約伯記註釋 第 1 章 第 7/19 段

And I will put my life in my hand, even if the Mighty One should seize me, since indeed he has already begun.

I put my own life as a pledge, being ready to endure the penalty for my words;

even if God, who has begun to torment me, should wish to destroy me, I am ready to suffer all that seems good to him.

If I do not speak the truth, I am ready to endure whatever seems good to God.

Yet surely I will speak and plead my case before him; and this will turn out for me unto salvation:

for deceit shall not enter into his presence.

Do you see how he trusts in the truth and in the righteous judgment of God? 'I know,' he says, 'that speaking the truth before God and convicting you of lying will turn out for my salvation.'

Hear, hear my words;

for I will declare it while you are listening.

Behold, I am near my judgment; I know that I shall be shown to be righteous.

It is said, 'The Lord is near to those who call upon him,' instead of meaning:

God is well disposed toward them.

'Listen, therefore,' he says, 'to what I am about to say:'

for I shall have a favorable tribunal, speaking what is righteous and true before God, and trusting in his truth I believe I shall be shown to speak more justly than you.

'I am near my judgment,' instead of meaning:

I am ready to suffer whatever God should judge.

Trusting in his truth, I hope to be seen as righteous.

'For who is he who will contend with me, that I should now be silent and expire?' 'For which of you,' he says, 'being on trial, should I fear, that I should keep silent?' And 'expire' instead of meaning:

for by keeping silent I make myself liable to judgment and without defense, as though my arguments in my own justification had run out.

Then I will not hide from your face; withhold your hand from me, and let not your fear terrify me.

and to be relieved of torments, and to speak without fear:

Then you shall call, and I will listen to you;

or you shall speak, and I will give you an answer.

'If,' he says, 'I know that you are favorably disposed toward me, then, when questioned, I will also come to make my defense.'

How many are my sins and my transgressions? Teach me, what they are.

'Why do you hide yourself from me, and consider me an adversary?' 'I desire,' he says, 'to learn the cause of these punishments, and for what offenses I am paying the penalty and enduring these things.'

'Why, Master, do you hide yourself from me? Why do you treat as an enemy one weaker than a leaf?' Wherefore he also adds:

Or will you dread me as a leaf shaken by the wind, or will you oppose me as chaff carried by a breath? For you have written down evils against me, and have surrounded me with the sins of my youth; you have put my foot in restraint, and you have watched over all my deeds, and you have come even to the roots of my feet, which grow old like a wineskin, or like a garment eaten by moths.

For man, born of woman, is of few days and full of trouble; he blossoms like a flower and falls away, and flees like a shadow, and does not remain standing.

'Have you not also taken account of this one, and made him come before you in judgment?' He puts forward the lowliness of human nature as a plea for mercy, likening man to a leaf, and to grass blown about here and there, and to a wineskin growing old, and to a garment consumed by moths, and to a flower quickly withering, and to a shadow that passes by.

'Such a one as this, then,' he says, 'O Master, you subject to exacting scrutiny, and you examine his affairs minutely.'

And 'you have written down evils against me' instead of meaning:

You have noted down everything, whatever I have sinned from my youth.

And 'you have put my foot in restraint,' so as to say:

You have carefully guarded my every step, as those who bind the condemned in the stocks.

For Aquila has rendered it thus:

'And you have put my foot in the stocks.'

And 'you have come to the roots of my feet,' that is:

You have watched even the minutest details of my walk.

And 'full of trouble' Aquila has rendered 'full of agitation,' meaning that man is both short-lived and his life is full of turmoil.

He said these things both asking pardon, if he had indeed sinned in anything, and seeking mercy on account of the lowliness of human nature.

For who shall be clean of defilement? Not a single one, even if his life on earth is but a single day.

His months are numbered by you; you have appointed a time, and he shall not exceed it.

Withdraw from him, that he may rest and take pleasure in his life, like the hired laborer.

'What need is there,' he says, 'to speak at length about man, when human birth itself does not occur without defilement and sin?' He says this as a prophet, because of the transgression in Adam:

For as the wise apostle said:

'Through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners.'

'And besides,' he says, 'man is also short-lived in another respect, having received from God a measure for his life, which it is altogether impossible for him to exceed.'

Come therefore, O Master, to compassion for one so lowly, sinful from birth and short-lived;

and withdraw your scrutiny from him, that he may breathe again like a hired laborer, finding a little rest after his many labors.

For if it is cut down, it will still sprout again, and its shoot shall not fail.

For even if its root grows old in the earth, and its stock dies in the rock, at the scent of water it will blossom, and will produce a harvest like a newly planted tree.

But a man who has died is gone, and a mortal who has fallen exists no more.

But, he says, man is even more worthless than plants.

For those, even after being cut, can bloom again and put forth shoots when they receive a watering of water, and produce a harvest — that is to say:

but man, once dead, cannot return again to life.

For in time the sea grows scant, and a river, left desolate, dries up.

but man, having fallen asleep, will not rise again, until the heaven is no longer sewn together, and they will not be awakened from their sleep.

'In time the sea grows scant' — Symmachus renders:

'As waters flow away, it has drained out from the sea.'

and just as a river that has dried up, so a man who has died becomes invisible.

And the phrase 'until the heaven is no longer sewn together' means this:

'until the heaven' — place a pause there, so that it may say:

as long as the world stands, the man who has died shall not be sewn together — that is:

By 'sewing together' he means the coherent joining of the connections of the limbs.

He said this so that no one might suppose the resurrection occurs from time to time, but rather once, at the consummation of the ages.

And note that he clearly taught the mystery of the resurrection here.

And this much concerns the literal sense.

But according to allegory, there is hope for the tree — that is:

For even if one falls into transgression, yet if he repents and comes to be in the land of piety and on the rock, that is, in the pious faith, he will sprout up again — either from the water of regeneration, or also from the tear of repentance.

But he who dies in error and in sin has no good hope.

And in time sin — figuratively called 'the sea' — is done away with, and the devil and his temptations dry up; but those who have died are not utterly destroyed, but await the resurrection.

For would that you had kept me in Hades, and hidden me, until your wrath should cease;

and appointed me a set time, in which you would remember me.

For if a man dies, he will live, having completed the days of his life.

Theodotion, instead of 'he will live':

said, 'Shall he not live?'

Would that, he says, you had kept me in Hades during this time in which you are angry with me — for the custody there is blameless — and had not forgotten me utterly, but appointed for me a time of that custody there.

And he has given the reason for longing for death:

For, he says, being kept there without torments, I await the resurrection.

For, he says, if a man dies having completed the days of this life, he does not pass into non-existence, but lives in his soul, awaiting the resurrection.

'If a man dies, he will not live' — he says this, meaning that he is freed from torments.

I will endure, until I come to be again.

Then you will call me, and I will obey you.

For, he says, if I am kept in Hades, I expect the regeneration and resurrection, when you shall command the dead to rise, and I shall obey you.

This signifies the swiftness of nature with respect to the resurrection.

For at a command, at the voice of an archangel, with no one resisting, the resurrection takes place in the twinkling of an eye, as the sacred apostle also taught us.

Having prophetically proclaimed these things, the blessed Job again turns to supplication, and says:

Do not reject the works of your hands; you have numbered my ways, and not one of my sins shall escape you.

You have sealed up my transgressions in a bag, and you have noted if I have unwittingly transgressed in anything.

Again he supplicates God as his Maker, and says:

Master, do not make me, your creation, cast away; nor number and trace out our affairs so minutely, shutting them all up as it were in a bag, so that not one of our sins might, as it were, be lost, but that penalties should be exacted for all of them.

But why, Master, do you thus mark and, as it were, record even our involuntary sins? He says this while entreating God not to examine our affairs too exactly, but at the same time teaching us that nothing of our doings — whether we act deliberately or involuntarily — escapes the unerring perception of God.

And that we shall also give account for our involuntary sins, you have heard also the word of Ecclesiastes, saying near its end, that:

God will bring every deed into judgment, with everything overlooked, whether good or evil.

And moreover, a falling mountain shall assuredly fall, and a rock shall grow old and be removed from its place.

Waters have worn away stones, and waters have overflowed the heaped-up dust of the earth; and you have destroyed the endurance of man.

The wise Job speaks in riddles, since he himself, being wise, also understood many of the things spoken by his friends through riddles, his mind never being distracted from its purpose by his pains, but philosophizing in the very midst of his sufferings.

[God intends] to prolong his misfortunes greatly for him, lest perhaps some faltering come upon him and he grow utterly weak.

For, he says, if even a mountain and a rock grow old with time and fall, and the constant flow of waters wears smooth even the hardest stones, and the surge of waters overwhelms and lays flat the heaped-up mounds of earth, there is fear that, through the continuity of my trials and the length of time, I too might suffer something unwished-for, and give up in the face of my misfortunes.

And the phrase 'you have destroyed the endurance of man' signifies this: that apart from help from above, man is nothing, and cannot endure the snowstorms of trials.

You have thrust him utterly away, and he is gone; you have set your face against him and sent him off.

Again he laments concerning the nothingness of man before God.

For as with wind and dust, or something of the lightest things, if, he says, you only push him or set your face against him threateningly, he is at once sent off and gone — that is:

Though his sons became many, he did not know it; and if they became few, he is not aware — but rather his flesh was in pain, and his soul mourned.

But what benefit, he says, is there for a man who has lived in pains and in mourning of soul, from those who will come after him? For whether his offspring be extended to a multitude, or reduced to a few, he himself, having died once, is unaware.

And again he gently teaches us not to regard having good children and many children as something great.

For to one who is going to die once and for all, these things are of no benefit.

And he put forward the brevity of life as a plea for exemption and as a supplication.

And Eliphaz the Temanite, taking up the discourse, says:

'Will a wise man give answer with a breath of understanding, and fill up the pain of his belly?' A preliminary consideration of the chapter, since Job had prefaced and said:

'Are you the only men, or will wisdom die with you? I too have a heart/understanding like you' — Eliphaz, at once taking his stand on this point, says to Job that:

A wise man never ostentatiously displays his own wisdom, which is exactly what you have done, although you have said nothing necessary; so that from your own words you are shown to be both unwise and without fear of God.

Have you come into being before all men, or even before creation itself, or have you become an initiate of the wisdom of God, that you attribute such things to yourself? And how did you even dare to say:

'I am blameless and shall be shown righteous' — whereas neither the angels nor heaven, much less unclean man, can be pure in comparison with the purity of God? Learn, then, this ancient and true word, that punishments have been brought upon men on account of sin.

Then he also relates the things that likewise happen to the impious:

And the statement is indeed true, that afflictions come on account of sin;

however, they are not brought on entirely as retribution, but sometimes also for training, so that the righteous may be tested; so that Eliphaz, having said these things without the proper distinction, again wounded Job by classing him with those who are punished on account of sin.

Observe how they carried on their discourses in orderly fashion, and while one was speaking, the others were silent, yielding the turns of speech to one another, and not ostentatiously interjecting their own words in the middle, but each one waited until the speaker had finished.

It is fitting, therefore, that we too, following this example, should wait for the end of a discourse when someone is speaking, and not, out of a desire to show off, interrupt what is being said, nor put forward our own words with ostentation, but in orderly and disciplined fashion — just as the blessed Job and his friends also carried on their discussions without confusion.

This is also what the most wise Paul commanded those who prophesy in the church to do:

'But if,' he says, 'a revelation is made to another sitting by, let the first be silent.'

For you are all able, one by one, to prophesy, so that all may learn, at the same time both imposing order on those who prophesy and preserving what is said from confusion.

For, he says, the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets, so that the utterance of these words must also be made without vainglory.

For this reason, then, Eliphaz again answers Job.

For he himself was the first to stand against Job, then Baldad, and after him Sophar; according, then, to the proper succession of speeches, he again rises to reply to what has been said, and says:

The words: Will a wise man give an answer according to a spirit of understanding, and has he filled his belly's pain, reproving with words that ought not be spoken, with speeches that are of no profit?

By 'spirit of understanding' he means the knowledge belonging to the spirit.

This, then, he says reprovingly to Job, namely:

The perfect wise man never brings forth the knowledge of the spirit for display, nor even as a zealot for the truth, as though struck in the belly by what is true, does he bring forth unprofitable words.

For this the wise man does not do, which you have done.

He accuses Job, then, of two things: first, that above all the wise man does not bring forth wisdom for display, and second, that:

what you spoke, as though reproving us and as though forsooth suffering for the sake of the truth — for this is what 'he has filled his belly's pain' signifies — you uttered in vain and without profit. But it is also possible to understand it thus:

When, he says, O Job, does a wise man answer in such a way as to fill the souls of others with pain? — for by 'belly' he means the soul, as that which distributes the nourishment that comes from reason — and this by means of words that have no benefit at all? He says this so as to mean:

You have struck us by speaking in this manner and by bringing forth vain words, which a wise man does not do.

Have you not, too, cast off fear, and uttered such words before the Lord? You have dared, he says, and spoken fearlessly to God, wishing to be judged by him.

Now Eliphaz and his companions say these things in the manner of piety, as though they were avengers on God's behalf.

You are guilty by the words of your own mouth, neither have you discerned the words of the mighty.

Your own mouth shall convict you, and not I; and your own lips shall testify against you.

By 'the mighty' he means the wise, either those older than he who lived before him, or also the friends who have already spoken.

Not having understood, then, he says, nor discerned the words of those mighty in wisdom, you have spoken in such a way that you stand condemned not by anything else, but by your own words.

What then? Were you born first of men, or were you formed before the hills? Or have you heard the ordinance of the Lord, and has wisdom come to you alone? For what do you know that we do not know, or what do you understand that we do not also? Were you, he says, before all things and before creation itself, or did God take counsel with you? — instead of saying:

he took counsel — or have you become an initiate of his wisdom? And what more do you understand than we do? Both an elder and an aged man is among us, older in days than your father.

But why do you say, he asks, that time has made you wiser? Why, there is one of us three who happens to be older not only than you, but even than your father.

Let us grant, he says, that you are both aged and older than your own father — which is impossible — is it then fitting that you should greatly boast because of your age? You have been scourged but little for the sins you have committed:

You have spoken greatly and to excess.

Know, then, that in comparison with your sins you have been punished lightly.

Then, since he has nothing to point to as a sin of Job, he tries to judge him from his own words, and says:

What has your heart dared, that your eyes have looked so boldly, that you have burst out in wrath before the Lord, and brought forth from your mouth such words? By 'eyes' he means the intellective and perceptive faculty of the soul.

How then, he says, did you dare in your mind to be so lifted up, and with wrath, as though suffering unjustly, to argue with God, as if you were some sinless person? For what mortal will be blameless, or what one born of woman will be righteous, since he does not even trust the holy ones, and heaven is not pure before him? How much more, then, is the abominable and unclean man, who drinks unrighteousness as though it were a drink!

For who, he says, being a man, can be blameless, or declare that:

'I shall be righteous'? For if the exceedingly holy ones — whether angels or men — and even the purity of heaven itself, are unclean in comparison with the purity of God, what should we say concerning the abominable and unclean man, who drinks up iniquities as though they were a drink? He said this because men sin by their own choice.

As for the phrase 'he does not trust even the holy ones,' it is also possible to understand it thus, namely that:

it refers to their nature, since even some of them slipped from their own proper standing; and 'heaven is not pure' is said because:

it too is often covered over by clouds.

I will declare it to you; but do you listen to me:

what indeed I have seen I will declare to you, what the wise will say, and did not hide from their fathers.

Hear, then, a wise word, which the elders received, child from father.

And experience, too, has assured me that this is true.

And to them alone was the land given, and no foreigner came upon them.

Those, he says, who handed down to us this wise word were so pious that they inhabited their own land without disturbance, no enemy having come upon them.

What, then, is this ancient word? He adds:

The whole life of the ungodly man is spent in anxiety, and numbered years are given to the tyrant, and his fear is in his ears.

And when he already seems to be at peace, his overthrow will come.

The ungodly man, he says, is always troubled, always in anxiety; his dominion is transient; he is full of dread, always having fear dwelling within him.

And unexpected ruin will come upon him, out of his seeming prosperity.

Let him not believe that he will turn back from darkness:

for he has already been consigned into the hands of the sword, and appointed as food for vultures; and he knows within himself that he awaits his own fall:

a dark day shall whirl him about, and distress and affliction shall hold him fast.

By 'darkness' he means punishment.

Let him not believe, then, he says, that the ungodly man remains unpunished:

for it is a divine decree that he be slain by the sword and devoured by vultures, lying unburied.

He said this, wishing to indicate something as likely to happen, namely that the ungodly will assuredly come under punishment.

But he himself, he says, is also inwardly conscious of the fall that is about to come upon him, and that he is about to be under darkness and turmoil and affliction and distress.

like a general falling in the front rank, because he has raised his hands against the Lord:

for he has stiffened his neck against the Lord Almighty, and ran against him insolently, with the thick boss of his shield.

The ungodly man, he says, as one lifting up his hands against God and raising his neck against him, and as though running to engage him in battle array, bearing his pride as a kind of thick shield, is cast down and falls, like some commander of an army wounded by God as by an adversary.

because he has covered his face with his fat, and made rolls of flesh upon his thighs.

The well-fed, through excessive luxury, grow fat in the face with fatness, and produce folds and excess flesh upon their thighs, which indeed he calls a 'periston' [encircling roll], as things that bind the thighs about.

Just as, then, he says, such people become like this, so too the ungodly man, flooded on every side by prosperity and trusting in fleshly power, is lifted up to resistance against God and wars against his ordinances:

Wherefore, as one who fights against God, he is cast down by him.

And may he lodge in desolate cities, and enter into uninhabited houses.

and what he has prepared, others shall carry off:

neither shall he be enriched, nor shall his possessions remain.

He speaks of the complete desolation of the ungodly, meaning that instead of flourishing cities and houses, they dwell in desolation on account of poverty.

For the possessions of such a one, he says, will surely not remain.

He shall not cast a shadow upon the earth, nor shall he escape the darkness:

the wind withers his shoot, and may his flower fall off.

Let him not believe that he will endure.

for what he has cut for himself will turn out empty for him:

he will perish before his time, and his branch shall not grow thick.

And may he be picked off like an unripe grape before its season, and may he fall off like the blossom of an olive tree.

Metaphorically, as in the case of a flourishing tree that is cut down before it grows old and withers while still in bloom, so he has described the impious man as not prospering to the end.

But the phrase 'he shall not cast a shadow upon the earth' is used instead of:

for trees, as long as they stand, also make shade, but once cut down, no longer do so.

'But the impious man,' he says, 'shall wither like the shoot of a plant before the wind, and his prosperity shall fall away like a flower.'

And 'his cutting off shall perish before its season' means, he says, that he shall die at an untimely age.

And 'his branch shall not grow thick with leaves' is used instead of:

for 'to grow thick with leaves' means to overshadow with branches.

Then, continuing the metaphor, he again described the untimely death by means of the unripe grape, and the loss of good things by the shedding of the olive blossom.

for the death of the impious man is a testimony.

'For their death,' he says, 'is a proof of men's impiety,' meaning:

the shameful end will reveal what pertains to them.

and fire shall burn up the houses of those who take bribes.

By 'fire,' he means the divine wrath utterly consuming, house and all, those who are insatiable and covetous and who betray justice for the sake of gifts.

'And he shall conceive pains in his belly, and it shall turn out empty for him, and his belly shall bring forth deceit.'

By 'pains,' he means those he plots against others, as if to say:

the impious man, having deceit within himself, plots how he shall cause pain to others.

For this reason his outcome and his end shall be empty and vain.

And something similar to this is also said in the Psalms:

'Behold, he has travailed with unrighteousness, he has conceived trouble, and brought forth iniquity.'

'He shall bring forth deceit' is said because he receives evils by deliberate choice.

By 'belly' he means the whole interior region, that is, the soul itself.

'I have heard many such things; you are all comforters who bring evil.'

Preview of the chapter. Eliphaz having said that punishments come upon the impious, Job immediately responds to this and says:

He blames his friends for not knowing how to bring forward words of comfort, and he perceives that he has been handed over by God to the devil, but he does not know the reason.

Then he also recounts the terrible things surrounding him, and asks that his case not be passed over in silence, and he makes God the witness of his own conscience, and he longs for death, and again he narrates his misfortunes, concluding his speech with lamentation.

The verses: 'I have heard many such things; you are all comforters who bring evil.'

'Such things as you say, I have heard many times — that punishments await the impious;

but you are evil comforters, who by your words aggravate my sufferings.'

'What then? Is there some order to words of wind, or what will it trouble you that you answer? I too will speak as you do.'

Is there some law that one must answer back to everything that is said, or by what compulsion are you driven always to contradict what comes from me? Yet since you have so judged, and since he who wishes speaks as he wishes, I too will speak as you do.

'If indeed your soul were subject to suffering in place of mine, then I would leap upon you with words, and I would shake my head against you.'

'If,' he says, 'your soul were subject to my sufferings, and I leapt upon you and shook my head against you as though rejoicing over your evils, then I would come to know your endurance, and then you would learn not to philosophize amid misfortunes that belong to others.'

For these things, being expressed elliptically, must be understood with something further supplied.

Or read it also with expressive feeling:

'If you were in my evils, would I indeed leap upon you with words, or shake my head against you? By no means — rather, I would have strengthened you with words of comfort.'

In agreement with this sense, another of the interpreters has rendered it thus:

'If you were subject to my sufferings, I would have approached you with other words, and I would have shaken my head over you, and I would have strengthened you through my mouth.'

'And may there be strength in my mouth, and I will not spare the movement of my lips.'

'For if I speak, shall I not feel pain from the wound? And if I keep silent, how much the less shall I be wounded?' 'May it be granted to me,' he says, 'to use strong speech and an unveiled tongue toward you.'

Then read it as a question:

'For if I speak, shall I not feel pain from the wound?' meaning:

'And if I keep silent, how much the less shall I be wounded?' What he means is this:

'Even though whether I speak or keep silent I am bound to feel pain either way, it is better to speak, lest by my silence I should seem to give assent to your accusation.'

'But now he has made me utterly worn out, foolish, and rotten.'

'I, then,' he says, 'pray to receive strength of words;'

'but the punishment has flayed me and cut me down and rotted me, so that I seem nearly to have departed even from my natural senses.'

'You have laid hold of me; I have become a testimony.'

Other copies read as follows:

'And he laid hold of me; it became a testimony.'

According to the reading 'you have laid hold of me,' he speaks as though addressing God, saying:

'As though you were some mighty man, you have laid hold of me, small and weak as I am, and as soon as you touched me I became an example to all, as one being punished for sin.'

But according to the reading 'he laid hold of me,' he is speaking to his friends about God.

And 'it became a testimony' is used instead of:

'God has set himself against me for a reproof.'

'And my lie has risen up within me; it has answered against me to my face.'

'While I was suffering these things,' he says, 'those who bear false witness against me found an occasion, so as even to answer back to my face without shame and say that I suffer on account of sin.'

'Some hidden sin, then,' he says, 'seems to be coming to light and reproving me to my face.'

What follows can indeed also be understood as referring to God:

but since the saint is fully assured that he has been handed over by God to the devil and suffers these things at his hands, they must therefore be understood in both ways accordingly.

'In wrath he cast me down; he gnashed his teeth at me.'

If he speaks of God, he signifies the vehemence of the wrath, namely:

'He has dealt with me as those who grind their teeth in fury.'