Commentary on Job 1 part 1/15

What is fitting for everyone who sets out to make an examination of some text — namely, to deal beforehand with the matters pertaining to its subject — must be done in the present case also, and all the more since the book set before us, being most profitable, contains an understanding that is not to be despised.

For in it the whole discourse concerning the judgements of God is set in motion by Job — how nothing of the painful things that befall men comes to pass apart from God's permission, together with other doctrinal considerations; and further, in the foregoing discourse, matters concerning steadfastness and endurance and the disdain of things indifferent — I mean wealth and possessions and having many children and having good children — and besides these, the manifestation of free will and the teaching of manifold doctrines; and, God granting it, we shall see this in each of the sayings to which these things pertain.

If, then, we must begin with the subject-matter, let us begin.

The change in the value of substances appears to be of different kinds: on the one hand when bodies decay and grow, and on the other hand when a change of the will comes about.

And as many changes as come to pass in respect of the body reveal a subject that is neither blameworthy nor praiseworthy.

For no one is approved either for the decay of his body or for its growth;

for these things lie outside what is in our power.

But whatever is done by the agent as he is moved deliberately by reasoning — these things show him to be either blameworthy or praiseworthy.

And this follows for those who change from vice to virtue, or from virtue to vice.

There came to be, then, a rational substance that became an apostate from God, lifting up its neck in defiance before the Lord Almighty.

And this is the devil — not one that came into being as a devil (for God did not make death), but perfect and virtuous (for God made all things very good) — who, having fallen from his right condition and blessedness, envies those who turn toward it;

for through the envy of the devil death entered into the world.

For he reasons within himself, like an outcast, that:

'I must hinder those who possess a heavenly citizenship, so that they may not ascend to that place from which I have fallen.'

For he considers the advancement of men to be an accusation against himself, since he was the morning star of the heavens and the star that rises early and shines, yet because he prepared those who were to be enlightened by the Sun of Righteousness, he fell from the heavenly regions.

But these hasten toward the virtuous way of life — those very ones who have a greater inclination toward vice.

For the mind of men is diligently bent upon what is evil; and the Apostle, wishing to set this forth, says:

'Shall we not judge angels?' — making clear that:

We who live the heavenly life upon earth shall condemn those who did not keep their own rank; just as the Ninevites also shall condemn the Jews who were not persuaded by the Saviour, they themselves having been persuaded by the preaching of Jonah when he proclaimed repentance.

But also what is said concerning the queen of Sheba is illustrative of the same thought;

for being a woman and a queen, and dwelling far off, and about to pass through foreign provinces, she disregarded all these things and hastened to be a hearer of Solomon's wisdom, whereas the Jews had their instructor near at hand and were unwilling to derive any benefit from him, even though one greater than Solomon was present.

For that man, having become wise by his own means, was of benefit; but the Saviour, in addition to the benefit that came from His words, also displayed by signs and wonders a power of miracle-working sufficient to change the minds of even the most utterly faithless;

for raisings of the dead, restorations of sight to the blind, cleansings of lepers, and in short the healing of every disease and infirmity, were accomplished by Him.

This, then, was the diabolical envy: that men were hastening to lay hold of those things from which he himself had fallen.

Wherefore he does not neglect his malicious assault against the race of men;

the devil walks about as a lion, seeking whom he may devour.

So too, having cast into Judas a reasoning of avarice, he made him the betrayer of the Saviour, having entered into his mind as into his own lair.

So too Hymenaeus and Alexander suffered shipwreck concerning the faith, having on this account become an instrument of the devil through their own free choice; and these the blessed Paul even delivered over to Satan himself, that they might be taught not to blaspheme.

And in general the devil's ambush against men is manifold, since he works in the sons of disobedience, yet does not hold off even from the virtuous, but assails them as well.

For this is what the oracle signifies when it admonishes:

'If the spirit of the ruler rise up against you, do not leave your place.' He attempts and mounts up, descending upon a man; but the man who has become virtuous stands secure and thwarts the plot.

Job, then, being a perfect man and abstaining altogether from vice and partaking of virtue, gave no place to the devil;

for he is called righteous, true, blameless, God-fearing, abstaining from every evil deed — words which prove him most perfect, not only abstaining from vice but also having reached the summit of virtue.

For then does one properly possess virtue, when by deliberate choice he abstains from the opposite dispositions.

For this is what the blessed David teaches when he says:

'Turn away from evil and do good.' But also the saying:

'Cease from your wickednesses; learn to do good' is of the same purport.

Job, then, abstaining from vice, did not so abstain as infants do, but as one perfectly practising virtue.

And his praise arose from his courage — not because he was lacking in the other virtues (for they all attended him, being bound to one another), but from his pre-eminence in courage; which is the case with the Beatitudes also:

for the poor in spirit possesses the kingdom of God, even while he is adorned with the other virtues and is meek and righteous.

Job, then, possessed the other virtues also, as is shown in what follows;

for as he was ready for hospitality, so also for almsgiving, becoming a father to orphans, a helper to the powerless, an eye to the blind, and found to be a foot to the lame.

The devil, then, tried to remove from so great a virtue this man who was thus secured on every side by both practical and contemplative virtue — for on account of this he is called true, so as to be even blameless — often, as is likely, suggesting reasonings which the holy man did not accept, according to him who says:

'When the evil one turned aside from me, I did not know it' — which makes plain that:

'Often, when the adversary approached, I did not give way, so as to recognize him present by means of sinning.'

For he was not ignorant that he was present, in so far as the holy man was warring against him, but he 'did not know' him in this sense — namely, so as to receive experience of his base suggestions.

And as his last assault the devil brought to bear the plot of the demand, thinking through this attack to remove him from virtue; which he did also in the case of the patriarch Abraham, if it be pleasing to anyone to accept the Book of the Covenant.

Having made many attempts, and often, against the holy man and been defeated in all of them, since he hoped to pervert Abraham as one disposed toward a son born in old age and beloved, he brought forward the demand for the child, which God for His own part makes, wishing to put the adversary to shame, saying:

'Take your son, the beloved one whom you loved' — through the varied words rousing the father's tender affection, in order that his courage might be made manifest; and this courage he preserved, referring what was to come neither to his wife nor to his children, lest any hindrance should arise to the noble deed.

But he did not give way even at the words of the child, when he said:

'Father, behold the fire and the wood;'

And that the devil is of such a plotting disposition we are taught from the Gospel also, when the Saviour says to His own disciples:

'Behold, Satan hath asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat.' And the book has its title in keeping with the man of the same name, since the whole book contains the history concerning him, no one else being compared with him.

And it is fitting to add this also, since it has been inquired by some, to whom the book might belong.

Some assign it to the holy Ezra; but others, since at the end of the book it is said [...], say that, inasmuch as they were kings, the friends of Job, being pleased with the noble deed, deposited the writing concerning it in the archives.

But let the lover of the beautiful inquire concerning this, if he does not approve of what has been said.

And Job is the fifth from Abraham, as this very thing is stated at the end of the book.

[...] There was a certain man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job.

And that man was true, blameless, righteous, God-fearing, abstaining from every evil deed.

And there were born to him seven sons and three daughters; and his cattle were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred grazing she-asses, and a very great household, and he had great works upon the earth.

Fittingly, as the discourse is about to relate the surpassing virtue of the blessed Job, it makes mention both of his country and of his blameless manner of life, and of his many good children, and of his wealth both in herds and in other things, in order to teach that he did not despise things of little worth — for indeed he was not proud even while possessing them — having been deprived of all these in the trial.

And in announcing him it also displays the purity of his soul, showing that it was no negligent man whom the devil demanded.

For it was necessary, before the wrestling against the adversary, to portray the greatness of the athlete: that abstaining from every evil deed he was not content with this alone, but also gave heed to perfection — which is subversive of those who say that even children and irrational creatures abstain from evil deeds.

For this man was both righteous and blameless.

By this very point those who raise objections concerning the first Psalm also are refuted.

For they say that to be called blessed for not having walked in the counsel of the ungodly and for not having sat in the seat of the scornful would fit even irrational creatures and infants.

But they are refuted from what follows;

[...] But his will was in the law of the Lord, and in His law will he meditate day and night — which does not fit infants and irrational creatures.

And it is well too that this man dwelt in Uz, which is interpreted 'counsel';

for the righteous man does nothing without counsel, but his house and city is the pure counsel.

And that man was noble, of those from the risings of the sun. And with respect to the sensible meaning, this is possible.

But if it be understood according to the anagogical sense, it may be said that the righteous man acquires nobility, not from men, but shining forth from the light of the Sun of righteousness.

And his sons, going about to one another, made a feast each day, taking along with them also their three sisters to eat and drink with them. Being well brought up, the sons of Job did not make their gatherings and their feasting with others, but among themselves, according to what is said in the Psalms:

Behold now, what is good or what is pleasant but for brethren to dwell together in unity. Presenting virtue in harmony, they were also in sensible matters free from strife toward one another, walking together and not far apart;

for they held their assemblies in the house of their eldest brother, not only according to age but perhaps also according to virtue, being instructed by him in things profitable.

And well too was their taking along their own sisters, which is a clear sign of temperance and orderliness.

concerning them, sacrifices according to their number, and one calf for a sin offering for their souls. According to him who says:

From the night my spirit rises early to You, O God; and:

O my God, to You I rise early; and:

In the morning I will present myself to You and will look up. For it was to no other work that the blessed Job rose in the morning, but to offer sacrifice to God on behalf of his children according to their number, that is, for each one, and in good order;

for there is nothing confused in a diligent man.

But also after this he offered the calf on their behalf according to his own manner, thus accustoming them to the training of children.

Thus then he cleansed them after the feast was completed, showing along with the sensible cleansing also those purifications which are effective for the mind.

But if the calf offered on behalf of all, on behalf of the human race, signifies the Saviour who endured the cross, consider also that he is called 'fatted' in the parable of the Gospel because he is nourishing with the divine teaching.

And do not marvel if the calf hints at the Saviour;

for indeed Job was not uninitiated into the mystery of the sojourning of the Saviour;

he who was to subdue the great sea-monster.

Lest perhaps in their mind my sons have conceived evil things against God. A great purity is shown in this concerning the children;

for not seeing any sensible sin of theirs, he offered the sacrifice concerning things pertaining to the mind, reckoning that human weakness and softness in youth often has a slip.

Wherefore also the holy Paul said:

I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not thereby justified; and the psalmist:

Cleanse me from my hidden faults. Whence it is to be observed that they were not subjected to such a death on account of sins.

Thus then Job did all the days of his life. The unbroken constancy of the holy man's tension is here shown, since he did not practise virtue at one time and not at another.

This David also says concerning himself, singing:

I will bless the Lord at all times. And when this day came, behold, the angels came to stand before the Lord, and the devil came with them. The word, displaying the form of the expression in a more narrative manner, related the matters concerning the standing of the angels in the phrase:

And when it came to pass as on this day—we understanding accordingly a fitting time and a suitable condition of the standing before the Lord, when the angels rendered their own ministries and their own labour directed toward God.

While they were being appointed, indeed the devil also presented himself.

Even if he is manifold and versatile, he does not escape God's notice.

It is said that he too came with the angels, not to stand before Him, but himself also being known by the all-seeing eye of God.

And the text may also be indicating the hypocritical character of the devil, who transforms himself into an angel of light and in these things escapes the notice of created beings, but is unable to escape God, the author of the generation of all, and Him through whom are all things, and the Holy Spirit;

for the Trinity is of the same essence.

For as it is said concerning the Word that He is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and there is no creature hidden before Him,

but all things are naked and laid open to His eyes—so also concerning the Spirit:

For the Spirit searches all things. And concerning the Father it is said by the apostles:

You, Lord, who know the hearts of all. And fittingly it belongs to the Godhead alone to see the minds.

For if this were also clear to created beings who do not possess God's goodness, they would be estranged from those who sin, so as not to help them but to turn away, out of caution because of the greatness of the evils, lest they should share in the peril by interceding for such people.

Since they too stand before the Lord when He comes, and the devil with them in hypocrisy, they fittingly committed to God the judgment concerning his standing there—which indeed came to pass.

For God Himself says the following to him:

And the Lord said to the devil:

Whence have you come? He said this to him, that we who hear might understand the phrase:

Whence have you come? These my angels, being commanded by me to perform the divine ministries and carrying them out, stand before me, doing this very thing in place of standing—for their standing is not local;

but you, whence? For you are not a minister of mine.

Whence then have you come? You will understand this in a manner similar to what was said to Adam by God:

Adam, where are you? The phrase was a reproof of the vain movement of the devil:

And the devil answered the Lord and said:

Having gone about the earth and walked about under heaven, I am here. If the answer which arose in the devil to the question posed by God were a thought of his own, it would be seen by God as coming from him.

For God, wishing to speak His own will to a created being, implants it in that being's mind;

but the devil, answering the Lord, is not said to do so in this way, but as he chooses to answer.

But what his answer is, let us see.

Having gone about, he says, the earth and walked about under heaven, I am here.

One need not be astonished if, being a subtle spirit, he traversed the aforementioned places.

For not even God reproved him as lying.

He goes about as an adversary, seeking whom he may devour, that he may drag away those who are persuaded by his wicked suggestions, and demand as his own those who resist—which indeed happened in the case of Job.

Whence he does not compel, nor does he come upon us beyond our power.

For it is as to those able to resist that the command is given:

Resist, steadfast in the faith; and:

If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, do not leave your place. And that God also supplies the power is stated, He who will also give the way of escape, that you may be able to endure.

It should be noted that the earth and that which is under heaven are different places, the earth being under heaven, but the places under heaven not being altogether earth.

And the devil went about also those places, taking delight together with the spiritual demons of wickedness.

These then, he says, having gone about, I am here—which is to be understood thus:

Having come through all these and having found the blessed Job unable to receive any of my things, I am here, that is:

I display my hidden purpose to your inescapable eye, wishing to demand him as my own.

Have you then set your mind against my servant Job, that there is none like him among those on the earth, a man blameless, true, God-fearing, abstaining from every evil deed? The phrase:

The Lord said to the devil—is to be taken in the same way as the preceding, it being not incongruous, if what God wishes the devil to understand is put to him for his most severe reproof, since God did not overlook it in His deliberation.

For it must not be supposed that God's converse with the devil was purposeless;

for nothing is purposeless with Him who has established all things, but this too was for a benefit, that he might be put to shame by the setting-forth of the righteous and blameless man.

The Lord called Job His servant according to both meanings;

for he was His attendant according to what was said by the psalmist:

I am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid; and a son from the service and genuine servitude, having been counted worthy of the grace of the Spirit, and himself saying too, according to the wise Paul:

The Spirit Himself bears witness together with our spirit that we are children of God. For he who does righteousness has been begotten of God.

That the devil is a rational being is emphatically shown by what is said: 'Have you given attention with your mind?'

'Have you given attention with your mind?'

For to reason with the mind is proper to a rational being.

And it is not only here that this is said of the devil, but also in the passage:

'But you said in your mind:'

'I will ascend into heaven' — which, as has been said, indicates that he is a rational being.

And it comes about that, if reasoning takes place in his case, one must inquire whether perhaps also repentance may.

For after understanding come reasoning and repentance.

And since reasoning lies within his will, perhaps repentance does too.

But let the one who does not grant these things take care lest he unwittingly make God the author of the devil's wickedness — for if the devil possesses no reason and no mind...

And even if he has in some way been altered, yet by being rational he shares in common with those beings that are of this nature.

For even though human beings are mortal, yet we say the fellowship is not according to mortality, but according to rationality, which is common both to immortal and to mortal beings.

And reasoning belongs neither to the diligent alone nor to the base alone.

For just as the use of perception is common to both the diligent and the base — which the diligent person, using it rightly, does not employ in the manner of the base one who looks up to heaven and deifies it — so too is reasoning.

Found in both the diligent and the base, it differs according to its use.

'Have you then given attention with your mind,' He says, 'to my servant Job, that there is none like him among those upon the earth?'

'Of those upon the earth.' For there are rational beings like him and above him that exist above the earth.

There is none like him — by saying:

'There is none like him among those upon the earth.'

For how could he not surpass all those upon the earth, when the God of all bore witness to him in the words:

'A man blameless, true, God-fearing, abstaining from every evil deed.'

Now he properly abstains from wickedness who is by nature capable of receiving it.

For praise has its place then, when one who is able to be base abstains from wickedness out of hatred toward it.

For not everyone who does not practice wickedness is said to abstain from it.

For infants, who do not practice it, one could not properly say abstain from wickedness.

For the one who does this does so by judgment and reason.

But the matters of wickedness and virtue require a fitness for them.

And one could not say that an infant abstains from licentiousness or is temperate.

For it has not yet come to the discernment of these things.

Having treated of these matters in what preceded, when we also set forth the words from the first Psalm, we demonstrated that these things — being God-fearing — belong to him.

For he is truly God-fearing who reveres with a life of reverence what is worthy of reverence, while those who revere what is not sacred prove to be impious.

Moreover, there belongs to the blessed man also truthfulness, both in the contemplation of the truth and in his being without pretense in matters of conduct.

For the one who practices virtue for some ulterior motive is not truthful.

'And the devil answered and said before the Lord.' It is possible to say plausibly concerning the phrase:

'Before the Lord' — that he spoke contrary to the testimony of God, being a lover of evil, or that he had brazenly conceived his thought.

So then also what he brings forward he utters out of an evil-loving disposition, tending to diminish the righteous man's virtue.

For what does he say? 'Does Job revere the Lord for nothing? Have you not fenced in the things outside him, and the things within his house, and everything he has round about? You have blessed the works of his hands, and made his cattle many upon the earth.' It is characteristic of those who love evil and are hostile to virtue not to reckon the good deeds of their neighbors as genuine, but by all means to say that this man is righteous through inability to do wrong, that man is temperate through what is called stupidity, this one has no interest in money and gain through his ineptitude for such things — sometimes even reckoning the gentle man a hypocrite; and in short, no base person accepts anyone's virtue as genuine.

Being the originator of this wickedness, the devil, conceiving such thoughts about Job, made them manifest to Him who knows the hidden things, saying that Job is righteous on account of his outward goods.

Reckoning these to belong to virtue — in which he was convicted of speaking wrongly.

For even when deprived of these, he remained likewise unconquered.

And in truth, an abundance of wealth does contribute something toward virtue for the one who uses it well, but of itself it contributes nothing to this.

And blessed Job showed his virtue undistorted both in poverty and in wealth.

'But send forth your hand and touch all that he has;'

'Surely he will bless you to your face.' We must understand His 'hand' variously: either as the punitive power that serves this purpose — which things divine Scripture is accustomed to call 'vessels of wrath' — or as the protecting and guarding power, according to what is said:

'No one can snatch out of my Father's hand.' And it is possible to take the Son also up into a hand that shelters and upholds those who are under it, according to what is said:

'The right hand of the Lord has exalted me, the right hand of the Lord has wrought power.' And the phrase 'touch' perhaps here signifies 'assail,' instead of merely touching.

For we have this customarily borne out in Scripture.

'Touch not my anointed ones' — it does not forbid the mere touch, but the insolence against the saints aimed at harming them.

'He who touches you touches, as it were, the apple of His eye' likewise signifies the one who touches so as to do harm.

And even if the devil has become an apostate and has stiffened his neck in the presence of the Lord Almighty, yet he still has some reverence toward the Creator of all.

'Surely he will bless you to your face' — using this expression instead of 'he will curse' or 'he will blaspheme,' so that he might not utter the harsher word against God, employing a euphemism as was said before.

'Then the Lord said to the devil:'

'Behold, all that he has I give into your hand, but do not touch him himself.' The things set forth indicate that no one...

...falls into temptations without the divine permission.

'Behold, I have given all into your hand.' But that it may become manifest that He grants the permission also by measure, there is added:

'But do not touch him himself.' Whence these circumstances befall neither by fate nor by chance, but by the permission of God — in the present case, for the demonstration of Job's virtue, and sometimes also for other reasons, concerning which it will be spoken in what follows.

'And the devil went out from the Lord.' This is said more properly of the devil, that he comes to be outside the Lord, even beyond Cain.

For concerning that one too it is said:

'For Cain went out from the presence of the Lord God.' And the going out signifies that he is void of the imagining of God.

And so this one too always goes forth, being always among those outside, even though he came in pretense together with the attendants of God.

'And it happened, as on this day, that the sons of Job and his daughters were drinking wine in the house of their elder brother.' Consistently He mentions both the day and the gathering together of the children, so that thus the account of their death might also become credible, since they died all at once, at one time, under the collapse of the house.

... in common usage frequently ...

...Scripture; for the majority, since most people suppose that those who come together to such gatherings drink, and they not only drink but also eat and converse as at an assembly.

And consider also the present passage according to allegory: whether perhaps they were being given to drink the wine that gladdens the heart of man by their elder brother, who was making the beginning of divine instruction.

'And behold, a messenger came to Job and said to him:'

'The yokes of oxen were plowing, and the she-donkeys were feeding beside them;'

'And the raiders came and took them captive, and slew the servants with the sword;'

'And I alone escaped and have come to tell you.' Through these words it is shown that the events of the assault came about in a single day.

For the yokes of oxen were plowing, and the donkeys were feeding beside them.

And it is worth observing how the tidings, having come to pass all at once, carry, even in the telling, what is grievous and inclined to overwhelming sorrow.

For the yokes of oxen being taken captive while they were ploughing works a double grief: both from the loss of the animals, once the grazing donkeys had also been carried off besides—donkeys which yielded no slight income—and from the loss of the anticipated revenue and the increase of abundance expected from the sowing.