Verse 10. — 'And he did not say: Where is God who made me?' (Job xxxv, 10). He who is broken by temptation does not seriously ponder God's providence. It is the custom of Sacred Scripture to pass suddenly from the singular number to the plural, and often to turn from the plural back to the singular. Whence Elihu, when he had said, 'They will cry out and they will wail,' by no means added, 'They did not say, Where is God,' but, 'He did not say, Where is God.' For, coming from the plural number into the singular, he suddenly passed over to the person of each weak individual—perhaps because whatever is heard said of individuals singularly is better recognized by individuals, so that each may return to his own heart, and reprehend in himself that which we say of each one. He kept the singular number, therefore, saying:
'He did not say, Where is God who made me?' For whoever is broken by the tribulation of adversities in no way contemplates Him by whom he was made. Yet He who made what was not, does not abandon what is made without governance; and He who kindly created man in no way permits him to be tormented unjustly; nor does He suffer that to perish through neglect which is, since He created even that which was not, that it might be. When, therefore, we seek the cause of our tribulation, and perhaps find it rather slowly, this consideration is at hand: that we suffer nothing unjustly, because if by God as author we are who were not, then by God as governor we are not afflicted unjustly, we who are. There follows: