約伯記註釋 第 1 章 第 18/19 段

He says, therefore, that the idolaters divide up the dragon.

And in another sense, 'Phoenicians' (a name akin to 'crimson') are rightly understood as those who sacrifice to idols, being as it were reddened by the blood on the altars; and they divide up the dragon—one, perhaps, sacrificing to Dagon, another to Bel, another to Astarte;

or again, one committing fornication, another being covetous, and yet another pursuing some other unlawful act;

or again, one being a false teacher, and another a false prophet;

and the various heresies have likewise divided up the dragon in diverse ways.

'And every floating vessel, gathered together, shall not be able to bear the skin of his tail.'

He said this as concerning the dragon.

He says, therefore, that all men, gathered together as one—those sailing upon this life which is called a sea—cannot endure even the slightest assault of his lowest and least powers.

But our Lord crushed the very heads of the dragon.

'And in the ships of fishermen, his head.'

The fishermen are the teachers presiding over the church, and the ships are the churches.

By his head he means pride.

He says that he will exalt himself in pride both against teachers and against churches, evidently stirring up persecutions against them.

The ships are our bodies, upon which, as upon ships, the soul has embarked; wherefore also the Law spoke in a riddle:

'Cursed is he who hangs upon a tree'—that is, he who has hung his hope upon the body, and clings only to bodily things.

The fishermen, therefore—the divine apostles—in imitation of their own Master, received the dragon's head, and they too crushed it, by the power of Christ readily accepting death for His sake.

'Will you lay a hand upon him, remembering the war that takes place in his body? Let it not happen again.'

Can you, then, constrain him and bind him fast by your own power, or so much as remember the war that is about to take place in his body? By 'his body' he means all the apostate powers, since he is their head.

This war the Lord waged and conquered through the trophy-bearing cross.

And 'let it not happen again' is said because the cross has occurred once for all, as also the sacred apostle said:

'For the death He died, He died to sin once for all.'

Would you not call him a prophet? Did you not see this war with the eyes of the mind? Are you not amazed at what has been said? 'Yes, indeed,' Job would surely say—which is why he had already said at the beginning:

He who is about to subdue the great sea monster.

'Are you not afraid, because it has been prepared for me?' And here again the word 'yes' must be supplied as understood.

For the reading is framed as a question.

You will no longer fear him, for he has been prepared for me, to be bound by me and to be made a mockery by my holy ones.

'For who is he that has withstood me? Or who will withstand me and endure?' Instead of [meaning]:

No one, because the power of God is unconquerable.

'If all that is under heaven is mine, I will not keep silence on his account.'

For since I am the creator and master of all things, I will not keep silence because of him who has plundered what is under heaven, but I will proceed against him and take vengeance upon him.

'And by a word of power he will show mercy to his equal.'

But I will employ against him the word of my power, so that all may pity the man who through apostasy has become equal to the devil, on account of the things which he himself will also suffer.

I will punish both the devil and the Antichrist who is set in motion by him.

'Who will uncover the surface of his garment?' Instead of [meaning]:

By 'the surface of his garment' he means the ever-changing mask which he puts on in turn as he plays his hypocritical part.

For being a wolf, he fashions for himself the face of a sheep, and being darkness, he appears as an angel of light.

'And who could enter into the folds of his breastplate?' His breastplate is folded up; it has nothing exposed, but everything is concealed.

'Who is able to enter into the thoughts of his heart, since they are covered over?' 'And who will open the gates of his face?' The gates of his face are shut, so that his thoughts remain unseen.

Who then will bring his coverings to light? Instead of [meaning]:

'Round about his teeth is fear.'

[These are] the evil words — the false prophets and false teachers, who bite with their whole mouth.

There is also another way in which he is terrifying to those who do not know him: by frightening and threatening things which he cannot in fact do unless God allows it.

For instance, in trying to terrify the ascetics in the deserts, he threatens to hand them over to demons and to send robbers against them for their destruction — things which he is powerless to carry into effect unless God allows it.

But it is not fitting for Christians to fear his clatter and his terrors.

'Fear the Lord your God, and besides him fear no other.'

'His inward parts are shields of bronze.'

His inward parts, that is, his reasonings.

All his reasonings, he says, are full of venom, and they are not in any way gentle, but insolent and hard.

'And his joints are like an emery stone, one glued fast to another.'

His whole body is a bond/joint.

For the vices, which are his joints, hang one upon the other.

For such also is the nature of the emery stone: one piece is glued fast to another.

The emery stone is also said to be exceedingly hard, close to the diamond, and to seize hold of iron; it is also extremely rough, so that it can even engrave glass.

The devil's vices are likewise capable of drawing even the steadfast to themselves.

Through these things he has also shown the insolence and roughness of the devil.

'And no breath/spirit shall pass through him.'

For no soul escapes him and his vices; indeed, even infants draw upon the sin handed down from the fathers.

But I have also heard someone interpret it in this way:

The fiery sword, he says, is he himself, and by his opposing work he holds back every soul, so that it may not enter into paradise.

'Shall not pass through,' then, does not mean that one does not enter — for it is by the Lord's grace that they enter, just as the thief also entered with him — but 'shall not pass through' means instead:

nothing escapes his notice, but he keeps watch over all and tries in every case to shut the entrance.

These things I heard as he related them, but I have as yet neither embraced nor rejected this interpretation.

'A man shall cleave to his brother; they are held together and shall not be torn apart.'

'For a brother helped by a brother is like a fortified city.'

Even if some, he says, are in such close agreement that they cannot be torn apart, he attacks these as well.

He says this of the demons who are at work producing them.

For just as man cleaves to man on account of their shared nature, and like is drawn to like, so also the demons hold fast to one another, even though they may oppose one another in their operations — for they have one single aim, the destruction of man, even when they seem to counsel opposite things, that is, one urging fornication and another pride; and the vices are glued one to another.

'In his sneezing a light shines forth.'

He delights, then, he says, in evils, and gleams brightly amid them.

Sneezing is a purging of the brain.

Since he too transforms himself into light, he also pretends to be capable of purifying.

For instance, sorcerers also have certain rites of purification, though they are themselves full of every folly and impurity.

And there are also certain men who are his nostrils, professing to purify, as do those who belong to the heresies.

They pretend to have words of light, yet they are wholly impure.

'And his eyes are like the appearance of the morning star.'

For they do not have the true light.

The eyes of the dragon are certain men who seem to be more knowing, as do those who belong to the heresies — not being morning stars themselves, nor having the light of day, but only the appearance of a morning star, deceitfully feigning to be this.

'Out of his mouth go forth burning torches.'

[These are] the blasphemies and the words of the impious and godless teachers.

'And fiery coals are hurled about.'

'Out of his nostrils goes forth smoke, as of a furnace burning with the fire of coals.'

Smoke is harmful to the eyes.

And folly and false speech darken the intelligible eyes of the soul.

One may also understand this of the foul odors of sacrifices and of the smoke of incense.

Since his inward parts are a furnace, his breath is not pure.

Let us, then, also take care to breathe in nothing of the dragon, lest we become for ourselves the procurers of fire.

'His soul is coals, and flame goes forth from his mouth.'

By 'his soul' he seems to mean his utmost pride.

And the boastful and contemptuous words that go forth from his mouth are nothing other than this,

than a flame that consumes those who make use of them.

'In his neck lodges strength.'

It 'lodges' because it does not cease, but he is always in a state of arrogance.

And the women who walk with haughty neck, who trail their tunics and go forth adorned, promiscuous women — these are his neck, possessing powers for deceit.

Before him runs destruction.

As it were a certain forerunner of his, destruction serves as his bodyguard.

For unless one first admits the corrupting pleasures and vices which run ahead of him,

one does not thereby house the devil within.

And the flesh of his body is compacted together.

The passions cling one to another.

And his body is the sinners and the demons who work sin, just as the Church is the body of the Lord.

For 'the one' — unity — does not exist with him.

For those who preside over his doctrines do not agree with one another, even if they seem to say similar things.

One may pour remedies upon him — he shall not be shaken.

For whatever treatments and affusions one might use on him, and whatever one might apply to him, he is unfeeling and incurable.

His heart has set hard like a stone, and stands firm like an anvil that cannot be forged.

His heart, it says, has been turned to stone and cannot be beaten out; it is not persuaded by reason, it is not bent, but is entirely hardened, insolent, and immovable.

When he turns, the four-footed beasts leaping upon the earth are struck with fear.

But whenever he turns against those who obey him — beast-like men, senseless like four-footed creatures, who mind earthly things — they tremble, terrified by him.

If spears meet him, they will do nothing at all to him — not a raised lance, nor a breastplate.

For he regards iron as chaff, and bronze as rotten wood.

A bronze bow shall not wound him; he regards the sling-stone as mere grass.

Hammers are reckoned by him as stubble.

If the saints strike him down through all their spiritual and warlike ways, he does not feel it, but remains again just the same.

For 'the stone-caster' is the sling.

He laughs at the quaking of the fire-bearer.

'The fire-bearer' is the God-loving life, as being fervent in spirit.

He says, then, that even if one shakes him by a life wholly pleasing to God, he none the less despises and mocks it.

His bed is sharp spikes.

For he rests upon painful and uneven things.

And all the gold of the sea is to him as countless clay.

'The gold is mine, and the silver is mine' — this one, speaking falsely, proclaims these things to be his own.

Wherefore also, lying, he said to the Savior:

'All these I will give you, if you fall down and worship me.'

He professes, then, to have gold as countless as clay.

And he seems to mean the gold of the sea.

'The world' is to be understood in this way, so as to mean that he falsely claims, as though clothed with all the gold of the world.

He makes the sea boil like a cauldron.

Since his soul is fire, he stirs up and disturbs this whole life, casting it forth like foam.

He regards the sea as an oil-flask, and the Tartarus of the abyss as a captive.

He reckoned the abyss as a place to walk.

Boasting vainly of these things, he thinks himself capable of them.

Indeed, he also appears, through Isaiah, to say:

'I will seize the whole world with my hand as a nest, and I will take it up like abandoned eggs.'

For since a very great power was given him by nature by the Lord who created him, he grew proud and began to speak in this way, even boasting arrogantly and saying:

'Above the stars of heaven I will set my throne; I will be like the Most High.'

For this reason he has indeed fallen from heaven:

'I was watching Satan,' says the Lord, 'fall like lightning from heaven.'

And he was cast out also from the earth when the Lord became man.

But he no longer had authority over the air either, since our Savior purified the air when he ascended the cross that guards the world.

Nor does he have authority over Hades, since our God and Savior loosed the prison-house of Hades.

Having therefore been driven out from all the places which the vain one hoped to hold, he has no place left, except the outer darkness prepared for him and his angels.

There is nothing on earth like him.

'On earth' — since he has been cast out of the vaults of heaven.

And 'like' either in strength, or in insolence, or in wickedness.

'Made to be mocked by my angels.'

But nevertheless, he says, one so great and so mighty is mocked by the holy angels and by those who have chosen the angelic life.

For he is wholly pride, considering nothing to be lowly.

And he is king of all that is in the waters.

That is, of those who pursue a fluid, dissolute, and pleasure-loving life.

Wherefore let us pray to our God and Father with tears, saying, that sin may not reign over us:

'Your kingdom come, your will be done,' so that, with God reigning within us, the tyrannical power may have no place.

These things, then, we have considered concerning these passages, guided by those of old.

But against those who say that the dragon described by the text is a perceptible sea-monster, we shall say this much:

If indeed such a sea-monster really exists, understand that from the likeness of wild beasts we often perceive both the devil himself and wicked men.

And concerning the demons the Savior said:

'Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.'

And sending word to Herod he said:

'Tell that fox' — hinting at the deceitful and thievish nature of his character — so that wild beasts bear a certain figure of the devil, just as also of wicked men.

So that whoever considers what has been said about the dragon according to the methods of allegory, and refers what is written to the devil, stands wholly firm and unshaken, whether or not there is such a perceptible beast; but your view is doubtful and mistaken, until it be shown whether there is such a beast or not.

And Job, answering, says to the Lord:

'I know that you can do all things, and nothing is impossible for you.'

Preliminary consideration of the chapter: We heard above Job saying:

Once I have spoken; but a second time I will not add [to it].

It is therefore worth inquiring how he who promised no longer to speak now speaks again.

But the solution lies close at hand:

for since, having promised to keep silence, he heard God saying:

'No, but gird your loins like a man' — he sets the divine command above his own promise and speaks again, so that it is better to obey the divine laws than to fulfill one's own promises, whenever the Master's will runs contrary to them.

Wherefore Herod also would have done well to set aside his own oaths and not to take off the head of the Forerunner;

yet in every way it is better not to make promises rashly.

Not to mention that the divine Job rightly promised not to speak, honoring the divine transcendence, and rightly speaks again once God had released him from his promise of silence.

The text: 'I know that you can do all things, and nothing is impossible for you.'

He does not say that he has learned this only now, but that he knows the invincible power of God, and that nothing is impossible for the almighty power of God.

'For who is he that hides counsel from you? Does he who spares his words think that he can hide it from you as well? But I know this too: that you enter into every counsel and know the thoughts of all, and there is no one who can escape your all-seeing eye.'

'And who will declare to me what I did not know, great and marvelous things that I did not understand?'

But what were the things that the righteous Job—who held opinions about God fitting to God—did not understand? He was ignorant, then, of the matter concerning himself, namely that the contest was a certain trial of virtue.

Do you suppose that he dealt with you for any reason other than that you might be shown to be righteous? He was ignorant of the devil's most audacious power, his unyielding obstinacy, his deceits, his stratagems, and all that [the narrative], in describing these things at length, has taught us—

'Have you not seen him?' he says. He learned this too.

He had been but dimly illumined concerning the dispensation of the Savior;

now he was taught this most clearly, and was assured of it through the divine utterance.

He learned, then, what he had not known, having received a fuller knowledge.

'Hear me, O Lord, that I also may speak;'

'and I will ask you, and you teach me.'

It is worth inquiring how it is that, having promised to ask a question, he asked God nothing at all, but ended his speech without either asking or receiving any answer.

It seems to me, then, that the passage before us has some such sense as this:

'Since, then,' he says, 'you have taught me what I did not know, hear me, O Lord; and if, wishing to learn something unknown, I should ask you, deign to teach me, so that I too may be able to speak, and become for others a teacher of the unknown, having received the knowledge from you.'

'I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye has seen you;'

'I have received,' he says, 'a fuller knowledge of you, by as much as the eyes exceed the hearing.'

Perhaps he also says this on account of the mystery of the incarnation of the Only-begotten;

for having formerly been only dimly assured of it, he has now received a more perfect knowledge concerning it.

'Therefore I have despised myself and melted away, and I consider myself earth and ashes.'

'I despised myself' for having supposed that I knew something; but now, having learned things beyond myself, I have perceived the paltriness and meanness of my own nature.

Observe, then, the holy men, how, when they are deemed worthy of greater things, they acquire all the more humility.

'And it came to pass, after the Lord had spoken all these words to Job, that God said to Eliphaz the Temanite:'

Summary of the chapter: God greatly honors his own servants;

seeing that even now, when Eliphaz and his companions had shown themselves worthy of punishment for having condemned the righteous man, God relaxed his threat and forgave the punishment, granting the forgiveness as a favor to the righteous man himself.

But if someone, moved by a love of learning, should say:

'Why did he strike Miriam with leprosy for speaking against Moses—even though he later restored her body, again out of honor for his own servant—while to Eliphaz and his companions he immediately granted forgiveness without scrutinizing them at all?' We answer that Miriam, through her reviling of Moses, also bore blasphemy against God, who had glorified the face of that hierophant, whereas the friends of Job, having undertaken to plead on God's behalf, sinned only against the righteous man alone, unjustly charging him with impiety.

But as for Aaron, why did he suffer nothing terrible? We say it is because God was honoring the priesthood.

We learn two things from this: that accusing the righteous is liable to sin, and that God, out of honor toward them, forgives the sins [of others].

The text: 'And it came to pass, after the Lord had spoken all these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite:'

Eliphaz seems to be more venerable than the others;

wherefore he is also the first to begin the dispute with Job, and now the Lord speaks to him first, even though these words apply to all three friends alike.

Observe that God spoke within the hearing of all, so that Job's virtue might become manifest to all through the divine testimony.

'You have sinned, you and your two friends;'

'for you have not spoken anything true before me, as my servant Job has.'

Note the precision of the divine utterance:

for as far as human judgment is concerned, the friends seemed to do well in pleading on God's behalf, while Job seemed not to do well in wishing to contend his case with God—indeed some, even to this day, stumble at his words, attending only to the bare wording of his phrases—but before the divine, incorruptible, and impartial judgment, the opposite proved to be the case.

'For before me as judge,' he says, 'you spoke nothing true, unjustly casting your verdicts against the righteous man, while my servant Job spoke everything with unadorned truth.'

For he did not suffer on account of sin, but that he might be shown to be righteous.

Who, then, can accuse the words which the Lord himself approved by his own judgment? And observe how he calls Job 'my own servant,' honoring the righteous man even in this appellation;

and he does this not only once, but many times.

'Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and he shall offer a burnt offering for you.'

Seven is, in Scripture, an honored and perfect number.

They are commanded, then, to offer perfect sacrifices, as men who had sinned greatly; and he commands Job himself to become the priest, and orders that the whole burnt offerings be brought up through him;

'for he is so righteous,' he says, 'that he can even intercede on behalf of others.'

Before the Law, the saints offered sacrifices by their own hands, just as Abel, Noah, and Abraham did.

'And Job my servant shall pray for you, for I will accept only him;'

'for had it not been for him, I would have destroyed you,'

'for you have not spoken the truth concerning my servant Job.'

Behold the surpassing honor which the Lord bestows upon the saints!

For he declares that speaking against the righteous is liable to death, and yet he forgives the death-bringing punishment out of honor toward them.

'So Eliphaz the Temanite went...'

Preview of the chapter: the prizes began to be given to the righteous man from the very moment God spoke to him;

for the very fact of being deemed worthy of divine conversation, teaching, and testimony was the first crown he received; now he receives a second prize: to pray on behalf of his friends, and to receive their forgiveness as the reward of his struggles.

The text: 'So Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did as the Lord had commanded them.'

He released their sin through Job.

'And the Lord magnified Job; and when he had prayed also for his friends, he forgave them their sin;'

'And the Lord gave Job double of all that he had before, to a twofold measure.'

Truly it is honor and distinction enough, to move God by prayer to the point of forgiving sin;

wherefore, before speaking of the doubling of his possessions, [Scripture] said:

'And the Lord magnified Job.'

And he who had been covered with sores, and poor, and cast aside, was now praying on behalf of those who were healthy, rich, and distinguished.

So even now, if we see a poor and sick man praying for others and his prayer going forward into effect, let us, marveling at the rich grace of God, not be vexed when we ourselves come into similar circumstances.

Perhaps the Lord's richly bestowing gift will also come upon us.

Observe here Job's freedom from remembering wrongs.

For he was the first to utter this wondrous saying:

'Lord, do not hold this sin against them' — the very words the protomartyr Stephen later uttered.

For what need is there even to speak of my Lord Jesus, seeing that, pleading on behalf of those who crucified him, he compassionately said:

'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'

And all his brothers and his sisters heard all that had happened to him, and they came to him.

Preliminary overview of the chapter: just as in the trial such abandonment came upon him that even his queenly wife had to serve as a hired laborer for wages, so now, when the divine grace has come upon him, everything thereafter prospers for the blessed Job: kinsmen and friends run together to him, bring him gifts, and feast with him.

And thereafter everything for him was filled with gladness of heart.

The words: 'And all his brothers and his sisters heard all that had happened to him, and they came to him, and all who had known him from before.'

Divine Scripture is accustomed to call all kinsmen 'brothers and sisters.'

A good report, running about concerning the grace of God and proclaiming abroad what had happened to him, called together to him all his acquaintances.

Now the phrase 'they heard all that had happened to him' does not mean that they had been ignorant of the calamity, but that each one was telling his neighbor everything — both the events of the trial and the divine visitation.

And the story concerning Job proved to be both pleasant and profitable for all.

And having eaten and drunk with him, they comforted him and marveled at all that the Lord had brought upon him.

And each of them gave him one ewe-lamb and an unstamped gold tetradrachm.

Again, Job, who bears no grudge and is full of love, gladly receives those who come to him, and does not shake off what they bring, nor does he suffer what many suffer, nor does he say to those approaching him:

'Since during my illness you did not visit me nor come to my aid, neither now do I accept you, nor do I have need of what is yours.'

But rather he gladly received those who had gathered, as though he had suffered nothing at their hands, and he feasted together with them and considered the matter a comfort.

For since they were running together on account of God's grace, he did not shake off the divine gift, but gladly embraced them all — just as the great Abraham, his ancestor, also accepted Pharaoh's gifts, regarding the matter as a divine gift.

And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than the former.

Preliminary overview of the chapter: from this point he enumerates the doubling of his possessions, and says that bodily goods are a divine blessing.

For to the men of old, both the begetting of children and the increase of possessions were promised as a portion of blessings, just as, conversely, their opposites were reckoned to them as a curse.

Since, then, though existing before the law, he conducted his life both according to the law and according to the gospel alike, he received the blessings that are according to the law, while there is also laid up for him what has been promised to the saints in the age to come — things beyond speech and beyond our understanding.

But we, having found the book written thus in all the Greek copies, accept all that is recorded in it just as we have received it from the fathers.

The words: 'And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than the former.'

His first possessions were not given to Job as prizes of virtue, but that he might be trained through them, and his wealth was for him the material of his contests.

But since he contended well and became a teacher to all of how one ought to use wealth, and then, having been deprived of his possessions, contended lawfully in the arena of poverty, the great judge of the contest gives him, as prizes of virtue, the doubling of his possessions.

And his livestock were fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand grazing female donkeys.

And there were born to him seven sons and three daughters.

Now the irrational animals, since they had perished, were given back doubled.

But since the children who had died did not perish, but live to God, these were given equal in number to the former ones, so that he might receive back double the number of children of the former, the earlier ones living on while the second ones were added afterward.

And he called the first one Day.

I think that the blessed Job gave these names to his daughters as a token of the blessings given to him from God.