Commentary on Job 1 part 7/15

And so Eliphaz too, being conversant with this—inasmuch as he was quick-witted and prudent—speaks the things set forth, moved by such a train of thought: namely, that the one who receives admonition meekly and with a view to conversion will attain a good and honourable end, which is indicated to him by the words:

'You shall come to the grave like ripe corn reaped in its season.' And the discourse proceeds for him in sequence from the words:

'Blessed is the man whom the Lord has reproved,' when he also exhorts him not to refuse the admonition of the Almighty, as of one who both smites and heals, and six times delivers from distresses—from famine and war, hiding him from the scourge of the tongue and from iron—whence it will come about that he to whom these things happen shall not fear the onset of evils, and what follows.

'In all of which,' he says, 'a good end shall succeed, in due time and in ripeness, like corn gathered into the threshing-floor.'

And it is a blessed thing to be such corn, concerning which the Saviour says:

'The good seed are the sons of the kingdom.' And concerning the same:

'Unless the grain of wheat, falling into the ground, dies, it remains alone;

but if it dies, it bears much fruit.' And the fruit of this grain is not sensible produce, but human beings who are sons of the kingdom.

It is also a great thing not to hear:

'that he pluck you up and remove you from your tent, and your root from the land of the living,' but rather so to be filled with virtues as the corn that is filled and reaped and gathered in due season.

The 'season' and the 'hour' are set in parallel, as in the passage:

'You shall keep this law according to the seasons of hours, from day to day.' And the spiritual harvest is the perfecting of the soul.

'For going they went and wept, casting their seed'—which signifies the beginning of virtue that comes through their labours and disciplines.

'But coming they shall come with rejoicing, bearing their sheaves'—which signifies, as has been said before, the perfecting.

For this is what the word 'gathered in' indicates.

For the perfect man is henceforth truly upon secure ground.

This we learn well from the Saviour, who says:

'Whose winnowing-fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing-floor and gather the wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.' And it is clear that these things are not spoken concerning sensible matters;

for chaff is not burned by unquenchable fire; nor yet does he appear to be treating of a sensible heap—for a human being is not a heap—but rather of the perfecting and fulfilment of which we have spoken.

And we have it wisely stated in the Song of Songs concerning the bride, who is the Church or the perfect soul:

'Your navel is like a bowl filled full;

with lilies.' And that the soul does not have this so-called belly is clear—the belly concerning which it is said:

'Foods for the belly and the belly for foods,' but rather that belly concerning which it is written:

'Your law in the midst of my belly,' and:

'From fear of you we conceived in the womb, and travailed, and gave birth.' This very soul also has as its navel the very centre of its understanding, which is mingled—according to the wine mingled by Wisdom—with the divine and transcendent conceptions.

And since it was not possible for these things to be conceived by human beings, they were mingled with human expressions, so that in this way those who are unable to hear the things of Wisdom in their naked form might attain to lay hold of the mixture.

And the incarnation too can be signified through the bowl; but it may also be said to the [perfect soul] that:

you have the old and new Scripture, which is the bowl, in the very centre of your ruling faculty.

And you have also a belly resembling a heap, hedged about with lilies.

For since, by the colour of the lily, it has whiteness on the outside, but within has a colour like that of a dead thing, this would be to signify that the perfect soul becomes white according to the word concerning which it is said:

'My kinsman is white,' being put to death by the mortification that comes from ascetic discipline.

'Behold, these things we have thus searched out; these are the things which we have heard.'

'But know for yourself if you have done anything.' The aforesaid is confirmed—that being a man of understanding, and having perhaps heard from the ancient holy ones, who taught divine things unwritten, he was led to speak a word having some substance, the like of which we too, finding in the divine Scriptures, have set forth.

For by the word 'we have searched out' he displays his own understanding, and by 'we have heard' the instruction received from others—unless someone should say that by 'hearing' he means, as it were, the experience and knowledge of matters.

And still following the same principle, and being disposed to think that Job suffered on account of sin, he added:

'But know for yourself if you have done anything,' so that through this too he might make plain that:

...concerning those who sin:

'For I do not consider it just for a righteous man to be punished.'

'But I do not know each of the sins.'

'But know for yourself'—that is to say:

having come to know, repent—which again belonged to one disposed as toward a sinner.

For he supposed there to be a single cause of the afflictions that had come upon him.

'For if one weighing should weigh my wrath, and take up my pains together in a balance,'

'indeed it would be heavier than the sand of the seashore.' As from all the rest, so also from what lies before us is shown the greatness of soul of Job, who bore his circumstances nobly and most manfully.

For many, when they find themselves in distressing and grievous circumstances, regard those who exhort them as superfluous, and lay blame on...

But this man has prepared himself even for a reply... in the midst of his circumstances...

So then he might say the things set forth in answer to what was said by Eliphaz:

'But now trouble has come upon you and has touched you'; and you were eager, for the sake of proof, at once that these things did not come upon me outside of sins, and, besides this, of moderation, supposing yourself to be in doubt—even though the spirit of the Scripture-writer bears witness to him that he was blameless.

'If someone should be willing to weigh, as it were in a balance, our faults and the wrath that has been laid upon us, he will find it heavier than our faults.'

For the holy man knew that he was undergoing these things not on account of sins but for the sake of the contest, since in what follows he declared:

'I know that I shall be shown to be righteous.' Wherefore he was eager to lead his friends into such knowledge.

But if 'to weigh' also signifies to bring to a halt, consider together with this:

the yoke is said to be that which lies upon the neck of the animals that bear it.

if someone should be willing to draw the yoke of sufferings together with me, so as to lighten me from them by fellowship.

But take heed lest this, being unworthy of the holy man, lead us back to the first rendering.

And he has adopted 'seaside sand' because it is the more sodden.

'But as it seems, my words are worthless.'

'...is in my body, whose wrath drinks up my blood.'

'Whenever I begin to speak, they goad me.' Since Eliphaz [held] the first words to be trustworthy, Job having seemed to Eliphaz himself...

to have said everything out of exasperation, he spoke to Job, being disposed to think that he had suffered on account of sins, saying:

'As it seems, my words are of little worth, being in no way believed.'

And he adds accordingly the reason why he disbelieves him, saying:

'For the arrows of the Lord are in my body,' so that what it signifies is this:

'For this reason my words are worthless, because the arrows of the Lord are upon my body.'

For most people are accustomed to look down upon the words spoken by those who are hard pressed by adversity and poverty, even if those words be sensible.

This very thing is made plain in the saying which declares:

'A poor man spoke, and they said…'

That the trials sent by providence in adversity are called 'arrows' can be attested from many passages.

In Deuteronomy, Moses in the great Song speaks in the person of God:

'I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour the blood of the slain' — by 'arrows and sword' meaning the chastisements.

And again in the same book he says:

'And my arrows shall consume them utterly' — the phrase 'shall consume utterly' making the point clear.

And this too comes about for their benefit.

By 'the fury of arrows' here he means not that of lifeless things, but the painful, violent, and bitter onslaught of griefs, which he says drinks up the blood, indicating that the effects of chastisement strip away even his vital force.

'When I begin to speak, they goad me as in a…' — this would suggest some such thought as this:

when the mind is stretched out toward the God of all things and toward the contemplation of him, in a certain manner there comes about a forgetfulness of human affairs.

It was from such a state that the blessed David also sang, saying:

'I forgot to eat my bread'; and Paul says that he was caught up to the third heaven — 'whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not.'

But whenever, as men, they give no small attention to their sufferings, then indeed he takes them to task with no small severity.

So Job, in declining this himself, in a certain way teaches his friends also to keep their thoughts on high and to give little heed to sufferings, being occupied with contemplation.

Consequently the power that guards the saints also allows them to have a little perception of their toils, in order that thus the giving of the crown may be with good reason.

'For what? Will the wild ass bray to no purpose, unless it be seeking food? And will the ox utter a cry over its manger when it has fodder to eat? Shall bread be eaten without salt? And is there any taste in empty words? For my soul cannot cease.'

'For I look upon my food as filth, like the smell of a lion.' — In response to the rebuke, as it were, that had been directed at him by that one concerning the words spoken by Job, he himself speaks, putting it as a question, so that from what is answered he might no longer blame the man who cries out because of his sufferings — and this though Job had said nothing of impatience.

'What then? Will the wild ass bray to no purpose, unless it be seeking food?' — that is:

Does the wild ass utter its voice in vain when it lacks nourishment? Nor does the ox cry out over the manger when the food lies there.

So do not blame me either, if I cry out — according to your supposition — because of grievous things, my nature being weak; so that he might lead him to sympathy, that he should not blame one who is in pain if he cries out.

For the saint ought not to be without feeling, even though he bear his afflictions with fortitude.

For this is virtue: when one, while receiving the perception of his sufferings, yet rises above his pains for God's sake.

'Shall bread be eaten without salt?' — inserted by the blessed man and thereby producing some obscurity, this would be, according to our ability, something of this sort:

There cannot be any benefit for the soul, nor nourishment for it, unless toil and affliction have first come about.

'Bread' signifying the benefit, and 'salt' the toil, without which it is impossible for virtue to be brought to perfection.

From the same line of thought comes also the words:

'And is there any taste in empty words?'

Every word that is bereft of virtuous action is vain and empty.

Illustrative of this is the saying:

'For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.' It consists not in empty promises, but in the word that is effectual for salvation.

'Do not, therefore, think that I utter empty words, nor do you, O friends, be zealous for this.'

'For on this account, since nothing empty and vain has been done by me, my soul cannot cease from its straining against the adversary.'

'For my aim is not empty, but holds a saving hope.'

'For even if my food, because of the stench of the wound, is filled with the smell of a lion, my soul shall not cease.'

'For nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ — tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine,' and what follows.

For all the saints cry aloud in Paul.

But if it also signifies that the devil's opposition against him, wishing to hinder his virtue on account of the 'smell,' had become his customary food, consider this too.

'For if only he would grant it, and my request might come, and the Lord grant my hope; let the Lord, having begun, wound me, but in the end let him not destroy me.' The one who asks a wound against himself, not growing weary, prays that his own request may come — not that he may be destroyed, but that his own aim may be fulfilled.

And this was the culmination of his achievement: to accomplish it, or even to show his friends, for their benefit, the reason for his toils — namely, that they had been laid upon him for the sake of the contest.

For in this way they would no longer sin against the righteous man, but would even receive a divine zeal, striving eagerly to imitate the endurance and courage perfected in the saint — on account of which he also said:

'For would that the Lord might grant — and that my request might come, and the Lord grant my hope.'

For he prays on account of both things: that he himself may receive the crown of the contest, and that they may not consider the endurance of sufferings to be in vain.

And one may see and marvel at his courage even amid such great toils; for first he has not shrunk from making answer to his friend, having as an excuse the preoccupation of his sufferings, but rather again, like a noble athlete, he speaks in warlike fashion, standing against the adversary and knowing that the assault against him did not come about apart from God's permission. He says:

'Let the Lord, having begun, wound me; only let him not destroy me in the end' — which is equivalent to:

let him graciously grant me to bear up under the outcome of my afflictions.

'And lead us not into temptation' — which is often interpreted as equivalent to:

may it not befall us to fall under those who deceive.

Consider also the divine assurance:

he hopes that the things of his prayer will come — not that everyone knows whether he prays to his own advantage, but only the saints.

Those who live according to the will of God receive also the full assurance of hope.

That it is not out of fear concerning the life here below that he says:

'but in the end let him not destroy me,' is clear from his having said:

'Death is rest for a man.' Being therefore of keen perception, the saint awaits a wound from God, knowing him to be the best of instructors, not as one to be punished, but seeking it as a testing — even as the psalmist says:

'Prove me, O Lord, and try me'; and also the proverbial saying:

'He scourges every son whom he receives.' And this comes about so that he may not become one deserving punishment through having felt nothing of the chastening.

For the saint does not decline reproof, having given himself wholly over to God, knowing that affliction works endurance, and endurance proof, and proof hope;

'and hope does not put to shame.'

'Let my city be a tomb, upon whose walls I leaped; upon it I shall not spare myself.' The one who has despised all human glories and civic honors and the like, counting all things as refuse for the sake of the saving hope, deems his civic glories a tomb, having died to them, like Paul who says:

'I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.' For upon these human glories, boasting greatly as though leaping upon walls, the wicked spring — even if the saint does not.

For it is clear that he has said these things while attaching them to the human person.

For the blessed man was modest-minded if ever anyone was, being attested to be blameless and righteous.

And it might be that in saying these things he means:

'Even if, like a well-fortified city, I once abounded in wealth and glory, yet to me these things have died, since I reckon the loss of them to be no grievous matter.'

'Therefore I do not spare these things either.'

'I have no longing for any of them at all, having died to them, ever since I live a blessed life.'

For it is good to die to sin, that we may live to God, and not, like the widow who lives luxuriously, be handed over, while living, to the death of sin.

'For I have not belied the holy words of my God.' Therefore I count all human things a tomb, having died to them, since I have not belied the holy words of God — whether because I have stumbled in nothing but am righteous (this he says in accord with him who says:

'I am conscious of nothing against myself'), or because he showed that the things spoken by God in the manner of a testimony were not false, according to what was said concerning him.

And he ascribed no folly to God. For his manner of life was found to be in agreement with the words of God which testify to his being in virtue.

Wherefore he even calls his own virtuous deeds God's, in accord with him who says:

'Yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.' And it is also indicative that he had been taught of God, that he says:

'For I have not lied concerning the holy words of my God.' And no less does he also appear free from conceit, actively demonstrating from God the saying:

'Be not lifted up in your own wisdom.' For he confesses that all things are God's.

For it is profitable not to rely upon oneself, which the divine word again admonishes:

'Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches; but let him who boasts boast in this, to understand and know the Lord.' We have examples in the Scriptures of those who boasted senselessly and trusted in themselves, Goliath and Pharaoh, who did not suffer the things they had hoped for, their arrogance being quenched.

'Professing to be wise, they became fools,' according to the oracle.

But concerning those also who boast in wealth it is said:

'Fear not when a man becomes rich, and when the glory of his house is multiplied; for at his death he shall carry nothing away. For either he will leave these things behind, or they will leave him, a reversal having come to pass.'

But the holy man, relying on nothing of his own, attributes all things to God.

'For what is my strength, that I endure? or what is my time, that my soul is patient? Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh made of bronze? Was it not in Him that I had trusted? Yet help is far from me.'

'Mercy has refused me, and the visitation of the Lord has overlooked me.' Being loving, he wishes to instruct his friends, that it is not for any human cause that he endures so great an onslaught of grievous things, and to establish before him that:

Were it not by divine reasoning, insofar as it belongs to human weakness, I would not have borne these things. 'For by what kind of strength,' he says, 'consider that I endure these things, or for what span of time shall I be able to live while undergoing them?'

'And is my strength that of stone, or do I have flesh of bronze, so that I do not feel the pain in them?'—lest, regarding him as insensible, they should belittle his endurance.

For there are those who suppose even concerning the martyrs that they do not feel their pains, which detracts from their virtue.

But he wishes also to implant those things in their mind, namely that he does not suffer because of sin, saying:

'Was it not in Him that I had trusted?' And in addition to this, gently hinting also at the permission from God, he adds:

[He gave him over] to the one who demanded him, but He comes to the defense of the one who perseveres.

For the blessed David too sings of this, saying:

'Waiting, I waited for the Lord, and He gave heed to me.' And it is possible that he says these things also in refutation of their opinion, namely that:

'You suppose thus, that both the help and the visitation of the Lord have overlooked me.'

He himself knows that God delivered him to this for the sake of testing, as 'Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for having proved approved he shall receive the crown of life, which He promised to those who love Him.' 'My nearest kin did not regard me; like a failing torrent, or like a wave, they passed me by.' And this too befell him for testing.

For it is no small grief in afflictions, the absence of friends.

Enduring this same affliction, holy David also sang:

'I looked to the right hand and observed, and there was none that recognized me.' But if he also indicates that the invisible holy powers passed him by a little, because his virtue appeared great, consider this together:

For this sense runs together with the one assigned to:

'And the visitation of the Lord overlooked me.' For just as the Lord of all, not out of hatred, did not visit him, but in order to show the adversary that his wickedness has no power against a man's virtue, so perhaps also the divine powers, being counted worthy to know the will of God concerning permitting the contest around Job to take place, [passed him by], that the achievement of the blessed one might appear more resplendent.

'Those who held me in reverence have now fallen upon me.' Perhaps he gently rebukes these, saying:

'Being ignorant of the cause of these visitations, you assail me, daring to say such things as you did not say before.'

And it is likely that many of the others too despised him on account of his suffering, and this at the prompting of the one who had demanded him.

But consider whether, just as we explained that the divine powers passed him by a little that his virtue might be made known, so also some of the opposing powers were permitted to leap upon him and to war against him.

'Like snow or frozen ice, which, when it has melted as warmth came, was no longer recognized as what it was, so I too was forsaken by all.'

'And I perished and became homeless.' This is said by hyperbaton (transposed word order):

'Like snow or frozen ice, which when it has melted,' being rendered thus:

'As snow or ice when it has melted.'

And the illustration is fitting for the excess of his transformation, which renders him wholly unrecognizable, like the snow or ice that is dissolved by scorching heat and thus makes unrecognizable the very place where it happened to be.

And it is well too to employ such an illustration:

Just as snow and ice, being dissolved by heat, render the place indistinguishable, so also one who seems to be a friend is exposed when temptations set in, and what he was concealing before this he makes manifest.

When a time of affliction sets in and those who feigned to be friends turn hostile, the holy ones possess steadfastness, maintaining toward those they love, both in ease and in adversity, this rule of friendship unperverted.

And no wonder, seeing that they extend their love even toward enemies, being peaceable with those who hate peace, according to what is spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

'Say, our brothers, to those who hate you, that the name of the Lord may be glorified; but they shall be put to shame.' And since the discussion has once taken up the subject of friendship, it is consequent to distinguish the kinds of friendship.

There is, then, one kind that is for the sake of the good itself, which the holy ones also perfect; and another for the sake of usefulness, as when, for example, someone is a friend of a physician for this very reason.

And this friendship, even if it is not perfect, at least does not have the blameworthy element, being a merely human kind.

And there is another for the sake of the pleasant, which, once it no longer exists, neither does the friend remain; and yet another out of love of glory, that they may seem to the many to be friends of the greater, themselves contributing nothing to the honor of those persons.

When there is a need to claim friendship, differing in this respect, one prefers the useful things to the pleasant, which pleasant things are also liable to blame.

Exhorting to true friendship, the word says:

'Forsake not your own friend and your father's friend. For the recent one is not like him.' By 'recent' I mean the unreliable; by 'ancient' or 'ancestral,' the one who possesses steadfastness—and all the more if you consider him in respect of time also....

The one who has come through trial disregards the recent friend:

For the one who truly knows hearts from experience...

...thus makes his discernment.

And the '[phrase] I perished and became homeless' he says with a view to the opinion of the many, who reckon as 'perishing' the removal of all possessions and money, and the fact that he was on the dung-heap.

Wherefore he had also become homeless, all his household having abandoned him.

'Behold the ways of the Temanites, the paths of the Sabaeans, you who observe.'

'And they shall incur shame, those who trusted in cities and in riches.' 'I,' he says, 'have undergone these things, having fallen away from wealth and abundance of children and glory and the other human goods.'

'And yet, having marveled at none of them, I am not dismayed.'

For the holy ones, attending to the nature of things indifferent, do not reckon the loss of these as burdensome, and they exhort others as well, just as the blessed David also, singing, 'If riches increase, set not your heart upon them.' And again:

'Trust not in princes, nor in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation.' Gently correcting them, then, the holy man frames his discourse thus, saying:

'Behold the ways of the Temanites, the paths of the Sabaeans, you who observe'—that is:

'seeing with understanding,' so that his whole meaning may be as follows:

'And I became homeless and was deprived of all things.'

'Consider the ways of the Temanites, condemn the paths of the Sabaeans, even if they prosper, reckoning that, trusting in wealth and glory, they do not have upright ways or paths.'

And he said these things, hinting also to his friends who thought that the one who falls into adversities is held fast by them because of wickedness, that:

'You, even if you are kings and have not fallen into misfortune, yet consider the ways of the Temanites and Sabaeans; [examine] their ways, [and you will find] that, trusting in human things, you incur shame.'

But if you should wish to take up the interpretations of the names, this understanding might arise: 'Temanites' being interpreted as 'those who have failed/departed,' and 'Sabaeans' as 'those who turn back.'

He therefore exhorts them to contemplate those who have departed from virtue, who also have trusted in wealth; but he also exhorts those who turn back to consider the nature of things, that it does not by any means always remain thus in prosperity, but frequently reverts.

Wherefore it is a shame to have trusted in riches or cities, by 'cities' meaning human glories and, as it were, being in security.

But if those who have departed should be praiseworthy, he exhorts, saying that:

'Consider that there are also others who have abandoned evils and are by no means rich in human things.'

If, then, you are willing to give heed to the fact that affairs admit of much change, since many often recover the things of which they had been deprived, you would not have set your longing upon them as though upon abiding things, being awestruck by them.

For he who trusts in riches, he shall fall, but he who lays hold of the righteous, he shall rise up; even as Lazarus rose up into Abraham's bosom, while the rich man was delivered over to punishment, falling upon it — he who through arrogance overlooked Lazarus.

For indeed the text carefully noted that Lazarus was laid at the rich man's gate, and that the man was exceedingly rich, so that he might have no excuse to say:

'I did not know him' or 'I had not the means to spare.'

And well is it said, 'he rises up.'

For just as seeds, after undergoing decay, afterward blossom forth, so he who has been pressed by hardships and has endured shall have as the reward of his steadfastness this rising up, shining forth like the sun in the kingdom of the Father.

For he was one who trusted in the Lord, having been drawn on by what was said:

'Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.'

In the Lord I have trusted, not in money or in the cities of men, but in the divine wealth and in the city of the great King, whose foundations are in the holy mountains — reckoning as my riches the oracles of the Lord, which are to be desired above gold and much precious stone.

'But now you also have assailed me without mercy.' Even one who admonishes with stern words those who have fallen into a blameworthy fault does not reprove them if he is moved according to reason.

For this is not the purpose, but rather to urge one toward courage and to bear the trial nobly.

For to say 'Why did you sin?' is rather to weigh a man down than to lighten his sufferings.

And indeed they truly set upon him without mercy, since they had gone astray concerning the cause of the affliction, and because they attempted to convict one who was not subject to conviction.

'So then, seeing my wound, be afraid.' Most tenderly does the holy man deal even with those who are ill-disposed toward him, correcting them by reference to his own case and taking the beginning of his exhortation from their own judgment:

For if everyone who sins falls into calamities, and if he who has so fallen has suffered this on account of sins, then you too be afraid, receiving fear from my wound.

For it was plain to them that no one is clean from the defilement of men.