Moralia in Job 887

30. The astonishing destitution of the reprobate rich man after death. — Let us now see the destitution of the burning rich man, whose abundance in feasting was so great. For he says: 「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 16:24). By which words there is made known to us not this, that there in so great a burning a single drop of water was then sought as sufficient refreshment, but that he who has sinned out of abundance is there consumed by a most burning want. For we see in the words of the rich man, out of the most subtle judgement of God, how worthy a punishment answered to such guilt.

For, want driving him, he was there compelled to beg even the least things, who here, tenacity driving him, went so far as to deny the least things. What can be repaid more subtly, what more strictly? He begs a drop of water, who denied crumbs of bread. Want therefore seized him as it were like water. Not without reason is that want then compared to water, because he is tormented in the hell which, absorbing those received into its depths, is wont to be designated by the name of a pit. Whence also through the prophet, in the voice of the human race, it is said: 「My life is slipped down into the pit」 (Lamentations 3:53). But by the exultation of those delivered it is sung: 「O Lord my God, I have cried to thee, and thou hast healed me; O Lord, thou hast brought forth my soul from hell, thou hast saved me from them that go down into the pit」 (Psalm 30:2-3).

[Section 11.] 31. The whirlwind of divine judgement, at an hour he does not expect, and therefore by night, shall overwhelm him. — 「By night a tempest shall overwhelm him.」 What does he here call night, but the hidden time of sudden departure? And by the name of tempest he designates the whirlwind of judgement. Which the Psalmist also testifies, saying: 「God shall come manifestly, our God, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall burn before him, and a mighty tempest round about him」 (Psalm 50:3). Of which tempest Wisdom also, through Solomon, says: 「I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared, when sudden calamity shall rush in, and destruction shall press in like a tempest」 (Proverbs 1:26-27).

And because the very ignorance of the departure to come is called night, 「by night a tempest shall overwhelm him,」 that is, the whirlwind of divine judgement shall seize him while he is ignorant of it. Hence indeed it is that Truth through Himself says: 「If the householder knew at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken through. And be you also ready, because at what hour you think not the Son of man will come」 (Matthew 24:43-44). Hence also against the evil servant it is said: 「But if that evil servant shall say in his heart: My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to strike his fellow servants, and shall eat and drink with the drunken: the lord of that servant shall come in a day that he hopeth not, and at an hour that he knoweth not」 (Matthew 24:48-50). Hence Paul says to his disciples:

「But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. For all you are the children of light, and children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness」 (1 Thessalonians 5:4-5). Here it is said by God's voice to the proud rich man: 「Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee; and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?」 (Luke 12:20). He is said to render up his soul by night who, not foreseeing death, is dragged away in the darkness of his heart. He says therefore: 「By night a tempest shall overwhelm him.」 For because he will not do the good things which he sees, he is caught by the tempest of his own destruction which he does not see. Concerning whom it is still further subjoined: