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.