II. ONE BOOK OF ANNOTATIONS ON JOB. "And his works were great upon the earth": because he was occupied with these works themselves. "They made a feast daily": until their number was fulfilled; it is a sign of love. "And he offered sacrifices for them according to their number": it is to be understood that some are particular confessions, as it were single victims, and another is the sacrifice for all and for all sins, which signifies the Lord. "Lest perchance my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." It is well added "perchance," because he suspected that they had cursed in their heart. "And behold, the angels of God came to stand before God":
the disposition of the soul toward the truth could not otherwise be narrated, unless it were spoken of in some way temporally and locally. "And the devil indeed came with them": is it said "with them" because he could only hear by means of them? "And the Lord said to the devil: Whence comest thou?" The comparison of past action with that from which something is thenceforth permitted to be done is a response to the question; but the question itself is the divine power, in which it is not permitted to do what one pleases—for "in the thoughts of the ungodly there shall be questioning"—for the purpose of making him manifest to us. "But put forth Your hand and touch all that he has": grant the power. "Unless he bless You to Your face": a suspended utterance, that is:
if he does not bless You to Your face when his goods have been touched—as though it were understood: what do You command? "And the devil departed from the face of the Lord": from consultation to action. "And enemies came and took them." According to that saying: "he who now works in the children of unbelief" also stirred up these. It is to be noted, however, how he had power over men and over the elements, yet a power given by God. "Naked I came out of my mother's womb": it is to be noted how consolingly he speaks, although according to custom he made mourning. "Behold, I deliver him to you: only preserve his soul": lest he presume that he could snatch away his life. "And he took for himself a potsherd, to scrape off the matter": through the Lord's passion he signifies the scraping away of the sins of those who confess. "And the night in which they said:"
a man is conceived: some higher powers which were able to know this. "Let that night be darkness": let it not suffer the things which it has suffered, that is, let it be darkness, that is, let it be given over to oblivion. "Nor let the Lord seek it from above": let it not be restored through immortality, that is, let mortality perish. "Nor let light come into it": the light of memory. "But let darkness and the shadow of death seize it": this life which is the shadow of the future punishment, so that the sense is: let the just man, who is light, not see it, but let darkness see it—that is, sinners and carnal tribulations belonging to this life. "And let it be troubled as with the bitternesses of the day": the precepts of the good life, or the day of judgment, by which carnal men are disturbed. "And let perpetual darkness seize that night."
"Let it not be in the days of the year": of the just spiritual ones who enjoy the sun and are greater. "But let that night be sorrow": because it causes sorrow to those who love it. "Nor let it be numbered in the days of the months": the just in the Church, on account of the moon as it were the lesser, to whom it is said: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual ones," so that Paul himself belongs to the days of the year. "But let him that curses the day curse that night": the Lord, who will curse those who love carnal things. "Let the stars of that night grow dark": those eminent in sins. "Let it remain and not come into the light": because they will not be converted, he says by way of prophecy. "Because it did not close the doors of my mother's womb": the earthly city, which Babylon signifies;
for the doors would be closed, if the sinner were not praised in the desires of his soul. "For why did I not die in the womb?" before I rose up to You by any action; for conception belongs to hope. "I came out of the womb and did not perish at once?" The figure of this man, then, is to be understood in these words—of one who had grown old in such concupiscences. "And why did the knees support me?" that I might there be confirmed. "Why did I suck the breasts?" the teachings that nourish unto wickedness. "For now indeed sleeping I should be at rest": by dying to this world. "With the honored kings of the earth": in the Church. "Who gloried in swords": whence is: "and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." "Or with princes, who had much gold": wisdom.
"Who filled their houses with silver": with the eloquence of the Lord. "Or like an abortion slipping out of the mother's vulva": that it might never rise to eminence. "Or like infants who did not see the light": they did not attain to any nobility. "There the ungodly laid aside their fury": in death, away from this world. "There they rested, wearied in body": either wearied in body, not in mind, or having attained the end of bodily things. "They did not hear the voice of the exactor": "the judge will deliver you to the exactor"—thence it is; that is: that their sins were forgiven them; for he was speaking of the ungodly. "The small and the great are there": I think it is well understood, said of one, according to that saying that "he who humbles himself shall be exalted." "And the servant not fearing his lord": either according to that: "would you not fear the power?"
do good—or according to that: "perfect love casts out fear." "For why is light given to those who are in bitterness?" the honor of sinners. "And life to the souls that are in sorrows?" in the matter of sorrows, that is: in sins. "Who desire death and it does not come to them?" the obtaining of the fruit of sin. "Death is rest to the man whose way is hidden": either because before God, or because known to few. But this is to be received of that death now, by which we die to the world; for in that other death there is no rest. "For God has shut him in": by not giving him over to the desires of his heart. "For before my meals my groaning comes": that before the joy of God's foods, tribulations should go before. "And I weep, constrained by fear":
seeing that I cannot avoid the things I feared. "For the fear which I dreaded has come upon me": the adversities which come from the mercy of God for correction. "Neither in peace nor in silence nor in rest": for the things on account of which he was afraid were false. "For wrath has come upon me": the vengeance according to which the just man is scarcely saved. The words of Eliphaz: "But who will endure the weight of your words?" Here, then, he says that he is compelled to speak, because he cannot endure his sayings. "Is not your fear foolish?" for you ought to have been prepared for these things, if you were truly persuading others. "Nor did you fear such things well, when you said: the fear which I dreaded has come upon me." "And your hope and the simplicity of your life": as it were a folly, by which these things are thought to be good.
"The roaring of the lion and the voice of the lioness": the devil himself and the city of pride, which is often by the prophets set forth even in the manner of a beast. "And the joy of the dragons has been extinguished": of the proud and the treacherous. "The myrmicoleon perishes because it had no food": because at the last there will not be those whom by enticing it may devour; for the godly will be separated from the ungodly. But here he errs, in that the things which he had heard prophesied of the devil he understood of Job.
The myrmicoleon (ant-lion), however, is to be taken either because both are in it, since it both seizes and secretly persecutes the grain, which it causes not to germinate by removing the eye; or because it lords it over the greedy and those who lay up treasure on earth; or because it persecutes the just as ants that prepare for themselves food in summer for winter, on which it will not feed, when the good have been separated from the ungodly. "And the whelps of the lions have been divided from one another": the conspiracy of the princes of that city has been scattered, those born of that society—the city and the devil—or because they laid waste one another. Thence is: "nation shall rise against nation." "None of these things would have happened to you": either those losses and bereavement and the stroke of the wound;
or grief of mind would not pierce you, because you too would console yourself, if you had spoken to others from the heart: "does not my ear receive magnificent things from him?" because he says that the things he speaks he speaks from revelation. "And a spirit met me in the face": as though he wishes it to be understood that he felt a breath; for he denies in what follows that there was any figure. It is to be remembered that the Spirit likewise descended upon the apostles. "What then? Shall a man be clean before the Lord?" Either he says that he heard these things, or he says that he shuddered for this reason, that no one is clean before the Lord. Or he so saw for this reason, that no one is so clean before God as to see God as He is.
Now "clean" is to be taken according to perfection, so that what he above denies—that a clean man perishes—we may understand in a certain manner. "If He does not trust against His own servants." This happens when Elijah said: "Lord, they have killed Your prophets," and He says to him: "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men." For those seven thousand men were not on that account already clean. For the prophets too are called angels. "And against His angels He has found something perverse": either what is said against them, or what they themselves say. Yet this can also be received of the true angels. "But those dwelling in houses of clay": whose conversation is not in the heavens. "He struck them as a moth." Either some corruption struck them as a moth, or God struck them:
either by this moth or as a moth strikes, that is: secretly from within by a corruption arising from themselves through carnal concupiscences, that is, by dwelling in houses of clay. "And from morning to evening they are no more": either they are no more beyond this age, or from prosperous things even to tribulation; for they have incurred punishment. "And because they could not help themselves, they perished": while they have hope in themselves. "They died, because they had no wisdom": namely, of not hoping in themselves. "But call, if anyone will answer you": for those are answered who are clean before God. "For indeed wrath slays the foolish":
the indignation by which anyone is vexed, as though something had unjustly befallen him, while he does not consider that he is so unclean before God that the angels have not deigned to answer one calling or to show themselves. For he who does not consider this is foolish and is slain by an irrational wrath. Or for this reason the foolish man cannot hear or see the angels, because he is slain by wrath and killed by zeal. "And zeal slays the one who errs": unto the imitation of sinners. "But I have seen the foolish casting forth a root": the foolish are now to be taken as the ungodly, so that on the contrary the wisdom of man is piety, as it is said in what follows. "And let them be crushed at the gates of the weak": of the humble, when they have been received into the chamber by the bridegroom and the foolish have remained outside.
"For the things which they gathered, the just shall eat": it can be understood both of the Jews who gathered the prophecies, which rather the Gentiles ate, and of those who, while doing, eat the things which others command and do not do. "But they themselves shall not be delivered from evils": although they preach that they are not to be done. "Let their strength be drained": by which they are proud against the weak; let it be drained, however, so that it may already begin to labor. "For toil shall not come forth from the earth": that is, let them not complain of the creation but of themselves. "But man is born unto toil": it is said "is born" according to that whereby each one is turned from a quiet into a toilsome life. "But the young of the vulture fly very high":
the vulture is well understood as the Lord, because by the height of prophecy He saw our mortality, by descending to which He might be fed, turning us into His own body. "The young of the vulture," then, are called the sons of the bridegroom, but flying very high, having their conversation in the heavens, that they may be freed from the toil into which man is born. For they have followed the voice of Him who says: "Come to Me, all you who labor." The "young of the vulture" can also be understood in an evil sense, as the aerial powers, which are fed on deaths, that is, on sins. Since these prevaricating angels were not brought down to the most toilsome humility of mortality into which man is born, they are exceedingly proud, that is, they fly very high. "Who gives rain upon the face of the earth":
as though He shows mercy to those confessing. "That their hands may not do truth": let them not do what they promise, gaping to lord it over the weak. "In the day darkness shall meet them": as the Jews who did not know who the Lord was. "Or as in the night they shall grope at noonday": just as, seeing the signs, they nevertheless doubted, saying: "He is a prophet," others: "He deceives the people," when they would not see even by a lamp. "And let them perish in war": in temptations. "And let the weak go forth from the hand of the mighty": of the devil. "But let there be hope for the weak": for those strong ones seek the thing here. "But blessed is the man whom the Lord reproves."
For in this he errs, that Job seems to himself to suffer these things for his iniquities, whereas he is blessed for this reason, that in this life, when he is reproved, he has the possibility of being corrected. "And in the seventh evil shall not touch you": the sacrament of the Sabbath. "In famine He will free you from death": for by His word He nourishes and makes firm against temptations. "But in battle He will loose you from the hand of the iron": from the power of bonds. "He will hide you from the scourge of the tongue": that you may not feel insults, not that you may not suffer them. "You shall deride the unjust and the wicked": as wisdom will laugh over the destruction of the wicked. "And you shall not fear the raging beasts": that is, you shall not fear the Jews, because the Gentiles will obey you; but these things are to be received of the Lord.
Eliphaz here errs, because he thinks that the things revealed to him are to be understood of Job, whereas the whole belongs to the Lord. "For you shall have a covenant with the stones of the field": the stones of the field, because among the Gentiles there was no ordering of the law, so that they were as it were stones from a building. "For the wild beasts shall be at peace with you": whether of the Jews or of the Gentiles. "Then you shall know that your house shall be in peace": that is, the Church. "And your sons shall be like all the grass in the field": without dryness. "And you shall come to the grave like ripe grain": unto the passion. "Behold, thus have we searched these things out": here the authority of this prophecy is confirmed. "But know for yourself what you have done"; for God did not unjustly permit these things to befall you. The words of Job.
But, as it appears, my words are evil; for the words of Job are not from impatience under the scourges, since they signify grief, not Job's own peculiar grief, but that which he had concerning the whole human race. "For the arrows of the Lord are in my body": the words of God, by which the soul is pierced through, when it is compelled to confession. "Whose fury drinks my blood"; for they take away sin. "For when I begin to speak, they goad me": for what I speak, they compel. "What then? Shall the wild ass bray in vain, unless seeking food?" that thence it may suffer hunger, because it wished to be free. "Or does the ox low, when it has fodder in the manger?" For the ass, fodder is prepared by the labor of the ox, as for the Gentiles by the labor of the prophets and apostles, who indeed were Jews.
And so these words are those of one desiring food, that is, help, not of one impatient under grief. "Can bread be eaten without salt?" as though it were said to him: why do you speak these things thus through figures? He answered. Because if he were to say them from his own person, they would be insipid. "Or is there flavor in empty words?" He calls the words of men empty, because bread is the words of God, but heavenly bread. "So neither can my soul cease": just as bread cannot be eaten without salt, so now I render the ministry of the word of God on account of that saying: "how shall they hear without a preacher?" "For I see my foods to be foul like the odor of a lion":
For my words are loathsome like a lion, whether because of the pride by which boasters fancy themselves, or because those who embrace carnal things have the stench of the lion, since they rejoice in their own words. 'But if He grant, and my request come to pass'—by 'request' he means the thing he was asking for. 'And the Lord grant my hope'—for thus, trusting because of his hope, he is fittingly tested after tribulation in expectation of the consolation that is to come. And rightly does he say 'hope,' because, when the reality has come, the testing will no longer be necessary. 'Let the city be my tomb, upon whose walls I leaped'—he wishes that fellowship of Babylon to be his tomb, not so that it should overwhelm him, but so that he may know that whoever shall have been in it lies dead and buried—the very thing in which, as in a stronghold and bulwark, he had been taking pride. 'I will not spare';
'for I have not lied. The words are holy, of my God'—because he said nothing other than what he heard from God, that is, prophesying in a general way concerning man, that he stands in need of help in confession. 'For what is my strength, that I should endure?'—which signified his wound. 'Or what is my time, that my soul should hold out?'—because, with death pressing upon them, men are terrified, so that they may turn and confess to God the rottenness of their sins; by the consideration of this he says he is compelled to confession. 'Is the strength of stones my strength?'—those hard and impenetrable to the darts of God's words, who are not moved to confess. 'Or did I not trust in Him?'—when it was well with me, that is, when I was immortal after the image of God. 'But help has departed from me':
having become mortal while wishing to trust in myself. 'And the visitation of the Lord has despised me'—according to what is said: 'or the son of man, that Thou visitest him?' 'My neighbors did not regard me'—I shuddered at the angels. 'Like a failing torrent'—for mercy at one time flooded over me, and I dried up and was not to myself a fountain. 'Or as waves they passed me by'—as though consolations were a draught of drink. 'Those who feared me now have rushed upon me'—the devil with his angels. 'I have perished and become an exile from my house'—either from the heavenly dwelling or from conscience; therefore he was sitting outside, beyond his own house. 'Behold the ways of the Themanites, look upon the paths of the Sabaeans':
he means those who trust in temporal things, concerning whom he—that is, the man whom he signifies—says that he does not presume. 'But now you also have risen up against me without mercy'—reckoning the blessedness of men to lie in an abundance of carnal goods, since they insulted rather than had compassion. 'But seeing my wound, be afraid'—understanding what it signifies, fear the punishments to come. 'For what? Have I asked anything of you? Or do I need your strength?'—because before Him is weak the one who is able to save him. 'Teach me and I will be silent'—therefore they ought to have been patient toward His teaching, because they themselves could not teach Him. 'But, as I see, you speak distorted the words of the true man':
he calls 'the true man' the one who represents the person doing penance through conversion to God, whose words they were distorting. 'For I do not seek help from you'—for the true man seeks help from God; for he is true who confesses. Hence it is said: 'He who does the truth comes to the light.' 'For neither will I endure the delivery of your speech'—for he said that he endures God's discourse, by which he may be instructed. 'Nevertheless you have rushed upon the orphan'—as far as concerns you, you wished to insult me, although you did not understand what it signifies. Because they ought not to have insulted even Job, whom they saw, therefore: 'nevertheless.' 'But now, looking on, attend to me'—you having nothing to teach me. 'And again, stand by justice':
because at first they seemed to themselves to be compelled by justice to speak. 'For there is no iniquity in my mouth; and did not my throat meditate wisdom?'—he says that he did not accuse God, but brought in a man accusing his own iniquities, as his discourse above was understood. This he calls the meditation of wisdom. 'Is not the life of man upon the earth a trial?'—here he now more openly shows in whose person he was speaking above. And by 'trial' he means as it were the arena of a contest, where a man either conquers or is conquered. 'And is not his life like that of daily hirelings?'—of one awaiting a temporal wage, so that for those who await the fruit of their justice in the time to come, life is no longer upon the earth.
'Or like a servant fearing his master and having attained the shade?'—this signifies Adam's hiding from the face of the Lord and the covering of leaves from which a shade is made, which man attained when he had forsaken God. 'Or like a hireling who awaits the wage of his work?'—this one differs from the former in that the former possessed those very temporal things, while this one desires to possess them. 'So I too have awaited empty months'—he has already called the shade 'empty,' that is, temporal goods. 'And nights of sorrows have been given to me'—in which both the light of wisdom is lost and there is matter for punishments. 'If I sleep, I say: when is day? And if I rise, again: when is evening?'—when a man suffers desire for business in leisure and for leisure in business.
'But I am filled with sorrows from evening until morning'—until he sets, away from God. Hence also, walking 'toward evening,' God dismissed them—which signifies the willing, for whom there is no expectation of remedy except in the morning. Of which it is said: 'In the morning I will stand before Thee'—that is, when after the judgment God shall be revealed in the morning to the just. Hence also the Lord is buried in the evening and rises in the morning. This life, therefore, he can compare to the morning star. 'And my body grows together with the rottenness of worms'—with a multitude of worms. 'I pour out clods of earth, scraping off the discharge'—an expression of lusts or cares of confession, in which the wicked rejoice, because they turn into an occasion of sinning the very things which others confess through penance; hence they are dogs, who licked Lazarus's sores.
'And my life is more meager than speech'—for I do less than I speak. 'Remember therefore that my life is spirit'—that is, in spiritual hunger. 'And I shall not return to visible things. The eye of the beholder shall not know me'—because I shall be changed, so that here we may understand the beholder to be the envying devil. 'Thine eyes are upon me and I do not subsist'—for in me Thou dost slay the carnal life in which I once was. 'Like a cloud cleansed away from heaven'—or cleansed through heaven—as we say 'cleansed of iron'—so that here it may signify that help came to him from heaven, that he might be cleansed; or indeed that it may now no longer be a cloud, but be rarefied into pure air, as though cleansed by the rays of the sun, so that the darkness of flesh and blood may not be in heaven.
For flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and death shall be swallowed up in victory. 'For if a man go down to hell, he shall not again ascend'—remember this, therefore, that thou go not down. 'And he shall not return again into his house'—that is, to his rest. 'Therefore I too will not spare my mouth'—by confessing, while there is time. 'Am I the sea, or a dragon?'—for Thou hast not driven me back like the wicked or the devil. 'Because Thou hast set a watch over me'—that I move not to disturbance, as are the bounds of the sea. 'Because I said: my couch shall console me'—the carnal things in which he rested. 'And I shall refer to myself consolation in my bed':
for to Thee I ought to refer my consolation. 'Thou frightenest me through dreams and through vision Thou astoundest me'—through the tribulations of this life, which are dreams in the same way as the good things of this life are also dreams. 'Thou shalt loose my soul from my spirit'—because of the visible terrors, from which the soul shall be freed when it fears to come to them. 'And from death I have thrust back my bones'—for my bones had gone into death, had I not, terrified by these things, become stronger and patient, which is the firmness of bones. 'For I shall not live forever, that I might bear it patiently'—by the brevity of life and the fear of death I have corrected myself. Hence the unconvertible devil, because he does not die, but is damned. The beginning of wisdom is the fear thence. 'Depart from me; for my life is empty'—because I do not endure trials.
'Or because Thou hast directed Thy mind upon him?'—because he is rational. Hence that saying: 'but we have the mind of the Lord.' By the function of reason he means the extension of the understanding. 'And in rest wilt Thou judge him?'—as worthy of rest. 'How long dost Thou not let me go?'—bound by tribulations. 'Nor dost Thou forsake me, until I swallow my spittle?'—in pain and scourges may I restrain myself and absorb the flux of pleasures, being admonished through tribulations. 'If I have sinned, what can I do to Thee?'—the meaning is this: if I have sinned, I can do Thee no harm. 'Or perhaps men are troublesome to Thee by speaking?'—Thou therefore, who knowest the mind, why hast Thou constituted man, that he should speak against Thee, that he should be a burden to Thee?
But if the sin of man harms Thee neither in deed nor in word, why dost Thou not forget his sin, but rather purge it, except because those things which are said above are referred to Thy goodness? 'For what is man, that Thou hast exalted him?'—which his friends, not understanding, supposed to be a reproach of God by him. For if Thou dost not bring trials upon me for this reason, that I may restrain my unruly motions, that Thou mayest thus take counsel for me, what other cause is there that Thou shouldst correct man? For he cannot harm Thee by sinning; or dost Thou feel as it were an enmity in his speech, when Thou knowest the human mind, and certainly couldst not constitute that which is adverse to Thee? 'And why hast Thou not forgotten my iniquity?'
If not for the reason that these trials might profit me, so that the whole may be of Thy goodness, even that Thou correctest me? 'But now I shall go into the earth'—for when Thou purgest my sin, it yet remains for me to go into the earth through bodily death. 'In the morning I shall watch, and I shall be no more'—in this earth. The words of Bildad the Shuhite. 'He sent into the hand their iniquities'—into the hand he sent, either in punishment or in reckoning, He showed them to be debtors, that is, sinners. 'And He shall restore to thee the life of justice'—which is owed to justice, that is, the blessed life. 'And thy former things shall be very small'—in comparison with the latter, which shall be infinite. 'Or will not these teach thee and report to thee?'—since the authority of some is greater.
Now here too, about to speak of Christ, he narrates things heard, as Eliphaz narrated a revelation. 'Does the bulrush grow green without water?'—so therefore the wicked too shall wither without the mercy of God. 'Does it yet stand on its own root and not be cut down?'—if it has no water. 'Before every herb drinks, does it not wither?'—unless it drinks; for never at any earlier time did the wicked man flourish. 'And his tabernacle shall be filled with spiders' webs'—useless works. Now he seems to speak of the Jews and the Lord. 'But if he have even propped up his house, it shall not stand'—either by the holy Scriptures, or by hope of the Lord's promise, or his very kingdom. 'And when he has begun, he shall not endure'—to follow God; which befell the Jews, who did not follow once they had begun. 'For he is moist before the sun':
rotting with the flux of carnal things; but 'before the sun' means under tribulations, so that 'before' should signify 'under,' as we say 'do it before me.' 'And from its rottenness its shoot shall ascend'—for unless they had been so wicked, the Lord would not have been exalted through suffering, He who was born of them according to the flesh. 'In gatherings of stones it sleeps'—for the elders shall crucify Him. 'And in the midst of pebbles it shall live'—of the humble, of whom were the apostles. 'If it be swallowed up, the place shall lie about it'—if He conceal that He is the Son of God, it shall be said that He is not the Son of God. It is therefore necessary that He Himself reveal Himself; for in this place divine things cannot be known. 'But out of the earth another shall sprout':
either the Lord by rising again, or another kind of the godly, that is, of Christians. 'For the Lord will not approve the innocent'—or will He not reject? Or that: 'He will not approve the wicked as innocent'? 'Nor any gift'—that is, the sacrifices which the Jews had. 'But the mouth of the truthful He will fill with laughter'—of those who confess. 'And the tabernacle of the wicked shall not endure'—either the temple itself or the kingdom. The words of Job. 'Truly I know that it is so'—that is, that according to my iniquities He has restored these things to me; but not as you suppose, but because no one is just in His sight. 'They will not answer Him one of a thousand'—for in all things indeed He will convict them. 'Who brings the mountains to oldness, and they know it not'—that is, to weakness, as it is: 'I have grown old among all my enemies.'
'Who overturns them in His anger'—by being angry He overturns them, that is, so that they find something other than what they had sought, since whoever exalts himself shall be humbled. 'Who shakes the world from its foundations'—through the calling that was made, by which the eminent in the world were shaken. 'And its pillars shall be moved; Who commands the sun, and it does not rise'—so that either wisdom may not be understood, or those who have written, as it is: 'Seal the book.' 'Who alone stretches out the heaven'—the Church, which is properly the seat of God, which He stretches out through the whole world; 'alone' to signify the unity of the Trinity. For indeed all things were made through the Son in the Holy Spirit. 'And He walks upon the sea as upon the earth':
'upon the earth,' that is, firmly establishing the Church in the world, either by subjecting sinners to Himself, in whom He is not submerged, by not yielding to their trials. 'If He pass over me, I shall not see. If He be higher than I, or pass me by with swiftness, I shall not recognize Him'—it is therefore necessary that He both accommodate Himself to my weakness and not forsake me. 'For if He deliver me to death, who shall turn it back?'—for He delivers to death when He either passes over or passes by, so that He is not known. This is the death of the soul, that it not know God. 'For His anger is irreversible'—for the anger of others can be turned away by one more powerful. 'By Him the other things under heaven are subjected':
with the exception of heaven itself, that is, the rational creature; because if it had subjected the other things to itself, it would never be punished through those things which it had subjected to itself; but because God subjected those things to it, it is punished through them, when it has offended Him who subjected them. 'But if I be even just, He will not hear me'—if, asking Him, I presume upon my own justice; for comparing it with those things that are with Him, immutable and perpetual, He will not hear me as unjust. Therefore His mercy is necessary to me. 'I will entreat His judgment'—because I cannot judge myself to be just. Hence it is: 'but neither do I judge myself; He who judges me is the Lord.' 'But if I call and He do not hear, I will not believe that He has heard my voice':
when I entreat His judgment, if He do not hear, I will not believe that He ever heard me; for He heard me by hidden causes, not by the merit of my prayer. Or certainly: I will not believe that I am not heard now; for at some time I have been heard. Or thus: because if He hear what I ask, I shall believe that I too have been heard; for if I do not believe, although what I ask be done, yet I have not been heard, so that the believing of the one asking may be the sign of being heard. 'Lest perchance He crush me in a whirlwind?'—therefore I seek His judgment, lest He crush me in a whirlwind. 'For He has made many of my tribulations without cause'—the cause of which was hidden from me;
or certainly it is the voice of one confessing, confessing that he has not been corrected by the scourges of God, and therefore can be crushed by a whirlwind, as by a greater punishment. 'For He does not let me breathe'—so many are my tribulations. 'And indeed, because He is able, He prevails'—He conquers, so that I do His will, not mine. 'But if I be even just, my mouth will speak wicked things'—if I think myself just. 'Nevertheless my life shall be taken away'—although I know not whether I have acted wickedly, yet my life shall be taken away, so that I suffer what I do not will or do not do what I will. 'It is one thing that I have said: anger destroys the great and powerful'—that is: for this one reason tribulations come upon men, that no one may seem to himself great and powerful, presuming upon his own strength. 'Because wicked men shall be in a great death':
not in a moderate death, in which even the just are, when they are afflicted and derided by them. 'The earth has been delivered into the hands of the wicked'—either the body of the just, not the soul, when they persecute them, or when the wicked is permitted to rule. It can also be taken as the sinful man into the hands of the devil according to his mortality. 'He who executes its judgment, He covers'—either the judgment of the wicked man himself or of the just; for in this time it is covered. Or certainly by this very thing He executes his judgment, that is: by that very thing He punishes him, by which He conceals His providence from him, as it is: 'in the greatness of His anger He will not require.' Or by that very thing He vindicates the just, by which He conceals from his persecutor His judgment, that is His providence, so that he may be more tightly caught in the snares of sins through impunity.
'But if it is not so, who then is it?'—this can be understood of the Lord, who was both derided and whose earth, that is, body, was delivered into the hands of the Jews, and executing whose judgment He concealed His majesty. 'But if it is not He, who then is it,' who does greater things than He Himself did? Or thus: 'but if God does not execute the judgment of the just or of the wicked, who can do it?' 'But my life is swifter than a runner'—he calls men, as it were fugitives, departing from justice, like that younger son who set out into a far country. 'Or like an eagle flying and seeking food'—from the heights, in which the rational souls are by nature blessed, that is, the works of justice, they bent themselves down to earthly pleasures.
'But if I speak, I forget while I speak'—speech: just as it had an affection for outward things, so the soul, while it goes forth to those things that are outside through a desire of enjoying the creature, forgets the inward Creator. 'Bending down upon my face, I shall groan'—for sorrows follow that bending down. 'I am disturbed in all my members'—fear, by which it begins to run back. 'And because I am wicked, why have I not died and toil?'—understand 'I know.' Or he says that he toils because he has not died to wickedness. 'And if I be cleansed with clean hands'—either God's hands or his own, that is: by good works through regeneration. 'Thou hast dipped me enough in filth'—having been brought into this mortality. 'And my garment has held me in abhorrence':
immortality, with which we desire to be clothed over; but because we cannot in this corruption, therefore he says: 'my garment has held me in abhorrence.' 'For Thou art not a man like me, whom I might contradict'—for to a man I could demonstrate my justice; but in Thy judgment I am found unjust. 'Would that there were an arbiter for us!'—he seems to blaspheme, unless he be understood to be wishing for that Mediator of God and men, that through Him he might present his prayers. For in this way that One, placed between both, hears and convicts man: for the Father has given all judgment to the Son. 'And one who might both convict and hear between the two. Let Him turn away His rod from me'—let the fear of the law pass over, that I may be joined to Him by the liberty and charity of adoption. 'For I am not with myself':
because I cleave to those things that are outside. 'I will bring forth words against myself'—these are the words of one confessing. 'And I will say to the Lord: do not teach me to be wicked'—do not tempt me beyond what I can bear, nor suffer those things to befall me by which wickedness might be urged upon me. 'Or is it good to Thee, if I act wickedly?'—but it is not good to Thee if I act wickedly; therefore Thou hast not constituted me thus unjustly. 'Because Thou despisest the work which Thy hands have made?'—if Thou despisest the work of Thy hands. 'Hast Thou regarded the counsel of the wicked?'—but not of that wickedness which appears to men. And: 'Hast Thou regarded the counsel of the wicked?'—not because it pleases Him that they act wickedly. 'Or dost Thou perceive as a man perceives?'—because indeed Thou dost not perceive as a man:
therefore Thou hast regarded the counsel of the wicked; for there is a wickedness which Thou alone seest and which is not seen by men. 'Or is Thy life human?'—that is, brief, so that Thou couldst not judge concerning perpetuity. 'And Thou hast searched out my sins'—for those things could not be hidden from Thee which lie hidden from men. 'For Thou knowest that I have done nothing wickedly'—for as far as concerns men, I have done nothing wickedly. 'But who is there that may rescue from Thy hands?'—from Thee judging. As God Thou judgest, when Thou seest even those wickednesses which man does not see. 'But afterward, having been changed, Thou hast struck me'—he himself, namely, having been changed, not God, because the changed man feels God to be changed, as through the length of darkness changed eyes feel the sun to be changed. 'Remember that Thou hast fashioned me from clay':
therefore I need Thy mercy. 'Thou wilt again turn me into earth'—by death, which is the penalty of sin. 'Hast Thou not milked me like milk?'—because He showed mercy even to mortals, when He formed men from men out of a formless beginning. 'These things therefore being in Thee, I know that Thou canst do all things'—because they are of such great goodness that they fashion even the carnal substance. 'But if I sin, Thou wilt keep me'—either that Thou lose me not, or that my sin be not hidden. 'And if I be just, I cannot breathe'—in the sight of men; for Thou seest the sins that lie hidden from men. 'For I am full of reproach'—in Thy sight. 'And I am caught like a lion for slaughter':
there is the sin of pride which lies hidden from men, since it can creep in even amid praiseworthy deeds. 'But again, having been changed, Thou most savagely torturest me'—after the penalty of sin, by which man was made mortal. He speaks of those tribulations which men suffer in this life, because most tribulations befall suddenly, which disturb the quiet of this mortal life itself, when one is in health or in security of things, however temporal, which he reckoned to the mercy of God. 'Renewing in me my torments'—because mortality itself is already a torment, out of which the other tribulations arise. 'Why then didst Thou bring me out of the womb?'—from obscurity to acquaintance, which alone is the matter of greater misery, when it is overthrown;
this generation he also mentioned above. 'And would that I had been as though I had not been?'—utterly unknown. Hence it is: 'He calls the things that are not as though they were,' that is, according to their lowliness. 'Or is not the time of my life short?'—for it is not because of the length of my life that I have not died, since indeed what I live is short. 'Suffer me, until I rest a little'—after the mercy by which Thou madest me from mire, and having been changed Thou struckest me with mortality, and by that very mortality Thou consoledst me, and then Thou exercisedst me with tribulations. Suffer me, therefore, that I may rest in Thee, before I go into the punishments from which it is not permitted to return; for from those which he mentioned above it is permitted to return, if a man turn himself to God.
But he wishes to rest before he goes into eternal punishments, for this very purpose, namely, that he might not go. Just as if we should say to someone: correct thyself before thou be damned; for when he has corrected himself, he will not be damned. 'Where there is no light, nor is it to see the life of men'—for that is the life of men where there is the true light, which enlightens every man. There is one land of the living, another land of the dying. The words of Zophar the Naamathite. 'Or will the just man seem to be eloquent?'—for he thinks Job to abound in words rather than in works. 'Blessed is the man born of short life'—he repeats to him his own sentence, which he wishes to be understood as spoken loquaciously and emptily. 'Since there is no one who may contradict thee'—because when he spoke, no one contradicted him.
'But how should the Lord speak to thee? Speak rather those things by which God may have mercy on thee.' 'Because it shall be double upon thee'—by correcting and by consoling. 'And then thou shalt know that worthy things have been rendered to thee by the Lord for those things wherein thou hast sinned'—illumination following after correction. 'Or wilt thou find out the trace of the Lord?'—so that thou shouldst wish to reproach God. 'Heaven is high, and what wilt thou do?'—so as to find out the mysteries of heaven; for thou oughtest not to reproach Him whose works thou dost not comprehend. 'Who shall say to Him: what hast Thou done?'—for this also will rightly have been done, if God shall have done it, because He cannot do anything except rightly. 'For He Himself knows the works of unjust men'—it is not of unjust work.
hence he wishes it to be understood that the man, whom he thinks unjust, foolishly reproached God; for thus he supposed him to speak. 'But man wavers otherwise with words'—now God pleases him, now God displeases him, whereas with God there is firmness. 'And a man born of woman shall be like a wild ass in the desert'—through desire of liberty impatient of a ruler and tamer. 'And stretching out thy hands to Him'—that He may accept thy works. 'If there is anything unjust in thy hand'—he repeated those two things, but with the order changed. 'And let not iniquity dwell in thy house'—this he said of the heart. 'For so thy face shall shine like pure water'—conscience. 'Like a wave that does not pass over, and thou shalt not be terrified'—unless it touch all in this life. 'And thy prayer shall be like the morning star':
it shall go before illumination; as though these things too, pertaining to the prophecy of the holy city or to the people of God, are said as heard or revealed, just as they were spoken by his friends above. 'And many shall entreat thy face'—all these things concerning the Church. The words of Job. 'But the just and blameless man came into derision'—it is to be understood of the Lord. The meaning: it is therefore no wonder if I too have come into derision before you. 'And his house, that it might be devastated by the wicked'—the Church by persecutors. 'Nay rather, let no one trust, when he is wicked, that he shall go unpunished'—because judgment is from the house of God. 'As though there were to be no inquisition into them'—let them not trust. 'But yet ask the four-footed beasts, if they answer thee':
therefore he rightly inquires of the wicked, because from the works they were able to recognize the Creator and ought to have worshiped Him; for they ought not to have been taught by the answer of creatures, since they had received reason by which they might know these things. 'Is not in His hand the soul of all the living?'—hence therefore it is known that He Himself created all things, because in His hand is the soul of all the living. 'And the spirit of all the flesh of man'—of all human flesh, that is, of the rational soul. 'For the ear discerns words'—just as sense discerns sensible things, so the spirit discerns spiritual things, which ought to have recognized that the works of the Lord are in the hand of the Lord. 'In long time is wisdom'—not indeed in long time, but with the Lord, from whom it is to be sought.
'If He shall have destroyed, who shall build?'—He destroys for the sake of virtue and shuts up for the sake of wisdom, so that one may not come to it. 'If He shall have held back the water, He will dry up the earth'—wisdom itself, but by 'earth' man. 'But if He shall have sent it forth, He will destroy, overturning the earth'—for when many wise things have been done, sinners shall be troubled. 'Who leads counselors captive'—for He subjugates to Himself those who consult Him. 'And He has cast the judges of the earth into terror'—either the Jews, or Pilate, or those who judge with an earthly mind. 'Who sets kings upon thrones'—that is, the apostles. 'And He has girded their loins with a belt'—that is, continence. 'Who sends priests away captive'—so that they are led off by men; and the Jews are signified. 'Who changes the lips of the faithful':
He changes them for good, so that they presume not upon their own justice, but upon His grace. 'And He has known the understanding of the elders'—whose understanding of the elders pleases Him. Hence it is: 'You have been known by God,' to which the opposite is: 'I have not known you.' And He rightly began from faith and arrived at the gray hairs of understanding. 'Who reveals deep things out of the darkness'—by opening the prophecies. 'And He has brought into the light the shadow of death'—that is, He has caused this life to be recognized, that it is the shadow of death. 'Deceiving the nations and destroying them'—those who think they were harming the Church of God, while they harmed themselves, which is to be understood of the wicked. 'Casting down the nations and leading them in the way'—to humility, like that ass. 'Reconciling the hearts of the princes of the people of the earth':
reconciling to Himself either the Jews or the kings of the earth, who at first persecuted the Church. 'But He led them astray into a way which they had not known'—by undermining the works of the law, so that they might be understood simply; hence He seemed to them a sinner. By which error they were darkened as one drunken. 'And I will reprove in His sight, if He shall be willing'—that he may reprove himself; which is of confession. 'And you are all healers of evils'—for you cannot heal the good by consolation. 'Hear therefore the rebuke of my mouth'—against you. 'And before His sight you bring forth deceit'—when you wish yourselves to seem just, which you are not. 'Or do you withdraw yourselves from becoming judges?'—can you dissemble and not judge, because concerning you I speak the truth?
'For if, doing all things, you shall be added to Him'—that is: even if you keep all the precepts, He will find in you something to reprove; for no one is just in His sight. 'But if even secretly you shall have admired persons'—your own, by justifying yourselves not only before men but even before yourselves. 'But my body is of clay'—that you may at least fear by the consideration of your own frailty. 'Taking my flesh with my teeth'—I will not spare myself, so that I reprove not only you but even myself. 'And I will place my soul in my hand'—to be inspected, that I conceal nothing, or that I reckon up my sins. 'Although He slay me who is mighty, who also has begun'—although He slay my sins. 'Yet will I speak and reprove myself before Him'—I will not justify myself by hiding my sins.
Behold, I draw near to my own judgment: that I may judge concerning myself, as though this were a man's very righteousness, in his confession not to spare himself. Then I shall not be hidden from Thy face: in the way that sinners are hidden. Take Thy hand from me: so that there may be nothing in me to be chastised, and that there may be charity in me. And let not Thy dread terrify me. How many are mine iniquities? From this it can be seen that he said that other thing: I will lay my soul in [my] hand: that is, to reckon it up. Or dost Thou suppose me to be set against Thee? Whereas indeed I am weak, and Thou dost as it were fear this, that if I were justified I should become Thy equal, when I am but a leaf. Therefore there is some hidden cause, since this is not the cause. And Thou hast laid upon me the sins of my youth:
so that this is the cause why he says his sins are hidden from himself, namely because he had grown proud, which is the sin of youth. And Thou hast set my foot in the stocks: in the bond of mortality. And Thou hast contemplated the roots of my feet: my desires. I who grow old like a wineskin: so that I cannot bear new wine, nor be sewn like a garment with new cloth, which has been eaten by moths. For man, born of woman, is of short life and full of wrath: that is, of punishment. And hast Thou made this one come into judgment before Thee? Although he is thus mortal, yet he too has wherewith to render account; for of him is required what he can give, however little he can. For his months are numbered with Thee: for by the very fact that he is temporal, he is convicted of sin;
for Thou hadst made him for eternity. Depart from him; let him rest: this is according to the opinion of the carnal and natural man, for whom this life is his whole good. And therefore he wishes to be spared, that he may enjoy this life. For there is hope for a tree: these words are to be pronounced mockingly. For surely there is rather hope for man: which carnal men are unwilling to believe. But a man, when he is dead, has passed away: and here too ironically. For in due time the sea shall be diminished: for afterwards it is filled again. He speaks of those places where there is ebb and flow, or because all shores are secretly diminished and increased according to the hours of the moon, that is, when the moon rises, it grows for us or for others up to mid-heaven, and from there it diminishes. As long as heaven endures, he shall not be roused: unto the new heaven, that is, to heaven itself.
And would that Thou hadst kept me in the underworld: so great is the hope of resurrection, that I might already be free even from these uncertainties of life. And hadst hidden me, until Thy wrath should rest: hence is that saying: Hide thyself for a little while, until the wrath of the Lord pass over, that is, until this mortality pass and one come to the resurrection. For if a man dies, he shall live: for this present is not life. When the days of his life are completed: then he shall live. Then Thou shalt call and I will answer Thee: obedient to Thee without the hindrance of mortality. Thou hast sealed up my iniquities in a bag: so as to requite them to me. Thou hast noted down if I have erred unwillingly: this too Thou hast noted. But to err unwillingly is the penalty of sin. And indeed a falling mountain crumbles away:
so too man has fallen from his height and his firmness. And a rock grows old in its place: as man does in his kind and condition. And by the washing of frequent floods: as though man too is thus brought to slenderness, when he is worn away by the frequent floods of his desires. But Thou hast destroyed the hope of man: he has made steps from the mountain to the rock, from the rock to stones, from stones to sand, because these carnal men suffer such diminishings. And well did he now say 'Thou hast destroyed.' For Thou hast driven him to the end: to consummation, so that this hope perishes in which carnal men rejoice. Thou hast changed his face, Thou hast dismissed him: when the image of God in him has been blotted out. And though his sons be many, he knows it not: because he dies, although his offspring be propagated.
But his flesh grieved over him: that is, man grieves carnally and mourns according to the natural soul over such a condition of his; for the spiritual man knows that, though the outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed day by day, because he feels this happening in himself. The words of Eliphaz the Themanite. And he filled the belly with grief: for the spirit of knowledge by consolation rather heals from griefs: but thou who fillest the belly with grief, answerest not with the spirit of knowledge. Hast thou not also cast off fear? Thou hast not feared God, saying such things against Him. And thou hast chosen the tongue of the wicked: by which men curse. For what? Wert thou born the first man? Because thou art so proud. Or wast thou formed before the hills?
The mountains too are to be understood under the name of hills, that is, before all the powers, the mighty spirits. But there is also among us one aged and decrepit: who knows even what we do not know, he is among us. What did thy heart dare? And what did thine eyes endure? They hoped. For what is man, that he should be without crime? which thou too hast said. If in His saints there is no faith? On account of the uncertainties of the times, in which men are for the most part deceived, so that they say many things and do them not. And the heaven is not clean before Him? for those who dwell in heaven; or surely heaven is put for the saints themselves, because in them God dwells. Which things the wise have said and have not concealed from their fathers: because the apostles preached even to the Jews. To them alone was the land given:
to be inhabited. Nor did any stranger come upon them: neither holy man nor angel, that is: they shall possess it in security. When they shall have thought themselves to be already at peace: he so speaks as though he supposed this to have befallen Job himself. He believes not that he can be turned back from darkness: he believes not that he can be turned from his sins. And he is appointed as food for vultures: of the airy powers, which feed upon the deaths of sinners. He shall fall like a leader in the first line of battle: he is bold and bears not tribulations. Who lifted up his hands against God. Or: because he lifted them up? And he ran against Him insolently: by doing what is contrary to what He commanded. On the thick boss of his shield: presuming on his own protection. Because he covered His face with his fatness:
through fatness, that is, through the exaltation of his pride, he has hidden God from himself. And he has made a halter over his thighs: so that he should be bound by his own lusts, by which bond he should be led to death. For the things which they prepared for him, others shall take away: even the earthly kingdom itself, or whatever temporal hope, which the righteous shall receive together with the whole world. And his substance shall not be enriched, nor shall it endure: namely, the substance of the wicked. He shall not cast a shadow upon the earth: that is, he shall not flourish. But the wind shall dry up his stock: temptation. His untimely cutting shall be corrupted before its hour: before he hopes. Let him fall like the flower of the olive: let him fall from peace, or because better things follow these men, as the fruit follows the flower. For the testimony of the wicked is death: a sign.
And fire shall consume the houses of those who take bribes: for these are the wicked who set temporal gifts before righteousness. He shall conceive groanings in the belly: the things he hopes for turn to his punishment. The words of Job. I have heard many such things: not only what you say. You are all comforters of evils: you can console the wicked, because they imitate you. Not the good. And it is a vocative; for from none of you have I heard anything good. For what? Is there order in the speeches of the spirit? of pride. Or in what will it be troublesome to thee? although thou love not what thou sayest. And I too speak according to you: as you deserve. If your soul were set under in place of mine: if you suffered what I suffer, I would speak in speeches, not in deeds;
so it is nothing to speak what you do not do. For if I should speak, I shall not be relieved by the wound: you show yourselves to be prudent neither in speaking nor in keeping silence. For the wise, even when they speak, grieve together with others in their consolations; or, speaking in their confession, they grieve over their own wound; or when they are silent, they are silent prudently. But now He has wearied me and made me foolish and rotten: so that I may not speak against you, God has broken my pride, that, made foolish, I may become wise. Thou hast laid hold of me, and I am made a witness: Thou hast convicted me of my sins, and I am a witness against myself. And my falsehood has risen up against me: when I seemed righteous to myself. Against my own face I have answered, that is: I will set Thee before thy face. Using wrath He has cast me down:
He has used wrath as a blessing — for He does not suffer it — but He has cast down as it were a proud man. He has gnashed His teeth over me: He has rebuked me, so that the teeth are to be taken for words. The arrows of His pirates have fallen upon me. The airy powers which God uses and permits, so that either the good may be exercised or the wicked punished; and they are pirates because they lie in wait for those sailing in this sea. With the edge of His eyes He has rushed upon me: He has not dissembled my sins, as it were giving the nod that I should be punished; for He is as it were a light to the punishers, pointing out those to be punished. The very sight of Him was ruin to me. Or thus: He has caused me to see my sin: for before it was not thus brought home to my mind. The mighty God has struck me sharply, and at once they have rushed together against me:
for when God strikes, the angels of Satan rush together. While I was at peace, He has torn me asunder: from that very peace, or from my own self, He has torn me, so that I might be rent by my adversaries and by those who oppose Him. And taking my hair He has plucked me apart: through my sins He has divided me against myself. He has set me as a mark: at which they might cast, as a mark is wont to be set for those casting, by which they may direct their darts. They have surrounded me, hurling lances into my reins; they have not spared: on account of carnal desires, which he says are driven into him through evil persuasions by the evil angels. They have poured out my gall upon the ground: so that I should envy earthly goods in those who abound in them. They have cast me down with a great prostration: lest we should understand a carnal prostration.
They have sewn sackcloth to my skin: the inward sins, by which he remembers that he had once been in good things. And upon my eyelids is the shadow of death: I wish to see, and carnal habit hinders me. Let not the earth cover over the blood of my flesh: that is, lest, if my prayer be unclean in desiring earthly things, a heap of earth be added upon the bond of mortality, which he signified by the name of blood, that is, lest by earthly desire I be covered with greater calamities of voluntary sin, which is that natural sin from the mortal condition. And let there be no place for my cry: lest the merit of my prayer be cut off. And now behold, in the heavens is my witness: he seems to speak of the Lord, because He had not yet descended to earth. And He who is conscious of me is in the heights:
on account of His sharing in mortality. Let the man be judged together with the Lord: let the Lord come, that the man may be judged with Him, as John with Christ. In whose joint judgment is understood what difference there is between a perfect man and God made man. As the son of man with his neighbor: the Lord, having taken on manhood, with him who had fallen among robbers. For my numbered years have come to me: that I may be succored through Christ in the fullness of times. And I shall enter upon the way by which I shall not return: the way of renouncing the world. I have failed, agitated in spirit. The order is: I have failed in spirit, shaken by toils. I pray that I may be buried, and it does not happen to me: that the mortal may be swallowed up by life.
For we who are burdened groan, in that we would not be unclothed but clothed upon, that is: let us rather be changed than die. Which indeed, however much a man may desire it, does not befall him; for he owes death by the condemnation of sin. I offer prayers with labor. And what have I done? I have done something, obtaining it. Strangers have stolen my goods: he signifies that very immortality of which he is stripped. He who was left half-dead by robbers. Who is this one? He who is to succor me, signifying the Lord. But he therefore says 'Who is this?' because He was to be among men, so that He could scarcely be distinguished from them. Let Him be bound to my hand: by the bond of charity, that He may guard me and lead me where He wills. Because Thou hast hidden their heart from prudence: those who did not know Him Thou hast hidden.
For this cause Thou shalt not exalt them: because they were not humble, therefore they were blinded and could not be exalted by the humility of Christ. Let evils be announced to a part: because blindness has befallen part of Israel, either because the things Christ announced seemed to them evils, so that they said: He seduces the crowds; or by the prophets the things were announced concerning the blindness of Israel — not indeed to the whole, but they befell a part. And the eyes wasted away over their sons: with wonder at the miracles, concerning which it was said: If I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? But Thou hast set me as a byword to the nations: the man whom Thou hast redeemed, that is the Church, of whom the nations would speak, or which would speak to the nations. And I have come to be a laughingstock to them:
either to the nations, when they disparaged her, or to the Jews who spoke to the nations. My eyes are darkened on account of wrath: the eyes of the Church are darkened, that is the apostles, when they were not understood by those who were to be punished with this penalty. And I am exceedingly assailed by all: for both Jews and Gentiles assailed the Church. And the truthful have marvelled at this: either why power has been given to the wicked within the Church, or why the gospel has not been acknowledged by the wicked. But let the just man rise up against his enemy: he who temporally falls under persecutions, that afterwards he may have dominion over the unbelievers. And let the pure in hands take up boldness: the boldness of hope, that he may confess Christ even in persecution. For he has not found truth in you:
for to all, both Jews and others, grace is necessary. And the joints of my heart are convulsed: that I may not conceal my sins. They have put night for day: the wicked. Whence is that: Woe to them who say that good is evil and evil good; who put darkness for light and light for darkness. If I endure, the underworld shall be my house: if I bear with myself, my sins, so as not to confess them. I have called corruption my father: I shall not be a son of life; but God has called. My mother and my sister rottenness: from the fact that they cleave inseparably as kindred. For what hope have I now? It is to be understood: if I endure. Or shall I see my good things? by which he was seduced, he was unwilling to be converted and endured the sinner. The words of Bildad the Shuhite.
And the light of the wicked shall be extinguished: do not therefore marvel, if thy light too, as that of a wicked man, has been extinguished. His light has been darkness in his house: the brightness of his house, that is, they were either the devil or the antichrist. And the lamp over him shall be extinguished: a small and earthly light. Let the lowliest seize his substance: let the humble have what that man wished to possess. For his foot has been sent into a snare: for he himself has been caught in persecuting the Lord. He shall strengthen the thirsty over him: that those hungering and thirsting for righteousness may overcome him. His cord has been hidden over the earth: by which he may be caught, that is, those things which are as it were granted to him. And his trap is in the paths: by which he passes. Round about let sorrows destroy him: on every side.
And let many come about his feet in the straits of famine: many who follow him or who attend upon him. Let the branches of his feet be devoured: of his teachings, that is, by which he walks. Let health be torn from his dwelling: the tranquility of this life. And let the necessity of a royal cause hold him: the opportunity of his punishment, which shall avail unto the glory of God, on account of which his own desire is for a time permitted to him. He calls it a royal cause, because he shall boast himself to be Christ. Let it dwell in his tabernacle in his night: let the necessity of a royal cause torment his conscience, the craving for tyranny; in his night: in the punishment of his blindness, when he is damned. His comely things shall be sprinkled with sulphur: the things in which he delighted, let them be burned up with stinking fire.
And from above shall rush his harvesting: from God. And let not his name be on the face of the streets where it was: let it be taken from the memory of the people. And let him not be recognizable among his own people: let him come to such abjection that he is not acknowledged by his own. Nor let his house be saved again under heaven: for some shall be saved again. But let others live in his people: let his people be subjugated to others. The words of Job. And you destroy me with words: you weaken me, you who ought to have consoled me. Only know this, that God has done thus to me: by whom I can be convicted of sin, not by men. And He has surrounded me with His rampart: a ditch is about walls; whereby I have been compelled to confession. Behold, I laugh at reproach and do not speak:
he speaks of the usefulness of confession, because, if he wished to laugh at his own sin and not to speak it out, he would cry and not be heard. He has set darkness in my countenance: He has taken from me the illumination of my face; which befalls those who are turned away. And He has taken the crown from my head: the spiritual dignity which wisdom gives. And He has broken me on every side, and I have departed: I held all things, and He has taken them from me, against that whereby I had received the power of holding all things. And He has reckoned me as an enemy: He has so judged me, as though I would harm Him, if I were His equal. And they have surrounded my tabernacle: my heart and conscience. My brethren have withdrawn: in hope of correction, because they are brethren;
although at first they spurned my correction and followed those who urged upon them what was foreign to them, that is, what was destructive. And my friends have become unmerciful: in spiritual evils, those who suffer together with their neighbors, but rather deride them; whom they would not deride if they were set in carnal evils. And those who knew my name have forgotten me: not knowing me, because I am changed. The neighbors of my house and my maidservant: with whom I shared secrets; the flatterers, who withdraw from him who confesses to God: for these are said to be his handmaids. I called my servant, and he did not answer: either my body, or those who served him unto evil. My mouth besought, and I entreated my wife: as though saying: Why art thou sad, O my soul? and why dost thou disquiet me?
that is, desiring that she may consent to him. I called flatteringly upon the sons of my womb: those whom he had begotten, persuading them to hope in the world. And those whom I had loved have risen up against me: in that life. In the skin my flesh has rotted away: by love of those things which are felt outwardly, my inward parts have rotted. For surely it is a trivial thing, if we take it literally, as though he had had the itch. And my bones are in my teeth: my firmness and strength are in words, not in deeds. Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O friends: he seems to ask the angels, that they may intercede for him, or surely the saints, that they may pray for the penitent. For it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me: he says he is touched by the hand of the Lord, that he may grieve over his wound, which had been to him without feeling.
Why do you persecute me as the Lord also does? you detest and shudder at me as the Lord does; or you rebuke me, when I am now confessing. Are you not satisfied with my flesh? you do not rejoice if I should live carnally. With a pen of iron and lead? so that, as lead yields to a pen of iron, so let the hearts of men yield to my words. Or let them be sculpted in stones as a testimony? that those may learn them who are firm for evangelizing. For I know that He is eternal who is to loose me: because He can restore me. Of which things I am conscious to myself: because I have deserved them. Which my eye has seen and not another: that is: no one knows what is done in a man except the spirit which is in him. And all things are consummated for me in the bosom:
in the inward parts where no one sees, that is, in the conscience. But if you should also say: What shall we say against him? according to what was said even to the spiritual: Looking to thyself, lest thou too be tempted. And shall we find the root of the matter in him? so as to convict him out of his own mouth. For wrath shall come upon the unjust: those who exalt themselves over sinners and think they cannot be such — these he calls unjust. The words of Zophar the Naamathite. For you understand no more than I: he turns to the others, who together with him were consoling Job. I shall hear the instruction of my confusion: he means indirectly that Job should hear the instruction of his own confusion; for then he can also obtain the spirit of wisdom. And this manner of speech is customary, when we say:
'It is good for me to take heed, for it will go ill with me,' when we wish that another should take heed. Dost thou not know these things from the ages? from the time the ages have been, thou knowest these things. And he supposes that Job is ignorant of these things, as a wicked man. The eye shall see and shall not add: for it shall not be seen. Let the wicked one destroy his sons: whether his imitators or those seduced by him, namely the devil. And let his hands be set afire with griefs: let him be tormented by his own works. His bones are filled with his youth: he is proud of his own firmness. He shall hide it under his tongue: he shall not display it, as a deceitful man, that he may use it secretly. He shall spare it and not let it go: loving it and unwilling to be without it, he does not pursue it; or: the Lord shall spare him and not let him go with this impunity.
And he shall hold it in the midst of his throat: as something that delights him. And he shall not be able to succor himself: he shall not for this reason free himself. The gall of an asp is in his belly: in his inward parts, in the secret places, having the malice of doing harm. Riches unjustly gathered shall be vomited up: with the torment of the inward parts and the pressure of the heart. From his house the angel shall drag him forth: whensoever his hidden things shall be made manifest through tribulations. And the fury of dragons shall flash forth: so that he who at first was hidden, betrayed by tribulations, may now flash forth the fury of dragons openly. Let the tongue of the serpent slay him: let the devil seduce him. And let him not see the milkings of the flocks: the fruit of the sheep, that is, let him not do the works of righteousness, by which he might understand that he can be redeemed.
Nor the food of honey and butter: good works with charity and cheerfulness of heart and liberality of the giver; for butter is rich milk. In vain and to no purpose has he labored: because he does not understand that these things are to be done concerning those works which pertain to mercy. Whence the Lord too is said to eat butter and honey, because these things are offered to Him in His humble ones. Which shall be as something hard, that cannot be chewed nor swallowed: something hard, I know not what — that is, iniquity or pride. In his desire he shall not be saved: because he has desired unjust things. There shall be no remains of his food: his desires pass away. When he shall have thought himself filled, he shall be straitened: there is not so much satiety from the fullness of desires as there is pressure.
If in any way he may fill his belly: such necessity shall come upon him, that he doubts whether he may fill his belly, although indeed these things are sought for this very purpose, that necessity may be driven off. But he said this because he desires the more, the more he has had. And He shall send forth upon him the fury of His wrath: because he did not see fit to do good works. Let an arrow of bronze wound him: a perpetual one. Let a javelin pass through his body: let temptation penetrate him, so that he may be wounded both by the things he hopes for and by the things he leaves behind, as though pierced through from breast to back. Lightnings in his tabernacles: sudden terrors in his thoughts. Let the stranger harm his house: the devil, who is a newcomer for tempting; if indeed a man may have also his own temptations.
And let heaven uncover his iniquities: the heavenly judgment. And let the possession of his goods be by the bishop: these things God shall bestow upon that one. The words of Job. And let not this consolation be to me from you: by which you think one ought to rejoice in temporal goods, although they are common to the pious and the impious; and that, if ever anyone were unjust, vengeance was taken upon him through these things — whereas Job says that these goods remain with the impious even to the tomb, and that vengeance is not taken upon them through these. For what? Is my chastisement a human one? My chastisement is from God. And so He Himself can console me, not you. Or why should I not be angry? Do not therefore so console me, for I assuredly see the felicity of the impious. Look to me and marvel: as one speaking empty things. For if I remember, I am troubled:
returning to his former affection from that in which he now is, he confesses the indignities of human life. And my flesh is held by griefs: I grieve carnally. Why do the wicked live? he asks of them the reason, because they said that here vengeance is taken upon the wicked. And they persist as their sheep with age: how can they persist with age? for they shall not be forever. But goods were in their hands: he did not take from them those very goods, while they were saying these things. Nay rather, the lamp of the wicked shall be extinguished: their temporal brightness, even if not as these men understood. Let his sons fail of his goods: the goods which he persuaded them of, namely temporal ones, whether of the antichrist or of the devil. Let his eyes see his own slaughter:
he signifies that this prosperity too is unknown to those who rejoice in it; but in the future it shall be brought home even to the understanding of the impious. Because there is no will of his in his house after him: because in their conscience they did not attain the Lord in tribulations. Though the number of his months be halved: although he worshiped the present God, yet because he did not also hope in things future — which is the full number of months. For does He Himself judge murders? because the impious, when they have persuaded impiety through the love of carnal impieties, in the age to come most assuredly slay. Yet men do not judge such murders, but God alone. Here he shall die in the strength of his simplicity:
he seems to follow up the hidden murders, mentioning one liberal man and another covetous, because men who are abounding and liberal are thought also to be good. His entrails are full of fat: he has gladness. And their marrow is poured out: the marrow of his entrails, because he does not hold his goods within himself, but expends them either upon himself or upon others. And so I know that you boldly press upon me: for you do not speak considerately. Because you say: Where is the house of the prince? either of the wicked or of the proud man; because they thought that goods were here taken from these, whereas very many even end their life full of these, being punished through them. And where is the covering in the tabernacles of the wicked? honor. Ask those who pass along the way: who do not delight in the way, but pass along it.
And you will not be ignorant of their signs: either the signs of the wicked which those passing by give, telling what is to befall them, or by which the wicked are recognized. Who shall announce his way before him? Before the wicked man no one announces his way confidently except the Lord, because He Himself answers him. And yet 'He Himself, the Lord, has been led into the sepulcher:' thus the reward of piety is not to be hoped for here. And He kept watch over the heap: for He Himself rose again before the heap of those rising should rise. Sweet to Him were the stones of the torrent: which the world does not overturn, that is, His own disciples. And after Him every man follows, and before Him are innumerable. Or:
after Him every man, that is, one man, and before Him innumerable, who are now reckoned in the number of men; or: after Him the crowd of believers, and before Him the patriarchs and prophets. How then do you console me in vain? urging present good things or evil things. The words of Eliphaz the Themanite. Is it not the Lord who teaches understanding and knowledge? as though he said that Job does not judge rightly: whereas indeed God cannot be reproached except through understanding, by which He is superior, if indeed it be given by Him to man. And shall He come into judgment with thee? that thou mayest be compared with Him. Thy light has been turned into darkness: thy dignity. And while thou wast sleeping the water has covered thee: while secure, the inundation of tribulation. Or does He judge through a mist?
as though He could not see through the mist. The clouds are His hiding-place, and He shall not be seen: the things that are on earth are hidden from him. And He traverses the circuit of heaven: the figure, and not the earth. Dost thou then keep the path of the world? as though Job had supposed that human affairs are not cared for by God. Because the immature are taken away? immature in their own estimation; for they thought they would remain forever, or surely before they should arrive at wisdom; but because they had heard this, not because these friends of Job perceived these things. And the thought of the wicked is far from him, and it fills their houses with goods: and the thought of the wicked is far from him, because he does not act as the wicked man hopes, that is: either because impiety pleases him, or because he does not see it. The just, seeing it, laughed: understanding it;
although these men did not understand, supposing that here requital is made to the wicked. And the blameless one derided them: the wicked. Be hard, if thou shalt endure: patient, that is, endure hard things. Put iniquity far from thy tabernacle: thy conduct or thy life; although these men say this carnally. And thou shalt set it upon the mound, upon the rock. Against that which he said: a river running down their foundations. Because he humbled himself: that very light. And thou shalt say: He was lifted up into pride: against the proud. Deliver the innocent, and thou shalt be saved in the cleanness of thy hands: do not fail in good works, because God cares for human things. The words of Job. And indeed I know that the rebuke is from my own hand: from my sins.
And my hand has become heavy upon my groaning: therefore Thou hast struck me, that I may grieve. And to come even to His throne? that I may be so holy as to attain to the number of those who are His thrones. For then I can speak true things and hear them: whence the heavens too are called holy. And I shall know the pleadings which He will speak to me: the renderings of causes, by which He shows that He judges all things justly. And I shall perceive what He announces to me: being already near to Him. Or shall He contend with me in great might? that He may resist me through power. By no means. Only in terror let Him not abuse me: on account of my sins, for which I now fear, while I am in terror, let Him not abuse me. But when I shall have come to Him:
In that liberty, in which I shall be numbered at His throne, I shall love all things, and His power will not resist me; though even now it may make use of me as it will, inasmuch as I am a sinner. That is: let Him do with me what He wills, even with my punishment, yet justly. For truth and rebuke are from Him: that is, He does not rebuke unjustly. He brings forth my judgment unto the end: even if now He chastens, afterward He will make it plain. For if I walk first, afterward I shall not be: let me not hope arrogantly, nor despair faithlessly; that is, let me not turn aside to the right hand or the left. Hence it follows: if I ascend into heaven, You are there. Who can drive me thence? and the rest. On the left hand, what He does I shall not lay hold of: he returns to the higher things. By the left hand he means that he will not lay hold of one given over to temporal things.
He will turn to the right hand, and I shall not see: therefore I ought not to be on the left; and he said "He will turn," because He Himself is among spiritual things, from which I turn myself away if I am on the left. But He Himself knows my way: so that, even if He leads me through tribulations, I may follow. He has tested me as gold: in temptations. I shall go forth in His precepts: let me come out of my darkness, yet still in His precepts. But if He Himself has judged thus: that He may test me through tribulations as gold. Therefore I hastened to Him: because He afflicted me, therefore, leaving temporal things, I hastened to Him. And being admonished I became solicitous concerning Him: that by these fleshly penalties I might escape the eternal torments. Therefore at His countenance I shall be troubled:
Now I shall be troubled, that I may take heed, pondering the future judgment, where His manifestation will be. And the Lord softened my heart: and he reckons this very fear, by which he guards against the future penalties, to the mercy of God. For he would not know the penalties and the darkness about to come upon the wicked, unless the Lord softened his heart by present tribulations: against that which is said, that God hardens the heart of Pharaoh. Wherefore the hours did not escape the Lord: that is to say, "on which account," or "and so." They have transgressed the end: namely Christ. And they have turned aside the poor from the just way: so that they might either imitate them, or thence judge that there is no divine judgment, because they saw the malice unpunished by which they harmed the just who forsook them. At the same time the meek of the earth were hidden:
Together with those who turned aside from the just way, the meek were hidden, lest they bring me aid. For there are three kinds of men in the Church when persecution arises: for some consent, some flee, and some endure—whose persona Job sustains. And wild asses rushed upon me in the field: the foolish and untamed, and on this account proud, rush upon me who confess, that is, upon the Church. And going forth to their work: for this is their work, to rush upon me, that is, to this they have been appointed by God. Bread became sweet to him among the youths: he calls persecution sweet bread to the impious one and persecutor, persecution which he gladly enjoyed when he carried it out upon the youths:
So that we may understand "youths" either as lovers of pleasures, since these readily consent to such things, or as those who have advanced so far in the Church that they have indeed passed beyond the simplicity of childhood, but have not yet attained to that manly strength by which even the persecutor is despised. They reaped a field before its time, not their own: either he means kinds of persecutions, that they might terrify someone by the loss of a field; or by "field" the Church is to be understood, which they wished to reap by persecutions before its ripeness, that is, before the tares should grow up together with it, so that at the time of harvest they might be separated. They are made wet by the drippings of the mountains: fleeing naked to the caves, where the rocks drip. They snatched the orphan from the breast:
Orphans and widows are for the most part to be taken from the persona of the Church—the people under torment. And him who had fallen, they humbled: the one forsaken either by God's help or by someone's; which is a mark of great savagery, not to spare such a one. In straits they laid snares wickedly: in necessities. They were cast out from the city and from the houses: others were cast out by them. But the soul of the little ones was in groaning exceedingly: it was so. But God Himself had no care for them: that is, for the impious, because by now having no care for them He made them despair of God's judgment, since they did evil unpunished. And therefore they were given over into darkness: of ignorance of God's judgment. And suddenly, like a thief: that day will overtake them. The eye of the adulterer watches for the darkness:
He wishes to show into what darkness the impious are given over through impunity; for not into those which adulterers and the rest who do evil seek by night, lest they be recognized by day; but into those which are upon them even in the morning. He digs through houses in the darkness: he recalls other evil deeds. By day they sealed themselves up: they hid themselves. They did not know the light, since the shadow of death abides with them at the same time: not because night withdrew, did the shadow of death therefore forsake them. He is light upon the face of the waters: by comparison with the earth, the more splendid are to be understood, whom light penetrates—and the image of lightness; and therefore the shadow of death is light upon them. For they too bear it through the condition of the flesh. Or:
"He is light upon the face of the waters"—he said this of those who confess in baptism. Let their portion be cursed upon the earth: let what they chose be barren. For from the bosom of orphans they snatched: from the heart of the weak they snatched the word by evil persuasion. Then his sin was brought to remembrance: which he thought would come into oblivion. Let every wicked one be crushed like an incurable tree: which He does not heal. For He did not deal well with the barren woman: who is without the consolation of children. Rising up therefore, he does not believe against his own life: he does not believe to the harm of his own life; for he ought to have believed that he has an evil life, and by that very thing to rise up. When he begins to be made weak, let him not hope for health: to be afflicted. But he falls into languor.
For such an impious one seeks in adverse circumstances those consolations by which he becomes weaker. He withered like a mallow in the heat: his loftiness, because he did not bear the heat of tribulation; and "mallow" because of its weakness. Or like the ear falling of its own accord from the stubble: because its stalk was empty; for he himself chose for himself such consolations by which he is made worse and weaker. Otherwise, who is there who would say that I speak a lie? if things are also otherwise. The words of Bildad the Shuhite. For what beginning is there but fear from Him? This addition seems to agree with those words in which Job says: "Therefore at His countenance I shall be troubled, I shall consider and fear before Him." Let no one think there is delay for the pirates: without delay, according to His permission, they tempt.
For upon whom will not snares come from Him? That is, when He Himself permits. And by "snares" he means temptations. Or how shall a man be just before the Lord? Therefore He justly permits him to be tempted. Or how shall one born of woman cleanse himself? For unless he be cleansed by God, he is unclean. If He commands the moon, and it does not shine: because if the accounts and order of His providence should require that the moon not shine, He will command that it not shine, and it will not shine. But why? Does He thereby wish the moon to be seen as not clean before Him, because He commands it, and it does not shine? Or perhaps the nature of the rational soul is here figuratively suggested, for which the intelligible sun is that true light which enlightens every man?
And since the moon shines all the more to earthly sight the further it recedes from the sun, but when it draws near the sun it is extinguished to the earth: let us understand that the soul is divinely commanded that, having overcome its earthly and mortal nativity—by which its splendor appears to those seeing with earthly sense—it should appear and draw near and be subjected to Wisdom, so that, most secretly exulting in His light, it may beware of doing its righteousness before men to be seen by them, but when it glories, let it glory in the Lord, because even when it appears to men, it appears by the gift of the Creator. Nor are the stars clean before Him: in comparison with Him. The words of Job. To whom are you present, or whom will you help? When, indignant, he supposed they were to be punished by God as if for their injustice.
But speaking to himself, he recalls himself, that he might rather leave their judgment to God, lest he seem either to be present with God, or to wish to help Him as though He were too weak to restrain or correct men, or to give counsel as to what He should do with them; or to follow Him, as if he could attain the cause why He suffers deceitful men to exist and to live, when by incomprehensible power He surpasses every soul that seeks Him; or as if to announce to Him something about them, when from Him man has even his breath when he announces anything. Shall the giants be reduced to nothing? Therefore it is not to be wondered at, if God spares these, since He does not reduce the giants to nothing. And lest it be said: but they have been thrust down to the lower regions, he added that God sees hell.
And yet He has ordained them there where they deserved to be, just as He has the just—whether now, as they are, or hereafter, as they will be—although He never removes them from His face, because all things are naked before Him; so that you may take even these proud comforters as giants near at hand. Beneath the water and their neighbors: is "are held" or something of the kind to be understood under "beneath the water"? And there is no covering for perdition: even perdition does not escape Him. Stretching out the north over nothing: the north can signify the devil, and the earth the sinner, since for both the one and the other hope is empty. Suspending the earth over nothing: in the air. Binding the water in His clouds: because of the obscurity of prophecy. And the cloud is not rent beneath Him:
Beneath the truth which the cloud held, which is not rent for those who understand the Scriptures; for they are not said to be contradictory, as those who do not understand suppose. Who holds the face of the sun: lest the Sun of Righteousness be recognized by the impious. And He stretched His cloud over it: the flesh which the Lord took up. He set a precept around upon the face of the water: the peoples. Until the consummation of the light: the end of this life, that is, the end of the age; or until they are consummated, that is, perfected, the men to whom it is said: "For you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord." The pillars of heaven trembled and were astonished at His rebuke: which happened to Peter through Paul. By His power He calmed the sea:
He pacified the world, from which the Church was suffering persecution. Whence also that the pillars of heaven trembled at His rebuke can be understood in this way: that the most robust of the Church trembled for the weak at the rebuke of the Lord permitting the temptations of persecution. For the pillar cries out: "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I do not burn?" And by His prudence the sea-monster was wounded: he means the devil wounded by the grief that the just did not yield to him. And the bars of heaven fear Him: either the angels, or those who received the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And by His precept He slew the dragon, the deserter: he called the same one both "sea-monster" and "dragon."
But now he shows how it was wounded, when those who renounced it received the precept. Behold, these are the parts of His way: by which one comes to God. But who will know the power of His thunder, when He will do it? By "thunder" he means the most evident voice of His manifestation, or perhaps that voice which He gave through the son of thunder: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"—so that the order may be: "when He will do it, will anyone know the power of His thunder?" And the divine Spirit in my nostrils: here it is shown that he speaks prophetically what he says, and prophetically knows that these comforters of his are full of guile. Far be it from me to call you just, until I die:
Even if you persecute me to the death, because I reprove you freely. For I shall not separate the innocent: but not you. For I am not conscious to myself of having committed any wrong: for they are wont for the most part to spare others, who fear lest something true be cast in their teeth. For what hope is there for the impious one? Because he waits. Lest anyone should think he had wished evil to his enemies, here he made plain with what mind he spoke. For indeed he wishes their impiety to be overturned and their pride to perish: which happens when the soul which was held guilty is loosed from impiety—and it is loosed through the confession of the penitent man and the grace of the forgiving God. Therefore: for what hope is there for the impious one? Question and answer:
Because he waits and trusts in the Lord, if perchance he be loosed, or the Lord hear his prayers. Indeed another sense too may occur in these words, but it is not so woven together with both the book and the faith, as though the whole were from despair—that the impious one should have no hope at all—since against this it is written: "But to him who believes in Him who justifies the impious, his faith is reckoned unto righteousness." And therefore what follows is understood to speak of the grace of the Lord. Or, if necessity should befall him: therefore we ought to wait for the grace of Him who looses. For did he in necessity, that is, in temptation, have confidence in his merits in the sight of God? Or if he calls upon Him, will He hear him? If he calls as though with confidence in his own works, which are nothing.
Wherefore I shall announce to you what is in the hand of the Lord: what God ordains. Behold, you all know that you speak vain things vainly: on this account grace is now to be awaited. For how did he allege the merits of his own works, speaking vain things vainly? But the possession of the powerful shall come from the Almighty upon them: that the powerful may possess them, that is, the devil and his angels. And he calls them "powerful" because these will be made weak by following vanity, so that those leaders and princes of vanity may prevail over them—just as the Lord too calls him "strong man" for no other reason than that he holds the weak. But if his sons be many, they shall be for slaughter: he calls his "sons" those who invite him to seduce, the persuader of false doctrines, unto damnation.
But if they become young men, they shall be in need; that is: if they be confirmed in error, they shall be in need; for vanity has not satisfied them. And those who are around him shall die the death: those who are most like him in seducing. And he will not have mercy on their widows: the common people, whom he seduced together with them, deserted by their husbands' death—as though he had kept conjugal faith toward them in the promise of error. But if he gather silver like the earth, that is: if the prudent and wise, while they are still earth and clay—that is, while they still think foolish and carnal things—have consented to them, afterward, corrected and coming to knowledge, they shall be turned to the just. For their houses shall be like a moth and a spider, which he has kept: the heart or the conscience.
Or by "houses" he meant the defenses by which they protect themselves—cunning indeed and full of lurking-places, but most feeble, like the cocoon of the moth in which it hides itself, and the spider's web, into which, withdrawing, it covers and shuts itself up. And "which he has kept" is understood of itself within that web, because not all spiders do this: on account of the spontaneous and inward corruption of wicked thinking, and on account of the useless works which the impious one has, as it were, carefully kept for himself in the house. The rich man shall sleep and shall not add: because after death he will not add riches to those very impieties. He opened his eyes, and it is not: for in the resurrection he will not find himself rich, as he had supposed. The heat shall take him away, and he shall depart:
Either the heat of the sea, the tribulation of the age, or the heat by which the grasses that have no root wither. And it shall winnow him from his place: either from his hope, or God will winnow him from his place. That he may not be in the place of God, that is, in the people whom God has inhabited. And He shall cast upon him, and shall not spare: as it were a heap of penalties. He shall clap His hands over him. As it is said: "And I too shall laugh over their perdition"; for He shall not lament over the perdition of the impious. For there is a place of silver, whence it comes: the prudent, who are rather in action. But a place for gold, where it is purified: the wise, who are in contemplation. For iron is made from the earth: these metals are to be taken indifferently in a good sense;
For he said "iron" thus, because it makes no difference, as if he were speaking above of iron—though by "iron" the strong may be understood. For in truth there is no distinction in the wisdom of men, in that they are in it. But bronze is excluded like stones: because the whole is separated from the earth; so that he may show that the good are mixed with the wicked for a time on this account: because from these very wicked the good are sifted out, and through them they are purified—like metals necessary for work or building, which need the very earth in order to be smelted and shaped, whence also they are to be separated, so that after this separation the earth may have its place and order, just as the impious through damnation according to their merits. And He Himself found every end: that to which He might lead. But by "found" he said "He established."
A stone of darkness and the shadow of death: "stone," that is, the Old Testament, was given to darkness and the shadow of death, that is, to those pursuing carnal things, though they expected these from the one God: where the proud did not split the torrent, that is, they did not pass through the lapse of temporal things to some solidity, but were carried along by that very lapse. And there was made a splitting of the torrent from ashes, that is: from one confessing his sins and not being proud of the merits of works—which was done through the grace of the New Testament. The splitting of the torrent from ashes: from men. And they were moved by men: by flatterers, while God did not rebuke them, regarding the very things that had been promised them—by losing their primacy. The earth from which bread came forth, is to be understood:
I mean those very men who were moved, from whom, as from earth, the bread of the Lord went forth. And He is about to burn it: the unfaithful, by the heavenly judgment of the Lord. The place of sapphire are its stones. The order is: the place of sapphire, that is, of stones precious and necessary for the building of the heavenly city. And its heaps are gold: gold for it is not small, but heaps. The path which the bird has not known: the humility of the Lord. Nor did the eye of the vulture see it: of the devil. The lion did not pass over it: the one priding himself through his strength. Upon the hardest stone He stretched out His hand: for God is able to raise up sons of Abraham from the stones. And He broke through the banks of the rivers: that He might water everything. For by "rivers" he meant the preachers of the word.
For they wished to be contained within their banks, that they might preach the whole only to the circumcision. But my eye saw every precious thing: the human eye, through the Word made flesh. He revealed the depths of the rivers: the virtues of enduring persecutions are hidden and deep in a man in martyrdom, until they are revealed by the temptation of persecution. And He showed His power in the light, in those to whom He said: "You are the light of the world." Through whom also no small part of the Jews was converted. He said: The abyss: it is not in me: therefore men set in the abyss could not find it, because it is not in him. Gold enclosed shall not be given for it: that is, treasure. It shall not be worth less than the gold of Ophir: as if he should say: even so seek it.
Seek it, since indeed it is not worth less than the gold of Ophir. Gold and glass shall not be made equal to it: either some splendid glass is to be understood, or because there are men who love glass more than wisdom. And its exchange shall be vessels of gold: "they are not," understand. And the heights and the gabis shall not be in remembrance: they shall be for oblivion in comparison with it: or "the heights and the gabis," as if all proud things should not be in remembrance, so that through humility you may draw wisdom from hidden things. Whence has wisdom been found? He says, because man could not find it except through grace; therefore the heart is to be turned to God. It lies hidden from the eyes of every man: because it is not in things without sense. Perdition and death said: the lost and the dead, while they live in delights.
The Lord commended its way: the humility which is hidden from the birds of heaven. And He Himself knew its place: who is the place of wisdom but the Father? For when it is said: "I in Him and He in me," they are, as it were, mutually places to each other. For He Himself beholds all that is under heaven: in this manner He knew the things which He made, and not sensibly. The balancings and measures of the winds: the whole creation is signified by a part. And He said that all things were made well, by weight, measure, and number, in which the Creator is understood. When He made them, as He saw, He numbered them: He did not see outside Himself in order to make, but in Himself, as a craftsman. And the way of the tempests by voices: "tempests" is put for "temptations";
but "temptations" is put for those who are tempted—as the voices of a shipwreck might be said for the voices of the shipwrecked. Then He saw it and set it forth: in predestination the Lord saw the way by which the tempted should turn themselves. He prepared and searched it out: in predestination, not in action. Who then will restore me to the months of former days? These words seem to be spoken from the persona of the Church together with its Head, Christ, as though the whole man Himself speaks at a time of abundance of tribulations and temptations—as in those days of which the Lord says: "Days will come when you will desire to see one of these days, and you will not see it."
For at that time, when the Lord was on earth, there was no anxiety, although the Christian people was still small, consisting of those who had believed in Him—among whom there were more than five hundred brethren, to whom He even deigned to appear after the resurrection, as the Apostle says. There was therefore then no anxiety, lest either the Church be badly governed by evil men, or be torn by the snares of heresies or schisms. For neither did it suffer those bodily persecutions; it bore no adversities either within or without. And so Job speaks from the persona of man, that is, of the people belonging to the New Testament, longing for those days, as the Lord had foretold.
And perhaps for this reason he called them "months," not "years," because from the time the Lord chose His disciples until the Passion there were not years, but months. When His lamp shone above my head: either the flesh of the Lord visibly present, or the word from the mouth of one bodily present. When the word of the Lord looked upon my house: unto the diligence of guarding my way of life. And my boys around me: who attended humbly, ministering necessary things. When butter was rained through my ways: through my conduct, the exultation of faith and good works. When my mountains abounded with milk: when the prophets were well expounded to the little ones. When I went forth in the morning into the city:
Either when the brightness was now dawning, the darkness of fear having passed away; or at the beginning of the Church, so as to be neither too hidden nor too manifest. And in the streets a seat was set for me: the authority of teaching was conferred upon me by the crowds. The young men seeing me hid themselves: those given over to lusts. But the old men rose up: the prudent. And the powerful ceased to speak: those who prided themselves on their doctrines. Because the ear heard and blessed me: a people whom I did not know served me; at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me. And the eye seeing me turned aside: of the unbelieving Jews. And the mouth of the widow blessed me: of that soul which renounced the marriage of the devil. Behold, the dead only son of his mother, who was a widow, was being carried out.
And I clothed myself with judgment as with a cloak: in preferring spiritual things to carnal, let your left hand not know what your right hand does, that is, with what intention it works; for the left being covered, the right is put forth in the clothing of the cloak: that which it does. He who rightly judges to what end that which he works is to be referred. The judgment which I did not know, I searched out: "Behold, we have left all and followed You; what shall we have?" He says it was part of his felicity that he had One of whom to inquire concerning the future judgment. I broke the jaws of the wicked: that they might no longer devour the people from the food of bread. My age shall grow old, and like the palm tree I shall live a long time: it shall be prolonged, and I shall be like the palm tree in everlasting honor and loftiness and uprightness.
And the dew shall abide in my harvest: from the time the field is sown and sprouts, it is called "harvest." My glory is new with me, that is: of the New Testament. And my bow in my hand shall go forth: I shall do what I command. And to my speech they added nothing: it signifies the perfection of the Gospel; for the discourse given to the synagogue needed addition. But they rejoiced when I spoke to them: because the former discourse had fear, the latter charity. But if I should even laugh toward them, they did not believe: concerning those things which He spoke in parables in such a way that He was not understood, yet not so as the words seemed to sound; He was supposed to speak vain things. This is the laughter of Sarah, which signified that they did all things in prophecy: whence those who say something figuratively.
I chose their way and sat as chief: either by taking on mortality, or by dining with publicans and sinners, but in such a way that I might be chief to them unto salvation. And I dwelt like a king girt about with strong men: those who, having dismissed their own, followed Him. As one consoling the sorrowful: he means those who rejoiced in hope, while they were sorrowful concerning the present life; "blessed are they that mourn," as it is said, and: "as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing"; those who cannot hold that greatness of which it is said: "But whoever shall do and so teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." But now the lowest deride me, now those lesser in time admonish me: because afterward such men too were born in the Church and do not profit much.
He said "they admonish me," because through ecclesiastical honors they receive the power of preaching to the people, which they themselves do not do—those whose parents I scorned: he called "their parents" those by whose imitation they are sons, to whom it was then said: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." And the strength of their hands was as nothing to me: the power of their parents, who then could do so very much that they crucified the Lord. In them all life was perishing: because they did not correct themselves even at the end. Unstable through want and hunger: insatiable from various desires. Who were fleeing into the desert yesterday: betaking themselves to the excuse of the law, which they did not understand simply; and because in the desert they had received it, fleeing into the desert yesterday.
For as "today" pertains to the New Testament, so "yesterday" to the Old; for of the New it is said: "Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts," and: "You are My Son; this day have I begotten You." Who gnawed the bark of trees: because they held the figures of the law, by which useful things were covered, in place of food. Whose food was the root of grasses: the sacraments which they were bodily commanded to celebrate, as things clinging to the earth; from which, nevertheless, the fruit of simple understanding might arise and be borne up above the earth into liberty—whither those could not attain. Without honor and abject and lacking every good thing: the honor of primacy having been lost, from the hope of the promise;
because they had lost even that earthly gift according to their merits, and they do not hold the kingdom of heaven. Who ate the roots of trees because of great famine: what was said of the roots of grasses on account of the fruit of grain, this is to be understood of the roots of trees on account of the fruit of wine and oil. For the Church received all those spiritual fruits, whose roots, entangled in the earth, were the sacraments which the Jews were bodily compelled to observe: the sabbath, circumcision and the victims, and the rest of this kind of spiritual foods. Thieves rose up against me: who attained to undue honors—those proper to the just—through dark deceptions. Whose houses were caverns of rocks: .
Who defended and covered their lusts with certain obscurities of the divine books. And among the trees they cried out: their sins were manifest, although they tried to cover them with the obscurity of the Scriptures, as with the shadows of trees. Hence it is: "The cry of Sodom has ascended to me." And in very many places Scripture puts "cry" for manifest sins: so that whatever is conceived in the heart may be the "word," and the "cry" when it proceeds into the deed. Who remained beneath the roots of the earth: not even in the roots, but even lower than the roots, those can be understood to remain who keep the precepts carnally. For roots are not now the fruits themselves, but that from which the fruit-bearing parts of trees or grasses arise;
if at least it is a fruit-bearing kind, since the roots even of a non-fruit-bearing kind are called "roots." The sons of the foolish and ignoble: of the Jews; for he called these above "their parents" on account of imitation, because these too walk under the name of the God whom they do not worship. And he calls the Jews "foolish and ignoble," who on the contrary trusted themselves to be not only leaders of the blind, but also sons of Abraham, of which father they boasted to be noble. But when they hear: "the blind are leaders of the blind," they are shown to be foolish; and when they hear: "if you are sons of Abraham, do the works of Abraham," by degenerating they are shown to be ignoble. Their name and honor was extinguished from the earth: for it existed, but it has been extinguished. But now I am their harp:
Of these men the fathers are they who kept me at their ear, not at their heart. They keep me for a tale: an empty and useless story, a thing merely told and heard, although they both tell of me and listen to me. They have abhorred me and gone far off: made distant from righteousness by their sinning, and execrating the precepts of righteousness by their evil ways. Nor did they spare to spit in my face: for the face of Christ is a thing accursed to those who shrink in contempt from his precepts; or else: they have made me ill spoken of through the depravity of their own conduct. For he opened his quiver and afflicted me: the hidden things of affairs, from which temptations arise. And they put a bridle upon my face: so that against my will I should consent to them, carrying those who led me wherever they wished down to their own depths.
And on the right hand they sprang up and rose against me: by flattering and by giving good counsel they indeed arose, that they might fulfil their own desires, not by persecuting. They bound my feet with fetters: of ecclesiastical offices, so that they might not be able to flee from them. My paths were worn away: so that the ways did not appear by which the good are wont to walk, who seek not their own things but the things of Christ. For he stripped off my robe: my former authority, to which men are wont to yield, which happens when the multitude and habit of sinners prevails. And he wounded me with his darts: with the precepts whereby I see evils, and, because I cannot restrain them, I am tormented. He has abused me as he willed: God has used even my calamity and misery for his own righteousness, as he willed. I am wrapped in sorrows:
both in myself and in others I suffer; without are fightings, within are fears. Who is weak, and I am not weak? And my sorrows are renewed; my hope departs like a spirit: as though those who have turned to the hope of temporal things hold what I promise to be something empty. And my salvation has passed like a cloud: those who hope not for the promised salvation, through love of present well-being. And now my soul shall be poured out upon me: by sinning. But in the night my bones were broken: he said that the firmness which he had was snatched from him. And my sinews were loosened: my past deeds. With great force he laid hold of my robe: to display his power, now by afflicting and afterward by restoring. And he girded me about as with the collar of my garment: he left me but little of authority.
My portion is in earth and ashes: in penitence, for it is the lowest thing. They stood and gazed at me: while I lay prostrate, the proud stood by, seeking what they might find to blame in me. And thou hast cast me away from salvation: this grieves those who have lost the hope of restoration. For the earth is the house appointed for every mortal: therefore he says he fears death, because his conversation is not in heaven—according to the many who are evil in the Church and live earthly lives. And would that I might be able to slay myself: that I might die to the world. Or that I might ask another, and he might do this for me: whether a better angel or God, by whom I might be corrected. I waited for good things: he grieves, because these things befell him suddenly. My belly boiled over and will not be silent:
the inward parts, or the memory by which one recalls what one was at first and how it was afflicted in groanings. And I stood in the assembly crying out: because what I said was not heard amid the throng of those who would not be corrected. My skin is blackened exceedingly: from the things he suffered outwardly. My harp is turned to mourning: the good works by which he joyfully praised God. I made a covenant with my eyes: have I begun to hope for visible things? that I should not think upon a maiden: with 'God forbid' to be understood. From here he now begins to commemorate the merits of the Church in those who persevere to the end amid great temptations, when iniquity abounds and the love of many grows cold. And I will not think upon a maiden: the incorruption of wisdom or of righteousness.
And what other portion of God is there from above? It is to be understood: I will not think upon it. Or thus: and what is there save that? If I have walked with mockers: it is already hard for the good who are in the Church not to be associated with such men. Or, if my foot has hastened to deceit: hypocrisy. Let me sow and let others eat my fruits: as befell the Jews, that is: to say the things that others may rather do than they themselves. Let me be without root upon the earth: that I may easily wither. For he stands firm in the earth as upon a rock who does what he says. If my heart has followed a woman: that it might seek its own glory among the people of God rather than God's, to whom alone it is justly owed. Or if I have lain in wait at his gates:
if I have insidiously sought to capture the desires of that people, or the fear by which they were swayed, so that they might serve me rather than God. Let my wife also please another: my reputation pleasing the devil, whom when we please, we displease God; for he rejoices in our evils. And let my sons be brought low: my deeds, or my imitators. For the fury of my soul is untamed to defile a man's wife: by claiming her for myself. But if I have despised the cause of my manservant or maidservant when they pleaded with me: according to what is said, 'If then you have secular cases.' By 'servants' he meant the laity, still given over to worldly things. But if I have despised their visitation, what answer shall I give in the tribulation that I have as conscience, because I despised these things?
Was not he too conceived in the womb as I was? For in all the sacraments the same things are proclaimed, and they believe the same things. And we were likewise in the womb. For the one who is fully to serve God does not renounce otherwise than the other does. And from my mother's womb I was a leader to them: for from its very beginning the Church does these works. Or if I despised the naked one perishing and did not cover him: if I did not, by faith in the remission of sins as with a garment, veil from the nakedness of his foulness—that is, of sin—the one perishing, having no garment; for already he despairs through the multitude of his sins. And from this is the saying: 'and whose sins are covered.' If the shoulders of the weak did not bless me: covered over as with a cloak by the hope of immortality.
But lest, after the faith of the remission of sins, they should think it enough to be free from the fear of past punishments and should begin to hope for temporal things, he well added: 'they were warmed from the fleece of my sheep,' because they were rescued from the chill of their earthly hope by consideration, if by renunciation they laid aside carnal things, after the example of the flock of the shorn. If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless: who, not finding a father, was able to follow a creature or a man—trusting, because there is much help for me—wishing to lord it over them. Let my shoulder fall from my collarbone: which befalls those who separate themselves from the Church while they wish to lord it over the peoples, so that they suffer a cutting off of their cutting off. By 'shoulder' or 'arm' actions are signified.
For fear restrained me: lest I should lift my hand against the fatherless. And I shall not endure under his weight: if I should wish to oppress the fatherless. I have made gold my strength: have I presumed upon the doctrine or wisdom of God? But if I have trusted in the precious stone: as it were upon my own works. If I have rejoiced when my wealth was great: as if upon my own, so that he who glories should glory in the Lord. If I have set my soul among things innumerable—to be supplied with all this: let my arm fall from my shoulder—: in that I was loved by many. And my heart was secretly deceived. The order is: if I have set my soul among things innumerable, and my heart was secretly deceived: if I consented to such a thought, so as to presume upon myself.
But if I have kissed my hand, putting it to my mouth: I rejoiced as though over my own works. But if I have rejoiced over the ruin of my enemy: of the Church, such as are the persecutors of the Church. Let my ear hear my own curse: let it be brought to my understanding. Let me be defamed as a reproach among my own people: among the people of the saints, that I may be separated as one mocked. But if my maidservants have often said: flatterers. 'Who shall grant us that we may be filled with his flesh?' when I was good enough: that they might imitate carnal happiness in me. Yet I did not do these things; for lest they should say such things, I did not show myself good to them in such matters. The stranger did not lodge outside: I received the pilgrim in the world. But if, sinning of my own will, I hid my sin:
for if we sin willingly after we have received the knowledge of the truth. Or if I have let the weak one go out my door with empty bosom: so that he went out the door for this reason, that he was with empty bosom. Who shall grant me a hearer? Who shall furnish me that I may be heard? If I have not feared the hand of the Lord, who wrote: 'If you do not forgive, neither will your Father forgive you.' If I have any bond of indebtedness. The order is: if I have any written bond, and if I have not torn it from off my shoulders, and crowned I shall read it publicly, lifting it upon my shoulders:
and crowned I shall read it publicly, that is, I will set thee against my face, before thy face, because I shall be confounded by the people's crown, since I did not keep the commandment of the Lord which I had already said that I kept, by first denying that I had a written bond, which afterward is brought against me. If ever the earth groaned over me: the hired servants of the Church, that I am evil. Or if its furrows wept together: where the seeds are received and from which the fruits are given; because I am both evil and was sowing evil seeds, therefore 'together.' Or if I have eaten its strength alone without price: that very mercy by which he who is catechized shares with the one catechizing; that is, 'alone,' not repaying him who gave. Or if, deceiving, I have grieved the soul of the lord of the land:
by not showing myself worthy of the passion of him who poured out his soul for me. 'Grieve not the Holy Spirit within you.' Let the nettle spring up for me instead of wheat: instead of spiritual teachers, masters of those who itch in their hearing, through the chafings of men corrupt in mind and destitute of the truth. And the thorn instead of barley: sinners and the resistant instead of the carnal who obey. For Job was righteous in his own sight: in his own conscience. The words of Elihu the Buzite. 'God cast him off and not a man': so that I may give this reason why they were silent. 'And I will not answer him with your words': for I will say such things that he will not be able to answer me as he answered you. 'Because therefore I waited and they did not speak': as though turning to Job he says.
My belly is like new wine, full to bursting: Scripture commends this man, because he is about to speak in prophecy. And like a coppersmith's bellows burst open: I speak of the force for dissolving hardness; hence he is also said to be angry. For there would be no need that I should speak, if you had answered him. Otherwise the moths too will eat me: either like you or like all who admire men's persons. My heart is clean in my words: not double. The divine Spirit that made me: supply 'is,' so that it reads: it is the divine Spirit that made me. How then do you say, 'I am righteous, and he did not hear me'? as though Job had said it to his adversary. For the Lord speaks once: as though the Lord made the calling of all the righteous once, and divine providence works this in temporal fashion concerning individuals.
through a dream or in a vision of the night: either in ignorance or in tribulation. Or as when fierce fear falls upon men while they sleep secure in their chambers. And let him deliver his body from ruin: transferred, as 'bones.' And he spared his soul from death: when he converts him, he will spare him. Because war is about to come, and again he will reprove him in weakness upon the bed: after his conversion he now tests him, lest he presume upon himself. And the multitude of his bones withered away: his self-confidence. And he will not be able to take any food: consolation from temporal things. And he will renew his body like a plastering on a wall: a change of life; and here transferred because of the building, that is, into fellowship. And he will soften his flesh like a little child's:
lest he be hard with pride, according to what Elihu seems to mean: Job is tempted, made humble through renewal. And he entered with a cheerful face along with confession: ready for temptations. Save my soul, that I come not into corruption: here is the temptation of death. Three turns with the man: of conversion, of probation, of death. But he rescued my soul from death: because this last, of death, still remains. That my soul in the light may praise him together: now therefore prayers shall cease, because there will be no need. And Elihu answering said. As it is said: 'and he added.' And you who have knowledge, give ear: spiritual men. For the ear tries words: this carnal ear. What good is it that Job said, 'I am righteous'? What good did he say in that he said it?
And in my judgment he has lied. From this is: 'I waited for good things'; therefore he lied contrary to hope. Who is a man like Job? These are still the words of Job; for he said: 'He will not be visited who walked with God': here he thinks him deceived, because hoping for this he did all those things; or certainly: that he does not think the one who walked with the Lord to be visited unto good. Far be impiety from the Lord: either that he should not visit unto good the one who walked with him, or, even if he should visit him in temptation, that he should act impiously and unjustly. He is impious who says to a king, 'You act unjustly.' But you ought not to say that, who are not impious. He well says 'who says,' not 'who has said,' lest he be such even on this account. As it is said: 'it is done,' of one who does this.
'Most impiously to the princes.' As though he should say to the angels: unless it be Michael your prince, you act most impiously; or: if it is said most impiously to princes, how much more to a king! For they abused unjustly when the weak were excluded: they made evil use of their exclusion, when through weakness they were excluded from that vision in which all things are seen to be most ordered and administered by God in divine order. But they made evil use of it in this, that they chose rather to follow their own spirit, and to think God did not care for these things; for from this it will come about for them in vain, that in their needs they cry out and entreat man, when they ought to have entreated God. Nor will there be a place, and there is no shadow of death, that those who do iniquity may lie hidden. The shadow of death is not for this, that they may lie hidden, as in:
'The old do not possess wisdom,' because old age is not the cause of wisdom, and 'Greet not a heretic'—not insofar as he is a heretic. And he will overturn the night, and they shall be brought low: so that what was beneath them may be above them, that is: that what was subjected to them may press them down. And he extinguished the impious: they seemed to themselves to give light. And they did not know his righteous acts: he tells what good God has done out of their iniquity, so that the cry of the poor may be carried up to him. He himself will give rest, and who shall be able to condemn? not such rest as men seek, which is troubled by those tribulations; if God justifies, who is he that condemns? And against a nation and against a man together: against Gentiles and Jews.
Who makes a hypocrite to reign as a man because of the perversity of the people. To whom it is said: 'You then who teach another, do you not teach yourself?' I shall see apart from myself; do you show me: do I, in reproving you, perhaps not see that I myself must be reproved? It must be pronounced as a question. If I have wrought iniquity, I will not add to it: being corrected by you. Does he exact it from you, because you have rejected? because you have reproved. And the wise man will hear my word: that God cares for all things. But Job did not speak in wisdom: thinking that something befell him unjustly from God. Why have you reckoned this in judgment? Why have you judged this? Who are you who said, 'I am righteous before the sight of the Lord'? Before the sight of the Lord you said, 'I am righteous.'
For each is blameworthy in a man: the one, if it be said proudly or be false that he is righteous even according to human righteousness; the other, because it can never truly be said by a man that he is righteous before the sight of God, compared to whom anyone whatsoever is unrighteous. Or you say: 'What does it profit you, or what shall I do, if I have sinned?' For this is what Job seems to have said to God, as though either his sin profited God, that by this grief he should be forced to piety. Where he says: 'Do not teach me to be impious': 'or is it good for you if I act unjustly?'—or that he should harm God by sinning, and that therefore God so pursues him as though pressing his own enemy, lest he should suffer any evil from him. For he had also said this: 'If I have sinned, what can I do to you?'
Therefore Elihu answers to both points in the words that follow: I will give you an answer, and to your three friends. Look up to heaven and see; behold the clouds, how high they are above you. If you have sinned, what do you do? He confirms what was said by him: 'If I have sinned, what can I do to you?' Or if you have done many unjust things, what shall you be able to do? It is more, 'You have done many unjust things,' than what he said above, 'You have sinned.' But still, what shall you be able to do to God, when you cannot even harm a cloud? And if you are righteous, what shall you give him? On the contrary: as your righteousness profits him nothing, so your unrighteousness harms him nothing. Or what shall he receive from your hand? even if you wish to give—because of the sacrifices which fools think God wishes to take as though needing them.
Your impiety is against a man like yourself, and your righteousness against a son of man: either the former harms or the latter profits. But by these verses he rather confirmed than refuted the opinion which Job spoke: 'If I have sinned, what can I do to you?' Consequently, then, it is fitting that he should show why in this life men are afflicted with the injuries of the wicked, among whom even the devil with his angels is reckoned, the prince of all injuries and iniquities. For since sinners cannot harm God, why does he deliver them up into the power of the wicked to be afflicted? And he expounds this next, saying: From the multitude they will cry out, they will cry aloud from the arm of many. And he did not say, 'Where is God who made me?' For they suffer these things for this end, that they may seek God, not that they may cry aloud in vain.
But that he said 'he made me' is for proof, that he will not forsake the one seeking him whom he himself made. Who appoints the night watches: the times of this age ordered under certain powers, because not even in this night of error will he leave without guard the man whom he made. Who separates me from the four-footed beasts of the earth and from the birds of heaven, and has made me wiser: for thus the Lord is to be sought in the afflictions of this life, that we should not desire earthly goods from him, because we are already better than the beasts before we receive those goods. There they will cry out, and you will not hear. There he said, 'in the multitude, in the affliction of those crying out from the arm of many'; or certainly 'there' on account of this, as it is: 'there the workers of iniquity have fallen.'
And 'you will not hear what he said,' he said concerning that one. From the injuries of the wicked: supply 'they will cry out.' For the Lord does not wish to look upon vain things: he does not wish to come to the aid of those asking for vain things and crying aloud in affliction not in order to receive eternal goods, since for that very reason they have been separated from the four-footed beasts of the earth and made wiser than the birds of heaven; but they cry aloud because they are not happy amid the iniquity of this world. For the Almighty himself perceives those who do righteousness, and he will save me: as he himself sees those who do, who perceives the inmost parts of the heart, so he saves them with that salvation which he himself sees in secret, because neither eye has seen nor ear heard nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him.
Therefore even though the vain safety of a man be disturbed, yet the Father who sees in secret gives help out of tribulation. So judge him, if you can praise him as he is; for this Job seemed to say when he said: 'Would that there were an arbiter for us!' And now because there is not one visiting his wrath, nor has he taken note of transgressions vehemently: he has taken note, unto vengeance. Whence is: 'For I acknowledge my iniquity'; and in the same place: 'Turn away your face from my sins.' He has therefore taken note of transgressions; for men do suffer tribulation in this world, but not vehemently, because, correcting in part, you give place for repentance. And Job vainly opened his mouth; in his ignorance he multiplies words. Bear with me a little, that I may teach you;
for there are still words in me. Receiving my knowledge from afar: for as long as we are in this body, we are pilgrims away from the Lord. But by my works which are just, I will speak. Lest it be said to him what God says to the sinner: 'Why do you declare my righteous decrees and take up my covenant in your mouth? But you have hated instruction.' Therefore here one must speak by works; for knowledge is received from afar in part and in a riddle. But when that which is perfect comes, that which is in part shall be done away, and it will no longer be from afar, since we shall see him as he is. In truth and not unjust words you will unjustly understand: he says that those very words which Job suffered are God's words, in truth and not unjust;
but he reckons it understood unjustly by that one whom he thinks to complain that he suffers undeservedly, although even concerning the tribulation of the righteous it is said: 'It is time that judgment begin at the house of the Lord.' And know that the Lord will not cast away the innocent: although he chastens whom he loves and scourges every son whom he receives. Strong in the strength of heart, he does not give life to the impious: although for a time he seems to spare him. And well: 'strong in the strength of heart,' because then he will not give him life, when he seeks a place for late repentance with tears, and will not find it nor bend to mercy the one judging strongly, whom he now despises mercifully admonishing him. And he will give the judgment of the poor: by which he may judge those from whom they suffer iniquity. And well:
'of the poor,' so that you may understand, as above, the impious rich man, that is, the proud. He will not take his eyes from the righteous: even when he proves him as in a furnace by the temptation of tribulation, he will not take from him the understanding by which God is known and worshipped. From which he sufficiently shows that the very blindness is the punishment of the impious, even when they seem to be spared. And with kings on a throne: supply 'he has made them sit,' that is, the righteous; but he calls 'kings' those who rule their own flesh. Whence is that saying: 'What king is there who goes to wage war with another king,' and so forth. And he has made them sit forever, and they shall be exalted: here too is supplied what he said above, 'with kings on a throne.' And he said 'they shall be exalted,' because they have been humbled.
And those who are bound with fetters: from which bond the Apostle says it is good for him to be dissolved and to be with Christ, that is, the bonds of this life, in which the body that is corrupted weighs down the soul. They shall be caught in the cords of poverty: they shall be bound fast by the long habits of carnal delights, which arise from the want of things, by which mortal life is sustained and carried on. And their works are announced to them: not indeed good works, nor those very concupiscent ones of which it is said, 'I know that good does not dwell in my flesh.' Which, even if they do not reign in our mortal body so that we obey them, are nevertheless not lacking; or those by which a man has deserved to come to these things by the propagation of sin. And their transgressions, when they have been strengthened:
these are the very works he spoke of above. For they cannot easily be announced—that is, made manifest—to the weak, but to those who have already so advanced that they have passed beyond all that iniquity which is commonly known in the most open works of shame and crime. But he will hear the righteous one: namely, him who lives by faith, so that he should impute to the grace of God, not to his own merits, not only that he is justified according to the manner of this life, but also what remains, that he be freed from the universal evil of transgressions; which things truth announces to the faithful, when they have been strengthened, when they shall be caught in the cords of poverty; for they are still bound with fetters, not yet exalted to sit on a throne with kings forever.
And he said that they shall be turned from iniquity. By 'and he said,' 'God' is to be understood. If they obey and serve, they shall complete their days in good things and their years in glory: but then indeed there will be no sin in man, because there will be no strife of death, that is, no want of mortality, which came about through sin, when it shall now be said: 'O death, where is your strife?' But the impious he will not make safe, because they would not know the Lord: this seems to pertain rather to the Gentiles. And when they were admonished, they were disobedient: this pertains to the Jews and all who through disobedience are like them, even in the Church. And the hypocrites in heart will lay up wrath: by which they crucified the Lord. They will not cry out, because he has bound them:
by the honor of his name above all nations. Therefore let their soul die in youth: in the pride by which they exalted themselves as though on the merits of their own works. And let their life be wounded by the angels: it is more fittingly taken as 'by the messengers of truth,' to some of whom the savor of life is unto life, to others the savor of death unto death. Because they afflicted the weak and powerless: that weak thing of God, which is stronger than men. But he will establish the judgment of the meek: the Lord himself, by the example of his own meekness, deferring even the vengeance of those who imitate him, yet that vengeance will certainly come. And because the abyss deceived you from the mouth of the enemy: it deceived, as it seemed to his persecutors, the depth of this world deceived Christ from the mouth of the false witness; for he turns his speech to the Lord himself.
Poured out beneath them: supply 'they deceived the weapons'; for, weighed down by earthly desires, they are said to be poured out beneath the abyss. And your table came down full of fatness: the sacrament of his body and blood, the bread that came down from heaven. Judgment shall not fail the righteous: although the poor eat and are filled, to imitate the passions of the Lord, ready out of the fullness of love, yet not on that account does he fail to do their judgment quickly. And wrath shall be upon the impious because of the impiety of the gifts which they received by iniquities: he calls 'gifts' all temporal advantages whatsoever, for the sake of which advantages iniquities are committed. Let not the will of the mind turn you away:
It is said to the Lord, not with the authority of one admonishing or the boldness of one commanding, but with the utterance of prophecy through the imperative mood, foretelling things to come, as it is: 'Gird your sword upon your thigh, O most mighty.' From the prayers of the weak, when they shall be in necessity, crying out: 'Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' And all who have strength: presuming upon their own works and wishing to establish their own righteousness. Do not draw it out through the night: let it be manifest that you separate them from the people, whether those proud ones who were broken off from the olive tree, or the branches cut off from the vine, whence heresies and schisms have arisen. That peoples may ascend in their place:
that the weak things of this world may be grafted in, the strong being confounded, since whoever humbles himself shall be exalted, and whoever exalts himself shall be humbled. But take care that you do nothing unseemly: lest the name of the Lord God and the doctrine be blasphemed, while those whose judgment is just say, 'Let us do evil that good may come.' For this you have chosen above want: not only have you chosen the want of one confessing, but above this the comeliness of life and conduct, that saving doctrine may be adorned in all things. Behold, God will console—or: he will be strengthened in his strength: because although he was crucified out of weakness, yet he lives out of the power of God. For who is mighty like him? Or who is there that may scrutinize his works? as though passing judgment on him, when he himself is the judge of the living and the dead.
Or who is there that may say, 'He has done unjustly'? Remember that his works are great, which men have praised: the evangelists and all the preachers of the word who by their ministry agreed with their life. Every man looks to him: mindful of human weakness. Whatever men are pricked in conscience: men are by the repentance of sins. Behold, God is great, and we shall not know: great, because where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; but 'we shall not know' is said in the person of those of whom blindness in part has come, until the fullness of the Gentiles should enter in. The number of his years is infinite: it is set down on account of eternity. But to him belong the innumerable drops of rain:
for this gospel, which the preaching men have filled, is numerable until the consummation of the age, until knowledge which is in part be taken away, and that which is perfect come, face to face. The rain shall be poured out along his paths: for the ways of the wicked will not contain him. The clouds shall flow and grow dark over very many men: because, even though the gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those who perish. He has appointed an hour for the beasts of burden, and they know the order of their lair: for 'the ox knew his owner, and the ass his master's crib.' In all these things his mind is not astonished: 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.' Nor is your heart changed from its body: that, lifted up from the earth, it may be held aloft toward the Lord.
If he should think to spread out the mist: so that those who see might become blind. As he spreads out a tabernacle, even so he stretched it: for, dwelling in mortal flesh as in a tabernacle, through it he was not recognized by his persecutors, while he yielded to them and stretched it out and spread it open upon the cross. Behold, he pours out his light over all things: which he had hidden, when blindness came in part to Israel, he pours out over all the nations. And he covered over the roots of the sea: he reproved the desire of the world. For the light covers not in order to hide, but to make manifest. For in these he judged the peoples by showing them their sins through the light of truth. He will give food to very many: namely, to those who, when they are reproved, acknowledge their sins and hunger and thirst after righteousness.
'He covered the light in his hands.' If from the fact that they are 'monstrous,' it refers to those who do not forgive sins to men, while they themselves wish to be forgiven by God; but if from the fact that they are 'hands,' it refers to those who are lifted up out of their own hands, that is, out of their works, justifying themselves. For he said that he 'covered the light' to this end, that it might not be seen by them, because their foolish heart was darkened. And he gave commandment concerning it for the contrary purpose: that those who do the truth — whether by forgiving so that it may be forgiven them, or by confessing their evils so that they may be made subject to the grace of God — may themselves come to the light, that their works may be made manifest, since they have been wrought in God, not in themselves. For he is the contrary both of the monstrous as the merciful one, and of the proud as the humble one. 'That he might announce concerning it to his friend.'
Concerning that light, that is, concerning that which he covered so as to hide it from the monstrous and ungrateful man, that he might announce it, that is, lay it open — no longer to a servant under the law, but to one reconciled through grace; or to his friend, his imitator, since the Son of Man also came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. 'A possession against him who strive to ascend': that they may possess that very light, who draw themselves away from earthly things. For it is announced to those very ones who as yet strive to ascend, because when they shall have ascended, there will be no need of one to announce, since they will see face to face. But as for what he says, 'who strive to ascend,' this is not as though resisting, but as going to meet, just as the Apostle says: 'to meet Christ.' 'But at this also my heart was astonished': with admiration.
'And it was plucked out of its place': out of earthly things, in which it delighted, that it might be held upward toward the Lord. 'Hear the sound of his terror and of his voice': from this it appears that he is saying these things in the Spirit; for he begins to tell why his heart was plucked out of its place, namely by the authority of the Gospel sounding terribly throughout the whole world: 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 'And at the din of his mouth they go forth': to those, of course, who are outside in the delights of visible things. 'It compasses the whole heaven beneath, and his light to the ends of the earth': while the Church is spread abroad among all nations. 'After him a voice shall roar': after his first coming, the last trumpet of his second coming shall thunder in glory.
'In the sound of his pride': he put 'pride' for loftiness, because the first coming was in humility. 'And it cannot be searched out, when his voice shall have been heard': now therefore let the Lord be sought while he can be found, that is, laid hold of unto salvation by an unfeigned faith; for then he cannot be found, when he shall have come to judge and his voice shall have been heard saying, 'Go into eternal fire,' since then the repentance of the unbelieving will be too late and fruitless. 'The Strong One shall thunder wondrously with his voice': because that voice of his first coming was not of his strength, but of our weakness through the participation of mortality, of which it is said, 'That which is weak of God is stronger than men.' 'For he has done great things which we knew not.'
These things were in his first coming; and therefore afterward, to exact what he has given, the Judge will come. But 'which we knew not' was said in the person of those from whom the divinity of the Lord lay hidden, as they beheld the weakness of his flesh. 'Commanding the cloud: Be over the earth': to his flesh, that through the sacrament it may be received in remembrance of him, unto imitation of his humility and the forming of charity. 'And the storm of rain, and the storm of showers of his power': for the cloud indeed is over the earth; but when it shall be wrung out to water hearts through the rain and showers of the word — which happens when the sacraments are understood — that lies not in our power, but in his. 'In the hand of every man he sets a seal.'
He signifies to him through his own works how guilty he is, that every man may know his own weakness and cry out: 'Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' 'But the beasts went in under shelter and rested in their lair': but sinners went in under the indulgence of grace and rested in conscience, their sins being remitted. 'From the storehouses a storm comes upon them': temptation out of the hidden order of things. 'And from the storehouses, cold': judgment out of secret things upon those who do not persevere. So that their charity may grow cold through the abundance of iniquity; for deservedly it befalls them, while they place their hope not in God, but in men. 'And from the Spirit of God ice shall be given.'
Not only do those grow cold from the abundance of the wicked, who place their hope in men, but even from the good works of those in whom is the Spirit of God, certain men harden as if with the ice of envy — to whom Paul is 'the odour of death unto death.' And for these things who is sufficient, to understand that rightly and justly 'from the Spirit of God ice shall be given'? For just as it befalls carnal men, while men praise carnal things, to grow cold by despairing through the iniquity of men, so it befalls carnal men who desire to be praised by men, to harden by envying through the righteousness of men. 'But he governs the water as it pleases him': so that it rains upon one city and rains not upon another — which, as far as the spiritual rain is concerned, is according to the merits of souls that are subject or not subject.
'And the cloud watered the grain': let us therefore be grain, if we desire to be watered. 'He scattered his light as a cloud': the Gospel of his incarnation. 'And it is turned about in a circuit': it is handled throughout the whole earth. 'By guidings, to work all things whatsoever he has commanded them': the guidings, by which that cloud is turned about in a circuit, are the preachers of the word, through whom the churches are governed to work all the commandments of God. 'These things have been established by him over the earth': by our Lord Jesus Christ. 'Whether in a tribe, or in his own land.'
Whether in the tribe of Judah, from which according to the flesh he was born and suffered and rose again and ascended into heaven — for from this were begotten the apostles and many brethren 'found near' and made safe — whether before his passion called by himself, or after his ascension called through the apostles in Jerusalem itself and in the churches of Judaea which were in Christ, as the Apostle Paul records: 'for the truth of God, to confirm the promises of the fathers.' 'Or in mercy he willed it to be found': that cloud, namely, he willed to be found in mercy by the believing Gentiles; for this follows: 'but the Gentiles to glorify God for his mercy.' 'Give ear to these things, O Job': as though he renews attention, being about to speak of the calling of the Gentiles.
'Stand, and be moved at the power of the Lord': be not moved in mind by attributing anything to yourself. 'We know that God has set forth his works': reproving, of course, those who glory in their own works. 'When he made light out of darkness': when he justified the ungodly; 'for you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord.' 'He knows the difference of the clouds': of the evangelists — some believing in him before the passion, others after the passion. 'And the great fallings of the wicked': not of those who fell as they crucified him, so that they might afterward repent and be baptized into him, but the fallings of those who could not even be corrected, persevering even afterward in persecuting the Church; for of these the fallings are not small, but great. 'But your robe is mighty': a proud dignity.
For it is said as it were against him who dares to be lifted up out of his own works. 'When the earth is at rest, will you, from the south, firmly establish with him the heavens, which were equally spread out to be seen?' By 'the earth from the south' we fittingly understand those who from among the Jews believed in Christ. For just as the sun is farther removed from the northern land, but nearer to the southern, so those whom the Apostle says were 'found near' to the light of the evangelists are not absurdly taken as 'the earth from the south.' And just as we are wont to take the heavens as the evangelists — as it is written, 'The heavens declare the glory of God' — for of these it was said, 'Into all the earth their sound went forth, and unto the ends of the world their words' — so we rightly take the 'lands' as the peoples to whom the Gospel was preached.
And since the peoples who from Judaea had believed, after they had rested by departing from this earth — for now they are not here; yet the authority of the evangelists has been firmly established in the churches which are from among the Gentiles, and the mercy of God has been confirmed, no longer with the authority of the churches of Judaea, which is in Christ, lending aid — therefore this is the sense, that it be uttered by way of a question: Will you, when the earth from the south is at rest, that is, when there no longer exists in this life any Christian people from among the Jews, firmly establish with him the evangelists and the books of the divine Scriptures, which through the mercy of God were spread out equally to be seen not only by the Jews, but also by the Gentiles?
For he commends the grace and mercy of God, lest anyone glory in merits, which was the pride of the Jews. 'Therefore teach me what we should say to him, and let us cease saying many things': because there is nothing which they, being convicted, may say to him — that they have no merit of themselves, but stand in need of his mercy. 'Are you a book or a scribe standing by me, that, standing, I may make man keep silence?' Why then do you not speak, if you have anything to say? For you are not, as it were, taking down what I dictate, so that you say nothing; but rather we converse together. 'But the light which shines in the clouds is not visible to all': he returns to the things he was saying about the hope of the remission of sins and of the grace of illumination through the mercy of God; for the light shines in the clouds.
Yet it is not proper to those clouds themselves: for they are illuminated. For it is one thing to shine with one's own light, another to shine again by being illumined. But it is not visible to all; for many think that souls shine with their own light, when they are wise. Whence are those 'who, saying that they were wise, became fools.' 'And the Spirit passes and shall cleanse them': here he called it 'the Spirit,' concerning which it is said, 'From the rebuke of the spirit of your wrath,' and, 'Whither shall I flee from your spirit?' For through the chastisements of temptations the merit of men is shown to them, because they themselves are darkness through their own sins and stand in need of the glory of God, that they may wish to be illumined by his light, giving honour to him, not to themselves, and thus, pride being laid aside, may be cleansed from their great offence.
For the Spirit of sanctification does not pass away, but abides. 'From the north come clouds of golden colour': from the most wicked impiety and far removed from God they come, nevertheless converted and cleansed and illumined with wisdom. Whence? Save through grace, by which merits are not regarded, but sins are forgiven. Whence he, when he wished to be pardoned, says, 'I will teach the unrighteous your ways, and the ungodly shall be converted to you' — like clouds from the east or north now of a golden colour, their darkness being illumined. 'In these is the great glory and honour of the Almighty': to whom most is forgiven, loves most, since he who is Almighty is able even to justify the ungodly. 'And we find no other like to his power.'
For he alone committed no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; for God alone is truthful, but every man a liar: whence he conquered, when he was judged, having become God-man. 'Who judges justly, do you not think that he hears?' Let not man therefore, by despairing of pardon, add sins to sins, as though already given over to damnation, because he is certain of the justice of God, under which he cannot be unpunished. For God so judges justly that he even hears those who beg pardon. And so much the more, the more justly he judges. For it is not of just judgment to mingle the suppliant penitents with those who refuse the humility and the satisfaction of penitence. 'Therefore men shall fear him.'
If men remember that they are men by confessing their sins, since they are still men. To whom it is said: 'Are you not men?' 'The wise of heart shall also fear him': lest, by attributing to themselves what they have received and saying that they are wise, they become fools. For that can be taken away from the proud which is given to the humble. Wherefore even the wise — although they be wise by the illumination of the heart, not by the boasting of the tongue — and kings, spiritually judging the earth, while they themselves are judged by no one, let them nevertheless serve the Lord in fear and rejoice with trembling, lest they perish from the right way; for it is God who works in them both to will and to work according to good will. 'And after Elihu ceased to speak, the Lord spoke to Job through the whirlwind of a cloud.'
Even if this voice was made in the same manner as it was to Moses, or in the manner in which the Lord had shown himself to three disciples on the mountain, nevertheless, since it was not said simply 'through a cloud,' but 'through the whirlwind of a cloud,' I judge this to be signified: that Job was questioned, that is, tempted, not through sound flesh, but through the tribulation and perturbation of the flesh. 'Who is it that hides counsel from me, holding words in his heart, and thinks to escape my notice?' There is therefore no one who may say that he suffers anything harsh without deserving it; because if not in deeds, at least in words there is sin; and if not in words, at least by rash presumption within in the heart, or in the discourses of thoughts.
And since these things are not hidden from God, let no one who is scourged say that he undeservedly receives discipline, as though there were nothing further in which he might profit through it. For it must be known that thus at the beginning of this book Job was praised by the testimony of God before the devil, and at the end before his three friends, in such a way that nevertheless God knew how much was still lacking to him for perfection — to which a Father's scourges lead even men praiseworthy according to this life and already pleasing to God; which scourges he willed not to remove from the Apostle, saying, 'My grace is sufficient for you; for strength is made perfect in weakness.' 'Gird your loins as a man': it signifies that the servants of God suffer hard and bitter things in this world to this end, that they may gather and constrain all their affections from the flux of earthly delights.
'I will question you; do you, however, answer me: Where were you when I founded the earth?' From here he now begins to commend the eminence of our Lord Jesus Christ, because in him is the salvation of all who were stricken by the venomous persuasion of the serpent, lest each should think salvation to be in himself for himself. For he is that God — not as it was said, 'You are gods and sons of the Most High,' but he who 'thought it not robbery to be equal' with the Father, and the Son of Man, not as the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation, but 'above his fellows': for he is not merely just, like Job, like Paul, like the Church, but also justifying, as the only-begotten of the Father, 'full of grace and truth.'
In order, therefore, to insinuate the difference of his divine humanity, in which the prince of this world found nothing — because in the passion, which he did not seize by robbery, he then paid the debt — and the justification of the saints through the remission of sins, in which saints gathered into one his body the Church is made, of which Church Job is also a particle according to history, because he was justified, and a figure of the universal Church through prophecy, he begins to say what he is about to say. 'Where were you when I founded the earth?' Was it because he did not yet exist, or because it was not founded through him, as through the only Son? And this earth, or the Church itself? For she received the cornerstone, of which he is presently about to speak. 'Tell me, if you know knowledge.'
For these things which were done by the Lord for us in time pertain to knowledge. 'Who set its measures, if you know?' According to the distribution of spiritual gifts. For 'to each one of us is given grace according to the measure of the giving of Christ.' Wherefore he says: 'Ascending on high, he led captivity captive, he gave gifts to men,' because 'if the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?' For according to the measure of each part he makes the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in charity. 'Or who is he that brought a measuring line over it?' That he might make it his inheritance, distinguishing it from those to whom he says, 'I never knew you.' For 'the Lord knows who are his.' 'Or upon what are its circles fixed?'
Because they constrain it, lest it be dissolved — the divine books fixed upon the Lord; because whoever shall wish to interpret them apart from him must needs waver and err. 'But who is he that set the cornerstone upon it?' Which 'the builders rejected.' 'When the stars were made together': so many thousands baptized together by the word of life, shining among sinners as in the darkness. 'All my angels praised me with a loud voice': the evangelists. 'I shut up the sea with gates': the peoples embittered by love of earthly things. But why 'with gates'? Perhaps so that he might not only have a means of exercising the just by persecutions, but also that it might be permitted to the just to go forth from there. 'When it raged from the womb of its mother, wishing to go forth.'
When it was wroth in the council of the city of Babylon, fornicating with love of this world, wishing to extend its persecutions to destroy from the earth those of whom it is said, 'I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you take them from evil.' 'I put round about it a cloud for a covering': for not only the good, but also many evil men and lovers of this world have been made subject to the sacrament of the body of Christ, by whose authority they are restrained from the persecution of the saints. 'And I wrapped it about with mist': with ignorance, by which they expect earthly felicity therefrom and fear earthly infelicity; and on this account they fear those whom, were it not so, they would persecute. For it was said not only:
'The poor shall eat and be filled, and they that seek him shall praise the Lord,' but it was also said: 'All the rich of the earth have eaten and worshipped.' 'And I set bounds to it, imposing bars and gates': bounds, by which its savagery may be restrained, not so that it afflicts nothing, but so far as it may exercise; bars, that the unjust may not advance; gates, that through them the just may go forth. 'And I said: Thus far shall you come and not pass over': just as the devil himself received a measure, how far he might afflict Job, so that sea, how far it might persecute the Church. 'But in yourself shall your waves be broken to pieces': by the mutual devastation of discords and wars. 'Or have I appointed with you the morning light?' That is:
Did I by your counsel predestine the time of the resurrection? 'Or did Lucifer know his own order?' It is to be supplied: 'was it with you?' And he calls the Lord 'Lucifer' on account of that very morning rising of the resurrection. For it could not be said of another: 'And let Lucifer arise in your hearts.' He himself acknowledged his own order, that he might be the 'firstfruits of them that sleep, the firstborn from the dead, the head of the Church,' the body also to follow in the future resurrection of the saints. 'To lay hold of the wings of the earth?' It is said: 'If I take my wings straight upward' — the spiritual virtues, namely, of the faithful, by which they are suspended away from worldly enticements. 'To shake out the ungodly from it?'
For to this end he rose again so long beforehand, acknowledging his own order, that he might instill faith in the resurrection, and that through those very wings of the Church, being everywhere preached by the ministry of the messengers flying about, he might justly lay hold of them for the work of 'judging the twelve tribes of Israel,' when he shall come to shake out the ungodly from the Church, who now before the judgment are tolerated mingled in. 'And did you, taking the mud of the earth, fashion an animal?' Whether he commemorates Adam himself, or that now in the sixth age of the world — as then on the sixth day — out of sinners, as out of the mud of the earth, man was made according to the image of him who created him. The Church indeed did not do this, but rather was made in this, through the Word incarnate in due time, through whom all things were made.
'And did you set him famous upon the earth?' Rather is this man set famous upon the earth, who was made in the sixth age of the world, than the one who was made on the sixth day, before the rest of men existed through whom he might be made famous — unless perhaps because now he has thus become known. 'And did you take away the light from the ungodly?' Like him who came 'that they who see not may see, and they who see may become blind.' 'Or have you broken to pieces the arm of the proud?' Their power — like him who 'chose the weak things of the world, that he might confound the strong things.' 'Or have you come to the fountain of the sea?' Like him to whom, at his coming, there lay open by confession whatever was hidden in the hearts of the ungodly, who by believing in him were justified.
For what 'fountain of the sea' do we better understand than the secret, from which bursts forth all this most bitter impiety, which stirs up the huge waves of works of evil now made manifest, which men see in open deeds, who cannot see the fountain itself? 'Or do you walk in the footsteps of the abyss?' The abyss is here rightly understood to be life.
That is, secular life, whatever lies in the depth of evils, into which — as it is written — 'when the sinner has come, he despises'; because they too, the most desperate, being made subject to grace through the remission of sins, were made safe and emerged and received Christ — not into the abyss by which they were pressed down, but into his place, so that where he once walked treading them down, he might walk inhabiting them, Christ walking in the footsteps of the abyss, while they remain through the memory of their own sins, that, while they recall where they had been, they may the more love him whom they have received, by whom so much has been forgiven them. 'Or are the gates of death opened to you in fear?' For to all who die the gates of death are opened, but not in fear, as to that one alone who died for the cause of destroying death. Or at least they are opened for rising again.
'Or did the gatekeepers of hell, seeing you, fear?' Like that one alone, in whom the prince of the world found nothing worthy of death, whom they so quickly let go, whom they unwillingly admitted. But the gatekeepers of hell are to be understood as certain inferior powers set over death. 'Or have you known the breadth under heaven?' Like him who knew it, who through it spread abroad the Church. 'Tell me, therefore, how great each thing is': for who could know this, save him whom He has taught? 'Or in what land does light dwell?' For He teaches, because the manifestation of his words illumines and makes the simple to understand. 'Or which is the place of darkness?' This too He teaches, who says: 'Come to him and be enlightened.'
For from this he shows that those who withdraw grow dark, while they refuse to be as little children. For 'the beginning of man's pride is to apostatize from God.' Hence those who 'glorified not God, nor gave thanks, became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened,' and became 'a place of darkness.' Unless perhaps that is the place of darkness which receives those who persevere in sins, so that they themselves are the darkness of which that is the place, which truly no man knows. Likewise also the land in which light dwells can be understood as that 'land of the living,' that is, the blessedness about to receive those who persevere in faith and hope and charity, who were once darkness, but now are light in the Lord. 'If you lead me into their borders?'
How far do those reach who are such. For what is there, where the wisdom of God is not, which 'reaches mightily from end to end and orders all things sweetly'? To whom assuredly no man is to be compared. 'But if you have also known their paths, do you know that you were then born, and that the number of your years is great?'
But if you have also known the paths of the ungodly, who are either darkness or a place of darkness — because all, even those who are now converted to God, walked in those very paths before they received from God the grace which justifies the ungodly — do you nevertheless know that the cause then arose for you of being mortally born in this world, when the first parents of men entered upon those same paths, who by their transgression, being ungodly, summoned death by hands and words, so that 'all should die in Adam'? For the number of his years is not to be reckoned so small from when each one appeared in this life, but from when the first mortal birth occurred. For when, for the sake of example, Abraham was born, then all the Hebrews were born in him.
Therefore the number of years is great for each one according to the origin of mortality, which arose in the paths of the ungodly. But who remembers that he existed, or, when he existed, could know that he existed, in the loins of his father? Since not even does anyone recall that time in which he was born, not in his parents, but in himself; in which time assuredly no one doubts that he already was and lived and felt. But that Wisdom which forms all things knows all those things — not only those things above the heavens, but also these mortal things. And because Christ is 'the power of God and the wisdom of God,' he knows these things who was also mortally born — not by the condition of mortality, because he was 'free among the dead,' but by compassion for mortals, that from death he might make them free.
'Or have you come into the treasuries of snow?' That is: have you attained to that knowledge, as he knew even the opportune, secret, and hidden causes of impending scandals? For thence he calls them 'treasuries' for the proving and exercising of the hearts of the spiritual, when he exclaimed: 'Woe to the world because of scandals! For it must needs be that scandals come; but woe to that man through whom the scandal comes!' For those puffed up through pride congeal on high after the manner of snow and fall: from whose abounding iniquity the charity of many grows cold; but those who sustain the Lord, acting manfully and fervent in spirit, persevere unto the end and shall be saved. 'Or have you seen the treasuries of hail?'
Hail are those unrighteous men, when they not only grow numb, having no fervour of the spirit, but even with obstinate hardness, by persecuting and rushing in, bruise others. 'Which are laid up for you against the time of enemies, against the day of battle and war?' Even from this, who would not see whose person Job bears in prophecy? For these things are not laid up for this one man against the time of enemies and against the day of battle and war, but assuredly for the one people of God. For it is the time of enemies until iniquity passes away, which the more it abounds, the more sharply must one fight and war against the devil, lest the charity of the persevering grow cold. 'But whence does the hoar-frost proceed? Who has known this?' Save that these are as it were the beginnings of birth-pangs;
for hoar-frost is hail in its most minute form. 'And is the south wind scattered under heaven?' The south wind, although it is felt as oppressive to mortal flesh, nevertheless I do not anywhere remember in the sacred books to signify anything evil — just as the north wind never signifies anything good: the one, because it blows from that quarter where the light shines; the other, because it blows from that quarter where the light is more remote. The south wind, therefore, is scattered under heaven, so that against all those iniquities some aid of God may be understood, as long as we are not yet in heaven, but under heaven. 'Who has prepared the river of the mighty rain, and a way for the sounds of the storm?'
See how those three things are briefly comprehended which the Lord, in the temptations, sets forth as to be despised by those who build upon the rock, and as ruinous to those who build upon the sand. He mentioned rain, and river, and the sounds of the storm, by which we understand winds. By rain, therefore, is tempted he who from the very loftiness of the divine Scriptures takes occasion of sinning by understanding wrongly — as if, hearing 'To whom little is forgiven, little he loves,' he should say to himself: 'Let us do evil, that good things may come,' and remain in sin that grace may abound, and many such things, by which men, badly interpreting the divine word, subvert themselves, promising themselves impunity, when mercy is commended in the divine books;
but by the river, when he is tempted by men who have thus understood and received these things — for he now calls 'river' that which is collected from the rain and is called a torrent, when he says: 'Who has prepared the river of the mighty rain?' Which it may fill, and along which it may run — such as are 'the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction,' who receive the Scriptures in that manner of which I spoke; for through such men that ruinous interpretation has a freer course, which the fruitful fields do not receive, and it impels and casts down and drags away whatever it finds unstable with so much the greater force, by how much it seems to be taken up from divine authority. But by winds is tempted he whom the empty persuasions of proud men puff up — that is, of men casting forth vain words out of their own authority.
He, therefore, who by the judgment of God is prepared for destruction by not obeying His words—which is to build upon the sand—does not resist such winds, and by falling he becomes a road for the voices of the tempest. By 'mighty rains' I judge it to mean what is said to be 'difficult to grasp,' that is, to understand: 'that it may rain upon the earth where there is no man.' We must understand: 'who has prepared it?' By 'a man' it seems to signify the Law, which was given to the Jews. Therefore over the nations we understand the rain of the Gospel. 'In the wilderness where there is no man': among those very nations, where there was no authority of anyone knowing God. 'That it may fill the pathless and uninhabited land, and that the green of the grass may sprout': many are the children of the desolate one rather than of her who has a husband.
In all these four verses we must understand: who has prepared it? Who is the father of the rain? It is like the Bridegroom, who sent forth His sons by the preaching of the kingdom of heaven to water the earth. And who is it that has begotten the clods of dew? Those who receive that preaching well. For He says 'the clods of dew' just as vessels for wine are said to be made for this purpose, that they may receive the wine. 'Out of whose womb does the ice proceed?' Is ice to be taken in a good sense, on account of stability and restraint from flowing away, so that it would be said: 'out of whose womb does the ice proceed?' just as 'who is the father of the rain?' Or is 'womb' put for what is hidden, so that 'out of his womb the ice may proceed' just as 'God gave them up to a reprobate sense'?
Or rather, does the ice proceed out of the womb of him who, by persuading the ungodliness with which he is inwardly full, causes men to grow cold and hard, having lost the warmth of charity? For who has known this one, save He who said to those hard men resisting the Gospel: 'You are of your father the devil'? 'Or who has begotten the hoarfrost in heaven? which comes down like a stream of water': what we discerned about the ice at the last, this also is to be understood about the hoarfrost. Yet not in vain is 'in heaven' added, so that it may be understood of those very ones who are set over others, while imitating, to be sure, the good messengers of the truth, who transform themselves as ministers of righteousness. To this pertains what is joined: 'which comes down like a stream of water.' 'Or who has melted away the face of the ungodly?'—that is, confounded it. Who?
None but He who, whom He justified, them He also glorified. 'Or have you understood the bands of the Pleiades, and have you opened the fence of Orion? Or will you open Mazzaroth in its season, and lead Vesper over its building?' Must astrology then be searched out, to know the properties of those stars, that we may be able to understand this passage? I wonder whether this agrees with our discourse, and surely it is far too long; therefore we pass on to other matters. Or, by certain stars being named, by the figure of speech in which the whole is understood from a part, are all the stars to be taken?—if indeed Mazzaroth too is a star, which, being translated, we do not find even in the Greek tongue:
For that it is a Hebrew name appears clearly enough—thus indeed the whole is understood from a part, as also what is written: 'Before the morning star I begot you.' For the morning star was not created first among all creatures, so that 'before the morning star' might seem said for 'before every creature'; but by the morning star all the stars are understood—which is the whole from a part—and by all the stars all times are understood—for it is written about the stars: 'and let them be for signs and for seasons'—so that the Lord, born before all times, that is, not at all born in time, and therefore coeternal with the Father, might be hinted at. Therefore the mention of the Pleiades and Orion and Mazzaroth and Vesper persuades by way of abridgment that all the stars are to be understood.
For if by one morning star, how much more, when so many are named, may the rest also be taken by this kind of speech! Why then is it said in one place 'you have understood the bands,' in another 'you have opened,' in another 'opening in its season,' and in another 'you shall lead over its building'? These belong properly to each of the things mentioned in order. Or could it not rightly also be said: 'you have opened the fence of the Pleiades' and 'you have understood the bands of Orion'? And thus the other two as well can be interchanged, as in the psalm: 'He that dwells in the heavens shall laugh at them, and the Lord shall deride them.' Nothing of the meaning would be lost, even if it were said thus: 'He that dwells in the heavens shall deride them, and the Lord shall laugh at them.'
For just as He who dwells in the heavens is Himself the Lord, so, whether it be the name of the Pleiades or of Orion, it is of the same signification, if by either one all the stars are understood. Therefore by the name of all the stars all such in the Church are to be understood, who have their conversation in the heavens. Their 'bands' are understood to be those by which they are joined both to one another and to God, lest they fall. But charity never falls. And who would have known this, unless He had shown it who said: 'A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another,' and: 'He who loves Me shall be loved by My Father'? Their 'fence' is that by which they are hedged in by the divine Scripture, which they do not transgress. And who opens this, save He to whom one passes over, that the veil may be taken away?
The time of their opening, that is, of demonstration and manifestation, is when the Lord shall come and shall illuminate the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the thoughts of the heart; and then shall every man have praise from God. For He alone shall do this in its season, because when He shall appear, who is our life, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. And He shall 'lead them over their building,' He who shall make them possess what they have here built. For if anyone's work shall remain, which he has built upon, he shall receive a reward. 'Do you know the changes of heaven?' Whether for the worse, like those who, knowing God, did not glorify Him as God? For they would not be the seats of God;
and through this they were changed, when they became vain in their imaginations. Or for the better? Because we shall indeed all rise again, yet we shall not all be changed. But that they shall be changed who shall be changed is plain, when He says: 'and we shall be changed.' For when the righteous shall be changed, heaven shall be changed, because the throne of God is heaven, and wisdom is the Word of God, and the Word was God, and the throne of wisdom is the soul of the righteous. Or rather both? For He did not say 'the change of heaven,' but 'the changes.' Or all things that come to pass beneath heaven together? For just as the changes of this heaven affect the things that are beneath heaven, so also when the righteous are changed, whether for worse or for better, they affect the carnal toward both. 'Will you call the cloud with your voice?' Either the inner voice, or that by which it was said:
'Follow Me,' or that by which it was said: 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?' 'And shall the mighty waters obey you in trembling?' The powerful peoples, when they hear: 'Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.' 'Will you send the rivers with force, and shall they go?' 'Rivers,' He says, 'of living water shall flow out of his belly.' By 'force' He means 'confidence,' by which the persecutors did not fear, because they also who do violence seize the kingdom of heaven. 'Or shall they say to you, What is it?'—that is: will they not ask of you either the will of your command, as Saul said: 'What do you bid me do?' or the hope of their reward, as they said: 'Behold, we have left all and followed You;
what then shall we have?' 'Who has given to women wisdom in weaving and knowledge of varied things?' In Solomon too the woman wove garments for her husband. Therefore we must understand the works of the churches, by which God is honored. For that very weaving—that is, the weaker brethren, like the woolly woof—to bind together with the firm and upright spiritual ones as with a warp, by the interweaving of the fabric, is the greatest and singular work of the churches. And knowledge of varied things avails for this: that, just as in damask there is a variety of colors by which the beauty of unity is not disturbed, so in the brethren the gifts may be diverse, yet they may cohere together with no discord of envy, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
'Or who is it that numbers the clouds in wisdom?' For the Lord knows those who are His; but what man knows this, He says? 'And who has bowed down the instruments of heaven to the earth?' The heavenly angels, by whom the divine words are wont to be announced. For they did not fall like that one alone, but by the bending of obedience they were bowed down to the earth, especially since the Lord Himself was on earth. For the evangelist says: 'and the angels ministered to Him.' 'But the ash was poured out wide like the earth, and He glued him together as with stones for food.'
The humility of penitence has been poured out widely and abundantly to this end, that the Lord, who resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, might cleave to them as with the glue of charity, as man to men, that He might be the Mediator of God and men, giving Himself to them as food through the sacrament of His body and blood, choosing the foolish things of the world like stones, that He might confound the wise. For to the angels there is food inasmuch as He is the Word of God with God; but that He might be food for the stones, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Therefore He shall be glued to men, penitence going before, so that He may be poured out like ash, making a way for Himself. Hence too he who said: 'Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of penitence, and say not within yourselves:'
'We have Abraham as our father; for God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham': by these stones he was announcing that He was to be glued, as it were, like food. But if the humility of penitence does not go before, He will not be glued, because the lofty He knows from afar. 'Or will you catch food for the lion, or fill the souls of the dragons?' Of the devil it is said: 'and you shall trample upon the lion and the dragon,' because of his snares and wrath. Therefore all his angels are compared to lions and dragons. But He catches food for them and fills their souls who hands over to his power those convicted of ungodliness. For they wish to hide their ungodliness, but when they are brought forth, they are indeed caught, so that they may be in the power of the devil and his angels, to whom they consented.
'For they are afraid in their lairs,' in the hiding-places of their snares. For if they were not afraid, who could withstand? But they dread the dominion of Him under whom they cried out: 'Why have you come to destroy us before the time?' And just as it is manifest concerning the swine, that they would not have gone into them unless they had been permitted, so it is to be understood that they can do nothing against anyone unless permitted; and they are permitted by the justice by which all things are governed, whether for the sake of testing or of vengeance, inflicted either for damnation or for correction. 'And they sit in the woods, lying in wait': for the will to harm does not rest in them, even when the power is not given.
And they watch in their ambushes, in so woody a density of carnal occasions, to see who may be caught by the divine laws—that is, convicted of his sin—so that he may deserve to be reckoned as their food. 'But who has prepared food for the raven? For its young cry to the Lord, wandering and seeking food,' as it is in the psalm: 'and to the young ravens that call upon Him.' To this sentence this passage is most similar. Nor can they be understood in an evil sense, because they call upon Him. They signify, then, the black ones, that is, sinners not yet whitened by the remission of sins. But they are called 'young' because already humble; 'wandering' because they have not yet known the truth, which nevertheless they piously seek when they cry to the Lord.
And food can be prepared for the raven on account of His foreknowledge, who knows that even one not yet humble will be converted; but still 'the young,' that is, the humble, cry to the Lord. 'If you have known the time of the bringing forth of the wild goats of the rocks.' 'Tragos' is a he-goat, 'elaphos' a stag; the 'tragelaphus,' therefore, is an animal composed of he-goat and stag. It signifies, then, the mind serving the law of God according to the inner man; but it sees, inasmuch as it is still in part a he-goat, another law in its members warring against the law of its mind, and bringing it into captivity to the law of sin.
But to such He brought forth 'the rocks' at the fitting time, He who set solid foundations of examples in the Scriptures, in which even those at rest may not despair concerning themselves—those whose flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh—until, with the liveliness of a stag, the serpentine persuasions being overcome, they live by the spirit and follow the spirit, lest sin reign—whence the likeness of the he-goat is drawn—in their mortal body to obey its desires. 'Or have you kept the bringing forth of the hinds?' Of the churches in the number of the spiritual, who with maternal affection persuade men to imitate them, whom serpentine opinions can now no longer harm; yet even such are kept, presuming not upon themselves but upon God. 'And have you numbered the months of their bringing forth?'
For they do not bring forth except through the Gospel, which the Lord preached from His baptism even to His passion and ascension, by the authority of His teaching, during a certain number of months. 'And have you loosed their pains?' For not without pain was it said: 'My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.' But these pains are loosed when the birth has been brought forth, that is, when the truth has been persuaded to those for whom there is such groaning, the Word of God doing this in the inner chambers of conscience. 'And have you nourished their fawns without fear?' Not timid in the milk of the sacraments; for they did not receive the spirit of bondage again unto fear. 'Will you send forth their offspring?' Into the liberty of a richer spiritual pasture. 'Their young shall break':
the chains of worldly lusts. 'They shall be multiplied in the grain': in the more solid food of wisdom, after the nourishment of milk. 'They shall go out and not return to them': they shall go out, as it were, from the straits of the doctrine which is delivered through men to beginners; and they shall not return to their mothers, no longer having need of milk nor needing human teachers. To be sure, these three verses are not to be pronounced by way of question. 'But who is it that has let the wild ass go free?' It is wonderful unless by the wild ass He signifies those few who, free from all business, serve God. 'And who has loosed his bonds?' Of carnal and popular affections. 'For I have set his dwelling as a desert, and his tents as a salt land.' Whence let him cry out: 'my soul has thirsted for You.'
'Laughing at the multitude of the city'—which Scripture calls Babylon—walking along the broad way that leads to destruction. 'And not hearing the complaint of the exactor': owing nothing to anyone. 'He has considered the mountains of his pasture': the greatness of revelations. 'And after every green thing he seeks': everything everlasting. 'But will the unicorn be willing to serve you?' The proud one in the dignity of this world. Because Christ has subdued such also, and made them ministers of the Church; for 'monoceros' is the unicorn, which signifies pride. 'Or to sleep upon your manger?' Just as one rests upon the humility of Him who, even laid as an infant in a manger, gives rest in the security of the pardon of sins and the forgetfulness of the cares of an evil conscience.
'And will he bind his yoke with thongs?' Bearing the light yoke bound with thongs, that is, in the authorities of those who have mortified and subdued the flesh. Whence John too was girded with a leathery girdle, not with the rough cords of sins. 'Or will he draw furrows for you in the field?' He shall open the breasts of an obedient people for the obtaining of the kingdom of God. 'But do you trust in him, because his strength is changed?' So that he may not seek the vanity of human praise and honor even in the ministry of the Church, as he was wont to seek it in the world. 'Or will you leave your works to him?' Like that one for whom the Apostle says he discharges an embassy, exhorting men for Christ's sake to be reconciled to God. 'And will you trust him, that he will render you the seed?' He will claim nothing from it to his own lordship;
for by 'seed' He means the work of sowing. 'And will he bring it into your barn?' So that he may be among those whom the Lord Himself commands to pray the Lord of the harvest, that He may send forth laborers into His harvest—not, however, that he may wish to make a barn for himself, as does the leader of heresies and schisms and whoever seeks not the glory of God but his own. For it is most difficult that this 'unicorn' should be willing; yet even this He grants and accomplishes in the soul of man, He who alone does wondrous things, destroying counsels and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every understanding into captivity to His obedience. 'The wing of the ostriches is mingled with the wings of the heron and the hawk':
by this verse it is to be understood that to those slow of wit—whom the ostriches signify, because they cannot fly—it has been granted, through the grace of Him who chose the foolish things of the world, that they should be made equal in the swiftness of the witty who believe along with them, who are signified by these birds He mentioned. 'And he has left his eggs upon the earth': now he begins to speak of the ostrich, that is, of those whom he signifies by this animal. For their slow feathers would not be mingled with the wings of swift birds for flying together, unless they left their former hope upon the earth, which he signifies by the eggs. 'And they are warmed in the dust': because even though one did not attain what he hoped for in the world, it often comes about through the favor of the lovers of the world, who are compared to dust.
'And it has forgotten that the foot may scatter them, and the beast of the field may trample them': because if even another's hostile cupidity and the iniquitous things of this world disturb and crush such a hope of his—like his eggs which he leaves on the earth—he so cares not, that, as it were forgetful, he does not feel it. 'It has grown hard against its own young, as though they were not its own': even if there be now not a hope like eggs, but the very thing itself, like sons already born—that is, temporal felicity—he bravely despises it, not wishing it to be his felicity, because he desires that true one. 'It has labored in vain without any fear': this is before he is converted; for he labors in the hope of the world without fruit and, what is more foolish, without any fear, while he presumes on uncertain things.
'Because God has despised it in wisdom, and has not imparted understanding to it': for what is more foolish than to trust in vanity and to labor for acquiring perishable things without any fear of losing them? For very many conceive this disposition, to whom a long worldly felicity comes, especially if it is derived from grandfathers and great-grandfathers by a continuous succession, so that they do not believe they can suddenly become unhappy. And because they are wont to appear great on the earth, yet not to enjoy by the wings of virtues a heavenly conversation, they are rightly compared to ostriches. But attend to what follows: 'when the time shall be, it will fly aloft and will deride the rider and his mount.'
After the fullness of time has come, so that the rich of this world are charged not to be high-minded nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, they have begun to lift up their heart to the Lord and to deride the proud persecutors whom the Lord cast into the sea; for then the wing of the ostrich, mingled with swift birds, seeks heaven, and the rest that have been said above about this animal come to pass. 'But have you encircled the horse with strength?' He seems to describe the martyr, the intrepid and eager witness of saving faith—not, however, by his own strength, but by that with which the Lord has encircled him. 'And have you set a neighing upon his neck?' 'Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day.' 'And the boldness of the glory of his breast?'
This is the boldness with which Isaiah dares and says. But the glory of the breast is the conscience that approves a man's work, so that each may have glory in himself and not in another. 'Going forth into the field, he revels': going forth into the light of liberty, with the ease of good work he exults in the breadth of charity. 'And he proceeds into battle with strength': against the temptations of adversities. 'And meeting the dart, he despises it': because arms are set around him, among which is that shield of faith, in which the fiery darts of the enemy are quenched. 'Nor does he turn aside from the iron': either from visible death, or because there are those both hard in not consenting to the truth and sharp in persecuting, from whom he does not turn aside, because he is bidden to love even them.
'For over him the bow and the sword rejoice': for by his confession both the threatening of God is asserted, which foretells from afar the invisible punishments, and the testimony of the word, by which he subdues all errors, as it were, hand to hand. For it is one thing to threaten that the punishments of sinners are far in the future—which is, as it were, to stretch arrows with the bow—and another to subdue present lusts, as it were hand to hand, with the sword of the word. 'With the trembling of the lance and the spear': what is it that 'over him the bow and the sword rejoice with the trembling of the lance and the spear'?
Is it because he himself, unless he trembles—that is, fears the future death which the divine justice hurls—cannot despise the present death which the persecutor threatens, so as to have an intrepid confession and to preach the truth with confidence, which the enemies cannot withstand; and thus 'over him' the bow and sword may 'rejoice,' that is, through him may freely be asserted the doctrine of God, by which He threatens the ungodly with future destruction and slays present iniquity? For unless the joy of our hope were with trembling of damnation, the very security in us would be negligent and a proud presumption, nor would it be said to us in the psalm: 'rejoice unto Him with trembling.' 'And with wrath he overturns the earth':
being angry within himself to overturn in himself the earthly concupiscences and carnal fears, by which anyone is turned away from the endurance of suffering. In this sense perhaps it was said: 'be angry and sin not'; for with a most wholesome anger each ought to correct himself with correction, saying: 'why are you sad, my soul? and why do you trouble me? Hope in God, for I will confess to Him.' For because with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, immediately there follows: 'the salvation of my countenance, my God.' 'Nor will he believe until the trumpet shall sound': for before the time of temptation, even if the earthly trepidation has been overturned, it does not appear, nor is it easily to be believed, unless the very time of temptation has taught it. But when the trumpet has sounded, he will say, 'Aha':
When the time of temptation has come, then indeed his soul will please him, if he glories in tribulations, because tribulation works patience, patience proof, and proof hope, so that he no longer says to his soul in anger: 'why do you trouble me?' but, glorying, says: 'praise the Lord, O my soul.' 'And from afar he scents the battle': not as it were among the persecuting men who are seen, but 'from afar,' that is, far from the eyes, knowing that his struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and rulers of this world of darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places—this is 'from afar.' And aptly it was said 'he scents,' on account of the prince of the power of this air.
For odors, whether good or bad, are perceived by smell. Therefore he scents the battle who understands that the prince of the power of this air works in the sons of disbelief, whose wrath or snares, when they persecute, he suffers, that against the spiritual hosts of wickedness he may contend with spiritual arms, not bodily ones against flesh and blood, that is, against wicked and lost men, whom he sees with fleshly eyes. 'The thunder of the captains and the shouting': we must understand 'he scents.' But 'thunder' I think is said on account of the very air, in which those same spiritual hosts of wickedness dwell; for these spirits are not called rulers of the world because they rule heaven and earth, but as the Apostle himself expounds.
For lest it should be so understood, he at once added what he meant by 'rulers of the world': 'of this darkness,' he says, that is, of the ungodly, to whom, when converted to the Lord, he says: 'for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.' For it is in each one's will whether he be darkness or light; but when darkness, it is in himself, that is, in the sins which are his own; but when light, not in himself but in the Lord, by whom he is illumined, so that, as Isaiah says, his darkness may be as the noonday; and it is said also in the Psalms: 'you will illumine my darkness.' Those, then, whom the Apostle calls rulers of darkness, are themselves also in this verse called 'captains.'
For by these too the darkness—that is, the ungodly—are led, to persecute the godly, that is, those who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, not those who suffer for their own ungodliness and iniquities. And he says that the martyr scents the shouting of such captains, not because any sound thence is heard with the ears of the body, but because with the ears of the heart, through faith, they shout how greatly the devil and his angels contrive against the servants of God. Whence the Apostle says: 'for we are not ignorant of his devices.' Against which shouting of the captains the ears of the unbelieving are altogether deaf. 'Does the hawk feather forth by your wisdom?' Just as in the wisdom of God, which is Christ, the new man is gradually renewed, who is to have his conversation in the heavenly places.
'With wings spread, immovable, looking toward the south?' With the virtues of the twofold love unfolded from every worldly hindrance, remaining unshaken in faith; yet not presuming on himself even in this very thing, but hoping in God and recalling his intention to Him from whom that very ardor of charity is breathed, so that he may keep his strength toward Him, saying: 'shall not my soul be subject to God? for from Him is my salvation; for He is my God and my Savior, my support; I shall not be moved any more.' 'And does the eagle exalt itself at your bidding?' Just as at the bidding of Him who said: 'when I shall be exalted, I will draw all things to Myself.'
For He, about to die for us and to raise His body by resurrection into heaven, says: 'wherever the carcass shall be, there shall the eagles be gathered.' For He has satisfied with heavenly good things the desire of him whose youth shall be renewed like the eagle's. The exaltation of the eagle can also pertain to that which the Apostle says: 'for whether we were beside ourselves, it is to God'—so that the verse which follows, about the vulture, may pertain to that which there also follows; 'or whether we are sober, it is for you.' For there follows: 'or will the vulture abide, dwelling upon its nest in the rock?'
Because it seems to be said by way of affection, not of contemplating sublime things by an excess of mind, but of caring for lower things through temperance, by which one accommodates oneself to human matters, so that the ungodly who are held for dead may be justified through the word—that is, as if devoured by the mouth—and be converted into the body of the Church. For the vulture feeds on the dead; and therefore 'upon its nest,' where, as it were, it places its brood, the works necessary to this life. And therefore 'in the rock,' because when the Apostle had said 'or whether we are sober, it is for you,' he immediately subjoined: 'for the charity of Christ constrains us'; but the rock was Christ. And 'well does it abide, dwelling,' according to that which is said: 'I am constrained between the two, having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ;'
for much rather is it best—so that this may pertain to the exaltation of the eagle; but to the vulture sitting in the nest and abiding pertains 'to remain in the flesh is necessary for your sake.' And because by the rock the whole Church too is well understood, on account also of Simon, who for this reason was called Peter by the Lord, the summit of the rock is the head of the Church. To this is added the verse that follows: 'on the summit of the rock and in the cavern?' For the summit refers to that which is the head, but the cavern to that whereby our life is hidden with Christ in God. 'And when it shall be there, it seeks food': concerning which it was said to Peter: 'kill and eat,' so that he might incorporate into the Church those of the Gentiles who would believe. 'From afar its eyes look out, and its young roll in blood':
in the hope of future immortality unto eternal life, it stretches its intention far off, although its works are rolled in the infirmity of the flesh—that is, tossed about by uncertain motions, while human ignorance holds it uncertain, out of the things it mercifully does, what may profit whom toward God; while nevertheless, with eyes looking far off for the sake of eternal salvation, it dispenses with sincere charity. But when such a worker and dispenser shall have found those who, by the affection with which they renounce the devil, are already dead to this world, then without any hesitation he affords them the ministry of his mouth in the work of speech, by which he may transfer them, now most ready, into the body of the Church; and therefore it follows: 'wherever the carcasses shall be, there at once they are found.'
'The Lord answered Job and said.' Since the Lord now, as it were, takes up his discourse again, while he himself was speaking, we are to understand that Job had been struck dumb in silence at the things that had been said and had fallen quiet, so that he dared say nothing further. Therefore in the two verses that follow the Lord exhorts him to answer. 'Shall he who disputes with the Almighty be at rest?' That is: Why are you at rest, you who dispute with the Almighty? 'Shall he who reproves God answer thus?' We must understand 'Shall he?' so that the sense is: Shall he who shall answer by disputing reprove God? For when one disputes with the Almighty, it is by way of inquiry, not by way of refuting or confuting. It is not therefore because he is Almighty that one must cease from disputing with him.
For nothing is required to be reproved by Him through disputation, as it were from Truth itself. It can also be understood thus: 'Shall he who disputes with the Lord be at rest?' That is: because he who disputes with the Almighty is not at rest, one must not dispute with Him in such a way as to find rest. For one who disputes is wont to contradict; but he who contradicts God cannot be at rest, that is, he finds no rest unless he consents to His will without any contradiction. 'For he who reproves God shall answer thus,' that is: when by disputing he answers God, he reproves God, and for that reason he does not attain to rest. Whence it is said: 'O man, who art thou that repliest against God?' But what such thing had Job done?
For God does not so receive him as one contradicting Him, as his friends, who did not understand, supposed; since He bears such testimony to him both at the beginning of the book and at the end. Or was it said on account of the person whom Job represented, that is, the body of the Lord, which is the Church, in which there is a great part of the weak—not indeed of the despairing, yet still imperiled in their progress, whose feet are almost moved and whose steps are well-nigh poured out, while they are zealous against sinners, beholding the peace of sinners? Who say: 'How does God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these very sinners, who abound in this world, have obtained riches.'
'Have I in vain cleansed my heart and washed my hands among the innocent, and been scourged all the day, and my chastening came every morning?' For from here rather Job himself seems to answer in the following verses. 'And Job answering said: Why then am I to be judged, being admonished and rebuked by the Lord, hearing such things, since I am nothing?' That is: Why then do I set up a judgment for myself, when the Lord admonishes and reproves me, if I should contradict Him? 'Hearing such things,' that is, understanding such things—how great a justice and mercy is thus exercised toward me, since of myself I am surely nothing. 'What answer shall I give?' That is: What shall I be able to say against the truth? 'I will lay my hand upon my mouth,' that is: I will restrain and curb my talkativeness. 'Once I have spoken; a second time I will add nothing.'
Unless it be taken in a mystery, how did Job speak 'once,' who spoke so many times? Or how does he 'add nothing further,' he who was about to speak after a little while? But 'speech' here is to be understood as the soul's advance into these outward things, whereby it forsakes God and resists Him. Whence this greater advance is even called 'a cry' in Scripture, when God says that the cry of Sodom had reached Him. Contrary to this speech and cry is that most blessed silence of which it is said: 'And it shall be silent, without fear, from all malice.' Rightly therefore does he say that he has spoken 'once,' by a kind of continuous speech throughout the whole life of the old man, when he was 'a spirit going forth and not returning.'