約伯倫理 第 152 章

Verse 8. — Who scraped away the corrupt matter with a potsherd, sitting on a dunghill. 9. Job, scraping away the corruption of his body with a potsherd, teaches us that the earthen vessel which we bear is soon to be crushed. — Whence is a potsherd made, save from clay? And what is the corruption of the body, save clay? He is therefore said to scrape corruption with a potsherd, as if it were plainly said: With clay he wiped away clay. For the holy man pondered whence had been taken that which he bore, and with a fragment of an earthen vessel he scraped his broken earthen vessel. By which deed it is plainly shown how he subdued his own body to himself as something whole, which, even when smitten, he thus despised and cared for; how little tenderness he granted to his own sound flesh, who applied to his wounds not a garment, not his fingers, but even a potsherd.

He scraped the corruption, therefore, with a potsherd, so that, considering himself even in the fragment, he might from the wiping of the wound take also care for his mind. [Old Version IV.] 10. Lying on the dunghill, he ponders that his body will soon be dung.

— But because often the mind is puffed up through those things which are about the body, and through what is done concerning us the frailty of our body is removed from the eyes of the heart (just as some worldly men, when they are propped up with temporal dignities, while they preside in higher places, while they see the services of many at hand for their wish, neglect to behold their own frailty, and, forgetting how swiftly the earthen vessel they bear is to be crushed, by no means attend to it), blessed Job, that he might draw the consideration of his own frailty even from surrounding circumstances, and might increase before his own eyes the force of his self-contempt, is described as having sat not on any ground whatsoever, which is almost everywhere found clean, but on a dunghill.

He placed his body on the dunghill, so that his well-advancing mind might weigh what the substance of the flesh was, taken from the earth. He placed his body on the dunghill, so that even from the stench of the place he might grasp how swiftly the body would return to stench. [Revised Version V.] 11. From the scourges of the saints it is to be understood what reward is reserved for them, and what punishment for the wicked. — But behold, while blessed Job endures the loss of so many things, grieves being smitten by so many deaths of his children, bears so many wounds; while he scrapes with a potsherd the running corruption, while he sits on the dunghill flowing with putrefaction — it is worthwhile to consider what it is, that Almighty God so vehemently afflicts, as if despising, those whom He beholds so dear to Himself unto eternity.

But behold, while I consider the wounds and torments of blessed Job, I suddenly turn back the eyes of my mind to John, and not without the gravest wonder do I weigh that he, filled with the spirit of prophecy within his mother's womb, and, so to speak, born again before he was born; that friend of the bridegroom; he than whom none greater hath risen among those born of women; he a prophet in such wise as to be even more than a prophet (Matt. 11:9), is cast into prison by the wicked, and for a girl's dance is beheaded, and a man of such great severity dies for the laughter of the base. Do we believe that there was anything which that death, so despised, wiped away in his life? But when did he ever sin even in food, who ate only locusts and wild honey?

In what did he offend God concerning the quality of his covering, who clothed his body with camel's hair? In what could he give offense by his manner of life, who withdrew not from the desert? What guilt of talkativeness defiled him, who was far separated from men? When did even a fault of silence touch him, who so vehemently rebuked those coming to him, saying: Ye brood of vipers, who hath shown you to flee from the wrath to come? (Matt. 3:7; Luke 3:7; Mark 1:4.) What is it, then, that Job is preferred by God's testimony, and yet is laid low with plagues even unto the dunghill? What is it, that John is praised by the voice of God, and yet dies for a drunkard's words as the reward of a dance?

What is it that Almighty God so vehemently despises in this world those whom He so loftily chose before the ages, save this: which lies open to the faith of the faithful, that He therefore so presses them down in the lowest things, because He sees how He will recompense them in the highest; and casts them outwardly even to things despised, because inwardly He leads them even to things incomprehensible? Hence, therefore, let each one gather what those whom He reproves will there suffer, if here He so torments those whom He loves; or how those shall be smitten who are to be arraigned in the judgment, if the life of those is so pressed who are praised with the Judge Himself as witness. There follows: