well said: The joy of the hypocrite but for a moment (as of a point). For in a point the stylus is lifted as soon as it is set down, nor is any delay made whereby it should be drawn out into a line to be traced. The joy therefore of the hypocrite is like a point, because it appears for a moment, but disappears forever; and as the stylus in a point is lifted while it is set down, so the hypocrite loses the joys of the present life while he touches them. Concerning whom it is also added: