Moralia in Job 826

Verse 14. — The murderer riseth at the very first light; he killeth the needy and the poor, but in the night he will be as a thief. 72. The perverse abuse the prosperity of the present life to oppress the just. — Since the murderer is wont to prowl in the slaying of his neighbours chiefly through the silence of night, why is he said in this place to rise at the very first light to kill the needy and the poor, while in the night he is declared to be as a thief? But by the very words of the letter, in that they do not agree with one another, we are recalled to searching out the secrets of the spirit. In Holy Scripture the morning is sometimes accustomed to be set for the coming of the Lord's incarnation, sometimes for the coming of the now terrible and strict Judge, and sometimes for the prosperity of the present life.

For the morning was the coming of the Lord's incarnation, as the prophet says: The morning cometh, and also the night (Isaiah xxi, 12), because both the first beginnings of a new light shone forth in the presence of the Redeemer, and yet the darkness of their perfidy was not wiped away from the hearts of the persecutors. Again, by the morning is designated the coming of the Judge. Whence it is said through the Psalmist: In the mornings I slew all the sinners of the earth (Psalm c, 8). So also, expressing the person of the elect, he says: In the morning I will stand before thee, and will see (Psalm v, 5). Again, by the morning is designated the prosperity of the present life, as it is said through Solomon: Woe to thee, O land, whose king is a child, and whose princes eat in the morning (Ecclesiastes x, 16).

For since the morning is the first time of the day, and the evening the last, we are by no means to be refreshed by the prosperity of this life which goes before, but by those things which follow at the end of the day, that is, at the world's ending. They therefore eat in the morning who are lifted up by the prosperities of this world, and who, while they anxiously care for present things, do not think upon those to come. For everyone who hates his brother is a murderer (1 John iii, 15). And so the murderer riseth at the very first light, because every perverse man is exalted in the glory of the present life, and casts down the life of those who, while they thirst for the glory that comes after, seek as it were to be sated in the evening.

For every depraved man, seizing in this world the dignity of a transitory power, spreads himself out the more sharply to the accomplishing of evils, the more that, through the bowels of charity, he loves no one. For as often as he rages in his thoughts against the good, so often does he destroy the life of the innocent. 73. Evil men, when pressed by adversity, secretly do harm by perverse counsels. — And if, by God's disposing, he suddenly lose the glory of the power he had received, he changes his place, but does not change his mind, because he forthwith slips down to that which is subjoined: But in the night he will be as a thief.

For in the night of his tribulation and dejection, although he is not able to put forth the hand of cruelty, yet to those whom he sees to prevail he offers counsels of perversity; he runs hither and thither, and whatever he can, he suggests to the injury of the good. Who is rightly called a thief, because in these his very perverse counsels he fears lest he be caught. He, then, who against the needy and the poor is a murderer in the morning, in the night is hidden as a thief, because every perverse man, who in the prosperity of the present life destroys the life of the humble by casting them down, when set in adversity and dejection secretly harms them by wicked counsels, and what he is not able to accomplish by himself, he carries out by cleaving to the powerful ones of this world.