Verse 32. — For I will not answer a man that is like myself, nor one who can be heard together with me in judgment on equal terms. 59. How grievous it is for the just man to be ignorant wherein he offends. — When we contend with anyone in judgment on equal terms, both we recognize what is said against us, and in the things we say we are heard, and inasmuch as we plainly grasp the objections, we the more boldly answer to the matters proposed. But since the invisible Judge sees what we do, He as it were hears what we say; yet since we by no means fully know that which displeases Him, we are as it were ignorant of what He Himself says.
The holy man therefore, considering the abhorrence of his garments, fears the more, in that he cannot be heard on equal terms in judgment, since so long as he is pressed by the weight of his corruption, he bears this the more grievously in his punishment, that he is ignorant even of the mind of his reprover. As if he plainly said: In this I am not heard on equal terms, since both all that I do lies open, and yet I myself know not for how many things I am reproved. There follows: