約伯倫理 第 461 章

Chapter xi, verse 2.—'Shall not he that speaketh much also himself hear? or shall a man full of talk be justified?' 2. The insolent always answer to the contrary of things rightly said. Sophar's saying is true, but ill spoken.—It is wont to be the manner of the insolent always to answer to the contrary of things rightly said, lest, if they consent to what is uttered, they seem to be inferior. To whom the words of the just, however few they have sounded, are many, because, in that they cut away their vices, they burden the hearing. Whence also that is dragged into a charge which is uttered by right preaching against crimes.

For Sophar, refuting the very man who out of truth had spoken strong sentences, calls him full of talk, because, when wisdom from the mouth of the just rebukes faults, to the ears of fools it sounds as a superfluity of loquacity. For the depraved think nothing right except what they themselves have felt; and they esteem the words of the just idle, in that they find them different from their own perceptions. Nor indeed did Sophar utter a false sentence, that a man full of talk can by no means be justified, because while each one flows out through words, having lost the gravity of silence, he loses the guard of the mind. Hence indeed it is written: 'The cultivation of justice is silence' (Isaiah xxxii, 17). Hence Solomon says:

'As a city that lieth open and is without the compass of walls, so is a man that cannot restrain his own spirit in speaking' (Proverbs xxv, 28). Hence again he says: 'In the multitude of words there shall not be wanting sin' (Proverbs x, 19). Hence the Psalmist testifies, saying: 'A man full of talk shall not be directed upon the earth' (Psalm cxxxix, 12). But the virtue of a true sentence is lost, which is not uttered under the guard of discretion. It is therefore certain that a man full of talk cannot be justified. But the good is not well said, because he to whom it is said is not regarded. For a true sentence against the wicked, if it assails the rectitude of the good, loses its own force, and recoils blunted, in proportion as that is strong which it strikes.

But because the depraved cannot patiently hear good things, and when they neglect the amendment of life, gird themselves for words of reply, Sophar openly suggests, who subjoins: