Adnotationes in Iob

II. ADNOTATIONES IN IOB, ONE BOOK. And great works were his upon the earth: because he was working from those works themselves. They held a feast daily: until their number was filled; it is a sign of charity. And he offered sacrifices for them according to their number: it is to be understood that there are other, particular confessions, as it were individual sacrifices, but another sacrifice for all and for all sins, which signifies the Lord. Lest my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Well added: "lest," because he suspected that they had cursed in their heart. And behold, the angels of God came, to stand before God: the affection of the soul toward truth could not be narrated otherwise, except that it be said in a temporal and local manner, so to speak. And the devil came along with them: whether it is said "with them" because he could not hear except through them? And the Lord said to the devil: "Whence are you?" A comparison of past action with that from which he is permitted to do something thereafter is a response to the question; the question itself is the divine power, in which he is not permitted to do as he pleases — for in the thoughts of the impious there will be a question — to reveal him to us. But put forth your hand and touch all that he has: give power. Unless he blesses you to your face: a hanging expression, that is: if he does not bless you to your face when his things are touched, as if it were understood: what do you command? And the devil departed from the face of the Lord: from consultation to action.

And the enemies came and captured them. According to that: he who now works in the sons of distrust also roused those. But note how he had power over men and over the elements, yet it was given by God. Naked I came out of my mother’s womb: note how consolingly he speaks, although he made lamentation according to custom. Behold, I hand him over to you: only guard his soul: lest he presume that he could take away his life. And he took a potsherd to scrape off the pus: through the passion of the Lord it signifies that the sins of those confessing are scraped away. And the night in which they said: a man was conceived: some higher powers, which were able to know this. Let that night be darkness: so that it no longer suffers what it suffered, that is, let it be darkness, i.e., let it be consigned to oblivion. And let the Lord not seek it from above: let it not be restored through immortality, i.e., let mortality perish. And let no light come into it: the light of memory. But let darkness and the shadow of death receive it: this life which is a shadow of future punishment, so that the sense is: the just man who is light does not see it, but darkness, i.e., sinners and carnal tribulations from this life, receive it. And let them disturb it like the bitternesses of the day: the precepts of the good life or the day of judgment, by which the carnal are disturbed. And let perpetual darkness receive that night. Let it not be in the days of the year: among the spiritual just who enjoy the sun and are greater. But let that night be pain: because it causes pain to those who love it.

nor be counted among the days of the months: the righteous in the church, on account of the moon as the lesser, to whom it is said: "And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men," so that Paul himself is among the days of the year. But let him curse that day, the one who curses it: the Lord, who will curse those who love carnal things. Let the stars of that night grow dark: those eminent in sins. Let it remain and not come into the light: because they will not be converted, he says through prophecy. Because he did not close the gates of my mother's womb: the earthly city, which Babylon signifies; for the gates would be closed if the sinner were not praised in the desires of his soul. For why did I not die in the womb? before I became eminent to you through some action; for conception pertains to hope. I came out of the womb and did not immediately perish? Therefore, the figure of one who had grown old in such lusts is to be understood in these words. And why did my knees hold me up? so that I might be confirmed there. Why did I suckle breasts? nourishing teachings leading to wickedness. Now indeed I would rest sleeping: by dying to this world. With the honored kings of the earth: in the church. Who gloried in swords. Whence: "and the sword of the spirit," which is the word of God. Or with princes, to whom much gold belonged: wisdom. Who filled their houses with silver: with the Lord's eloquence. Or like a miscarriage slipped from the mother's womb: so that it would never become eminent. Or like infants who have not seen the light: they did not attain to any nobility.

There the impious have laid aside their fury: in death from this world. There the weary in body have rested: either weary in body, not in spirit, or having attained the end of bodily things. They have not heard the voice of the tax collector: the judge will hand you over to the tax collector, from there it comes; that is: that their sins have been forgiven; for he was speaking of the impious. The small and the great are there: I think this is well understood as said of one, according to that saying, that he who humbles himself will be exalted. And the servant not fearing his master; either according to that: do you wish not to fear authority? do good, or according to that: perfected love casts out fear. For why is light given to those who are in bitterness? the honor of sinners. And life to souls which are in sorrows? in the matter of sorrows, that is: in sins. Who desire death and it does not befall them: the attainment of the fruit of sin. Death is rest for a man whose life is hidden: either because it is hidden before God or because it is known to few. But concerning this, it must be understood of that death by which we die to the world; for in that death there is no rest. For God has shut him out: not giving him over to the desires of his heart. For before my foods, groaning is present: before the joy of the foods of God, tribulations precede. And I weep, constrained by fear: seeing that I cannot avoid what I have feared. For the fear which I dreaded has come to me: adversities which happen from the mercy of God for correction. Neither in peace, nor in silence, nor in rest: for those things were false, on account of which he was afraid.

For wrath has come to me: vengeance, according to which the just man scarcely escapes safe. The words of Eliphaz. But the weight of your words—who will bear it? Here, then, he says he is compelled to speak, because he cannot bear his statements. Is not your fear foolish? For you ought to have been prepared for these things, if you were truly urging others. Nor did you fear such things rightly, when you said: "For the fear which I dreaded has come to me." And your hope and the simplicity of your life: as though it were folly, by which these things are thought good. The roaring of a lion and the voice of a lioness: the devil himself and the city of pride, which is often set forth even in the manner of beasts by the prophets. And the joy of dragons is extinguished: of the proud and the treacherous. The ant-lion perishes because it had no food: because in the end there will not be those whom it might lead in and devour; for the pious will be separated from the impious. But here he errs, in that he understood about Job those things which he had heard prophesied concerning the devil. The ant-lion, however, is to be understood either because both aspects are in it, since it both seizes and secretly pursues the grains, which, with the eye removed, it causes not to sprout; or because it rules over the avaricious and those hoarding treasures in the earth; or because it persecutes the just, like ants preparing food for themselves in summer for winter, with which it will not be fed, when the good have been separated from the impious. And the lion cubs are divided from one another: the conspiracy of the princes of that city is broken up, who were born from that city of society and from the devil, or because they laid waste to one another.

Hence: a people will rise against a people. None of this would have happened to you—neither those losses, bereavements, and the blow of a wound, nor would the pain of your mind have pierced you, because you would have consoled yourself, if you had said from the heart to others: Does my ear not grasp the magnificent from him? For he says that he speaks these things as if from revelation. And a spirit came before my face: he wants it understood that he sensed something like a breath; for he denies in what follows that there was a figure. It should be recalled that the Spirit also descended upon the apostles in this way. For what? Will a man be clean before the Lord? He either says he heard this, or says that he shuddered for this reason, because no one is clean before the Lord. Or that he saw thus because no one is so clean before God as to see God as he is. Now "clean" must be taken according to perfection, so that we understand in a certain sense that which earlier denies that an unclean man perishes. If he does not believe against his servants. This happened when Elijah said: "Lord, your prophets have been killed," and the Lord said to him: "I have left for myself seven thousand men." For those seven thousand men were not yet clean. For they were called angels and prophets. And what crookedness does he find against his angels?—either what is said against them or what they themselves say. This, however, can also be understood of true angels. But those who inhabit houses of clay: those whose way of life is not in the heavens. He struck them as a moth does.

or some corruption struck them like a moth, or God struck them: either by this moth or as a moth strikes, that is: secretly, from within, by a corruption arising from themselves through carnal desires, that is, by dwelling in mud houses. And from morning until evening they are no more: either they are no more beyond this world, or from prosperous circumstances to tribulation; for they have suffered punishment. And because they could not help themselves, they perished: when they have hope in themselves. They perished because they lacked wisdom: not to hope in themselves. But call, if someone should answer you: for those are answered who are pure before God. For anger destroys the fool: the indignation by which each person is tormented, as if something unjust has happened to him, while he does not consider that he is so impure before God that the angels have deigned neither to answer nor to show themselves to him when he calls. For whoever does not consider this is a fool and is destroyed by irrational anger. Or for this reason the fool cannot hear or see the angels, because he has been destroyed by anger and killed by zeal. But zeal kills the one who errs: to imitate sinners. But I have seen fools putting down roots: now "fools" is to be understood as the impious, so that, on the contrary, the wisdom of a man is piety, as is said in what follows. And let them be crushed upon the doors of the weak: of the humble, when they have been received into the bedchamber by the bridegroom and the fools have remained outside.

For what they gathered, the just will eat: and this can be understood of the Jews gathering prophecies, which the Gentiles rather consumed, and of those who, while doing, eat what others command and do not do. They themselves, however, will not be freed from evils: although they preach that they should not be done. Let their strength be drained away: by which they are proud against the weak; let it be drained away, however, so that it may already begin to labor. For labor will not come forth from the earth: that is, let them not complain about creation but about themselves. But man is born in labor: this is said "is born" according to the sense in which each one is turned from a quiet life into a laborious one. But the young of the vulture fly very high: the vulture is well understood as the Lord, because by the height of prophecy he saw our mortality, by descending to which he would be fed, converting us into his body. "Young" therefore "of the vulture," as the sons of the bridegroom are called, but flying very high, having their conversation in the heavens, so that they may be freed from the labor in which man is born. For they have followed the voice of the one saying: come to me, all who labor. The "young of the vulture" can also be understood in a bad sense as aerial powers, which feed on deaths, that is, on sins. Since prevaricating angels of this kind are not led to the very laborious humility of mortality, in which man is born, they are very proud, that is, they fly very high. Who gives rain upon the face of the earth: as if he shows mercy to those confessing.

so that their hands do not do the truth: they do not do what they promise, gaping to lord over the weak. In the day, darkness will meet them: as for the Jews who did not know what the Lord was. Or they will grope at noon as if in the night: like those who, seeing signs, still doubted, saying, "He is a prophet," others, "He is leading the people astray," when they did not want to see even by lamplight. And they will perish in war: in temptations. And the weak one will come forth from the hand of the powerful: of the devil. But let the weak one have hope; for the strong seek something here. But blessed is the man whom the Lord rebukes. For in this he errs, because Job seems to himself to suffer this on account of his own iniquities, when in fact he is blessed because in this life, when he is rebuked, he has the possibility of correction. And on the seventh, evil will not touch you: the sacrament of the Sabbath. In famine, it will free you from death: for it nourishes by the word and makes one firm against temptations. In battle, indeed, it will release you from the hand of iron: from the power of bonds. It will hide you from the scourge of the tongue: so that you do not feel insults, not that you do not suffer them. You will mock the unjust and the iniquitous: as wisdom will laugh at the destruction of the iniquitous. And you will not fear raging beasts: that is, you will not fear the Jews, because the nations will obey you; these things, however, are to be understood of the Lord. Here Eliphaz errs, because he thinks that what was revealed to him is to be understood of Job, when it all pertains to the Lord.

Because you will have a pact with the stones of the field: the stones of the field, because among the Gentiles there was no order of law, so that they would be like stones from a building. For the wild beasts will be pacified for you: whether concerning the Jews or concerning the Gentiles. Then you will know that your house will be at peace: that is, the Church. And your sons will be like every herb in the field: without dryness. And you will come to the tomb like ripe grain: into the passion. Behold, we have sought these things out in this way: here the authority of this prophecy is confirmed. But you, know yourself what you have done; for not unjustly has God permitted these things to happen to you. The words of Job. But, as it seems, my words are bad; for the words of Job are not from impatience at the scourges, since they signify the pain, not peculiar to Job, but which he had concerning the whole human race. For the arrows of the Lord are in my body: the words of God, by which the soul is transfixed, when it is compelled to confession. The fury of which drinks my blood; for they take away sin. For when I begin to speak, they goad me: for what I speak, they compel. For what? Does the wild ass cry out in vain, unless seeking food? So that it suffers hunger from that, because it wanted to be free. Or does the ox bellow, when it has food in the manger? Fodder for the ass is prepared by the labor of the ox, just as for the Gentiles by the labor of the prophets and apostles, who were of course Jews. And so these words are of one desiring food, that is, help, not of one impatient at pain. Can bread be eaten without salt?

As if it were said to him: "Why do you speak these things through figures?" He replied: "Because if he spoke them in his own person, they would be insipid. Or is there any flavor in vain speeches?" He calls human speeches vain, because the words of God are bread, but heavenly bread. Thus my soul cannot cease either: just as bread cannot be eaten without salt, so now I provide the ministry of the word of God on account of this: "How will they hear without a preacher?" For I see my foods as foul, like the odor of a lion: for my words are foul like a lion, either on account of pride, through which the boastful think them so, or on account of the fact that those who embrace carnal things have the foulness of a lion, who rejoice in their own words. But if he gives and my request comes: he calls "request" the thing he was seeking. And may the Lord give my hope; for thus, trusting on account of hope, after tribulation he is opportunely tempted by the coming consolation. But he rightly says "hope," because, when the thing has come, temptation will no longer be necessary. Let a city be a tomb for me, over whose walls I used to leap: he wants that society of Babylon to be a tomb for him, not to bury him, but so that he may know that it covers the dead, whoever they are in it, over whose, as it were, firmament and bulwark he was proud. I will not spare; for I have not lied. These are the holy words of my God: because he said nothing other than what he heard from God, that is, about man prophesying in general, because he needs help in confession. For what is my strength, that I might endure? This his wound signified.

or what time is mine, that my soul may endure it? Because men are terrified by impending death, so that they may be converted and confess to God the rottenness of their sins, by the consideration of which he says he is compelled to confession. Is the strength of stones my strength? Hard and impenetrable to the darts of the words of God, who are not moved to confess. Or did I not trust in him? When I was well, that is, when I was immortal in the image of God. But help departed from me: I became mortal, wishing to trust in myself. And the visitation of the Lord despised me. According to what was said: "Or the son of man, because you visit him?" My relatives did not look upon me: I shuddered at the angels. Like a failing torrent: for mercy once flooded me; and I dried up and was not a fountain to myself. Or like waves they passed over me: as if they were drinks of consolation. Those who feared me now rushed upon me: the devil with his angels. I perished and became an exile from my house: either from the heavenly dwelling or from conscience; therefore he sat outside his own house. See the ways of the Themanites, behold the paths of the Sabaeans: these signify those who trust in temporal things, concerning whom he says that he, that is, the man whom he signifies, does not presume. But now you also have risen up against me without mercy: thinking that the happiness of men consists in an abundance of carnal things, because they insulted rather than sympathized.

But seeing my wound, fear: understanding what it signifies, fear future punishments. For what? Did I ask anything of you? Or do I need your strength? For he who can save him is weak before him. Teach me, and I will be silent; for this reason they ought to have been patient with his teaching, because they themselves could not teach him. But, as I see, you speak the perverse words of a true man: he calls a true man the one who signifies the person performing penance by conversion to God, whose perverse words they were speaking. For I do not seek help from you: for a true man seeks help from God; for he is true who confesses. Hence: he who does the truth comes to the light. For I will not endure the eloquence of your speech: for he said he endures the speech of God, by which he is instructed. Yet you have attacked an orphan: as far as you are concerned, you wished to insult me, although you did not understand what it signifies. Because not even Job, whom they saw, ought to have been insulted, therefore: yet. But now, looking, be free for me: not having anything to teach me. And again, stand by justice: because at first they seemed to be compelled by justice to speak. For there is no iniquity in my mouth; and did not my jaws meditate wisdom? He says that he did not accuse God, but introduced a man accusing his own iniquities, as his speech was understood above. This he calls the meditation of wisdom.

Is not human life on earth a trial? Here he shows more clearly from whose meaning he was speaking above. He calls a trial a kind of stadium of contest, where a man either conquers or is conquered. And like the life of a daily hireling? Of one expecting a temporal wage, so that the life of those who expect the fruit of their righteousness in the future is not on earth. Or like a slave fearing his master and having obtained a shadow? This signifies Adam’s hiding from the face of the Lord and the covering of leaves from which a shadow is made, which man obtained after abandoning God. Or like a hireling who expects the wage of his work? This one differs from the former in that the former had, but this one desires to have, temporal things themselves. Thus I also waited for empty months: he already called them empty with reference to the shadow, that is, temporal goods. And nights of sorrows were given to me: in which both the light of wisdom is lost and there is material for punishments. If I sleep, I say: when will it be day? And if I get up, again: when will it be evening? When a man suffers desire for business in leisure and for leisure in business. But I am filled with sorrows from evening until morning: by which he falls away from God. Hence also God, walking at evening, dismissed them: this signifies the willing, for whom there is no expectation of remedy except morning. Of which it is said: I will stand before you in the morning, that is, when after judgment the morning God will be revealed to the righteous. Hence also the Lord is buried in the evening and rises in the morning.

Therefore he can compare this life to the morning star. And my body grows together with the putrefaction of worms: with a multitude of worms. I pour clods of earth, scraping away pus: an expression of the desires or cares of confession, in which the wicked rejoice that they reduce to an occasion for sinning what others confess through penance; whence are the dogs that licked the wounds of Lazarus. And my life is more tenuous than speech: for I do less than I say. Therefore remember that my life is spirit: that is, in spiritual hunger. And I will not return to visible things. The eye of the beholder will not recognize me: because I will be changed, so that we take the beholder here as the devil, the envious one. Your eyes are upon me and I do not hold out; for you kill in me the carnal life in which I existed. Like a cloud purged from the sky: or purged through the sky — as we say "purged of iron" — so that here it signified that help from the sky had been for him, so that he might be purged, or certainly so that it is no longer a cloud, but is attenuated into pure air, as if purged by the rays of the sun, so that the obscurity of flesh and blood is not in the sky. For flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God, when this corruptible thing has put on incorruption and death will be swallowed up in victory. For if a man has descended to the underworld, he will not ascend again: therefore remember this, so that you do not descend. And he will not return again to his own house: that is, to his rest. For that reason, therefore, I too will not spare my mouth: by confessing, while there is time. Am I the sea or a serpent?

For you have not cast me off like the impious or the devil, because you have set a guard over me, so that I do not move toward disturbance, like the boundaries of the sea. Because I said: my bed will console me—the carnal things in which I took rest—and I will refer consolation to myself in my bed; for I ought to refer my consolation to you. You terrify me through dreams and you stupefy me through vision—through the tribulations of this life, which are as much dreams as the goods of this life are dreams. You will release my soul from my spirit—on account of visible terrors, from which the soul, fearing to come to them, will be freed. And I have thrust my bones away from death: for my bones would have gone into death, had I not, terrified by this, become stronger and patient, which is the firmness of bones. For I will not live forever, so that I might bear patiently: by the brevity of life and the fear of death I have corrected myself. Hence the devil is unchangeable, because he does not die, but is damned. The beginning of wisdom is fear from that. Depart from me; for my life is vain—because I do not endure temptations. Or because you have directed your sense toward him? On account of which he is rational. Hence that: “But we have the sense of the Lord.” Indeed, the gift of reason is called the extension of the intellect. And in rest you will judge him? Worthy of rest. How long do you not release me? Bound by tribulations. Nor do you abandon me until I swallow my saliva? In pain and with whips I contain and absorb the fluxes of pleasures, admonished by tribulations. If I have sinned, what can I do to you?

The sense is this: if I have sinned, I can do nothing to you. Or perhaps men are troublesome to you by speaking? You, then, who know the sense, why did you establish man, so that he would speak against you, to be a burden to you? But if the sin of man harms you neither by deed nor by word, why do you not forget his sin, but rather purge it, unless because those things which were said above are referred to your goodness? For what is man, that you have exalted him? Those who do not understand this thought that he was reproaching God. For if you do not make trials for me for this reason, that I may restrain my flowing motions, so that you consult for me in this way, what other cause is there for you to correct a man? For he cannot harm you because he sins; nor do you feel, as it were, the adversity of his speech, since you know the human mind, and you certainly could not establish what is adverse to you. And why have you not forgotten my iniquity? If it is not for this reason, that these trials might benefit me, that it all belongs to your goodness, and that you correct me? But now I will go into the earth: for when you purge my sin, it still remains for me to go into the earth through bodily death. I will keep watch in the morning and I will be no more: in this earth.

The words of Baldad the Shuhite. He placed their iniquities in the hand: he placed them in the hand either as vengeance or as a reckoning, showing them to be debtors, that is, sinners. And he will restore to you the life of righteousness: the life that is owed to righteousness, that is, the blessed life. And your former things will be very small: in comparison with the later things, which will be infinite. Or will not these men teach you and report to you? Because some have greater authority. Now here too, about to speak of Christ, he relates what he has heard, just as Eliphaz related the revelation. Does the bulrush grow green without water? So therefore the impious will wither without the mercy of God. Does it still stand in its root and will it not be reaped? If it does not have water. Before it drinks, does not every herb wither? Unless it drinks; for the impious man never grew green at any time before. And his tabernacle will be filled with spiders: useless works. Now indeed he seems to speak about the Jews and the Lord. But even if he has propped up his house, it will not stand: either by the holy scriptures or by the hope of the Lord's promise or by the kingdom itself. And when he has begun, he will not remain: to follow God; which happened to the Jews, who did not follow when they began. For it is moist before the sun: rotting with the flux of carnal things; but before the sun, that is, under tribulations, so that "before" signifies, as we say: do it before me. And from its rottenness its shoot will ascend; for unless they were so evil, the Lord would not be exalted through the passion, he who was born from them according to the flesh.

In the gatherings of stones he sleeps; for the greater ones will crucify him. And in the midst of the pebbles he will live: of the humble, of whom the apostles were. If he is swallowed up, the place will belie him: if he conceals that he is the son of God, it will be said that he is not the son of God. Therefore it is necessary that he reveal himself; for in this place divine things cannot be known. But from the earth another will sprout: either the Lord by rising again, or another kind of the pious, that is, Christians. For the Lord will not test the innocent. Or will he not reject? Or that: will the impious not test the innocent? Nor any gift: that is, the sacrifices which the Jews had. But the mouth of the truthful will fill with laughter: of those confessing. And the tabernacle of the impious will not endure: either the temple itself or the kingdom. The words of Job. I truly know that it is so: that is, that according to my iniquities he has restored this to me; but not as you think, but because no one is just in his sight. They will not answer him one out of a thousand: for in all things he will convict. He who brings mountains to old age and they do not know: that is, to weakness, as in: I have grown old among all my enemies. He who turns them in wrath: turning them by being angry, that is, so that they find something other than what they sought, when he who exalts himself will be humbled. He who shakes the world from its foundations: through the calling which was made, by which those excellent in the world were shaken.

and his columns will be shaken; he who commands the sun, and it does not rise: so that either wisdom is not understood or those who wrote, as it is: he signs the book. He who alone stretches out the sky: the church, which is properly the seat of God, which he stretches throughout the whole world; alone to signify the unity of the Trinity. For indeed all things were made through the Son in the Holy Spirit. And he walks upon the sea as upon the land: upon the land, that is, firmly establishing the church in the world or by subduing sinners to himself, in whom he is not submerged, not yielding to their temptations. If he has transgressed me, I will not see. If he has been higher than me or has brushed past me with speed, I will not recognize him: therefore it is necessary that he both conform to my weakness and not abandon me. For if he has delivered to death, who will turn it aside? For he delivers to death when he either transgresses or passes by, so that he is not known. This is the death of the soul, that it does not know God. For his wrath is not to be turned aside: for the wrath of others can be turned aside by one more powerful. By him the rest are subjected under the sky: except the sky itself, that is, rational creation, because if it had subjected the rest to itself, it would never be punished through those things which it had subjected to itself; but because God subjected them to it, it is punished through them, when it has offended the one who subjected them. But even if I have been just, he will not hear me: when I beseech him, presuming upon my own justice; for comparing it with those things which are immutable and perpetual in him, he will not hear me as if I were unjust.

Therefore, his mercy is necessary for me. I will ask for his judgment, because I cannot judge myself to be just. Hence: "But I do not even judge myself; the one who judges me is the Lord." But if I call upon him and he does not hear me, I will not believe that he has heard my voice: when I ask for his judgment, if he does not hear me, I will not believe that he has ever heard me; for he heard me for hidden reasons, not because of the merit of my prayer. Or certainly: I will not believe that I am not heard now; for I have been heard at some time. Or thus: because if he hears what I ask, I will also believe that I have been heard; for if I do not believe, even if what I ask is done, I am still not heard, so that the sign of being heard is the faith of the one asking. Lest he crush me in a whirlwind? Therefore I seek his judgment, lest he crush me in a whirlwind. For he has caused many of my tribulations without reason: the reason for which was hidden from me; or certainly it is the voice of one confessing, confessing by the scourges of God that he has not been corrected and therefore can be crushed in a whirlwind, as if by a greater punishment. For he does not allow me to breathe: so many are my tribulations. And because he can, he prevails: he conquers, so that I do his will, not my own. But if I were even just, my mouth would speak impiously: if I consider myself just. Yet my life will be taken away: although I do not know if I have acted impiously, still my life will be taken away, so that I suffer what I do not want or do not do what I want.

One thing I have said: "Great and powerful is destroyed by anger," that is: for this one reason tribulations come to men, so that no one may seem great and powerful to himself, presuming on his own strength. Because wicked men will be in a great death, not in a moderate one, in which even the just are, when they are troubled and mocked by them. "The earth has been given into the hands of the impious": either the body of the just, not the soul, when they persecute them, or when the impious is permitted to rule. It can also be understood as the sinful man in the hands of the devil according to his mortality. "Doing his judgment, he covers": either the judgment of the impious himself or of the just; for in this time it is covered. Or certainly by this very act he does his judgment, that is: he punishes him by that whereby he hides his providence from him, as in: "On account of the greatness of his anger, he will not inquire." Or he avenges the just by that whereby he hides his judgment from his persecutor, that is, his providence, so that the sinner may be more tightly caught in the snares of impunity. "But if it is not, who then is?" This can be understood of the Lord, who was also mocked and whose earth, that is, body, was given into the hands of the Jews, and whose judgment, doing, concealed his majesty. "But if he himself is not, who then is, who does greater things than he himself did?" Or thus: but if God does not do the judgment of the just or the impious, who can do it? "But my life is lighter than a runner": as if it says men fleeing from justice, like that younger son who set out for a far-off region.

or like an eagle flying and seeking prey: from higher things, in which rational souls are naturally blessed, that is, the works of righteousness, they have bent themselves down toward earthly pleasures. And if I have spoken, I forget while I speak: a manner of speaking: just as the soul had an inclination toward external things, so while it proceeds toward those things that are outside, through the desire to enjoy the creature, it forgets the inner creator. Bending down, I will groan: for that bending down is followed by sorrows. I am shaken in all my limbs: fear, by which it begins to run back. And because I am impious, why am I not dead and do I labor? "I know" is understood. Or it says that he labors because he is not dead to impiety. And I will have been cleansed with clean hands: either by the hands of God or by his own, that is, by good works through regeneration. You have dipped me enough in filth: brought into this mortality. And my garment has been cursed by me: immortality, which we desire to be clothed with; but because we cannot in this corruption, therefore it says: my garment has been cursed by me. For you are not a man like me, whom I could contradict: for to a man I could show my righteousness; but in your judgment I am found unjust. If only we had an arbiter! He seems to blaspheme, unless he is understood to be longing for that mediator of God and men, so that through him he may plead his prayers. For in this way he, placed between both, hears and argues against the man: for the Father has given all judgment to the Son.

and one who would accuse and one who would hear between both. Let him turn his rod away from me: let the fear of the law pass, so that I may be joined to him by the freedom and love of adoption. For I am not with myself: because I cling to those things which are outside. I will bring forth words against myself: these are the words of one who is confessing. And I will say to the Lord: do not teach me to be impious: do not tempt me beyond what I can bear, nor allow things to happen to me by which impiety is persuaded to me. Or is it good for you, if I act wickedly? It is not good for you, if I act wickedly; therefore you did not unjustly place me in such a state. Because you despise the work that your hands have made? If you despise the work of your hands, have you turned your attention to the counsel of the impious? But not of that impiety which appears to men. And: have you turned your attention to the counsel of the impious? Not because it pleases him that they act wickedly. Or do you perceive as a man perceives? Because you certainly do not perceive as a man perceives: therefore you have turned your attention to the counsel of the impious; for there is an impiety which you alone see and is not seen by men. Or is your life human? That is, short, so that you cannot judge concerning perpetuity. And you have investigated my sins: for they could not be hidden from you, which are hidden from men. For you know that I have done nothing impious: for as far as men are concerned, I have done nothing impious. But who is there who can snatch from your hands? Of the one who judges. You judge as God, when you see even those impieties which man does not see.

Afterwards, however, having changed, you struck me: that is, with the man changed, not God, because a changed man perceives a changed God, just as eyes changed by the length of darkness perceive a changed sun. Remember that you fashioned me from clay: therefore I need your mercy. You will turn me back into the earth: by death, which is the punishment of sin. Did you not milk me like milk? because he also offered mercy to mortals, when he formed men from the unformed beginning of men. Therefore, since these things are in you, I know that you can do all things: because they are of such great goodness that they also work upon carnal substance. But if I also sin, you will watch over me: either so that you do not destroy me or so that my sin does not lie hidden. And if I am just, I cannot breathe: in the sight of men; for you see sins that are hidden from men. For I am full of reproach: in your sight. And I am caught like a lion for slaughter: it is the sin of pride that is hidden from men, when it can creep in even in praiseworthy deeds. But again, having changed, you cruelly torture me: after the punishment of sin, by which man was made mortal. According to these things, he speaks of the tribulations that men suffer in this life, because many tribulations suddenly occur that disturb the peace of mortal life itself, when it is in health or security of things, albeit temporal, which he attributed to the mercy of God. Renewing my torments in me: because mortality itself is a torment, from which other tribulations arise.

Why then did you lead me out of the womb? From obscurity to knowledge, which alone is the material of greater misery when it is overturned; he also mentioned this generation above. And would I have been as if I had not been? Completely unknown. Hence: he calls those things which are not as if they were, that is, according to ignobility. Or is the time of my life not small? For it is not on account of the length of my life that I am not dead, since what I live is certainly small. Allow me, until I rest a little: after the mercy by which you made me from the mud and, changed, struck me with mortality and consoled me with that same mortality, then you exercised me with tribulations. Therefore allow me to rest in you, before I go into punishments from which it is not permitted to return; for from those which he mentioned above, it is permitted to return, if a man turns himself to God. But he wishes to rest, before he goes into eternal punishments, for this purpose, of course, that he not go. As if we were to say to someone: correct yourself, before you are condemned; for when he has corrected himself, he will not be condemned. Where there is no light nor is it possible to see the life of men: for that is the life of men, where there is the true light, which illuminates every man. There is one land of the living, another land of the dying.

Sophar the Minaean speaks. Or will he seem eloquent, the just man? For he thinks that Job abounds more in words than in deeds. Blessed is the man born, of short life: he repeats to him his own opinion, which he wishes to be understood as spoken loquaciously and emptily. Since there is no one who contradicts you: because when he was speaking, no one contradicted him. But how will the Lord speak to you? Speak rather those things by which God may have mercy on you. Because he will be twofold over you: by rebuking and by consoling. And then you will know that what has been rendered to you by the Lord is worthy, for those things which you have sinned: after correction, with illumination following. Or will you find the footprint of the Lord? So that you wish to reproach God. The sky is high, and what will you do? So that you may find the sacraments of the sky; for you ought not to reproach him whose works you do not comprehend. Who will say to him: What have you done? For this too will rightly be done, if God has done it, because he cannot do anything unless rightly. He himself knows the works of wicked men: it is not of wicked work. Hence he wishes it to be understood that this man, whom he considers wicked, has foolishly reproached God; for he thought that he spoke thus. But man wavers differently in his words: at one time God pleases him, at another time God displeases him, while with God there is steadfastness. And a man born of woman will be like a wild ass in the desert: impatient, through desire for freedom, of a master and a tamer. And stretching out your hands to him: so that he may accept your works.

If there is any iniquity in your hand: he repeated these same two, but in reversed order. And let iniquity not remain in your house: this he said of the heart. For thus your face will shine like pure water: conscience. Like a wave that does not pass away, and you are not terrified: unless it touches everyone in this life. And your prayer will be like the morning star: it will go before the illumination; as if these things also, pertaining to the prophecy of the holy city or to the people of God, are said as heard or revealed, just as were said by his friends above. And many will seek your face: all these things concerning the Church. The words of Job. But a just man and without fault becomes an object of derision: this is to be understood of the Lord. The sense: therefore it is no wonder if I also have become an object of derision to you. And his house, that it might be laid waste by the wicked: the Church, by persecutors. Indeed, let no one, being wicked, trust that he will go unpunished: because judgment comes from the house of God. As if there will be no inquiry against them: let them not trust. But nevertheless, ask the quadrupeds, if they answer you: therefore he rightly inquires into the wicked, because from their works they could have recognized the creator and ought to have worshipped him; for they should not have needed to be taught by the response of creatures, since they received reason by which they would know these things. If the soul of all living things is not in his hand: hence it is known that he created all things, because the soul of all living things is in his hand. And the spirit of every human flesh: of every human flesh, that is, of the rational soul.

For the ear discerns words: just as the sense discerns sensible things, so the spirit discerns spiritual things, which he ought to have known, because the works of the Lord are in the hand of the Lord. Wisdom is in much time: not, of course, in much time, but with the Lord, from whom it is to be sought. If he has destroyed, who will build? Because of his power he has destroyed, and because of his wisdom he has shut up, so that it does not reach him. If he has withheld water, he will dry up the land: water being wisdom itself, the land being man. But if he has also let it out, he will destroy, overturning the land: for when many become wise, sinners will be troubled. He who leads counsellors captive: for he subdues to himself those who consult him. But he has sent the judges of the earth into fear: either the Jews or Pilate or those judging by a worldly sense. He who sets kings upon thrones: that is, the apostles. And he has girded their loins with a belt: that is, with continence. He who sends priests captive: so that they are led by men; and the Jews are signified. He who changes the lips of the faithful: he changes them for the better, so that they presume not upon their own righteousness, but upon his grace. And he has known the understanding of the old: he to whom the understanding of the old is pleasing. Whence it is: you are known by God, to whom the contrary is: I do not know you. And it began well from faith and arrived at the grey hairs of understanding. He who reveals the deep from the darkness: by opening prophecies. And he has brought the shadow of death into the light: that is, he has made it so that this life is recognized, because it is a shadow of death.

deceiving the nations and destroying them: thinking that they were harming the Church of God, when they were harming themselves, which is to be understood of the impious. laying low the nations and leading them onto the path: to humility, like that ass. reconciling the hearts of the princes of the people of the land: reconciling to himself either the Jews or the kings of the earth, who at first were persecuting the Church. But he led them astray onto a path they did not know: by undermining the works of the law, so that they would be understood simply; hence he seemed to them a sinner. By this error they were darkened as if drunk. And I will reprove in his sight, if he wills: so that he may reprove himself; which is a matter of confession. And healers of evils, all of you: for you cannot heal the good with consolation. Therefore hear the reproach of my mouth: against you. And before his sight you bring forth deceit: when you wish to appear just, which you are not. Or do you withdraw yourselves from being judges? Can you dissemble and not judge, because I speak the truth about you? For if you do all things, you will be added to him, that is: even if you do all the commandments, he will find in you something to reprove; for no one is just in his sight. But if even in secret you have admired persons: your own, justifying yourselves not only before men, but also before yourselves. But a body of clay: so that at least by consideration of your frailty you may fear. Seizing my flesh with my teeth: I will not spare myself, so that I may reprove not only you but also myself.

and I will place my soul in my hand: to be inspected, so that I conceal nothing, or so that I may count up my sins. Although he who is powerful, who also began, may kill me: although he may kill my sins. Nevertheless I will speak and before him I will accuse myself: I will not justify myself by hiding my sins. Behold, I approach my judgment: to judge myself, as if the justice of a man consists in not sparing himself in confession. Then I will not be hidden from your face: in the way that sinners are hidden. Take your hand away from me: so that there is nothing in me to be chastised and that charity may be in me. And let your fear not terrify me. How many are my iniquities? From this it can be seen that he said: I will place my soul in my hand: for counting. Or do you think I am opposed to you? Since I am indeed weak and as if you fear this, that if I were justified, I would be equal to you, though I am a leaf. Therefore there is some hidden cause, when this is not the case. And you have laid upon me the sins of youth: so that this is the reason why he says he hides his sins from himself, because he has become proud, which is the sin of youth. And you have placed a fetter on my foot: in the bond of mortality. And you have examined the roots of my feet: my desires. I who grow old like a wineskin: so that I cannot bear new wine, or so that I may be sewn with new cloth like a garment that has been eaten by moths.

For a man born of woman is of brief life and full of wrath: of punishment. And have you made this man come to judgment before you? Although he is so mortal, yet he himself has something from which he can render an account; for what he can is demanded of him, although he can very little. For his months are numbered before you: indeed, because he is temporal, he is convicted of sin; for you had made him eternal. Depart from him; leave him alone, let him rest: according to the opinion of a carnal and animal man, for whom all good is this life. And therefore he wants to be spared, so that he may enjoy this life. For a tree has hope: these words are to be pronounced mockingly. For indeed a man has more hope: which carnal men refuse to believe. But when a man is dead, he is gone: and here ironically. For the sea will diminish in time: for afterwards it is filled. But he speaks of those places where ebb and flow occur, or because all shores are secretly diminished and increased, by the lunar hours, that is, when the moon rises, for us or for others it grows up to mid-heaven and then diminishes. As long as the sky exists, it will not be worn away: to the new, that is, to the sky itself. And would that you had kept me in the underworld: so great is the hope of resurrection, that I would already be without these uncertainties of life. And you had hidden me, until your wrath should rest: hence the saying: hide a little, until the Lord's wrath passes, that is, until this mortality passes and resurrection is reached. For if a man has died, he will live: for this is not life.

When the days of his life are completed: then he will live. Then you will call, and I will answer you: obedient to you without the impediment of mortality. You have marked in a little bag my iniquities: so that you might render to me. You have noted if I unwillingly erred: this too you have noted. But to err unwillingly is the penalty of sin. And indeed a falling mountain flows down: so also man fell from his height and firmness. And a rock grows old in its place: as man does in his kind and his condition. And by the washing away of frequent torrents: as if man too has been reduced to insignificance, when he is worn away by the frequent washings of desires. But you have destroyed the hope of man: he made steps from mountain to rock, from rock to stones, from stones to sand, because these carnal diminutions are what they suffer. And well did it already say "you have destroyed." For you have driven him to the end: to consumption, so that this hope, by which the carnal rejoice, perishes. You have changed his face, you have dismissed him: when the image of God in him has been destroyed. And although his children are many, he does not know: because he dies, even though offspring are propagated. But his flesh grieved over him: that is, man carnally grieves and animalistically mourns his own condition; for the spiritual man knows that, although the outer man is corrupted, yet the inner man is renewed from day to day, because he feels this happening in himself.

Eliphaz the Themanite speaks. And he filled the belly with pain: for the spirit of knowledge heals rather through consolation from pains: but you, who fill the belly with pain, do not answer with the spirit of knowledge. Have you not also cast off fear? You did not fear God, saying such things against him. And you chose the tongue of the wicked: with which men curse. For what? Were you born the first man? that you are so proud. Or were you hardened before the hills? even mountains are to be understood by the name of hills, that is, before all virtues, powerful spirits. But there is among us an old and decrepit man: who knows even what we do not know, he is among us. What did your heart dare? And what did your eyes endure? They hoped. For what is man, that he should be without fault? which you also said. Is there no faith in his saints? because of the uncertainties of times, by which they are often deceived, so that they say many things and do not do them. And is the sky not clean before him? for those who dwell in the sky; or certainly the sky is put for the saints themselves. because God dwells in them. What the wise men said and did not hide from their parents: because the apostles also preached to the Jews. The earth alone was given to them: to be inhabited. Nor does any stranger come upon them: neither a holy man nor an angel, that is: they will possess in security. When they think they are already at peace: he says this, as if he thinks this has happened to Job himself. He does not believe that he will turn from darkness: he does not believe that he will turn from sins.

And he was destined as food for vultures: the aerial powers, which feed on the deaths of sinners. Just as a leader falls in the front line: he is bold and does not bear tribulations. He who raised his hand against God. Or: because he raised? And he ran against him insultingly: doing the opposite of what he commanded. In the thick neck of his shield: presuming upon his own protection. Because it covered his face with his own fat: through fat, that is, through the exaltation of his own pride, he hid God from himself. And he made a halter upon his thighs: so that he would be bound by his own lusts, by which bond he would be led to death. For what they prepared, others will take away: even the earthly kingdom itself or any temporal hope, which the righteous will receive along with the whole world. And his substance will not grow rich nor endure: that of the impious, of course. He will not cast a shadow upon the earth: that is, he will not flourish. But the wind will dry up his stock: temptation. His cutting off before the hour will be corrupted: sooner than he hopes. Let him fall like the flower of the olive: let him fall from peace, or because better things follow these, just as the fruit follows the flower. For the testimony of the impious is death: a sign. And fire will burn the houses of those who accept bribes: for these are the impious who prefer temporal gifts to justice. He will conceive groans in his belly: what he hopes for turns to his own punishment.

The words of Job. I have heard many such things: not only what you say. You are all comforters of the wicked: you are able to comfort the wicked, because they themselves imitate you. Not the good. And it is a vocative; for from none of you have I heard anything good. For what? Is there any order in the speeches of the spirit? Of pride. Or in what will it be troublesome to you? Although you do not love what you say. And I speak according to you: as you deserve. If your soul were subjected for mine: if you suffered what I suffer, I would speak with words, not with deeds; thus it is nothing to speak what you do not do. For if I speak, I will not grieve over the wound: you show yourselves to be prudent neither in speaking nor in keeping silent. For the wise, even when they speak, they sympathize in consolations; or in their own confession, speaking, they grieve their own wound, or when they are silent, they are prudently silent. But now he has wearied me and made me foolish and rotten: so that I do not speak against you, God has broken my pride, so that, made foolish, I may become wise. You have seized me and I have become a testimony: you have convicted me of my sins, and I am a witness against myself. And my lie has risen up against me: when I seemed just to myself. I have answered against my own face, that is: I will place you before your own face. The use of anger has cast me down: the use of anger has blessed—for he does not suffer it—but it has cast down as if proud. He has gnashed his teeth at me: he has rebuked me, so that teeth are taken for words. The arrows of his pirates have fallen upon me.

The aerial powers which God uses and permits, so that either the good may be exercised or the wicked punished; but pirates, because in this sea they lie in wait for those sailing. He rushed in with the glance of his eyes: he did not dissemble from my sins, as though he nodded, so that I might be punished; for he himself is like a light, showing those to be punished to the punishers. The sight of him was my ruin. Or thus: he made me see my sin: for before, it had not been brought home to me in such a way. The mighty God struck me sharply, and they rushed together upon me at the same time: for when God strikes, the angels of Satan rush together. When I was at peace, he tore me apart: he tore me apart from that peace, or from myself, so that I was torn asunder by adversaries and those opposing themselves to me. And seizing my hair, he tore it out: through my sins he divided me against myself. He set me up like a target: at which they might shoot, as a target is customarily set up for those shooting, to direct their missiles. They surrounded me with lances, shooting into my loins, they did not spare: on account of the carnal desires which he says were driven into him, through evil persuasions from evil angels. They poured out my gall on the ground: so that I would be jealous of earthly goods in those who abound in them. They cast me down with a great prostration: lest we understand a carnal prostration. They sewed a haircloth to my skin: inner sins, by which he recalls that he had been among the good. And over my eyelids, the shadow of death: I wish to see, and carnal habit hinders me.

Let the earth not cover the blood of my flesh: that is, let not, if my prayer has been unclean by desiring earthly things, a heap of earth come upon the bond of mortality—which he signified by the name of blood—that is, let me not be covered by earthly desire with greater calamities of voluntary sin, which is that natural sin arising from the mortal condition. And let there be no place for my cry: let the merit of my prayer be cut off. And now behold, my witness is in the heavens: he seems to be speaking of the Lord, because he had not yet descended to earth. And my confidant in the highest: on account of participation in mortality. Let the man be judged with the Lord: let the Lord come, so that the man may be judged with him, like John with Christ. In whose judgment it is understood what distance there is between a perfect man and a man made God. As the son of man to his neighbor: the Lord, having taken up man, to him who had fallen among robbers. For the numbered years have come to me: that I am helped by Christ through the fullness of times. And I shall enter the road on which I shall not return: the road of renouncing the world.

I, agitated by the spirit, have failed. The order: I have failed, shaken by labors in spirit. I pray that I be buried, and it does not happen to me: that the mortal be absorbed by life. For we groan, burdened, in that we do not wish to be stripped, but to be clothed over, that is: let us be changed rather than die. Which, although man desires this, does not happen; for he owes death by the condemnation of sin. I offer prayers with labor. And what have I done? I have accomplished something by obtaining. Strangers have stolen my goods: it signifies the very immortality of which one is stripped. He who was left half-dead by robbers. Who is this? He who will come to my aid, signifying the Lord. But he says: Who is this? because he was to be among men, so that he could scarcely be distinguished from them. Let him be bound to my hand: by the bond of charity, so that he may guard me and lead me where he wills. Because you have hidden their heart from prudence: you have hidden those who did not recognize him. For this reason you will not exalt them: because they were not humble, therefore they were blinded and could not be exalted by the humility of Christ. Let evils be announced to a part: that blindness happened in part to Israel, either because the things which Christ announced seemed evil to them, so that they would say: He leads the crowds astray; or through the prophets, the things which were announced concerning the blindness of Israel. They did not happen to the whole, but to a part. And the eyes wasted away upon their children: by the wonder of the miracles, concerning which it was said: If I cast out demons in Beelzebub, in whom do your children cast them out?

You placed me, however, in the speech of the nations: the man whom you redeemed, that is, the church, about which the nations would speak, or which would speak to the nations. And I became a laughingstock to them: either to the nations, when they slandered her, or to the Jews, who spoke to the nations. My eyes were darkened in anger: the eyes of the church, that is, the apostles, were darkened when they were not understood by those who were to be punished by this penalty. And I was greatly assailed by all: for both Jews and Gentiles assailed the church. And the truthful wondered at this: either why power was given to the impious over the church, or why the gospel was not recognized by the impious. But let the just rise up against the enemy: he who falls temporarily through persecutions, so that later he may rule over the unbelievers. And let him, with clean hands, take up boldness: the boldness of hope, so that he may confess Christ even in persecution. For he finds no truth in you: for grace is necessary for all, both Jews and others. And the joints of my heart were wrenched apart: so that I do not conceal my sins. They placed night as day: the impious. Whence it is: woe to those who say that good is evil and evil good; who place darkness as light and light as darkness. If I endure, the underworld will be my house: if I put up with myself, my sins, so that I do not confess them. I called destruction my father: I will not be a son of life; but God called. My mother and my sister decay: from the fact that they cling inseparably like relatives. For what hope is there for me now?

It is understood: "if I endure." Or: "Shall I see my good things?" By which he was seduced, he was unwilling to be converted and he endured the sinner. The words of Baldad the Shuhite. "And the light of the impious will be extinguished": therefore do not be surprised if your light, as that of an impious man, has also been extinguished. "His light was darkness in the house": the brightness of his house, that is, they were either the devil or the Antichrist. "And the lamp over him will be extinguished": a small and earthly light. "Let the lowly take possession of his substance": let the humble have what he wished to possess. "For his foot has been thrust into a snare": for he himself was captured by persecuting the Lord. "He will strengthen the thirsty against him": so that those hungering and thirsting for justice may overcome him. "His cord has been hidden upon the earth": by which he is caught, that is, those things which are, as it were, granted to him. "And his capture is in the paths": by which he passes. "Let sorrows destroy him from all sides": from every direction. "And many around his feet come in the distress of famine": many who follow him or who serve him. "Let the branches of his feet be eaten": of his teachings, that is, the way by which he goes. "Let health be torn from his dwelling": the tranquility of this life. "And let the necessity of a royal cause hold him": the opportunity of his punishment, which will avail for the glory of God, on account of which his cupidity is now permitted to him. He says "a royal cause" because he will boast that he is Christ.

dwell in his tent in his night: the necessity of a royal cause shall torment his conscience, the appetite of tyranny; in his night: in the punishment of his blindness, when he is condemned. his splendid things shall be sprinkled with sulphur: those things in which he took pleasure shall be consumed by foul fire. and his harvest shall rush in from above: from God. and let his name not be on the face of the streets where it was: let it be removed from the memory of the people. and let him not be recognizable among his own people: let him come to such a degree of abasement that he is not recognized by his own. nor shall his house be saluted under heaven: for some will be saluted. but in his people others shall live: his people shall be subjected to others. The words of Job. and you destroy me with words: you weaken me, who ought to have consoled me. know only that God has done thus to me: before whom I can be convicted of sin, not before men. and he has placed his wall around me: a ditch around the walls; by which I am compelled to confession. behold, I laugh at the reproach and do not speak: he speaks of the usefulness of confession, because, if he wished to laugh at his sin and not speak it out, he would cry out and not be heard. he placed darkness on my face: he took away the illumination of my face from me; which happens to those who are turned away. and he took the crown from my head: the spiritual dignity, which wisdom gives. —and he tore me apart on all sides, and I went away: I held everything, and he took them from me contrary to that which he had received the power of holding everything.

And he thought of me as an enemy: thus he judged me, as if I would harm him if I were his equal. And they surrounded my tent: the heart and conscience. My brothers withdrew: in hope of correction, because they are brothers; although at first they scorned my correction and followed those who urged upon them what was alien, that is, pernicious. And my friends became pitiless: in spiritual evils, those who commiserate with their neighbors but rather mock them; whom they would not mock if they were placed in carnal evils. And knowing my name, they forgot me: not recognizing me, because I have changed. The neighbors of the house and my maidservants: those with whom I shared secrets; flatterers, who withdraw from one who confesses to God: for they are said to be servile. I called my servant, and he did not answer: either the body or those who served him in evil. My mouth was entreating, and I was beseeching my wife: as if saying: why are you sad, my soul? and why do you trouble me? that is, desiring that she consent to him. I was calling, coaxing the children of my womb: those whom he had begotten, persuading them of worldly hope. And those whom I had loved rose up against me: in that life. My flesh rotted on my skin: through love of those things which are perceived externally, my inward parts rotted. For it is certainly trivial, if we take it literally, as if he had a scab. And my bones are in my teeth: my firmness and strength is in words, not in deeds.

Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O friends: he seems to be calling upon the angels, that they might intercede for him, or certainly upon the saints, that they might pray for the penitent. For it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me: he says he was touched by the hand of the Lord, so that he might feel pain from his wound, which was without sensation for him. Why do you persecute me as the Lord does? You detest and shudder at me as the Lord does; or you rebuke me, when I am already confessing. Do you not sate yourselves with my flesh? Do you not rejoice if I live carnally. In iron and leaden stylus? So that, just as lead yields to an iron stylus, so the hearts of men yield to my words. Or to be carved as a testimony in rocks? So that those who are firm for evangelizing may learn them. For I know that the one who will dissolve me is eternal: because he is able to restore me. Of which I am conscious to myself: because I deserved those things. Which my eye saw and no other: that is: no one knows what goes on in a man except the spirit that is in him. And all things are completed for me in the bosom: in the inner parts where no one sees, that is, in the conscience. But if you also say: what shall we say against him? According to what was said even to spiritual men: watching yourself, lest you also be tempted. And we will find the root of the speech in him? So that we may convict him from his own words. For wrath will come upon the wicked: those who exalt themselves over sinners and think that they themselves cannot be such, he calls wicked.

The words of Zophar the Naamathite. For you do not understand more than I: he turns to the others, who were consoling Job along with him. I shall hear the instruction of my confusion: he obliquely wishes that Job might hear the instruction of his own confusion; for then he can also attain the spirit of wisdom. This, however, is a customary expression, as when we say: "It is good for me to beware, for it will go badly for me," when we wish that another might beware. Do you not know these things from the ages? From the time the ages began, you know these things. And he thinks that Job, as an impious man, is ignorant of them. The eye will see and will not add: for it will not be seen. Let the impious man destroy his sons: whether his imitators or those seduced by him, the devil. And let his hands be set on fire with pains: let his works be tormented. His bones are filled with his youth: he boasts of his own strength. He will hide it under his tongue: he will not show it, as a deceitful man, so that he may use it silently. He will spare it and will not abandon it: loving it and not wishing to be without it, he does not pursue it; or: the Lord will spare him and will not abandon him in this impunity. And he will hold it in the middle of his throat: as something that delights him. And he will not be able to help himself: he will not thereby free himself. The venom of an asp in his belly: having the malice of harming in his inward parts, in secret. Riches unjustly amassed will be vomited out: with torment of the inward parts and pressure of the heart. An angel will drag him from his house: whenever his secrets will be revealed through tribulations.

and the fury of dragons will flash: so that he who was first hidden, betrayed by tribulations, may now flash the fury of dragons openly. Let the tongue of the serpent kill him: let the devil seduce him. And let him not see the milking of flocks: the fruit of sheep, that is, the works of justice, so that he may understand from this that he can be redeemed. Nor the fodder of honey and butter: good works with charity and gladness of heart and generosity of the giver; for butter is rich milk. He labored in vain and to no purpose: because he does not understand that these things are to be done for those works which pertain to mercy. Whence also the Lord is said to eat butter and honey, because these are offered to him in his humble ones. Which will be like something hard that cannot be eaten nor swallowed: some hard thing, that is, iniquity or pride. He will not be saved in his desire: because he desired unjust things. There will be no remnants of his foods: his desires pass away. When he thinks he has been filled, he will be constricted: it is not so much satiety from the fullness of desires as pressure. If in some way he fills his belly: such necessity will come to him that he will doubt whether he fills his belly, since these things are sought precisely so that necessity may be driven away. But he said this because the more one has, the more one desires. And he will send forth upon him the fury of wrath: because he did not see to doing good works. Let an arrow of bronze wound him: perpetual.

Let the javelin pass through his body: let temptation pierce him, so that he is wounded both in what he hopes for and in what he leaves behind, as if struck through from chest to back. Lightnings in his tents: sudden terrors in his thoughts. Let the stranger harm his house: the devil, who comes from outside to tempt; although a man also has his own temptations. And let heaven expose his iniquities: heavenly judgment. And the possession of his goods by the bishop: God will grant him this. The words of Job. And let this consolation not be for me from you: by which you think one should rejoice in temporal goods, since they are common to the pious and the impious, and, if ever someone were wicked, that vengeance is taken on him through them, whereas Job says that these goods remain with the impious even to the grave and that vengeance is not taken on them through them. For what? Is my chastisement human? My chastisement is from God. Therefore he himself can console, not you. Or why should I not be angry? Do not console me in this way, for I see the happiness of the impious, of course. Look at me and wonder: as if speaking of empty things. For if I remember, I am disturbed: returning to the indignities of human life from the state in which he now is, he confesses his former feeling. And my flesh is held by pains: I grieve in a carnal way. Why do the impious live? He asks them the reason, because they said that vengeance is taken on the impious here. And they persist like their sheep in old age: how can they persist in old age? For they will not always exist.

But they had goods in their hands: he did not take those goods from them when they said these things. Indeed, the lamp of the impious will be extinguished: temporal brightness, even if not as they understood it. Let his children fail, his goods: the goods which he persuaded them of, namely temporal ones, either of the Antichrist or of the devil. Let his eyes see his own death: this signifies that this prosperity is unknown to those who rejoice in it; in the future, however, it will be brought to the perception even of the impious. Because no will of his remains in his house after him: because in their conscience they have not attained the Lord in tribulations. Although the number of his months is halved: although he worshipped the present God, yet because he did not also hope for the future, which is the full number of months. Does he himself judge homicides? Because the impious, when they have persuaded impiety through love of carnal impieties, certainly kill for the future age. Yet men do not judge such homicides, but only God. Here he will die in the strength of his simplicity: he seems to be carrying out secret homicides, recalling one generous man and another greedy man, because men who are abundant and generous are thought to be good. His intestines are full of fat: he has joy. And their marrow is spread: of the intestines, because he does not hold his goods within himself, but spends them either on himself or on others. Therefore I know that you insist boldly against me: for you do not speak with consideration. Because you say: where is the house of the prince?

or of the impious or of the proud; because they thought goods were being taken from them here, when many, even full of these goods, ended their lives to be punished through them. And where is the covering in the tents of the impious? Honor. Ask those who pass by on the road: who do not delight in the road, but pass through it. And you will not be ignorant of their signs: either those of the impious which passersby give, saying what will happen to them, or those by which the impious are recognized. Who will announce his way before him? Before the impious, no one but the Lord announces his way confidently, because He Himself answers him. And yet "and the Lord Himself was led into the tomb:" thus the reward of piety is not to be hoped for here. And he watched over the heap: for He Himself rose before the heap of the resurrected would rise. The stones of the torrent were sweet to him: those which the world does not overturn, that is, his disciples. And after him every man follows, and before him countless ones. Or: after him every man, that is, one man, and before him countless ones, who are now counted in the number of men; or: after him the crowd of believers, and before him the patriarchs and prophets. How then do you console me in vain? By urging present goods or evils.

Eliphaz the Themanite’s words. Is it not the Lord who teaches understanding and knowledge? As if he said that Job does not judge rightly: since God cannot be reproached except through the intelligence which is superior to him, inasmuch as it is given to man by God himself. And shall I come into judgment with you? So that you may be compared to him. Your light has been turned into darkness: dignity. And water covered you while you were sleeping: the flood of tribulation overwhelmed you when you were off guard. Or does he judge through a mist? As if he could not see through a mist. The cloud is his hiding place, and he will not be seen: the things that are on earth are hidden from him. And he traverses the circuit of the sky: the shape, and not the earth. So then, do you guard the path of the world? As if Job thought that human affairs were not cared for by God. Because they were taken immature? Immature according to themselves; for they thought they would last forever, or at least before they attained wisdom; but because they had heard this, not because they held these opinions, these friends of Job. And the thought of the impious is far from him, and he fills their houses with goods: and the thought of the impious is far from him, because the impious man does not act as he hopes, that is: either because impiety pleases him or he does not see it. The just laughed when they saw: the understanding; although these did not understand, thinking that punishment is given to the impious here. And the blameless one mocked them: the impious. Be hard, if you have endured: patient, that is, hard. You will drive iniquity far from your tabernacle: your conversation or your life; although these say this carnally.

And you will place it upon the mound on the rock. Against what he said: the river running down, their foundations. Because he humbled himself: the light itself. And you will say: he was lifted up in pride, against the proud. Rescue the innocent, and you will be saved in the cleanness of your hands: do not fail in good works, because God cares for human affairs. The words of Job. And indeed I know that the reproach is from my hand: from my sins. And my hand has become heavy upon my groaning: therefore you have struck me, so that I may grieve. And to come even to his throne? That I may be so holy as to reach the number of those who are his seats. For then I can speak true things and hear: whence even the heavens are called holy. And I will know the reasons which he will speak to me: the renderings of causes, by which he demonstrates that he judges everything justly. And I will perceive what he announces to me: already near to him. Or will he judge with me in great power? That he might resist me through power. By no means. Only that he not abuse me in terror: on account of my sins, for which I now fear, while I am in terror, let him not abuse me. But when I have come to him: in that freedom, in which I will be numbered with his throne, I will love everything and his power will not resist me; although now he can abuse me, as a sinner. That is: let him do with me what he wills, even with my punishment, yet justly. For truth and reproach are from him: that is, he does not reproach unjustly. He brings my judgment to an end: even if he now chastises, afterwards he will make it manifest.

For if I walk first, afterwards I will not be: let me not hope arrogantly, let me not despair faithlessly; this is: not to turn aside to the right or the left. Hence: if I ascend into heaven, you are there. Who can drive me out from there? And so forth. On the left, what it will do, I will not grasp: it repeats what is higher. But it says that on the left it will not grasp what is given over to temporal things. It will turn to the right, and I will not see: therefore I ought not to be on the left; but it said "it will turn," because it itself is in spiritual things, from which I turn away, if I am on the left. But it itself knows my way: so that, even if it leads through tribulations, I will follow. It tested me like gold: in temptations. I will go forth in its precepts: let me come out of my darkness, but yet in its precepts. But if it itself has judged thus: that it test me like gold through tribulations. For that reason I hastened to it: because it afflicted me, therefore, having abandoned temporal things, I hastened to it. And having been admonished, I was anxious about it: so that by these carnal punishments I might avoid eternal torments. For that reason I will be troubled before its face: I will be troubled now, so that I may beware, thinking of the future judgment, where its manifestation will be. And the Lord softened my heart: and it attributes even that fear, by which it guards against future punishments, to the mercy of God. For it would not know the coming punishments and darkness for the wicked, unless the Lord softened its heart by present tribulations: against that, that God hardens the heart of Pharaoh.

Why the hours did not escape the Lord: wherefore, or: therefore. They transgressed the end: Christ. And the poor turned aside from the just way: so that they would either imitate them or from that judge that there was no divine judgment, because they saw unpunished malice with which they harmed them, abandoning justice. At the same time the meek of the earth were hidden: with those who turned aside from the just way, the meek were hidden, so that they would not bring me aid. For there are three kinds of men in the church when persecution occurs: for some consent, others flee, others suffer, whose person Job represents. And wild asses rushed in the field upon me: the foolish and untamed and on that account proud rush upon me confessing, that is, the church. And going out to their work: for this is their work, to rush upon me, that is, they are appointed for this by God. Bread became sweet to him among the young men: to the impious and persecutor he calls it sweet bread, that is, persecution, which he enjoyed freely when he inflicted it upon young men: so that we may take young men either as lovers of pleasures, because they easily consent to such things, or as those who have advanced so much in the church that they have indeed passed beyond the simplicity of childhood, but have not yet arrived at that manly strength by which even the persecutor is despised. They reaped the field before its time, not their own: he speaks of the kinds of persecutions.

To frighten someone by damage to a field, or the church is to be understood by "field," which they wished to reap before maturity through persecutions, that is, before the tares grew up together, so that at harvest time they would be separated. They become wet from the drippings of mountains: those fleeing naked to caves where rocks drip. They snatched a ward from the breast: orphans and widows are for the most part to be understood as the people under torture, from the person of the church. And they humiliated the one who had fallen: one deserted either by the help of God or by someone; it is a sign of great cruelty not to spare such people. They unjustly laid snares in straits: in necessities. They were driven out from the city and from houses: others were driven out by them. But the soul of the little ones was very much in groaning: it was. But their God did not take care of them: of the impious, because by not taking care of them he made them despair of God's judgment, since they did evil with impunity. And therefore they were handed over into darkness: of ignorance of God's judgment. And suddenly like a thief: that day will overtake them. The eye of the adulterer watches for darkness: he wants to show into what darkness the impious are handed over through impunity; not the darkness that adulterers and others who do evil by night seek, lest they be recognized by day, but that darkness which is upon them even in the morning. He undermines houses in the darkness: he recounts other evil deeds. By day they sealed themselves up: they hid themselves.

They did not recognize the light, because the shadow of death remains with them: not because the night has withdrawn, has the shadow of death deserted them. It is light upon the face of the water: in comparison to the earth, those are to be understood as more splendid whom the light penetrates and the image of lightness; and therefore the shadow of death is light upon them. For they themselves also bear it through the condition of the flesh. Or: "light upon the face of the water" he said concerning those who confess in baptism. Let their portion be cursed upon the earth: let what they have chosen be barren. For they have snatched from the bosom of orphans: from the heart of the weak, the word through evil persuasion. Then his sin was recalled: which he thought would come into oblivion. Let every wicked man be crushed like incurable wood: which does not heal. For he did not do well to the barren woman: who is without the consolation of children. Therefore, rising up, he does not believe against his own life: he does not believe against his own life; for he ought to have believed that he had an evil life and by that very fact to rise up. When he begins to grow weak, let him not hope for health: to be troubled. But he falls into languor. For such impious men seek consolations in adverse circumstances, by which they become weaker. He withered like a mallow in the heat: his height, because it did not bear the heat of tribulation; and "mallow" on account of weakness. Or like the ear of grain spontaneously falling from its stalk: because its top was empty; for he himself chose for himself such consolations by which he is made worse. Otherwise, who is there who speaks that I speak a lie?

If they are otherwise. The words of Baldad the Sauchite. For what beginning but fear of him? This addition seems to agree with those words in which Job says: Therefore I will be troubled before his face, I will consider and fear him. Let no one think there is delay for pirates: without delay, according to his permission, they attempt. For upon whom will not snares come from him? That is, when he himself permits. But he calls snares temptations. Or how will a man be just before the Lord? Therefore he justly permits him to be tempted. Or how will he cleanse himself, born of a woman? For unless he has been cleansed by God, he is unclean. If he commands the moon, and it does not shine: because if the reasons and order of his providence demand that the moon not shine, he will command that it not shine, and it will not shine. But why? Does he wish thereby to show the moon not pure before him, because he commands it and it does not shine? Or perhaps the nature of the rational soul is here figuratively suggested, for which the intelligible sun is that true light which illuminates every man? And because the moon shines all the more to earthly eyes the more it recedes from the sun.

But when it approaches the sun, it is destroyed on earth: let us understand that it is divinely commanded to the soul that, having overcome earthly and mortal birth, by which its radiance appears to those who see with earthly sense, it should appear and approach and be subjected to wisdom, so that, exulting most secretly in its light, it may beware of doing its justice before men, so as to be seen by them, but when it glories, let it glory in the Lord, because even when it appears to men, it appears by the gift of the Creator. Nor are the stars pure before him: in comparison with him. The words of Job. Whom do you assist or whom are you going to help? When he, indignant, as if thinking them unjust, supposed they were to be punished by God. But speaking to himself, he recalls himself, so that he may rather leave judgment of them to God, lest he seem either to be present to God or to wish to help him as if he were weak to restrain or correct men, or to give advice as to what he should do with them; or to follow him, as if about to pursue the reason why he allows deceitful men to exist and live, when he surpasses every soul seeking with incomprehensible power; or as if to announce something to him about them, when man has even his breath from him, when he utters something. Surely giants are not reduced to nothing? Therefore it is not to be wondered at if God spares these men, when he does not reduce giants to nothing. And lest it be said: But they were thrust down to the underworld. He added that God sees the underworld.

And yet he arranged them there where they deserved to be, just as the righteous either now, as they are, or later, as they will be, although he never removes them from his face, because all things are naked before him, so that you may take the nearby giants also as these proud comforters. "Under the water" and their neighbors: is "under the water" to be understood as "they are held" or something of the sort? And there is no veil for perdition: even perdition does not escape him. "Stretching out the north wind over nothing": the north wind can signify the devil and the earth the sinner, since for both of them hope is empty. "Hanging the earth over nothing": into the air. "Binding the water in its clouds": on account of the obscurity of prophecy. "And the cloud is not torn under him": under the truth which the cloud had, which is not torn for those who understand the scriptures; for they are not called contrary, as those who do not understand think. "Who holds the face of the sun": so that the sun of righteousness would not be recognized by the impious. "And he extends his cloud over him": the flesh which the Lord took up. "He placed a command over the face of the water": the peoples. "Until the consummation of the light": the end of this life, that is, the end of the age, or until people are consumed, that is, perfected, to whom it was said: for you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord. "The pillars of heaven trembled and were stupefied at his rebuke": which happened to Peter through Paul. "By his power he calmed the sea": he pacified the age, from which the church was suffering persecution.

Hence also the pillars of the sky trembling at his rebuke can be understood in this way, that the most robust of the Church trembled for the weak at the rebuke of the Lord permitting the temptations of persecution. For the pillar cries out: who is infirm, and I am not infirm? who is scandalized, and I am not burned? And his prudence wounded the whale: it says the devil was wounded by the grief that the righteous did not yield to him. And the bars of the sky fear him: either the angels or those who received the keys of the kingdom of heaven. But by his command he slew the deserter dragon: he called the same the whale. But now he shows how he was wounded, when those who renounced him received the command. Behold these are the parts of his way: by which one comes to God. But the power of his thunder, who will know when he makes it? He calls thunder the most evident voice of his manifestation, or perhaps that voice which he gave through the son of thunder: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, so that the order may be: when he makes it, does anyone know the power of his thunder?

And the divine spirit in my nostrils: here it is shown that he speaks prophetically what he says and prophetically knows that his comforters are full of deceit. Far be it from me to call you righteous, until I die: even if you persecute me to the death, because I freely rebuke you. For I will not separate the innocent: nor you, however. For I am not conscious of having committed any wrong: for they are accustomed to spare others, who fear that something true may be objected to themselves. For what hope is there for the impious? because he waits. Lest anyone think he wished ill to his enemies, here he revealed with what intention he spoke. For he wishes their impiety to be overthrown and their pride to perish: which happens when the soul that was held guilty is loosed from impiety: it is loosed, however, through the confession of a penitent man and the grace of a forgiving God. Therefore: For what hope is there for the impious? a question and answer: because he waits and trusts in the Lord, if perhaps he may be loosed or the Lord may hear his prayers. Indeed, another sense may occur in these words, but it is not so connected with both the book and the faith, as if it were entirely from despair, that the impious has no hope at all, since it is written against this: but for the one who believes in him who justifies the impious, his faith is counted for righteousness. And therefore what follows is understood to be said by the grace of the Lord. Or if necessity befalls him: therefore we ought to await the grace of the one who looses.

For is it in necessity, that is, in temptation, that he had confidence in his merits in the sight of God? Or if he calls upon him, will he be heard? If he calls as though trusting in his own works, which are nothing. Therefore I will announce to you what is in the hand of the Lord: what God is arranging. Behold, you all know that you vainly speak vain things: on account of this, grace is now to be awaited. For how did he adduce the merits of his vain works, speaking vainly? But the possession of the powerful will come from the Almighty upon them: so that the powerful, that is, the devil and his angels, may possess them. He calls them powerful for this reason, because these men will be weakened, following vanity, so that those leaders and princes of vanity prevail over them, just as the Lord also calls him strong for no other reason than that he holds the weak. But if his sons are many, they will be for slaughter: he calls his sons those who invite him to seduce, the persuader of false doctrines, to damnation. But if they have become young men, they will be in need, that is: if they have been confirmed in error, they will be in need; for vanity has not satisfied them. And those who are around him will die the death: those who are most like him in seducing. And he will not have mercy on their widows: the peoples whom he seduced along with them, deserted by the death of the husband, as though he had kept conjugal faith to them in the promise of error.

But if he has also gathered silver like earth, that is: if the prudent and wise, while they are still earth and mud, that is, while they still think foolish and carnal things, have consented to them, afterwards, corrected and coming to know, they will be converted to the righteous. For their houses will be like the moth and the spider, which he preserved: the heart or conscience. Or he called "houses" the defenses with which they protect themselves, truly cunning and hidden, but very weak, like the moth's cocoon in which it hides itself and the spider's den, into which it withdraws, covering and closing it. "Which he preserved" is understood as itself in that den, because not all spiders do this: on account of the spontaneous and inner corruption of wicked thought and on account of useless works, which the impious man has carefully preserved for himself in his house as it were. The rich man will sleep and will not add: because after death he will not add to those impieties riches. He opened his eyes, and it is not: for in the resurrection he will not find himself rich, which he had thought. The heat will take him, and he will go away: either the heat of the sea, the tribulation of the world, or the heat by which herbs wither, which have no root. And it will winnow him from his place: either from his hope, or God will winnow him from his place. So that he is not in the place of God, that is, in the people whom God has inhabited. And it will cast upon him, and will not spare: like a mound of punishments. It will clap its hands over him.

as it is said: "And I will laugh at their destruction; for he will not greatly mourn the destruction of the impious." For there is a place of silver, whence it is made: the prudent, who are more in action. But there is a place of gold, where it is purified: the wise, who are in contemplation. For iron comes from the earth: these metals are to be taken indifferently in a good sense; for he said "iron" because there is no difference, as if he were speaking above about iron: although iron can be understood as the strong. For in truth there is no distinction in the wisdom of men who are in it. But bronze, like stones, is excluded: because everything is separated from the earth; to show that the good are for a time mixed with the evil for this reason, because the good are separated from the evil themselves and are purified through them, like metals necessary for work or building, while the earth itself needs to be refined and formed, whence they are also to be separated, so that after this separation the earth may have its place and order, just as the impious through damnation according to their merits. And he himself finds every end: what leads to what. But he said "finds" meaning "instituted." Stone, darkness, and the shadow of death: stone, that is, the Old Testament was given to darkness and the shadow of death, that is, to those pursuing carnal things, although they expected these from the one God: where the proud did not cut through the torrent, that is, they did not pass through the lapse of temporal things to some solidity, but were carried away by the lapse itself.

And there was a tearing apart of the torrent from the ash, that is: from one confessing his sins and not being proud of the merits of his works, which was done through the grace of the New Testament. The tearing apart of the torrent from the ash: from men. And they were moved from men: flatterers, with God not rebuking them, to those things which had been promised to them, losing their primacy. The land from which bread came forth, it is to be understood: I mean those same men who were moved, from whom, as from the land, the bread of the Lord came forth. And he will burn it: the unfaithful one, by the heavenly judgment of the Lord. The place of sapphire, its stones. The order: the place of sapphire, that is, precious and necessary for the building of the heavenly city. And its embankments are gold: its gold is not small, but embankments. The path which the bird did not know: the humility of the Lord. Nor did the eye of the vulture see it: of the devil. The lion did not pass over it: through pride in strength. On the hardest stone he stretches out his hand: for God is able to raise up sons of Abraham from stones. And he broke up the banks of the rivers: so that everything might be irrigated. For he called the rivers the preachers of the word. They indeed wished to be contained within their banks, so that they might preach entirely to circumcision. But every precious thing my eye saw: the human eye, through the Word made flesh. He revealed the heights of the rivers: the virtues of enduring persecutions in martyrdom are hidden and deep in man, until they are revealed by the trial of persecution. And he showed his power in the light, in those to whom he said: "You are the light of the world.

through whom also a not small part of the Jews was converted. The abyss said: it is not in me; therefore men placed in the abyss were unable to find it, because it is not in it. Gilded silver will not be given for it: that is, a treasure. It will not be inferior to gold of Ophir: as if to say: seek it even thus, since it is not inferior to gold of Ophir. Gold and glass will not be equal to it: either some beautiful glass is to be understood, or because there are men who love glass more than wisdom. And its exchange, golden vessels: "are not," is understood. And "excelsa and gabis" will not be in memory: they will be forgotten in comparison with it; or "excelsa and gabis" as if certain proud things are not in memory, so that you may draw wisdom from hidden things through humility. Whence was wisdom found? It says, because man could not find it except through grace, therefore the heart must be turned to God. It is hidden from the eyes of every man: because it is not in insensate things. Destruction and death said: the destroyed and the dead, while they live in pleasures. The Lord commended his way: humility, which is hidden from the birds of the sky. And he himself knows its place: the place of wisdom, who is it but the Father? For when it is said: I in him and he in me, they are places for each other in turn. For he himself sees everything that is under the sky: he knows it in this way, by which he made it, and not sensibly. The balances and measures of the winds: the whole creation is signified by a part.

And well did he say that all things were made by weight, measure, and number, in which the creator is understood. When he made, as he saw, he enumerated: he did not see outside himself in order to make, but within himself, like an artisan. And the way of storms with voices: storms is put for temptations; temptations, however, for those who are tempted, just as voices of shipwreck would be said for voices of shipwrecked persons. Then he saw it and set it forth: in predestination the Lord saw the way, whither the tempted would turn themselves. He prepared and investigated: in predestination, not in action. Who will restore me to the months of former days? These words seem to be spoken in the person of the Church together with the head, Christ, as if the whole man himself speaks in a time of abundance of tribulations and temptations, as in those days of which the Lord says: days will come when you will long to see one of those days, and you will not see them. For at that time, when the Lord was on earth, there was no anxiety, although there was still a small Christian people, which consisted of those who had believed in him, among whom were more than five hundred brothers, whom he also deigned to appear to after the resurrection, as the apostle says. There was then no anxiety, lest the Church be badly governed by evil men or be torn apart by the snares of heresies or schisms. For it did not even suffer bodily persecutions; it endured no adversities either within or without.

Thus Job speaks on behalf of the man, that is, of the people belonging to the New Testament, longing for those days, as the Lord had foretold. And perhaps for this reason he called them months, not years, because from the time the Lord chose the disciples until the Passion, it was not years but months. When his lamp shone over my head: either the Lord’s flesh visibly present, or the word from the mouth of one present in the flesh. When the Lord’s word looked upon my house: for the diligence of guarding one’s conduct. And my children around me: those who humbly served, ministering necessities. When butter rained along my ways: through my habits, the exultation of faith and good works. When my mountains abounded with milk: the prophets were well expounded to the little ones. When I went out early in the morning into the city: either when clarity had already dawned, the darkness of fear having passed, or in the early days of the Church, so that I was neither too hidden nor too manifest. And a seat was set for me in the squares: authority to teach was conferred upon me by the crowds. When young men saw me, they hid themselves: those given over to lusts. But old men rose up: the prudent. And the powerful ceased to speak: those taking pride in their own teachings. Because the ear heard and blessed me: a people I did not know served me, obeyed me in the hearing of the ear. And the eye that saw me turned away: that of the unbelieving Jews. And the mouth of a widow blessed me: of that soul which renounced marriage with the devil.

Behold, the only son of his mother, who was a widow, was being carried dead. And I was clothed with judgment as with a cloak: in preferring spiritual things to carnal ones, let your left hand not know what your right hand does, that is, with what intention it works; for the left hand is covered, the right hand is exposed in the wearing of the cloak: which he does who rightly judges to what end what he does is to be referred. I sought the judgment which I did not know: behold, we have left everything and followed you; what will there be for us? He says that it was part of his happiness that he had someone from whom to ask about the future judgment. I broke the jaws of the wicked: so that they would no longer devour the people from the food of bread. My age will grow old and) like a palm tree I will live for a long time: it will be prolonged, and I will be like a palm tree in everlasting honor and height and uprightness. And dew will linger in my harvest: from which the field is sown and germinates, it is called harvest. My glory is new with me, that is: of the New Testament. And my bow will go in my hand: I will do what I command. And they did not add to my word: it signifies the perfection of the Gospel; for the speech given to the synagogue needed addition. But they rejoiced when I spoke to them: because the earlier speech had fear, the following one had charity. But even if I laughed at them, they did not believe: concerning these things which he spoke in parables in such a way that he was not understood, yet he would not be thought to speak vain things as the words seemed to sound.

Here is the laughter of Sarah, which signified that they had done everything in prophecy: whence those who speak figuratively. I chose their way and sat as prince: either by taking on mortality or by consorting with publicans and sinners, but in such a way that I was a prince to them for salvation. And I dwelt like a king girded with strong men: those who, having left their own people, followed him. As though consoling the sad: he speaks of those who rejoiced in hope, though they were sad about the present life; blessed are the mourners, as it is said, and: as though sad, but always rejoicing: those who cannot hold that greatness of which it is said: but he who has done and so taught, will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. But now the lowly mock me, now those lesser in time admonish me: because such men were also born later in the church and do not make much progress. He said "they admonish me" because through ecclesiastical offices they receive the power of preaching to the people, which they themselves do not do—those whose parents I despised: he said "their parents," by whose imitation the sons are what they are, to whom it was then said: woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. And the power of their hands was as nothing to me: the power of the parents, who at that time were so very powerful that they crucified the Lord. In them every life perished: because they did not correct themselves even at the end. Unstable from want and hunger: insatiable from various desires.

Those who fled into the desert yesterday: betaking themselves to the excuse of the law, which they did not understand simply; and because they had received in the desert those fleeing into the desert yesterday. For just as today pertains to the New Testament, so yesterday pertains to the Old; for concerning the New it was said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts," and: "You are my son, I have begotten you today." Those who gnawed the bark of trees: because they held the figures of the law, by which useful things were concealed, as their food. Those whose food was the root of herbs: the sacraments which they were commanded to celebrate corporeally, as things clinging to the earth; from which, nevertheless, the fruit of simple understanding would arise and be borne above the earth into freedom, which they could not attain. Dishonored and cast down and lacking every good: having lost the honor of primacy, from the hope of the promise; because they had lost even that earthly gift according to their merits and do not hold the kingdom of heaven. Those who ate the roots of trees because of great hunger: what was said concerning the roots of herbs on account of the fruit of grain, this is to be understood concerning the roots of trees on account of the fruit of wine and oil. For the Church received all these spiritual fruits, whose roots entangled in the earth were the sacraments which the Jews were compelled to observe corporeally: the Sabbath, circumcision, and sacrifices, and other things of this kind of spiritual foods.

Thieves rose up against me: those who attained to undeserved honors, which belong to the righteous, through dark deceptions. Whose houses were caves of rocks: who defended and concealed their own lusts with certain obscurities of the divine books. And they shouted among the trees: their sins were manifest, although they tried to cover them with the obscurity of the scriptures as with the shade of trees. Hence this: the shout of the Sodomites came up to me. And in very many places scripture uses "shout" for manifest sins: so that whatever is conceived in the heart is a word, but a shout, when it proceeds into deed. Who remained under the roots of the earth: they can be understood to remain not even at the roots, but even below the roots, who keep the precepts carnally. For roots are not the fruits themselves, but the parts from which the fruit-bearing parts of trees or herbs arise; if indeed it is a fruit-bearing kind, because roots are also spoken of in the case of a non-fruit-bearing kind. The sons of fools and ignoble men: of the Jews; for he called their parents above on account of imitation, because these also walk under the name of God, whom they do not worship. But he calls the Jews fools and ignoble, who on the contrary not only trusted that they were leaders of the blind, but also that they were sons of Abraham, by which father they boasted themselves noble.

But when they hear: "The blind are leaders of the blind," the foolish are exposed; and when they hear: "If you are sons of Abraham, do the works of Abraham," they are shown to be ignoble by degenerating. The name and honor were extinguished from the earth: it existed, but it has been extinguished. Now, however, I am their cithara: of those whose fathers they are, who had me at their ear, not at their heart. And they have me as a fable: an empty and useless narrative and hearing, although they both tell of me and hear me. They have abhorred me, departing far off: having become far from righteousness by sinning and execrating the precepts of righteousness with evil habits. Nor did they spare to spit in my face: for the face of Christ is execrable to those who shudder at his precepts with contempt, or: they made me ill-reputed by the depravity of their own morals. For opening his quiver, he afflicted me: the secrets of things, whence temptations arise. And they put a bridle on my face: so that I unwillingly consented to them, carrying them as they led wherever they wished to their depths. And from the right they rose up sprouting: and by favoring and by well-warning they indeed arose, so as to fulfill their own desires, not by persecuting. They bound my feet with fetters: of ecclesiastical offices, so that they could not flee them. My paths were worn away: so that they did not appear, the paths by which the good usually walk, not seeking their own, but Christ's. For he stripped me of my stole: of my former authority, to which deference is usually given; this happens when the multitude and custom of sinners prevails.

And with his javelins he wounded me: with precepts, by which I see evils, and because I cannot restrain them, I am tormented. He abused me as he wished: even my calamity and misery God used for his justice, as he wished. I am wrapped in sorrows: I suffer both in myself and in others; battles without, fears within. Who is weak, and am I not weak? And my sorrows are renewed; my hope departs like a breath: as if turning to something empty, having what I promise from temporal hopes. And my salvation passed like a cloud: not hoping for promised salvation because of love for present salvation. And now my soul will be poured out over me: by sinning. But by night my bones were broken: he said the firmness he had was taken from him. And my sinews were dissolved: past actions. With great strength he seized my robe: to demonstrate his power, now by afflicting and later by restoring. And he surrounded me like the hem of my garment: he left me little authority. My portion is in earth and ashes: in penance. Because it is the last. They stood and looked at me: and while I lay prostrate, the proud stood, seeking what to reproach in me. And you cast me away from salvation: he grieves for those who have lost hope of restoration. For the house is of every death such earth: therefore he says he fears death, because his life is not in heaven, according to the many who are evil in the church and live earthly lives. And would that I could kill myself: that I might die to the world.

I would ask another, and he would do this to me: either a better angel or God through whom I might be corrected. I was expecting good things: he grieves because these things suddenly happened to him. My belly boiled and will not be silent: the inner parts or the memory by which he recalls what he was at first and how he was afflicted in groans. And I stood in the assembly crying out: because she was not heard in the crowd of those who refused to correct themselves. My skin became very dark: from the things she suffered externally. My lyre was turned to mourning: the good works by which she praised God rejoicing. I made a testament with my eyes: did I begin to hope for visible things? That I not think about the virgin: let "far be it" be understood. From here he already begins to recount the merits of the church in those who persevere to the end in great temptations, with iniquity abounding and the charity of many growing cold. And I will not think about the virgin: the incorruption of wisdom or justice. And what is the other part of God from above? It is understood: I will not think. Or thus: and what is it if not that? If I walked with mockers: it is difficult for the good who are in the church not to associate with such people. Or if my foot hastened to deceit: hypocrisy. I will sow late and others will eat my fruits: as happened to the Jews, that is, to say things which others do more than they themselves. Let me be without root upon the earth: so that I may easily wither. For he is firm in the earth as on a rock who does what he says.

if my heart followed a woman: so that he might seek his own glory among the people of God rather than God’s, to whom alone it is rightfully owed. Or if I besieged her doors: I insidiously sought after the desires or fears of her people, by which they might be driven, so that they would serve me rather than God. Let my wife also please another: my reputation to the devil, to whom when we please, we displease God; for he rejoices in our evils. And let my sons be humbled: made or imitators of me. For the untamed fury of my soul is to defile another man’s wife: by claiming her for myself. And if I also scorned the judgment of my servant or maidservant, when they were being judged before me: according to what is said: “Therefore, if you have held secular judgments.” But he said “servants” for laymen still devoted to secular affairs. And if also visitation, what answer shall I give? In tribulation, what conscience do I have, because I scorned these things? Was I not conceived in the womb just as they were? The same things are preached in all the sacraments, the same things are believed. And we were similarly in the womb. For he does not renounce differently than he who will fully serve God. And from my mother’s womb I was their leader: for from its beginning the Church works this way. Or if I scorned a naked perishing person and did not cover him: if I did not, by faith in the remission of sins, as if covering one who had no tunic, veil from the nakedness of foulness, that is sin, the perishing person; for he already despairs because of the multitude of sins. And hence it is: and whose sins are covered.

of the weak, if my shoulders did not bless me: covered from above, as if by a cloak, with the hope of immortality. But lest after the faith of the remission of their sins they should think it enough to be free from the fear of past punishments and begin to hope for temporal things, he well added: they were warmed by the shearing of my sheep, because they were vindicated from the cold of their tenuous hope by the consideration that, if they renounced carnal things, they followed the example of a shorn flock. If I raised my hand over an orphan: who, not finding a father, could follow a creature or a man. Trusting, because I have much assistance: wishing to dominate them. Let my shoulder depart from my neck: which happens to those who separate themselves from the church, while they wish to dominate peoples, so that they suffer a cutting off of the cutting off. By shoulder or arm, actions are signified. For fear restrained me: lest I raise my hand over an orphan. And I will not bear its weight: if I should wish to oppress the orphan. I placed gold as my strength: did I presume upon the teaching or wisdom of God? And if I also trusted in a precious stone: as if from my works. If I also rejoiced when I had much wealth: as if from my own, so that whoever glories, glories in the Lord. If I also placed my soul in countless things—at all these, the following is to be understood: let my arm depart from my shoulder—: that I was loved by many. And my heart was secretly deceived.

If I placed my soul among countless things, and my secret heart was deceived: if I consented to such a thought, so as to presume upon myself. And if I also kissed my hand, placing it to my mouth: I rejoiced as if over my own works. And if I also rejoiced over the ruin of my enemy: of the Church, as are the persecutors of the Church. Let my ear hear my curse: let it be brought to my awareness. Let me be a reproach, defamed among my own people: among the people of the saints, so that I may be separated as one mocked. And if my maidservants often said: flatterers. Who will give that we may be sated with his flesh? When I was good enough: so that they might imitate carnal felicity in me. Yet I did not do these things; for lest they say these things, I did not present myself as good in such matters. The guest did not remain outside: I received the stranger in the world. And if I sinned voluntarily—I hid my sin: for we sin voluntarily, after we have received knowledge of the truth. Or if I sent a weak man away from my door with an empty bosom: so that he left the door for that reason, because his bosom was empty. Who will grant me a listener? Who will provide that I be heard? If I did not fear the hand of the Lord, by which he wrote: If you do not release, your father will not release you. Whatever bond I have.

If I have any written commission, and if I did not tear it up over my shoulders, and crowned, publicly read it, lifting it over my shoulders: and crowned, publicly read it, that is, I set you before your own face against my face, because I am confounded by the crown of the people, because I did not do the commandment of the Lord, which I had already said I did, by first denying that I had the commission which is later charged against me. If the earth ever groaned over me: the stipendiaries of the church, because I am evil. Or its furrows wept together: where seeds are received and from which fruits are given; because I am both evil and I was sowing evil seeds, therefore together. Or if I ate its virtue alone without payment: that very mercy by which the one being catechized participates with the one catechizing; this is 'alone,' not repaying the one who would give. Or if I, deceiving the soul of the lord of the earth, saddened it: not showing myself worthy of his passion who poured out his soul for me. Do not sadden the Holy Spirit in you. Let nettle sprout for me instead of wheat: for spiritual teachers, masters of those itching in hearing through the rubbings of men corrupted in mind and abandoned by truth. And thorn instead of barley: for carnal obedient ones, sinners and resisters. For Job was just in his own sight: in his conscience.

The words of Eliu the Buzite. God cast him down, and not a man: so that I may state this reason, why they were silent. And I will not answer him with your words: for I will say such things that he cannot answer me as he answers you. Because therefore I waited and they did not speak: as if turning to Job he says. My belly is like a wineskin full of must: scripture commends this man, because he is about to speak in prophecy. And like a burst bellows of a bronze-worker: I speak with force to break hardness; hence he is also said to be angry. For there would be no need for me to speak, if you had answered him. Otherwise even moths will eat me: either like you or like all who admire persons. My heart is pure in words: not double. The divine spirit who made me: understand "is", so that it is: the divine spirit is who made me. How then do you say: I am just, and he has not heard me? as if Job said this to an adversary. For the Lord speaks once: as if the Lord made the calling of all the just once, and temporally divine providence acts concerning each individually. Through a dream or in a nightly visitation: either in ignorance or in tribulation. Or as fierce fear falls upon men when they sleep in chambers: secure. And his body from ruin he rescues: metaphorically like bones. And he spared his soul from death: when he has converted him, he will spare him. Because war is coming and he will again reprove him in infirmity in his bed: after conversion he already tests him, lest he presume concerning himself.

and the multitude of his bones withered: confidence in himself. and he will not be able to take any food: consolation from temporal things. and he will renew his body like a painting on a wall: a change of life: and here it is transferred on account of the building, that is, into fellowship. and he will soften his flesh like that of little children: that he not be harsh with pride, according to what Eliu sees, Job is tempted, humble through renewal. and he entered with a cheerful face and with profession: prepared for temptations. save my soul, that I may not come into corruption: here the temptation of death. three times with the man: of conversion, of testing, of death. but he will snatch my soul from death: because this death still remains. so that my soul may praise him in the light: therefore prayers will now cease, because there will be no need. And Eliu answered and said. how is it said: and he added. and you who have knowledge, perceive with your ears: spiritual things. because the ear tests words: this carnal ear. what is good, because Job said: I am just? what good did he say because he said it? and in my judgment he lied. from this: I was expecting good things: therefore beyond expectation, which is that he lied. who is a man like Job? these are still the words of Job; for he said: he who has walked with God will not be visited: here he thinks him deceived, because hoping for this he did all those things; or certainly: that he does not think that he who has walked with the Lord is visited for good.

Let it be far from the Lord that he should be impious: either that he does not visit in goodness one who has walked with him, or that, even if he visits in temptation, he acts impiously and unjustly. Impious is he who says to a king: you act unjustly. But you ought not to say that, you who are not impious. It is well said by one who says it, not by one who has said it, lest even on this account he be that. As it is said: it has happened, he who does this. Most impiously to the princes. As though he were saying to angels: unless Michael your prince, you act most impiously, or: if it is said so impiously to princes, how much more to a king! For they have abused unjustly when the weak were excluded: they have made bad use of their exclusion, when on account of weakness they were excluded from that vision by which all things are seen to be most divinely ordered and administered. But in this they have made bad use, because they preferred to follow their own spirit, that God does not care about these things; for from this it will come to them vainly, that in their necessities they cry out and beseech a man, when they ought to have besought God. And there will be no place, and there is no shadow of death, for those who do iniquitous things to hide. The shadow of death is not for hiding, as it is: old men do not have wisdom, because old age is not the cause of wisdom, and: do not greet a heretic. Not because he is a heretic. And he will overturn the night, and they will be humbled: so that what was beneath them may be above them, that is: what was subject to them may press upon them. And he extinguished the impious: they seemed to themselves to shine.

and they did not know his justices: it says what good God has done from their iniquity, so that the cry of the poor may be brought to him. He will give rest, and who will be able to condemn? Not the kind that men seek, which is disturbed by those tribulations; if God justifies, who is there to condemn? And against the nation and against the man at the same time: against Gentiles and Jews. Who makes a hypocritical man reign because of the perversity of the people. To whom it is said: You who teach another, do you not teach yourself? Without me I will see; you show me: do I not see that in reproaching you I myself am perhaps to be reproached? It is to be pronounced interrogatively. If I have done iniquity, I will not add to it: corrected by you. Does he demand it from you because you have repudiated? Because you have reproached. And a wise man will hear my word: that God takes care of everything. But Job did not speak in wisdom: thinking that something had happened to him unjustly by divine means.

Why did you think this in judgment? Why did you judge this? Who are you, who said: I am just before the face of the Lord? Before the face of the Lord you said: I am just. For both are reprehensible in a man: one, if it is said either arrogantly or falsely that he is just even according to human justice; the other, however, because it can never truly be said by a man that he is just before the face of God, in comparison with whom anyone is unjust. Or do you say: What good is it to you, or what shall I do, if I have sinned? For this seems to Job to have said to God, as if either his sin profits God, so that by this pain he is compelled to piety. Where he says: Do not teach me to be impious: is it good for you if I act unjustly? Or does sin harm God, and does God therefore pursue him like an enemy pressing him, lest he suffer any evil from him? For he had also said this: If I have sinned, what can I do to you? To both, therefore, Elihu responded with the following words: I will give you an answer and to my three friends. Look to the sky and see; look at the clouds, how high they are from you. If you have sinned, what are you doing? He confirms what was said by him: If I have sinned, what can I do to you? Or if you have done many unjust things, what will you be able to do? "Many unjust things you have done" is more than what he said above, "you have sinned." But yet, what will you be able to do to God, when you cannot even harm the clouds? And if you are just, what will you give to him?

On the contrary: just as your righteousness is of no benefit to him, so your unrighteousness does him no harm. Or what will he receive from your hand, even if you wish to give? This is on account of the sacrifices, which fools think God takes as though he were in need of them. Your impiety harms a man like yourself, and your righteousness benefits a son of man: either that harms or this benefits. But with these verses he confirmed rather than refuted the opinion that Job expressed: "If I have sinned, what can I do to you?" Consequently, it is necessary that he show why in this life men are afflicted by the injuries of the wicked, among whom even the devil with his angels is counted, the prince of all injuries and iniquities. For since sinners cannot harm God, why does he hand them over to be afflicted by the wicked, under their power? And he explains further, saying: "From the multitude they will cry out, they will shout from the arm of many." And he did not say: "Where is the God who made me?" For they suffer these things for this purpose: that they may seek God, not that they may shout in vain. And what he says, "who made me," serves as a proof, because he will not abandon one who seeks him, whom he himself made. "Who distributes the night watches": the times of this age are ordered under certain powers, because even in this night of error he will not leave a man without a guard, the one who made him.

who separated me from the quadrupeds of the earth and from the birds of the sky made me wiser: for thus the Lord is to be sought in the afflictions of this life, so that we do not desire earthly goods from him, because we are already better than the beasts before we receive them. There they will cry out; and you will not hear. There he said "in the multitude, in the affliction of those crying out from the arm of many: or certainly there* on account of this, as it is: there fell those who work iniquity. and you will not hear what he said, he said concerning him. from the injuries of the wicked: "they will cry out" is to be understood. For the Lord does not wish to see vain things: he does not wish to come to the aid of those who vainly ask and who do not cry out in affliction in order to receive eternal goods, since for that reason they have been separated from the quadrupeds of the earth and made wiser than the birds of the sky; but they cry out because they are not happy in the iniquity of this age. For the Almighty himself sees those who do justice and he will save me: just as he himself sees those who act, he who perceives the innermost heart, so he saves with that salvation which he himself sees in secret, because neither eye has seen nor ear heard nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him. Therefore even if the vain salvation of man is disturbed, yet the father, who sees in secret, gives help from tribulation. Judge him therefore, if you can praise him as he is; for this is what Job seems to say when he says: would that there were an arbiter for us!

and now because he is not visiting his wrath nor has he known the offenses vehemently: he has known them for vengeance. Whence it is: "For I know my iniquity"; and in the same place: "Turn your face away from my sins." Therefore he has known the offenses; for men suffer tribulation in this age for that reason, but not vehemently, because, correcting in parts, you give place to penance. And Job vainly opened his mouth; in his ignorance he multiplies words. Bear with me a little, so that I may teach; for the words are still in me. Receiving my knowledge from afar: for as long as we are in this body, we are pilgrims from the Lord. But by my works, which are just, I will speak. Lest it be said to him, what God says to the sinner: "Why do you recount my justices and take up my testament through your mouth? But you have hated discipline." Therefore here one must speak by works; for knowledge is received from afar in part and in enigma. But when what is perfect has come, what is partial will be taken away and will no longer be from afar, because we will see him as he is. In truth and not unjustly you will understand words unjustly: Job himself says that the words he was suffering are God's words in truth and not unjust; but he thinks they are unjustly understood by this man, who supposes that he complains of suffering undeservedly, when it has also been said concerning the tribulation of the just: "It is time for judgment to begin from the house of the Lord.

Know that the Lord will not cast aside the innocent, although he chastises whom he loves and scourges every son he receives. The strong in strength of heart does not give life to the impious, although he may seem to spare them for a time. And rightly: "strong in strength of heart," because he will not give life to him then, when he seeks a place for late repentance with tears, and will not find it, nor will he bend to mercy the one who judges strongly, whom he now, mercifully admonishing, despises. And he will give judgment of the poor: by which he judges those from whom they suffer iniquity. And rightly: "of the poor," so that you understand the impious rich man above, that is, the proud man. He will not take away his eyes from the just: even when he tests him as if in a furnace by the temptation of tribulation, he will not take away from him the understanding by which God is known and worshipped. From this he sufficiently shows that the punishment of the impious is blindness itself, even when they seem to be spared. And with kings on the throne: "he made them sit" is understood, that is, the just; but he calls "kings" those who rule their own flesh. Whence is that: "Who is the king who goes to wage war with another king," etc. And he made them sit forever, and they will be exalted: and here "with kings on the throne" is understood from what was said above. He said "they will be exalted" because they have been humbled. And those who are shackled with shackles: from which bond the apostle says it is good for him to be loosed and to be with Christ, that is, the restraints of this life, in which the body that is corrupted weighs down the soul.

They will be caught in the ropes of poverty: they will be convicted by the long-standing habits of carnal pleasures, which arise from the lack of things by which mortal life is sustained and conducted. And their works are announced to them: certainly not good works, whether those very works of concupiscence, concerning which it is said: "I know that good does not dwell in my flesh." These, even if they do not reign in our mortal body to be obeyed by them, are nevertheless not absent; or those works by which a man deserved to come to these things through the transmission of sin. And the offenses, when they have been strengthened: these are the works which he mentioned above. For they cannot easily be announced, that is, made manifest, to the weak, but to those who have already progressed so far that they have passed beyond all that iniquity which is commonly known in the most open shameful and criminal deeds. But he will hear the just man: that is, the one who lives from faith, so that he attributes to the grace of God, not to his own merits, not only that he has been justified according to the manner of this life, but also what remains, that he be freed from the whole evil of offenses: which truth announces to the faithful, when they have been strengthened, when they will be caught in the ropes of poverty; for they are still shackled with fetters, not yet raised up to sit on the throne with kings forever. And he said, that they will turn away from iniquity. "And he said" is to be understood as "God said.

If they obey and serve, they will complete their days in goods and their years in glory: then indeed there will be no sin in man, because there will be no contention of death, that is, the neediness of mortality, which came from sin, when it will already be said: where is your contention, death? But it will not save the impious, because they were unwilling to know the Lord: this seems to pertain more to the Gentiles. And when they were warned, they were disobedient: this pertains to the Jews and to all who are like them through disobedience, even in the Church. And the hypocrites will place fury in their heart: with which they crucified the Lord. They will not cry out, because he has bound them: with the honor of the name above all nations. Therefore let their soul die in youth: in the pride with which they exalted themselves as if on account of the merits of their own works. And let their life be wounded by angels: it is more suitably taken as by the messengers of truth, of whom some have the odor of life unto life, others the odor of death unto death. Because they troubled the weak and the infirm: that weak one of God, who is stronger than men. But the judgment of the meek will establish: the Lord himself, by the example of his own meekness, deferring even the vengeance of those who imitate him, but yet certain to come. And because the abyss deceived you from the mouth of the enemy: the abyss, as it seemed to his persecutors, the depth of this age deceived Christ from the mouth of a false witness; for he turns the speech to the Lord himself.

They are poured out beneath them: it is to be understood that "the weapons deceived them," for those weighed down by earthly desires are said to be poured out beneath the abyss. And your table descends, full of richness: the sacrament of his body and blood, the bread that came down from heaven. Judgment will not fail the just: although the poor eat and are sated in imitation of the Lord's passions, prepared from the fullness of charity, yet their judgment is not for that reason slow. And wrath will be upon the impious because of the impiety of the gifts which they received through iniquities: by "all gifts" he means whatever temporal advantages, on account of which iniquities are committed. Let not the will of the animal turn you away: this is said to the Lord, not by the authority of one who warns or the boldness of one who commands, but by a prophetic utterance that predicts the future through the imperative mood, as in: "Gird your sword upon your thigh, O most mighty one." From the prayers of the weak, when they are in need, crying out: "Wretched man that I am, who will free me from this body of death?" And all who have strength: those who presume upon their own works and wish to establish their own righteousness. Do not draw them out by night: let it be clear that you separate them from the people, whether those proud ones who are broken off from the olive tree or the shoots cut from the vine, from which heresies and schisms have arisen. So that the peoples may ascend for them: so that the weak of this world may be grafted in, the strong being confounded, because he who humbles himself will be exalted, and he who exalts himself will be humbled.

But take care that you do nothing unseemly: lest the name of the Lord God and the teaching be blasphemed, while those whose judgment is just say, "Let us do evil so that good may come." For you have chosen this over poverty: not only have you chosen the poverty of the confessor, but above this the dignity of life and character, so that the saving doctrine may be adorned in all things. Behold, God will comfort, or: will be strengthened in his strength: because even if he was crucified from weakness, yet he lives from the power of God. For who is like him, the mighty one? Or who is there who can examine his works? As if judging him, when he himself is the judge of the living and the dead. Or who is there who says, "He acted unjustly"? Remember that his works are great, which men have praised: the evangelists and all preachers of the word, whose lives conform to their ministry. Every man looks to him: mindful of human weakness. Whatever men are pricked in conscience: men are the repentance of sinners. Behold, God is manifold, and we will not know: manifold, because just as sin abounded, grace abounded all the more; "we will not know," however, is said from the perspective of those on whose part a partial blindness occurred, until the fullness of the nations entered. The number of his years is infinite: it is stated on account of eternity. But to him, countless drops of rain: for this, which filled the human preachers of the gospel, is countable until the consummation of the age, until the knowledge which is partial is taken away, and what is perfect comes, face to face.

The rain will be poured out along its paths: for the ways of the wicked will not contain it. The clouds will flow and grow dark over very many men: because even if the Gospel is veiled, it is veiled among those who perish. He has appointed an hour for the beasts, and they know the order of their lair: because the ox has recognized its owner and the ass the manger of its master. In all these things his mind is not astonished: the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Nor is your heart changed from the body: so that, lifted from the earth, it may be held upward toward the Lord. If he has thought to extend a cloud: so that those who see become blind. He spreads it out equally as a tent: for dwelling in mortal flesh as in a tent, through it he was not recognized by his persecutors, while he yielded to them and extended and spread it out on the cross. Behold, he pours out his light over all things: which he had hidden when blindness was partly inflicted on Israel, he pours it out over all nations. And he covers the roots of the sea: he refutes the desire of the world. For light does not cover in order to hide, but to reveal. For in them he judged the peoples by showing them their sins through the light of truth. He will give food to very many: certainly to those who recognize, when they are rebuked, their own sins and who hunger and thirst for justice.

In his hands he covered the light: if from the meaning of "inmanes" [savage ones], for those who do not forgive men their sins, while they wish themselves to be forgiven by God; but if from the meaning of "manus" [hands], for those who, from their hands, that is, from their works, are puffed up, justifying themselves. For he said "covered the light" so that it would not be seen by them, because their foolish heart has been blinded. And he commanded concerning it in the contrary: so that those who do the truth, either by forgiving so that it may be forgiven them, or by confessing their evils so that they may be subjected to the grace of God, they themselves may come to the light, so that their works may be made manifest, because they have been wrought in God, not in themselves. For the merciful one is contrary to the savage one, and the humble one to the proud one. So that he might announce concerning that friend of his: concerning that light, that is, concerning that which he covered to hide it from the savage and ungrateful one, so that he might announce it, that is, open it, no longer to a servant under the law, but to one reconciled through grace; or to his friend, his imitator, because the Son of Man also did not come to be ministered to, but to minister. Possession against those who strive to ascend: so that they may possess the light itself, who draw themselves away from earthly things. For it is announced to those who are still striving to ascend, because when they have ascended, there will be no need of an announcer for those seeing face to face. But concerning the phrase "who strive to ascend," not as if opposing, but going to meet, as the apostle says: to meet Christ.

But also in this my heart was stunned: with admiration. And it was torn from its place: from earthly things, in which it took delight, so that it might be raised up to the Lord. Hear the sound of terror and of his voice: from this it appears that he speaks these things in the spirit; for he begins to say why his heart was torn from its place, namely by the authority of the gospel sounding terribly throughout the whole world: do penance; for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near. And they go out at the noise of his mouth: to those, of course, who are outside in the delights of visible things. Beneath the whole heaven it goes around, and its light is at the ends of the earth: while the church is spread through all nations. After him a voice will roar: after his first coming, the last trumpet of his second coming will thunder in glory. In the sound of his pride: he placed pride for loftiness, because the first coming was in humility. And it will not be able to be investigated, when his voice has been heard: now, therefore, let the Lord be sought, while he can be found, that is, grasped for salvation through faith not feigned; for then he will not be able, when he has come to judge and his voice has been heard saying: go into the eternal fire, because the repentance of the unbelievers will then be late and fruitless. The strong one will thunder in his voice wonderfully: because that voice of his first coming, of which it was said: what is weak of God is stronger than men, was not of his strength, but of our weakness from participation in mortality.

For he did great things which we did not know: these in the first coming; and therefore afterwards he is to come as judge to exact what he gave. Now "which we did not know" is said from the perspective of those to whom the Lord's divinity was hidden, as they looked upon the weakness of the flesh. Commanding the cloud: be over the earth: to his own flesh, that it may be received through the sacrament in his memory for the imitation of humility and the formation of charity. And the storm of rain and the storm of showers are of his power: for the cloud is indeed over the earth; but when it is pressed out to water hearts through the rain and showers of speech, which happens when the sacraments are understood, it is in his power, not in ours. In the hand of every man he signs: he signifies to him through his works how guilty he is, so that every man may know his own weakness and cry out: wretched man that I am, who will free me from this body of death? But the beasts entered under protection and rested in their lair: but sinners entered under the indulgence of grace and rested in their conscience, their sins having been remitted. From the storehouses a storm came: a temptation from the hidden order of things. And from the storehouses cold: from the secrets judgment upon those who do not persevere. So that their charity may grow cold from an abundance of iniquity; for it rightly happens to them, while they place their hope not in God, but in men.

And from the spirit of God will be given ice: not only will the abundance of the wicked grow cold for him, who place their hope in men, but also from the good works of those in whom the spirit of God dwells, some grow hard as if with the ice of envy, for whom Paul is the odor of death unto death. And who is fit for this, to understand that rightly and justly from the spirit of God will be given ice? For just as it happens to carnal men who praise others, that they grow cold from the iniquity of men by despairing, so it happens to carnal men who desire to be praised by men, that they grow hard from the justice of men by envying. But he governs the water as it pleases him: that it may rain upon one city and not rain upon another, which pertains to the spiritual rain according to the merits of souls that are subject or not subject. And the cloud watered the grain: let us therefore be grain, if we desire to be watered. It scattered the cloud of its light: the gospel of his incarnation. And it itself is turned in a circuit: it is handled throughout the whole world. In the rudders for doing all things that he has commanded them: the rudders, in which that cloud is turned in a circuit, are the preachers of the word, through whom the churches are governed for doing all the commands of God. These things have been established by him upon the earth: by our Lord Jesus Christ.

whether in the tribe or in its own land: whether in the tribe of Judah, from which according to the flesh he was born and suffered and rose again and ascended into heaven—for from this tribe the apostles were born, and many brothers were found nearby and saved—whether called by him before his passion or after his ascension through the apostles in Jerusalem itself and in the churches of Judea, which were in Christ, as the apostle Paul recalls: for the truth of God to confirm the promises of the fathers. or whether he wished it to be found in mercy: that cloud, namely, he wished to be found in mercy by the believing Gentiles; for this follows: but the Gentiles glorify God over mercy. Hear this with your ears, Job: as if renewing his intention about to speak of the calling of the Gentiles. Stand and stir up the power of the Lord: do not be moved in mind, attributing something to yourself. We know that God has placed his works: certainly rebuking those who boast of their works. when he made light from darkness: when he justified the impious; for you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord. He knows the difference of the clouds: of the evangelists, some believing before his passion, others after his passion. and the great falls of the wicked: not of those who slipped away crucifying him, so that they later repented and were baptized in him, but the falls of those who could not be corrected, persistently even afterwards persecuting the church; for these are not small, but great falls.

But your robe is strong: proud dignity; as if it is said about someone who dares to boast about his own works. When the land from the south is at rest, will you then establish the heavens with him, which are spread out equally for all to see? By "land from the south" we fittingly understand those who from the Jews believed in Christ. For just as the sun is more distant from the northern land but nearer to the southern, so those whom the apostle says were found near the light of the evangelists are not absurdly taken as the land from the south. And just as we are accustomed to take the heavens as the evangelists, as in: "The heavens declare the glory of God"—for it was said of them: "Their sound went out into every land and their words to the ends of the earth"—so we rightly take the lands as the peoples to whom the gospel was preached. And since the peoples who had believed from Judea, after they came to rest departing from this land—for they are not here now; nevertheless the authority of the evangelists was established in the churches that are from the Gentiles, but established by the mercy of God, no longer with the help of the authority of the churches of Judea, which believed in Christ—therefore the sense here is that it should be pronounced as a question: Will you, when the land from the south is at rest, that is, when no Christian people from the Jews any longer exists in this life, establish with him the evangelists and the books of divine scriptures, which by the mercy of God are spread out equally for all to see, not only for Jews but also for Gentiles?

For it commends the grace of God and mercy, lest anyone boast of merits, which was the pride of the Jews. Therefore teach me what we should say to him, and let us rest from saying many things: because there is nothing that they can say when convicted, that they have no merit by themselves, but need his mercy. Surely you are not standing by me as a copyist or scribe, so that I make a man be silent while standing? Why then do you not speak, if you have something to say? For you are not taking dictation from me as if you say nothing; but we are certainly conversing. But the visible light, which shines in the clouds, is not for everyone: he returns to what he was saying about the hope of remission of sins and the illumination of grace through the mercy of God; for light shines in the clouds. Yet it is not the property of the clouds themselves: for they are illuminated. For it is one thing that shines with its own light, another that shines when illuminated. But it is not visible to everyone; for many think that souls shine with their own light when they are wise. Hence those who, calling themselves wise, have become foolish. And the spirit passes and will cleanse them: here he spoke of the spirit, concerning which it is said: from the rebuke of the spirit of your wrath, and: from your spirit where shall I flee?

For through the corrections of temptations, men’s merit is shown to them, because they themselves are darkness by their own sins and need the glory of God, so that they may wish to be illuminated by His light, giving honor to Him, not to themselves, and thus, with pride laid aside, be cleansed from the great offense; for the Spirit of sanctification does not pass away, but remains. From the north, a cloud of golden color: from the most criminal impiety and far removed from God, yet they come converted and cleansed and illuminated by wisdom. Whence? Except through grace, by which merits are not regarded, but sins are forgiven. Whence he, when he wished to be forgiven, said, “Let me teach the wicked your ways, and the impious will turn to you,” like clouds from the east or north already of golden color, their darkness illuminated. In these things is great glory and honor of the Almighty: to whom the more is forgiven, the more he loves, because he who is omnipotent can also justify the impious. And we find no other like his virtue: for only he has not committed sin, nor is deceit found in his mouth; for only God is truthful, but every man is a liar: whence he conquered, when he was judged, God made man. He who judges justly, do you not think he will hear him? Therefore let not man, despairing of pardon, add sins to sins; as though already condemned, because he is certain of the justice of God, under which he cannot be unpunished. For God judges justly in such a way that he also hears those who beg for pardon. And all the more so, the more justly he judges.