Commentary on Job 1 part 10/19

Tell me then, what have you procured for God by being righteous and extending your way to good works? What benefit does God derive from this? Do you suppose that, taking great account of you, he punishes and judges you as though he stood to profit from your righteousness, even if you were indeed righteous? But others have read it thus:

"For what?"—then, having placed the punctuation there, they went on to add what follows:

"It matters to the Lord, if you were blameless in your works."

I too know, it says, that the explanations of why one impious man prospers while another is punished are known to the all-wise one alone.

...to be [a matter of concern to him]; and though he is without need of anything, he considers it, as it were, his own benefit that men should pursue the good expansively and generously.

For this reason, taking great forethought for you as well, he reproved you, and, as though setting himself against you in judgment, he judges you justly.

And making the punishments a proof of the sins, he adds what follows:

"Is not your wickedness great, and your sins innumerable?" From the multitude of misfortunes he infers the multitude of sins.

"You took pledges from your brothers for nothing."

"And you stripped away the clothing of the naked."

And these people, it says, though they were poor, you took their clothing as a pledge for nothing.

"Nor did you give water to drink to the thirsty."

Therefore not only doing wrong, but also failing to do good, is culpable.

And note to what extent we ought to extend our good deeds: that failing to give the thirsty something to drink is itself culpable, just as, according to the truthful word of the Savior, we receive a reward even for a cup of cold water.

"But you deprived the hungry of their morsel, and you showed favor to the faces of some."

He calls bread a "morsel," just as is also found in Ruth:

"You shall dip your morsel in the vinegar."

And you deprived them of necessary food, either by taking pledges from them or by not paying the wages of those who had labored.

But you have also become, it says, a respecter of persons, oppressing the lowly while admiring and honoring those in positions of power.

"And you made the poor dwell upon the ground."

Some copies contain: "You laid the poor to rest upon the ground."

The poor, it says, and those already lying prostrate on the ground, you caused to lie all the more upon the ground, meaning by this that:

You ground down poverty upon the poor.

And, he says, you even took away the poor's bedding, so that they had to sleep on the bare ground, having nothing spread beneath them.

But you sent widows away empty, and you mistreated orphans.

Again, failure to share with widows is reckoned as sin, but mistreating orphans and the helpless is a mark of the utmost wickedness.

Therefore snares have encircled you, and an extraordinary war has hastened upon you.

For these reasons, therefore, onslaughts of evils have encircled you all around, and this great and fearsome war of punishments has thrown you into confusion.

The light has turned into darkness for you, and while you lay sleeping, water covered you.

Because of this, he says, your circumstances shifted from light into darkness; and 'having slept' stands for—

'being without care' — water covered you, that is to say:

the trials of afflictions have overwhelmed you like a flood.

Does not he who dwells in the heights oversee all things?

But do you think that God, who dwells in the heights, does not see what is done? Yet he humbled those who were swept along by insolence.

Seeing all things as he does, then, he humbles those who are dragged along by an insolent disposition and drawn into pride.

'What does the Mighty One know? Or will he judge through the darkness? Clouds are his hiding place, and he will not be seen, and he walks about the circuit of heaven.'

Eliphaz condemns Job of great impiety and folly.

For, he says, you were committing injustice in this manner, as though God did not know the things upon the earth, but as though he judged in darkness — that is, as though in judging he did not see what happens on earth.

For, he says, you were saying that, being invisible and walling off our affairs from himself by means of the clouds, and going about only the circuit of heaven, he does not deem it worthwhile to exercise any providence over the things on earth.

This very opinion some of the pagan philosophers also held, saying that God does not exercise providence over what is under the moon.

'Will you keep to the eternal path which righteous men have trodden, who were taken away untimely, whose foundations were a flowing river?'

'The Lord — what will he do to us, or what will the Almighty bring upon us?' Yet it was he who filled their houses with good things.

Are you able to comprehend the eternal ways of God, along which godly men have journeyed? By this he means the paths of piety.

Then, even against his own intention, he is carried into words resembling Job's own, saying:

For nevertheless, he says, though they had become righteous, they ended their life prematurely, and some of them were even shaken loose from their foundations, as though swept away by a torrent.

And these, as righteous men, saying:

'What will God, who has power over all things, bring upon us?' — they had obtained divine assistance, and afterward their houses were filled with good things.

He says this hinting that:

even you, if you were righteous, would not fail to obtain God's help.

Have you not known from the beginning concerning the ways of the impious, the very ways of the impious which righteous men trod underfoot? Yet these impious men also ended their life prematurely and have collapsed from their foundations, as though shaken down by a flood.

'What can God do to us?' — and yet, though they had received abundant good things from him, and though it was fitting to give thanks, they uttered words of ingratitude.

And according to this same line of thought he strikes at Job, as one who has become ungrateful toward God and is for this reason being punished.

'But the counsel of the impious is far from him.'

The counsels devised by these impious men remove God far from them, since the things they devise are far from God.

'The righteous, seeing it, laughed, and the blameless man mocked them.'

'Has not their substance been destroyed, and did not fire consume what remained of them?'

At what did the righteous, seeing it, laugh? And at what did the blameless man mock? It is quite clear: at the counsel of the impious, and at what would befall them — both the destruction of their substance and the consuming by fire of what remained to them.

'Be firm, then, if you will endure' —

'then your fruit will be found among good things'? But if, he says, you harden your heart and devise things contrary to God, you will learn by bitter experience that divine justice is irresistible, and you will have no fruit consisting in the enjoyment of good things — that is:

children, or their descendants.

'Draw forth from his mouth a declaration, and take his words to heart.'

But if you are righteous and worthy, be dictated to by God, and receive divine words into your heart, as perhaps Jeremiah later heard:

'Behold, I have put my words into your mouth.'

Or by 'declaration' he means confession, exhorting Job to repentance.

'Make confession, then,' he says, 'being taught this by God, and taking his words to heart as your own.'

'But if you turn back and humble yourself before the Lord, you will have put unrighteousness far from your dwelling.'

'If,' he says, 'you repent and become humble before God, you will have driven all unrighteousness away from yourself.'

'You will be set upon the ground on a rock, and as a rock of the torrent of Sophir.'

'Repenting,' he says, 'you will be set upon the earth in security,' that is —

for this is what 'upon the ground on a rock' signifies.

And thus gold will also flow to you, as you rest secure, like a torrent of gold flowing from Sophir.

Sophir is a place where the finest gold and precious stones are produced;

and 'Sophir,' when rendered into the Greek tongue, is interpreted as 'most excellent.'

But some have said that Sophir is Africa.

Scripture makes use of this place-name whenever it discourses concerning wealth.

'The Almighty, then, will be your helper against enemies, and he will render you pure, like silver refined by fire.'

After the purification effected through trials, and the fiery testing brought about by them, and after confession, you will also possess divine assistance:

you will shine forth, having become pure and unmixed with any wickedness, just like silver purified through fire.

'Then you will speak with boldness before the Lord, looking up cheerfully to heaven.'

That is, clearly, after the purification and the confession, having received help from God.

'And when you pray to him, he will hearken to you;'

'and he will grant you to fulfill your vows.'

But God himself, becoming responsive to you, will also strengthen you to bring your vows to completion.

By 'vows' he means the promises made toward God:

for indeed, whether we pledge money to God, or fasting, or chastity, or whatever it may be, unless he himself strengthens us, we are unable to bring our vows to completion.

'He will restore to you a habitation of righteousness, and upon your ways there will be light.'

And he will render to you the manner of life befitting the righteous, and all your ways will be made to prosper, as you are guided by the divine light.

And the reason is that he has humbled himself; and he will say:

Although it seems to speak as though concerning someone else, the discourse in fact is directed toward Job.

For this reason, he says, these things will belong to the one who repents, because he has humbled himself.

'My heart grew arrogant, and I have justly endured what I have suffered.'

'He will save the one whose eyes are downcast, and he will rescue the innocent.'

For this reason also the tax collector in the Gospels, looking down and not daring to look up to heaven, was justified above the boastful Pharisee.

'and be delivered through your clean hands.'

Eliphaz brought his speech to a close with this exhortation.

And for the righteous man, who had always inclined toward God, the exhortation was unsuitable; but for us, who ought to repent and are admonished to humble ourselves before God, it is exceedingly suitable.

'And indeed I know that my reproof comes from my own hand, and his hand has grown heavy upon my groaning.'

A Preview of the Chapter: Eliphaz surrounded the righteous man with irreparable insults, ascribing to him shameful deeds and reckoning him among those who had committed monstrous impieties.

But the blessed and truly genuine Job says, 'I know precisely that what concerns me will be judged not by your words, but by my own deeds.'

'For even if God punishes, I would gladly lay out my just cause before him, and I would await the verdict from him, being firmly confident in his truth.'

Observe here too that he does not choose to contend with God by contradicting him, but, trusting securely in the divine righteous judgment, he refutes his friends and declines to have his own case judged by them as judges.

Then, having spoken of God's invisibility and incomprehensibility, and of how great a zeal he has for keeping what is pleasing to God, he again raises a difficulty toward his friends and says to them:

'Since you judge me for impiety and make my misfortunes a proof of sins, answer me: why, when the impious commit many irreparable acts, does God bear with them so patiently, as though he were not even watching over what is done?'

Then, having enumerated the deeds of the unjust, the noble and justice-loving Job does not, because of God's forbearance, side with the party of the impious, but even curses such people and says:

'They too will pay the penalty, even if they have persisted for a long time because of God's forbearance.'

And trusting in the truth of his own words:

'But if these things are not true,' he says, 'let whoever wishes refute what has been said.'

The words: 'And indeed I know that my reproof comes from my own hand.'

'I take no account,' he says, 'of any of your accusations.'

'For what concerns me is judged not by your false accusations, but by what I myself have done.'

For by 'hand' he means the deed.

'and his hand has grown heavy upon my groaning.'

Some [copies] have: 'But I will groan over myself.'

What he means is this:

'I also know this, that he has brought upon me severe and heavy punishments.'

'Therefore I groan, since you make the divine punishments a pretext for your slander against me.'

'Who then would know that I might find him and come to an end?'

'But would that,' he says, 'I had stood before God's royal throne and received the verdict from there.'

For 'that I might come to an end' means this, that is:

'that the outcome of what concerns me might become known from there.'

'And I would speak my own judgment, and I would fill my mouth with arguments.'

'And I would know the words that he will speak to me, and I would perceive what he will declare to me.'

'And though he come upon me with great might, yet he will not deal with me by threat.'

'For truth and rebuke come from him, and may he bring my judgment to its conclusion.'

'That is,' he says, 'so that, having come before that divine tribunal, I might lament fully all that concerns me.'

For this is what 'I would speak my own judgment' means, that is:

'And I would also tell what I have lived through' — for this is what 'I will fill my mouth with arguments' means — that is, both what I have done and what I have suffered, so that by experience I might learn what judgment he renders, and what he says in reply to these things, and whether he proceeds against me forcefully, punishing me more severely, or relaxes his threat.

'And I know that, when I say these things, he would not prolong it long, but would swiftly render the judgment concerning me.'

The God-loving Job says this, being confident both in himself and in the divine righteous judgment, and refuting his friends for holding unsound opinions about him.

'For if I go to the front, I am no more;'

'and what do I know of what lies behind? When he works on the left, I do not grasp it; he will encompass on the right, and I shall not see.'

Symmachus, interpreting the force of these words more clearly, rendered it thus:

'Behold, if I go forth to meet him, he is invisible; and even if I follow, I shall not perceive him.'

'Gladly,' he says, 'would I have what concerns me judged under the divine eyes; but what am I to do? God is invisible in his nature.'

'If I seek him in what is behind, he is invisible;'

'he happens to be before me, yet I do not perceive him;'

'when he turns to the left, I am utterly unable to lay hold of him;'

'and when he comes to be on the right, I do not see him at all.'

He said these things not as though God were roaming about places bodily or by change of location, but wishing to show that God is present everywhere, yet is inaccessible, invisible, and incomprehensible to us.

And 'I am no more' means this:

'If I extend my search further, I become beside myself, seeking, amid the dizziness of my reasonings, to comprehend the incomprehensible.'

'For he already knows my way, and he has tested me as gold.'

'For this reason,' he says, 'I am confident to be judged before God, because even before my words he knows my deeds, and if he judged what concerns me, he would declare me pure, equal to gold.'

'And I will go forth by his commandments;'

'for I have kept his ways and will not turn aside.'

'For I have journeyed,' he says, 'through his commandments, and I have kept his laws.'

By 'commandments' he means not those heard and written — for he lived before the Law — but those sown together with nature, spoken by God within the mind.

And 'I will not turn aside' has a marvelous meaning:

'For even if I suffer countless things,' he says, 'I will not be turned aside from the straight path' — like the one who says:

'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution?' And he adds:

'from his commandments, and I will not transgress.'

'I will not turn aside from his commandments, nor will I overstep what seems good to God.'

'and in my bosom I have hidden his words.'

That is, in rest — not out of compulsion, but fulfilling the divine purpose out of divine love.

But 'in the bosom' can also be understood in another way:

and in another sense, since 'bosom' signifies what is closely united, so that he might mean this:

'As one molded together and shaped with the divine commandments, so have I embraced them to my bosom and carried them out with great joy.'

'But if he himself judged thus, who is there to gainsay him? For what he willed, he also did.'

'These, then, are the things of which I am conscious in myself.'

'Nevertheless, let what seems good to God prevail, and let no one resist his judgments.'

'Therefore I have been earnest concerning him, and being admonished, I have been mindful of him.'

'For this reason,' he says, 'I was troubled, not knowing the cause of the blow; yet even when reproved, I bore it with gratitude, and I take care to think nothing blasphemous concerning him.'

Therefore, in his presence I am troubled; I consider, and am terrified because of him.

Pondering these things within myself, I am thrown into turmoil; considering them, I am terrified — not because I am conscious of any wrongdoing in myself, but because I understand that it is God who is inflicting the punishment, while I do not know the reason for the affliction.

For the Lord has softened my heart, and the Almighty has troubled me.

For I did not know that darkness would come upon me, and gloom covered me before my face.

What produces my agony and unstrings the sinews of my soul is the divine punishment that has come upon me unexpectedly.

By 'darkness and gloom before my face' he means the impossibility of finding a way out of his misfortunes.

'For,' he says, 'just as when blindness lies before the eyes, so I am unable to pass beyond these terrors.'

Why then have the appointed times been hidden from the Lord, while the wicked have overstepped the bound, seizing the flock along with the shepherd? They have driven off the orphans' beast of burden, and taken the widow's ox as a pledge.

And they have turned the helpless out of the just path.

Now that Job has said the things stated above, it was likely that his friends would object, saying:

'You suffer these things not because you are pure, as you claim, but because you are paying the penalty for your transgressions.'

So, resolving this objection promptly, he goes on to say:

How is it that the impious take away the possessions of their neighbors, encroaching on boundaries and doing violence to their neighbors, mercilessly seizing the shepherd along with the flocks, and taking away from orphans and widows the means of their livelihood — I mean the ox, and whatever other beast of burden — and condemn the weak, perverting the verdicts of justice against them, while God, as though forgetting the times, postpones their punishments? For by 'hours' he means 'times.'

If punishments invariably followed upon sins, it would be fitting for the penalty to be inflicted at the same time as the transgression.

But as it is, they commit irreparable deeds, while God, as if he had forgotten the times, holds back the recompense.

The words 'why then' are spoken not as an accusation, but as a question posed as a problem to his friends.

And the meek of the earth hid themselves together.

And they went off like wild asses in the wilderness.

'Seeing these deeds of the unjust,' he says, 'the most decent men embrace the solitary and quiet life, preferring to spend their time among wild animals rather than among such men.'

They went out on my account, about their own business.

And concealing their open wickedness, they contrive insidious deceits, pretending to act on my behalf while in fact plotting against me.

Their bread became sweet for the young men.

The wicked did these things, delighting in youthful lusts as though in bread, or else rearing up certain young men so that through them they might be able to carry out their acts of violence.

They reaped, before its season, a field that was not their own.

They committed two sins at once: cutting the crops before their season, and moreover cutting crops that belonged to others.

Those who pursue the life of a brigand are naturally inclined to do this, because at the actual time of the harvest the crops are guarded.

The powerless worked the vineyards of the impious without wages and without food.

This too is the greatest lawlessness: that the poor should labor for the rich without pay.

They made many lie down naked, without clothing, and took away the covering of their souls.

'They made them lie down naked' — that is, instead of saying:

having stripped them, they compelled them to remain quiet.

For out of fear, those who were stripped did not protest.

By 'the covering of the soul' he means the innermost tunic.

For when the body is stiffened by the cold, the soul suffers together with it.

They are drenched by the showers of the mountains, and for lack of shelter they wrapped themselves around a rock.

He is describing the life of a bandit.

For men of this sort, taking possession of the desert, spend most of their nights and days in the open air.

But if ever they need shelter, their shelter is caves, rocks, and ravines.

They snatched the orphan from the breast.

pitilessly and without mercy, while the child was still drawing at his mother's breast, in order to sell him to others.

And they humbled him who had fallen [into misfortune].

And they humbled another man who had fallen, stripping from him what belonged to his possessions.

And they made the naked lie down unjustly.

And having unjustly stripped others who owed them nothing, they compelled them to prize silence.

And they took away the morsel of the hungry.

reducing them to utter poverty and want of food.

They laid ambush unjustly in narrow passes.

lying in wait around places hemmed in by precipices.

for in open, broad places it was perhaps possible for the one they ambushed to escape.

But they did not know the way of righteousness.

That is, all the impious in general.

who were cast out of the city and from their own homes.

This refers to the phrase, 'and they made the naked lie down unjustly.'

For these people suffered these things at the hands of the lawless, being driven out from the city and their homes.

And the soul of infants groaned greatly.

groaning from deep within, from the depth of the heart, because their parents had nothing with which to give them food.

'But why has he made no visitation regarding these things, though they are upon the earth, and they did not recognize it?' He raises this as a difficulty addressed to his friends, saying:

'If afflictions come on account of sins, why has he left these men unvisited, even though he beholds everything done upon the earth?' And the phrase 'and they did not recognize' means this:

The impious did not recognize that they go unvisited by God.

For he who is deemed worthy of divine visitation is also chastened.

For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and he scourges every son whom he receives.

They did not know the way of righteousness, nor did they walk in its paths.

namely, the aforementioned impious men, evidently.

But knowing their works, he delivered them over to darkness, and in the night he shall be like a thief.

And the eye of the adulterer watched for darkness, saying:

'No eye shall take notice of me,' and he set a concealment upon his face.

In the darkness he dug through houses.

'He delivered them over to darkness' — God does not do this by compulsion, far be it, but by allowing them, on account of their free will, to proceed as they wish.

And similarly to this, the divine Apostle also says:

'God gave them over to a debased mind, to do the things that are not fitting' — not that God did this himself, but that he permitted them to act as they wished.

He says, then, that the thief and the adulterer and the tomb-robber have the night as their accomplice, as though no one were watching them, since indeed they do deeds worthy of darkness.

"By day they sealed themselves up; they did not know the light."

These men just mentioned, when day breaks and shines forth, hide themselves, shutting their doors within—for this is what "they sealed themselves up" means—fearing to go out into the light, lest they be caught, since indeed they carry on no work fit for the light.

"For to them together the morning is the shadow of death, because the shadow of death will make known troubles."

For this reason, he says, they fear the light, because they have before their eyes the dawn and death at the same time.

For just as the shadow runs ahead of the body and by this signifies that the body is near, so also these men, when day dawns and they are struck in conscience, expect that death is near.

And such expectation fills their souls with turmoil and renders them full of gloom.

For this is what is meant by "the shadow of death will make known troubles."

"He is light upon the face of the water."

The eye of the adulterer, drawn along by temptations—or indeed every impious man—like some light and buoyant thing swept away by a rush of waters, is likewise easily swept out of existence by punishment.

For impiety will not save the one who belongs to it.

Then Job, who loves virtue and loves justice, does not, because of God's forbearance, tolerate wickedness having the greater share over virtue, but curses the portion of the impious and declares what will befall them.

"May their portion on the earth be accursed, and may their plants appear withered upon the earth."

May they remain fruitless, gaining no benefit from their own wickedness, nor passing on to their children the wealth derived from injustice.

"For they snatched away the gleaning-armful of orphans."

Orphans, often following behind the reapers and gathering up what falls, and gleaning, bind it into armfuls.

He says, then, that some men have advanced to such a degree of impiety as even to snatch away the modest portion gleaned by orphans out of their destitution.

"Then his sin was remembered."

It has been written down for a remembrance, and their punishment will be inescapable, even though for the present God, out of his goodness, defers their chastisements.

"And like the mist of dew he became invisible."

When the sun's ray shines forth and warms the air through, the dew becomes invisible, as the heat draws up the moisture.

So too, he says, when divine justice comes upon them, the impious vanish away.

"And may there be rendered to him what he has done."

The righteous man is not cursing, but is declaring what will assuredly come to pass.

For each one will receive in return for what he has done, whether good or bad.

And earlier too, he cursed not the men themselves, but the portion of the impious, that is, wickedness itself.

"And may every unjust man be shattered like a tree beyond healing."

He speaks of the one who persists in wickedness.

For a broken tree does not admit of treatment so as to be restored to health.

"For they did not do well to the barren woman."

That is, the woman who is helpless because of her childlessness.

And note again that not doing good is itself reckoned as impiety.

"Turn away from evil," says the divine psalmist, "and do good."

That is, the one who, by nature itself, stands in need of assistance.

"In wrath they overthrew the powerless."

Not from any reasonable cause, but employing wrath, an irrational movement of the soul, he overthrew and reduced to utter destitution those who were powerless and without help.

"Having risen up, therefore, he will by no means trust concerning his own life."

For these reasons, then, the impious man, rising up each day, will not trust that he will go on living, but will remain fearful and full of dread.

For fear is nothing other than the betrayal of the aids that come from reason, as wise Solomon defined it.

"And having fallen ill, let him not hope to be made well, but he will fall by disease."

For often the diseases of the body also come about on account of sin.

And "let him not hope" is equivalent to saying:

he is despairing, being struck by his own conscience.

And "he will fall," evidently, being struck down by the disease.

"For his exaltation did harm to many."

For this reason he will fall, because, having been exalted, he did harm to many.

"He withered like mallow in the heat, or like an ear of grain that has fallen of its own accord from the stalk."

(Some copies read "as grass" instead.)

And the great writer, the Psalmist, said something similar:

"For they will soon wither like grass, and like the green herbs of the field will soon fall away."

And he spoke well in saying "fallen of its own accord":

for to each one his own sin becomes his punisher.

"But if this is not so, who is he that says I speak falsely, and will bring my words to nothing?"

I, then, he says, hold these views concerning both the injustice of the impious, and the divine forbearance, and the just recompense.

But if what has been said is false, let whoever wishes come forward and refute the argument, and nullify my words.

And Baldad the Shuhite, taking up the argument, says:

"For what preface, or fear, is there before him, who makes the whole creation in the highest?" A Preliminary Survey of the Chapter. Just as Eliphaz, at a loss before the problems Job had raised, did not contend for straightforward justice, but turned his discourse to slanders against the righteous man, so also Baldad, unable to refute Job's words, redirects his defense and slanders him as one who exalts himself against God and thinks highly of his own piety—philosophizing marvelously indeed about God, yet debasing human nature, and maintaining that none of even the purest things is pure in comparison with the divine purity.

The Words: "For what preface or fear is there before him?" Since, he says, you think highly of your own piety, learn that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and piety.

He, then, who has not acquired the preface of piety—how can he take pride in its other parts? This too the psalmist philosophized fittingly, when he set his mind upon it, saying:

"He who makes the whole creation in the highest."