Commentary on Job 1 part 15/15

for there is also a particular injustice, that concerning transactions and contracts, just as there is a particular righteousness, while all virtue too is often called by this name.

'I will declare to you; hearken to me.'

It seems that he says these things to Job somewhat boastfully—or perhaps not out of any boastful intent, but because he supposes Job to be in sin and therefore to stand in need of exhortation from him.

'The things which I have seen I declare to you, things which wise men have told, and which their fathers have not hidden.'

He wishes, as it were, to lend his discourse the authority of illustrious persons, so that from these he might seem to speak persuasively.

'The things which wise men will say, who have heard them from their fathers, who did not hide their teaching from them.' By these words he shows that he is stirring against Job in a well-meaning disposition.

Similar to this is the saying: 'Inquire of the former generation, and search diligently according to the race of the fathers. To them alone was the land given, and no stranger came upon them.'

This man seems—though not from any true knowledge of God, but out of admiration for those who surpass others in understanding—to say something akin to the passage that declares:

'To the faithful man belongs the whole world of possessions, but to the unfaithful not even an obol. For even if the unfaithful man be very rich, he is not master of his goods, but a slave.'

But the righteous man has a mind that cannot be enslaved.

Wherefore no stranger comes upon them either—that is to say, they are taken captive neither by an unseen power nor by any man.

'For love never fails'—that is, the one who loves never fails.

For even if the righteous man be at some time held in captivity, yet, as was said before, he is unenslaved in his reasoning.

It is proper to strangers, both invisible and visible, to come upon others.

'The whole life of the ungodly is spent in anxiety.'

Their portion is rest, so that the land is given to them and no stranger comes upon them; but the ungodly man is caught up in anxieties.

And if he were not saying this in the sense described above, he would still have a reasonable meaning.

But since he had said that Job is a sinner, he hints that 'it is for this reason that you are in anxieties, since you are not righteous—the one to whom, along with his fellows, the land was given, and upon whom no stranger comes.'

In what sense, then, this man said this has been made clear.

But the Lord, in charging his own disciples, says:

'Do not be anxious about tomorrow.' And this is a command, that we should cast all our anxiety upon the Lord.

But if he means by 'life' one's possessions, then this too is in anxiety.

'And numbered years have been given to the mighty one.'

'And the fear of him is in his ears.'

This means that even if someone in power grows insolent, let him know that his years are numbered.

It is not his power that makes him long-lived;

for time is measured out to men by God with a view to His judgment.

So even if the mighty man boasts, yet his life and his years turn out to be few and full of dread, since he ever keeps fear in his ears because of the instability of his manner of life.

Such a man harbors this passionate fear.

For whenever he is caught up in the anxieties of life, he also dreads death.

But the earnest man, knowing that it is far better to depart and to be with Christ, is of good hope; whereas the base man is not so, but is fearful;

for it is said, 'The ungodly flees when no one pursues.'

'When he seems to be already at peace, his downfall shall come.'

Even if someone should be in great prosperity, like the man in the Gospel who says:

'I will pull down my barns and build greater ones, and I will say to my soul,

Soul, you have many good things; eat, drink, be merry'—but the Lord says to him:

'You fool, this very night they demand your soul back from you;

and the things you have prepared, whose shall they be?' For when he seemed to be at peace in his wealth, his downfall came.

These things, then, the divine word sets before us.

It seems that this man says these things from things he has misheard from the wise, being mistaken in this respect: that he was hinting them against Job.

'Let him not believe that he will be turned back from darkness.'

There is a 'peace and security,' namely, 'when he seems to be at peace, his downfall shall come.'

'Then,' he says, 'sudden destruction stands over them, like the birth-pang upon her who is with child.' (Job) For he is already committed to the hands of the sword, and appointed as food for vultures.

For thenceforth the sinner has stored up punishment for himself, which is signified by the sword and the vultures.

One ought not to be surprised that this man says such things;

for it has already been said that he probably utters them from things misheard from the ancients.

(Job) 'And he knows within himself that he is destined for a fall.'

He says that the conscience of those who sin knows the expectation attaching to their base pursuits, namely that this is a downfall.

(Job) 'And a dark day shall whirl him about.'

That is to say, he is thrown into confusion by the punishments.

You have a passage in Amos concerning this day:

'Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! And why do you want this day of the Lord? It is darkness and not light (Amos), and gloom in which there is no brightness.'

(Job) 'Distress and affliction shall lay hold of him.'

He says, then, that the base fall into these things, establishing through it all that he suffers these things on account of sin.

(Job) 'Like a leading commander falling in the front rank.'

Even if it is not Job who says these things, yet he had some knowledge of the devil, which he probably gained from the words either of Job or of other ancients.

He calls him, then, a 'leading commander' because he is the author of evil.

He says, therefore, that distress and affliction—the things named in the foregoing—shall so lay hold of him that he shall be like the commander in the front rank;

thus he too shall fall, being the author of evil.

(Job) 'And he ran against Him with insolence.'

This is made manifest by the fact that he does not work it in secret, but in the sight of the Lord.

Now insolence may also be arrogance and every kind of injustice; for it renders those held fast by it deserving of reproach.

For it renders those who are entangled in it deserving of insolence.

Yet it does not by all means render him deserving of insolence;

for neither does praise make a thing good, nor does blame make it evil.

'In the thickness of the back of his shield.'

That there is audacity in evil, he shows by this;

for as one invincible he makes use of the ...

using the shield, that is, its thickness, and the fleshly practices.

So too the false prophets, clothed in sheep's skin, were inwardly ravening wolves.

Concerning the devil it is said in this very book:

'Who shall uncover the covering of his face? Who could enter within the fold of his breastplate?' For rare is the one who uncovers his malice.

And just as the one who plays a part on the stage, wearing one face, presents himself to others as another, so too the devil, transforming himself into an angel of light, deceives and carries men away by force, and not as a devil;

for if he came openly, they would flee from him.

So too the harlot personified in Proverbs, with kindly words, insinuates her venom.

'And he would enter into uninhabited houses.'

These things seem to be said concerning the devil, or concerning every wicked and adverse power and soul that partakes of the same malice;

for those things that are receptive of the same are of the same substance.

And if anything is said concerning the devil as being wicked, as being a doer of evil, it is possible for this malice to be predicated also concerning another wicked power.

In general, then, we say concerning every evil, that it enters into uninhabited houses;

for where there is a diligent habitation, the evil one has no place.

And we can establish this from the Gospel;

'When,' he says, 'the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest and finds none.' Now the waterless places, in these words, are the souls that have been stripped of malice.

For in many places the moisture of malice is called water;

'So our soul passed through the insubstantial water.' And the devil is king of all that is in the waters — not of the perceptible waters, for these are the creations of God — but of the evil and sinful ones who are held fast by that water, concerning which it is said:

'Many waters cannot quench love' — meaning that malice does not hinder love.

When, therefore, the unclean spirit, having been cast out of the man, seeks another house, seeks where it may lurk, it passes through waterless places — meaning that it does not settle in a soul, for it finds it stripped of the wicked moisture — so that someone may speak freely in this regard and say:

'My soul is like a waterless land'; and it finds no rest there.

The psalmist somewhere says something analogous:

'When the evil one turned aside from me, I did not know it.' Uninhabited houses, then, are those souls from which every virtue has departed; and when virtue is absent, God is absent, and His Word, and the Holy Spirit;

into these the devil, the adverse power, will enter.

'But what those prepared, others shall carry off.'

Having spoken concerning the adverse powers in the singular, through the phrase 'and he would enter into uninhabited houses,' he continues in the plural:

'But what those prepared, others shall carry off.' For whatever the wicked make ready for evil, others — namely, the saints — take it away, drawing men off from those who held them fast, through the divine proclamation, which the blessed apostles did, having been sent to make disciples of all the nations.

And note that he did not say 'what those acquired,' but 'what those prepared'; and they prepared it through malice, through pleasures, through the other evils.

'Neither shall he be enriched, nor shall his possessions endure.'

When the things prepared with diligence are demanded back, how could he still be rich? For he is poor and ...

... of the things prepared ...

Like to this is the saying, 'The partridge called out and gathered what it did not bring forth;

at his end they shall forsake him, and at his end he shall be a fool.' 'He shall by no means cast a shadow upon the earth.'

Bodies are the producers of shadows, and it is impossible, when there is no body, for there to be a shadow.

'For neither,' he says, 'was malice from the beginning, nor shall it be forever.' 'Nor shall he escape the darkness.'

For he who is the cause to others of evil has an inescapable punishment.

'May the wind wither his shoot.'

Even if he seemed to sprout in the things wherein he deceived and in the things wherein he fulfills his malice, yet this shoot is withered by the wind;

for malice is not substantial, but something that has entered from without, which, by the assault of temptation — which is called 'wind' — is exposed and falls and withers.

'And may his blossom fall off.'

The blossom is the beginning and prelude of the fruit; and this too falls off.

For even if the one who partakes of malice boasts, yet a little later he is humbled.

And this is often even beneficial, just as the physician too often cuts out with the knife the corruption that grows upon the body, and does not cease to apply the painful measures until he has accomplished his aim, namely health.

'Let him not think,' he says, 'that his affairs are secure' — the ungodly man who offends against God.

For every deed of his is vanity, because it has no subsistence.

'His cutting shall perish before its time.'

For this reason his blossom falls off and his shoot withers, because it does not await the season of perfect fruit.

Like to this is the saying, 'Be not hard, that you may not die before your time.' Some, disturbed by such sayings, introduce fate and say that we are under the constraint of time in the things we do.

But 'before its time' here he means before its coming to maturity, in the sense in which we speak of the season of vintage or of harvest.

Thus indeed Job came into the tomb 'like ripe grain gathered in due season.'

And it is a benefaction of God that the shoot of malice should perish before its time.

'And his young branch shall not grow thick;'

'may he be plucked like an unripe grape before its time, and may he fall off like the blossom of the olive.'

His blossom is not permitted to come to perfect fruit-bearing.

Nonetheless this too, as has been said before, is advantageous and useful — that the malice of those who work evil should be a passing thing.

But the things of the righteous are not so;

for the branches of the true vine, abiding in their natural union, sprout and bear fruit.

'For the death of the ungodly is a testimony.'

Having gone through the foregoing matters, he declares death to be the end of the ungodly man.

For the consummation of malice works death — not the common death, but that of punishment.

'And fire shall consume the houses of those who take bribes.'

And on the plain sense it has a benefit, for those who take bribes altogether endure this on account of unjust and impious deeds.

'The ruler asks, and the judge has spoken peaceable words; it is the desire of his soul.' But how the house of the bribe-taker is burned, one must consider.

'And I will draw out their goods like a moth that gnaws away, and one who walks upon a measuring-line in the day of watching.' For in the scrutiny of deeds there shall be a recompense, according to what is said:

'Depart into the everlasting fire.' Yet there are times when the recompense against those who take bribes comes to pass even in this present life.

For since the judgement is God's, all those who pervert the judgements of God fall under punishment.

'And in the womb he shall conceive pangs.'

This is what he means: that a father becomes the cause of evil offspring, becoming the cause of punishments.

But the divine recompenses no man begets; rather, God bestows them as a gift of grace.

For 'the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.' And we do not say this, that the diligent man is not a cause of good things, but rather that the graces of God and his gifts are supplied by him with a surpassing excellence beyond all comparison.

For 'every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.' And that punishments follow the wicked, in a certain way they themselves bringing these things upon themselves, whereas God extends his graces to the diligent, has been said:

'Those who glorify me I will glorify, but those who despise me shall be dishonoured.' For the despising of God brings dishonour upon them.

This too Paul writes:

'To those who by patience in good work seek glory and honour, God gives eternal life; but upon those who are of contentiousness and who disobey the truth, wrath and fury follow.'

'But it shall turn out empty for him, and his belly shall bear deceit.'

For every deed of his, as was said before, is filled with vanity, since he conceives pangs in the womb.

'For he conceived trouble and brought forth iniquity'—clearly since his belly bears deceit.

By 'deceit' here he means all wickedness.

Now deceit is indeed one particular species of wickedness, yet no less is all wickedness also called by this name, according to what is said:

'O you who are full of all deceit and all villainy,' and 'therefore, putting away all deceit and hypocrisy.'

By 'belly' here one must understand the [faculty which] ...

... gives its assent either to evil things or to good things.

'Comforters of evils are you all.'

By these words he shows that, dwelling among men, he knows many things, having heard much.

And since they offer their consolations indiscriminately to those in distress, while being disposed toward them as toward wicked men, fittingly—just as the three friends had done—he added the phrase 'comforters of evils are you all,' signifying either that they all speak, in ignorance of what has befallen, otherwise than as they ought, thereby stirring up rather than restraining the griefs; or else he was speaking of all three:

For indeed from this number comes the notion of a multitude.

'For what? Is there order in the words of the spirit?' — [Job 16:6] 'For if I speak, I shall not feel the pain of my wound.'

He wishes to display his genuine disposition, that 'I am concerned for your salvation, so that even if I am in pain, I employ exhortation.'

For even if others who are in pain and grieved are content with the griefs that concern themselves, yet for this man the salvation of his friends is to be preferred.

[Job 16:6] 'But if I keep silent, in what way shall I be less wounded?' 'And if,' he says, 'I should be willing in silence to bear the reproaches, not only shall I not carry off a reputation for wisdom, but on the contrary I shall be judged all the more as a lawbreaker, since the silence is thought to arise from a conscience concerning the things being said.' [Job 16:7] 'But now he has made me weary, foolish, rotten'—according to them; and this he says, declaring that this had befallen him from God.

But the matter was not so.

For even if God permitted it, yet he did not do this as of his own initiative, but at the request of the adversary.

By 'foolish' here [he means] the insensible;

for he joined to this the word 'rotten.'

[Job 16:8] 'And he laid hold of me, it has become a testimony'—the phrase 'he laid hold of me' stands for 'he assailed me.'

'And this has become a testimony to me.'

For indeed in very truth the courage of the blessed Job was set forth for all to hear.