約伯倫理 第 1188 章

Verse 2.—'Who is this that wraps up his sentences in unskilled words?' ii. Those who think rightly but speak proudly are reproved. The first foolishness of the angel was pride. As we have already said in the earlier part, the first reproach is such a question, by which it is said: 'Who is this?' For Elihu had spoken arrogantly. And 'Who is this?' we say of none but him whom, at any rate, we do not know. Now to know is, for God, to approve; not to know is to reprove. Whence to some whom He reproves He says: 'I know not whence you are; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity' (Luke 13:25, 27). What, then, is it to inquire concerning this arrogant one, 'Who is this?' but openly to say:

I do not know the arrogant, that is, I do not approve their life in the citadel of my wisdom? Because, while they are inflated with human praises, they become empty of the true glory of eternal recompense. But in that He says 'sentences,' and did not add of what kind, we take them, at any rate, as good—which indeed He asserts to be wrapped up in unskilled words, because they had been uttered with words of boasting. For it is a vice of unskillfulness not rightly to be wise about what is right, that is, to bend the heavenly gift toward the appetite for earthly praise. For just as it often happens that both good things are uttered ill and evil things well, so the arrogant Elihu brought forth right things not rightly, because he spoke humble sentences in the defense of God not humbly.

Hence he not unfittingly bears the figure of those within the Catholic Church who are eager for empty glory; for while they believe themselves learned above others, they are by the divine judgment convicted of unlearnedness, since, as the Apostle says: 'If any man think that he knoweth anything, he hath not yet known as he ought to know' (1 Cor. VIII, 2). For because the first folly was the exaltation of the angel's heart, so the true wisdom of man is fashioned in the humble estimation of himself. Whosoever, by supposing himself even to know great things, forsakes this humility, by that very fact is vehemently made foolish, in that he knows not himself. Whence Elihu both brought forth sentences and involved them in unskilled words, because he both knew what was right to say concerning God, and yet his foolish self-exaltation made stupid the things he uttered concerning himself.

This therefore being set aside, the words are turned to the instruction of Job: