The Lord does not speak to men from the very outset; but when a soul has been prepared through many things, and has been benefited both through men and through its own prayer and diligence, and has been trained, and has ascended on high as far as is possible to human nature, then the Lord speaks, and reveals his own words to those who have ascended so far. Thus indeed he did also with Job; for he kept the word for him as a crown. Let us also inquire into the phrase 'through a whirlwind and clouds.' For God does not appear at any time to have spoken to any of the men of old through a whirlwind. Now the whirlwind is the maker of a storm; and upon Job a very great storm had come, when the whole devil descended upon him, having asked this of God. A storm to Job was also the speech of his friends. In such a storm he stood firm and endured; and like a man of understanding, having acquired a pilot's skill, he was not shipwrecked concerning the faith. For this reason he who gave the oracle to him, as a symbol of the storm that had overtaken him—in which he also shone forth—gives the oracle through a whirlwind. And if indeed Job's affairs had remained in this calamity, so that he was left suffering these things and departed from life, the Lord would have spoken to him through a whirlwind only. But now, since his circumstances are changed for him from storm to fair weather, and since he has recovered the health of his body, for this reason he who gives him the oracle speaks not only through a whirlwind, but also through clouds.