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?'