Selecta in Job

Origen's Selections on Job. Chapter 1. The horsemen made three heads for us and surrounded the camels. Now he has made the camels to be under the horsemen; the donkeys and the yokes of oxen under the captors; but he hated the sheep; for this reason he brought fire down upon them; and he also plotted against the sons, and sought an opportunity to destroy them. If he had found them reading, he would not have touched the house, nor would he have had a place to kill them; if he had found them praying, he could have done nothing against them; but when he found a favorable moment, he prevailed. What was the moment? It was drunkenness, it was a banquet. As for the spirit touching the corners, note that in the broad spaces of the corners the hypocrites stand and pray; and everyone who has not set foot on a straight path makes use of the corners; a broad corner is great and unrestrained wickedness. Chapter 19. How long will you make my soul weary? Just as heavy bodies placed upon the bodies of animals cause those carrying them to labor, so there are some heavy words, which when one hears, he labors as if oppressed by the weight of the power of the words, those spoken reproachfully and harshly, or for insults; as now, with the words spoken by Baldad, Job, as if perceiving a heavy burden, weary in soul, says: "How long will you make my soul weary?" and, as if a heavy burden, will you weigh down your words against me? Do you see that the words of the Sauchean tyrant are tyrannical, which Job, having heard, speaks the words at hand? For nothing else so pierces a man's soul as a harsh word.

For often a person endures tortures applied to the body, but does not endure words. Yet the perfect athlete, even if weary, endures harsh words; for to endure insult is the mark of a great man. Therefore, in his own deeds of valor, the Apostle says: "When reviled, we bless; when slandered, we console." And now it is Job, the most noble of athletes, who says these things; his book contains nothing else especially but his courage and his endurance. Yet he is aware of the labors he has endured from the harsh speech of those who came to visit him. And since the weight of speech, like a burden placed upon the soul, causes it to grow weary, for this reason he says: "Why, O friends, do you add to the pains of the body the distress of the soul, stinging more with words than sufferings do the body? You slander me." Often one slanders while doing evil; but when he becomes shameless, he speaks to that person's face, not refuting nor speaking the truth, but reproaching and insulting. "I will cry out, and nowhere is the judgment." Now if I cry out, my judgment does not come anywhere; I am still contending. It is as if he said: Like an athlete in the stadium, I have cried out, and my judgment does not arise anywhere; for I am still wrestling. If I do not complete the wrestling match, the judgment of the crown does not come. And we say these things so that we may not accuse God, that Job suffers so much, and nowhere is the judgment, that is, the decision of freedom and release from evils.

Chapter 20. If his gifts ascend to heaven. And the heretic, when he prays, when his sacrifice ascends in high-sounding speech, when he seems to be established, then he will be utterly destroyed; for his prayer is reckoned to him as sin. But we, the churchmen who know his errors, will say, Where are those who dream and fabricate errors for themselves? They do not rest their mind on the truth, but are deceived; and they become like a dream that has been scattered, which cannot be found. Something like this David also sings: "The enemies of the Lord have perished. When they were glorified and exalted, they perished like smoke;" and again: "Like a dream of those who awaken." Wealth unjustly gathered will be vomited out. I know also another wealth unjustly gathered, that in the words of the heretics, who have teachings contrary to the doctrines of truth, their own belly-born things; which are not sweet, but "the gall of an asp," that is, evil; as it is said in Deuteronomy in the Song of Moses concerning the wine of their teaching: "For their vine is from the vine of Sodom." But the good God will not allow them to keep wealth unjustly gathered always within themselves, but will make them vomit it out. For an angel, by the beneficence of God, will draw them out from that house built evilly; which is the church of the wicked. He then adds: "From his house," and so forth.

See how great a penalty is laid up for the heterodox on account of their impious doctrines. Therefore let us be on guard against ourselves, lest we ever be plundered by plausible arguments from heretical teaching and fall away from the mystery of the Church. Let him not see the milking of the nomads. And the heterodox does not see the milking of the nomads. Nomads are souls pastured by the good shepherd and finding pasture. And the doctrines according to God have nothing sweet, but are harsh and dense. For he has broken the houses of many helpless ones. And the heterodox, if he finds you somewhere weak in faith, weak in sound teaching, he plunders this one. And it is truly possible to say concerning the teacher of the heterodox that he has broken the houses of many helpless ones; he seizes the livelihood of the easily deceived, and after this he does not establish it; for falsehood cannot stand. Let a day of wrath come upon him. On which divine justice is moved against him—whether of the one from the circumcision who has been impious toward God, or of the heterodox, or of any impious person whatsoever—his portion is that indicated in the preceding words.

Chapter 21. Why the impious live, and have grown old in wealth. The phrase "they have grown old in wealth" is said instead of, they are not newly rich, but from youth until old age they have continued to be wealthy. Taking up a psalterion and a kithara. Another kind of prosperity of the fathers, the delight of the children, which is fulfilled by auloi and kitharai and tympana, by which the ears are enchanted, the pleasures of the soul are aroused, and those present are bewitched by the licentious melody; which the children of the impious practice wantonly, placing their hands on the taut strings and beating time to the sound of the instruments. They completed their life in good things. That is, no interruption of their good fortune occurred to them, but they continued to revel in bodily goods throughout their entire life; and the end of their life became for them the end of their happiness, their prosperity having been extended until death. And they fell asleep in the repose of Hades. Instead of, being at rest and cheerful until death, they go down to Hades unpunished. Or, that death itself is not bitter for them; but as if sleeping, so they die. Or, that others suffer and are wretched in life, but when dead they rest; but these, about whom the account is, having passed their entire life in cheerfulness, thus came to the rest in death.

Chapter 22. Is it not the Lord who teaches? This doctrine is sound, that a true teacher of virtue cannot be a human; for the one who teaches a human knowledge is also recorded in the Psalms that it is none other than God. God teaches by shining upon the soul of the learner under him, and illuminating the mind with the true light, which is his own word. Therefore, even if righteous men teach us, having received a teaching grace, again it is the Lord who teaches us through them; and the very act of understanding and having our hearts opened to receive divine lessons occurs according to divine grace. Or will he, making a case, refute you? To this we would say that God, not concerned that he himself might be harmed in any way, refutes the impious; but he makes a case for the one he provides for and benefits. You were taking pledges from your brothers in vain. He supposes this about Job from the fact that he knew him to be rich, and suspected that he was wealthy from such sources; therefore he says, "You were taking pledges in vain," that is, for nothing owed. And intensifying further, he mentions another of his sins. And you took away the clothing of the naked. It is possible sometimes to take garments, not from a naked person, but from a rich one who has many clothes stored away. If, however, someone has one tunic, and I take away that tunic on the pretext of demanding what is mine, without pitying that naked person, I have taken away the clothing of the naked. Many such things happen among us when we lend, when we have debtors. Often our debtor is extremely poor, unable to repay.

And we, closing off our own bowels, and not seeing that he is supporting a wife and children, and is barely sustained by the few obols procured for him, we demand bitterly, sometimes even when we have more than enough among ourselves. So then, he says this, accusing Job, that, "You have taken away the clothing of the naked." Perhaps also not giving a garment to the naked is called a taking away; for he is a defrauder and a covetous one who does not clothe the naked, and who does not feed the one in need of bread. "You have admired the faces of some." This too is another sin; for it is a sin also to admire a face. "So-and-so, because he is rich, I admire his face; but the poor man I trample, since he has no rank." "Then the Almighty will be your helper." Here Eliphaz speaks a sound doctrine; for he thinks that Job suffers because of his sins, and that by enduring he is purified through the suffering itself; and being purified, like gold in a crucible, he is shown to be genuine, having put aside everything foreign, and having become unmixed with any vice. So he says that, if you also endure the things that have befallen you, God will render you pure like refined silver; and having become pure, you will have freedom of speech, as one who has put aside sins, and you will cheerfully raise your face to heaven, making supplications with an irreproachable conscience; and if you pray and make a promise to God, he himself will strengthen you to bring to completion your promises to him; for he himself is "the one who works in us both the willing and the acting for the sake of good purpose." Instead of, "He will give you to fulfill your vows.

Theodotion rendered, "And you will define a word, and it will be established for you," that is, everything you might arrange and form will not fall through; and simply put, it will provide you with all the conduct befitting a righteous person; and all your ways will be guided well by the divine light; or also your deeds will be bright and glorious. That he humbled himself, and you will say, "He was arrogant." As if speaking about another, but the word is directed to Job. For this reason, he says, these things will happen to the one who repents, because he humbled himself and said that he justly underwent what he suffered, since he was arrogant. And he will save with downcast eyes. That is, the humble-minded one, the one looking downward due to a troubled conscience and lack of confidence, just like the tax collector justified in the Gospels. Chapter 27. And Job, having added to the preface, said. The devil took authority over Job and tested him night and day: first through external things, later through the body itself, and after that also through his friends. For when he tested him through his wife and knew that Job was not conquered, he brought three friends, not enemies, not holding treacherous doctrines, but true words, though not well or timely offered; and he wished through these to make the righteous man utter something against Providence, to blaspheme because of his labors, to despair because of his pains. But this steadfast adamant, see what he says after the words of the three, when Eliphaz finished three discourses, Bildad three, Zophar two: "For I am not conscious of having done anything wrong.

Paul later expressed this and added, "But I am not justified in this." The frankness of the righteous man is great, both regarding his former life and regarding the circumstances of the time, so that he can say, "I am conscious of nothing against myself." Chapter 29. "And the stout ones ceased speaking." Or according to the other versions, "the rulers." These will dissolve what has been conceived. And similarly, this happens in the case of the soul that loves learning; for it conceives the word, which, when announced, it forms and shapes in order. But when, after shaping and forming, it delivers it perfected, then it gives birth. And until it gives birth, it is weighed down in labor. "I will speak, so that I may rest by opening my lips." One who meets with an intelligent hearer and is full of words, by speaking rests, as if emptying and discharging the excess. Chapter 35. "Look up to the heaven." He looks up to the heaven not by raising his physical eyes and seeing the heaven; for even dogs and donkeys have this looking up. No lover of the world looks up to the heaven, but rather one who does not love the world nor the things in the world. Again, the clouds are not so high above us as, if I see the life of Moses and his pleasing of God, and my own smallness and lowliness, I see the cloud as high above me. If I come to Joshua son of Nun, to the lives of the prophets, if I examine their deeds, then I do what is written and learn how high the clouds are above me. "If you have sinned, what will you do?" Therefore, he says, do you know, if you have sinned, what you will do to resolve the sin?

If you have sinned in words, heal yourself with better words; if you have sinned in deeds, heal yourself with superior deeds. But if the lawless acts are many and incurable, for this reason, for the incurable things which we cannot heal ourselves, Jesus Christ came from the heavens, so that he might heal the incurable, and the saying might come to pass: "Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven." "He who arranges the night watches." Observe that Elihu goes through praises of God and hymns, saying concerning him, "He who arranges the night watches." Do you wish to see how God arranges the night watches? This whole age is night, it is darkness. The light is kept for you; for now you see through a mirror, but you are destined to see the light at some time. Therefore, the whole age is night, and there is need of guards stationed so that the guards, those of the night, may watch over those in the night from thieves, from wild beasts, from enemies. Who are the guards? The angels who encamp. "He who distinguishes me from the quadrupeds of the earth." But according to the others, "teaching us beyond the beasts of the earth, and making us wise beyond the birds that fly through the air"; for man alone is honored with reason. According to the principle of creation, then, we are distinguished from all animals. But if you are a sinner, a fornicator, prone to lust, you are not distinguished from the quadrupeds of the earth, but you are compared to the cattle, and you have become like a horse and a mule, which have no understanding, and a horse mad for females.

Chapter 40. “No, but gird your loins like a man.” The perfect contests are reserved for those who have contended well after this life; yet no less does the grace of God already pledge itself to the athletes. For this reason, when Job contended in the greatest struggles—when, having lost his possessions, he glorified the giver; when, having set aside his children, he gave thanks to the one who had received them; when, having fallen ill so that worms poured from his body, he was not overcome by his sufferings—God gives him preliminaries and a pledge of the contests, having spoken to him through cloud and tempest. Having heard the earlier words, it is necessary to answer God, but he is silent, as though lacking confidence; for he did not yet know the saying, “Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice.” Yet God gives him confidence to speak; and such is his kindness that he assumes a countenance not of one judging, but of one being judged together with the man. Other Scriptures have taught this, such as, “Come, let us reason together,” and, “My people, what have I done to you?” Already God gives him a prize, in that he questions a man, that he inquires of him, that he grants him the authority to answer. If he had not been victorious, he would not have received it; if he had not endured, he would not have heard, “Gird your loins like a man,” and do not be silent; but be manly in the face of the questions. For as long as one’s loins are not girded, nor tightened, but are loose, he cannot answer God reasonably. Therefore, let no one answer God unless he has become a man of perfect spiritual age and has girded his loins. Do not reject my judgment.

Do not think that these things which you have endured have been judged by me without reason, nor disown my judgment. Let us remember this saying, as it is useful, whenever God judges that we should suffer something—to lose a child, to lose an office, to be ill in body, or to undergo any such thing. None of these things can we suffer unless God judges. Since, therefore, none of these things happen without the judgment of God, it is said to the one who has suffered: "Do not disown my judgment"; that is, do not deny what I have judged concerning you; he speaks of the present oracle. Do you think that I have given you an oracle otherwise than that you might appear righteous? I plead with you: you were righteous, but you were not manifest; you had endurance; I needed to provide an occasion for your endurance to shine; you had courage, but it was hidden in you; the labors that befell you revealed your courage. Let us remember these things in times of distress, and let us seem to hear God present and saying to us: "Do you think that I have given you an oracle otherwise," that is, permitted the trial, "than that your righteousness might be evident to those who are ignorant?" Take up your height, then. It is also possible to understand the verses in this way: You have conquered the tempter; take up your height; take up your power; be crowned; clothe yourself in seemliness. The insolent one marched against you; but you humbled the arrogant one, and you turned him back far away in shame with his phalanx.

CHAPTER 41. Shall he play with him as with a bird? Or shall he bind him as a sparrow for a child? The end of a great, strong, and perfect soul is described, that the serpent is delivered to him as a sparrow to a child, unable even to harm the child, because it is bound and the child leads it wherever it wishes and carries it about. Thus by the grace of the Lord, as a sparrow is subdued, Satan has become bound for infants and sucklings, from whose mouth God has prepared praise. Nations feed upon him. As the Lord is the food of the faithful, so the serpent is the food of the impious: "For you have given him as food to the Ethiopian peoples," that is, to the sons of darkness, to those in ignorance. For every word we receive, we either eat from the serpent, if we receive a vain hearing, or from Christ, if we receive a word that builds up and benefits. All that is afloat together cannot bear a single hide of his tail. To speak more clearly: Men, using bodies as vessels, cannot by themselves deaden the last and final parts of the serpent; but with divine power overseeing, we can both carry him whole and deaden him. Each of us, as far as it depends on him, deadens the devil, according to: "But God will crush Satan under your feet quickly." Who could enter into the fold of his breastplate? Breastplate and chest are named, where the ruling part is. His breastplate is not simple; it is deceitful, it is folded. A holy man can expose him and show that he is folded; for to the holy man he is not folded.

But a spirit shall not pass through him. The phrase "shall not pass through" does not mean that it does not go through and pass by, but that nothing escapes him; everything must come through him. Therefore, let us prepare ourselves so as not to be seized by him. And his eyes are the form of the Morning Star. His eyes, then, are not Morning Stars, but "the form of the Morning Star"; for he transforms himself into an angel of light. He pretends to be a heavenly star; he pretends to be a symbol of day. Like burning torches. I think that all the impious advocates of godless doctrines are the mouth of the serpent; but there might also be something understood figuratively beyond this, whence come the words that destroy. If you ever heard a speech that, under the pretext of Christianity, accuses the Creator—for instance, advocating the teachings of Marcion, of Valentinus, of Basilides—when they speak ill of the Maker of heaven and earth, when something similar occurs, you will see that torches come forth from the mouth of such persons. Let us therefore guard ourselves, lest those torches burn us; lest the hearths of fire touch us. Before him runs destruction. A kind of forerunner of his, destruction, escorts him; wherever he goes, destruction runs ahead of him, and then he himself enters. Unless one first admits destruction, one does not admit the serpent; for when someone sins, then, itching in the ear, they seek teachers who are lost; and seeking teachers, after being lost, they find the serpent, and admit him, filled with so many evils, into their own soul.

CHAPTER 42. And the Lord gave double. So the one who endured every trial receives the prizes of his patience, everything double compared to before; but the Lord gives prizes not only double, but a hundredfold; and he would not have received double the former unless he had shown double the virtue. CHAPTER 1. The horsemen made three heads for us and surrounded the camels. So he made the camels be under the horsemen; and the donkeys and the yokes of oxen under the captors; and the sheep he hated; therefore he brought fire down upon them; but he also plotted against the sons, and sought an opportunity to destroy them. If he had found them reading, he would not have touched the house, nor would he have had a place to kill them; if he had found them praying, he could have done nothing against them; but when he found an opportunity, he prevailed. What was the opportunity? It was drunkenness, it was a symposium. As for the touching of the corners by the spirit, note that in the broad spaces of the corners the hypocrites stand and pray; and everyone who has not walked a straight path uses the corners; and a broad corner is great and unbridled wickedness. CHAPTER 19. How long will you weary my soul? Just as heavy bodies placed upon the bodies of animals make those carrying them weary, so there are some heavy words, which when one hears, he wearies as if pressed by the weight of the power of the words, spoken reproachfully and harshly, or in insults; as now, with the words spoken by Baldad, Job, as if perceiving a heavy burden, weary in soul, says:

How long will you weary my soul?” and “Will you weigh down your words against me like a heavy burden?” You see that the words of the tyrant of the Saucheans are tyrannical, which Job, having heard, speaks the present words. For nothing else so pierces a man’s soul as a harsh word; often someone endures tortures applied to the body, but does not endure words. Yet the perfect athlete, even if weary, endures harsh words; for enduring insult is the mark of a great man; therefore, in his own deeds of valor, the Apostle says: “When reviled, we bless; when slandered, we exhort.” And now Job is the most noble of athletes, saying these things; his book contains nothing else especially but his courage and his endurance; yet he is aware of the labors he has endured from the harsh word of those who came to visit him. And since the weight of the word, like a burden placed upon the soul, makes it weary, therefore he says: Why, O friends, do you add to the pains of the body the distress of the soul, stinging more with words than the sufferings do the body? You speak ill of me. Often one speaks ill while doing harm; but when he grows shameless, he says it to that person’s face, not refuting nor speaking the truth, but reproaching and insulting. I will cry out, and nowhere is judgment. Now if I cry out, my judgment does not come anywhere; I am still contending. As if he said: Like an athlete in the stadium, I cry out, and my judgment does not arise anywhere; for I am still wrestling. If I do not complete the wrestling, the judgment of the crown does not come.

We say these things so that we may not accuse God, because Job suffers so much, and nowhere is the judgment—that is, the decision of freedom and release from his troubles—to be found. Chapter 20: "If his gifts ascend to heaven." Even the heretic, when he prays, when his sacrifice ascends in lofty speech, when he seems to be established, then he will be utterly destroyed; for his prayer is counted as sin against him. And we, the churchmen who know his errors, will say: Where are such men, who dream and fabricate errors for themselves? They do not rest their mind on the truth, but are deceived; and they become like a dream that has been spread out, which will not be found. Something like this David also sings: "But the enemies of the Lord have perished. When they were glorified and exalted, they perished like smoke;" and again: "Like a dream of those who awaken." Wealth unjustly gathered will be vomited out. I know also another wealth unjustly gathered, that in the words of the heretics, who have teachings contrary to the doctrines of the truth, their own belly-born things; which are not sweet, but "the gall of an asp," that is, evil; as it is said in Deuteronomy in the Song of Moses concerning the wine of their teaching: "For their vine is from the vine of Sodom." But the good God will not allow them to always have within themselves wealth unjustly gathered, but will make them vomit it out. For an angel, by the beneficence of God, will draw them out from that very house built wickedly; which is the church of the wicked. Then he adds: "From his house," and so forth.

Observe how much is also in store for the heterodox on account of their impious doctrines. For this reason let us be attentive to ourselves, lest at any time we be plundered by plausible arguments from heretical teaching and fall away from the mystery of the Church. "Let him not see the milking of the herds." And the heterodox also does not see the milking of the herds. Now "herds" are souls pastured under the good shepherd and finding pasture. And the doctrines according to God have nothing sweet, but are harsh and dense. "For he broke the houses of many helpless men." And the heterodox, if he finds you somewhere weak in faith, weak in sound teaching, he plunders this one. And it is truly possible to say concerning the teacher of the heterodox that "he broke the houses of many helpless men"; he seizes the livelihood of the easily deceived, and after this does not establish it; for falsehood cannot be established. "Let a day of wrath come upon him." On which divine justice is set in motion against him—whether of the one from the circumcision who has impiety toward God, or of the heterodox, or of any impious person whatsoever—his portion is that indicated in the preceding words. Chapter 21: "Why do the impious live, and have they grown old in wealth?" The phrase "they have grown old in wealth" is said instead of: they are not nouveaux riches, but from youth until old age they have continued to be wealthy. "Having taken up a psaltery and a kithara." Another happiness of the fathers, the delight of the children, which is fulfilled by flutes and kitharas and drums, by which the ears are enchanted, the pleasures of the soul are aroused, and those present are bewitched by the licentious melody.

which the children of the impious work licentiously, laying their hands on the stretched strings and clapping in response to the sound of the instruments. They completed their life in good things. That is, no interruption of their prosperity occurred for them, but they continued to revel in bodily goods throughout their entire life; and the end of their life became the end of their happiness, their good fortune having been extended until death. And they slept in the repose of Hades. Instead of this, being at rest and cheerful until death, they descend into Hades without being tested. Or, that not even death itself becomes bitter for them, but they die as if falling asleep. Or, that others suffer and are afflicted in life, but when dead they rest; but these, about whom the account is, having passed their entire life in cheerfulness, thus came to the rest in death. Chapter 22. Is it not the Lord who teaches? This doctrine is sound, that a true teacher of virtue cannot be a human; for the one who teaches a human knowledge, and it is recorded in the Psalms, that it is none other than God. God teaches, shining upon the soul of the learner by him, and illuminating the mind with the true light, his own word. Therefore, even if righteous men teach us, having received a teaching grace, again it is the Lord who teaches us through them; and the very act of understanding and having our hearts opened for the reception of divine lessons occurs according to divine grace. Or, making your argument, will he refute you?

To this we might say that God, not concerned that he himself might be harmed in any way, rebukes the impious; but he does so with a view to the one under his care, and for his benefit. "You were taking pledges from your brothers for nothing." He supposes this about Job from the fact that he knew him to be rich, and suspected that he was wealthy from such sources; therefore he says, "You were taking pledges for nothing," that is, when nothing was owed. And intensifying again, he mentions another of his sins, saying, "You took away the clothing of the naked." It is possible sometimes to take garments, not from a naked man, but from a rich man who has many clothes stored away. If, however, someone has only one tunic, and I strip him of that tunic on the pretext of demanding what is mine, without pitying that naked man, I have taken away the clothing of the naked. Many such things happen among us when we lend, when we have debtors. Often our debtor is extremely poor, unable to repay; and we, closing our hearts, and not seeing that he supports a wife and children, and barely lives on the few obols he earns, demand payment harshly, sometimes even when we have more than enough ourselves. So he says these things in accusing Job, that "You took away the clothing of the naked." Perhaps also not giving a garment to the naked man is called a taking away; for he is a defrauder and a covetous man who does not clothe the naked, and who does not feed the one in need of bread. "You admired the faces of some." This too is another sin; for it is a sin to admire a face. So-and-so, because he is rich, I admire his face; but the poor man I trample, because he has no status.

Therefore the Almighty will be your helper. Here Eliphaz speaks a sound doctrine; for he thinks that Job suffers because of his sins, and that by enduring he is purified through the suffering itself; and being purified, like gold in a crucible, he is shown to be genuine, having put away everything alien and become unmixed with any vice. He says, then, that if you also endure what has befallen you, God will restore you pure like refined silver; and having become pure, you will have freedom of speech, as one who has put away his sins, and you will lift your face cheerfully to heaven, making your supplications with a blameless conscience; and if you pray and make promises to God, he himself will strengthen you to bring to completion your promises to him; for he himself is "the one who works in us both the will and the energy for good purpose." Instead of "He will give you to fulfill your prayers," Theodotion rendered, "And you will determine a word, and it will be established for you"; that is, everything you arrange and set in order will not fail; and, to speak simply, he will provide you with all the conduct befitting a righteous person; and all your ways will be guided by divine light and prosper; or also your deeds will be bright and glorious. That he humbled himself, and you will say, "He was arrogant." He seems to speak as if about another, but the word is directed to Job. Therefore, he says, these things will happen to the one who repents, because he humbled himself and said that he justly underwent what he suffered, since he was arrogant. And with downcast eyes he will save.

that is, the humble-minded one, who looks downward because of a bad conscience and lack of confidence, just as the tax collector in the Gospels who was justified. Chapter 27. But Job, having added to the proem, said: The devil took authority over Job and afflicted him night and day; first through external things, later through the body itself, and after that also through his friends. For when he tested him through his wife and knew that Job was not conquered, he brought three friends, not enemies, not holding treacherous doctrines, but true words, yet not well nor timely offered; and he wished through these to make the righteous man utter something against Providence, to blaspheme because of his labors, to faint because of his pains. But this steadfast adamant, see what he says after the words of the three, when Eliphaz had finished three discourses, Bildad three, Zophar two. "For I am not conscious of having done anything wrong." This Paul later uttered, and added: "But I am not justified in this." Great is the confidence of the righteous man both regarding his former life and regarding the time of his distress, so that he could say: "I am conscious of nothing in myself." Chapter 29. And the mighty ones ceased speaking. Or according to the other editions, "the rulers." These will cause the conceived to be miscarried; and similarly this happens also in the case of the soul that loves learning; for it conceives the word, which when announced it forms and shapes in order; but when after shaping and forming it delivers it perfected, then it gives birth; and until it gives birth, it is weighed down in labor. I will speak, so that I may rest by opening my lips.

One who has an intelligent hearer and is full of words, when speaking, ceases, having, as it were, emptied out and cast off the excess. Chapter 35. "Look up to the heaven." He looks up to the heaven not by raising his physical eyes and seeing the heaven; for even dogs and donkeys have this looking up. No lover of the world looks up to the heaven, but rather one who does not love the world, nor the things in the world. Again, the clouds are not so high above us in this way: if I see the life of Moses and his pleasing of God, and my own smallness and humility, then I see the cloud as high above me; if I come to Jesus the son of Nun, to the lives of the prophets, if I examine their deeds, then I do what is written and learn how high the clouds are above me. "If you have sinned, what will you do?" Therefore, he says, do you know, if you have sinned, what you will do to resolve the sin? If you have sinned in words, heal with better words; if you have sinned in deeds, heal yourself with superior deeds; but if the transgressions are many and incurable, for this reason, for the incurable ones, which we cannot heal ourselves, Jesus Christ came from the heavens, that he might heal the incurable, and it becomes, "Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven." "He who arranges the night watches." Observe that Elihu goes through praises of God and hymns, saying concerning him, "He who arranges the night watches." Do you wish to see how God arranges the night watches? This whole age is night, it is darkness. The light is kept for you; for now you see through a mirror, but you will one day see the light.

Thus, the whole of time is night, and there is need of guards stationed so that the guards, those of the night, may watch over those in the night from thieves, from wild beasts, from enemies. Who are the guards? The angels who encamp. He who distinguishes me from the four-footed beasts of the earth. But according to the others, "teaching us beyond the cattle of the earth, and making us wise beyond the birds that fly through the air"; for man alone is honored with reason. According to the principle of creation, then, we are distinguished from all animals; but if you are sinful, licentious, lustful, you are not distinguished from the four-footed beasts of the earth, but you are compared to cattle, and you have become like a horse and a mule, which have no understanding, and a horse mad for females. Chapter 40. "Nay, but gird your loins like a man." The perfect prizes are reserved for those who have contended well after this life; but nonetheless, the grace of God already gives an earnest to the athletes. For this reason, when Job contended in the greatest contests—when, having lost his possessions, he glorified the giver; when, having laid aside his children, he gave thanks to the one who had received them; when, having fallen ill so that worms poured from his body, he was not overcome by his sufferings—God gives him preliminaries and an earnest of the prizes, having given him an oracle through cloud and tempest. Having heard the previous words, then, he ought to answer God, but he is silent, as one who has no freedom of speech; for he did not yet know that "Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice." However, God gives him freedom of speech to speak; and such is his kindness that he assumes the role not of a judge, but of one being judged together with the man.

And other Scriptures have taught this, as in: "Come, and let us reason together," and "My people, what have I done to you?" Already God gives him a prize, because He asks a man, because He inquires of him, because He grants him the authority of a response. If he had not been victorious, he would not have received it; if he had not endured, he would not have heard: "Gird your loins like a man," and do not be silent; but be manly toward the questions. For as long as someone's loins are not girded, nor tightened, but are loose, he cannot answer God reasonably. Therefore, let no one answer God unless he has become a perfect man in spiritual age and has girded his loins. Do not reject my judgment. Do not think that these things which you endured have been judged by me without reason, nor reject my judgment. Let us remember this saying, as useful, when God judges that we should suffer something—to lose a child, to lose an office, to be ill in body, or to undergo any such thing. None of these things can we suffer unless God judges. Since none of these things happens without God's judgment, it is said to the one who has suffered: "Do not reject my judgment"; that is, do not deny what I have judged concerning you; he refers to the present oracle. Do you think that I have given you an oracle otherwise than that you might appear righteous? I defend myself to you: you were righteous, but you were not manifest; you had endurance; I needed to provide an occasion for your endurance to shine; you had courage, but it was hidden in you; the labors that befell you revealed your courage. Let us remember these things in times of distress, and let us think...

Mich. vi, 3. To hear God present and speaking to us: "Do you think that I have given you a response otherwise," that is, to have permitted the temptation, or so that your righteousness might be manifest to those who are ignorant? Take up your height, then. And it is also possible to understand the verses in this way: You have conquered the tempter; take up your height; take up your power; be crowned; clothe yourself in comeliness. The insolent one waged war against you; but you humbled the arrogant one, and you turned him back far away with shame, together with his phalanx. CHAPTER 41. Shall he play with him as with a bird? Or shall he bind him like a sparrow for a child? It describes the end of a great, strong, and perfect soul, that the dragon is handed over to him, like a sparrow to a child, unable even to harm the child, because it is bound and the child leads it wherever it wishes and carries it around; thus, by the grace of the Lord, like a sparrow that is subdued, Satan has become bound to infants and sucklings, from whose mouth God has prepared praise. Nations feed upon him. Just as the Lord is the food of the faithful, so the dragon is the food of the impious: "For you have given him as food to the Ethiopian peoples;" that is, to the sons of darkness, to those in ignorance. For according to each word that we receive, we either eat from the dragon, if we receive a vain hearing, or from Christ, if we receive a word that builds up and benefits. But all that is navigable, coming together, cannot bear a single hide of his tail. To speak more clearly: Men, who use bodies as ships, cannot by themselves deaden the last and final parts of the dragon.

But when divine power watches over, we are able to bring him entirely and mortify him. Each of us mortifies the devil, as far as it depends on us, according to: "And God will crush Satan under your feet quickly." Who could enter the fold of his breastplate? The breastplate and chest are named, where the ruling part is. His breastplate is not simple; it is crafty, it is folded. A holy person can expose him and show that he is folded; for to the holy one he is not folded. But a spirit will not pass through him. The phrase "will not pass through" does not mean that he does not go through and pass by, but that nothing escapes him; all must go through him. Therefore let us prepare ourselves so as not to be held by him. His eyes are like the form of the Morning Star. His eyes, then, are not the Morning Star, but "the form of the Morning Star"; for he transforms himself into an angel of light. He pretends to be a heavenly star; he pretends to be a symbol of day. Like burning torches. I think that all the impious advocates of godless doctrines are the mouth of the dragon; but there might also be something understood figuratively beyond this, whence the words that destroy. If you ever hear a speech under the pretext of Christianity accusing the Creator, for instance, advocating the teachings of Marcion, of Valentinus, of Basilides—when they speak ill of the Maker of heaven and earth, when something similar—you will see that torches come out of the mouth of such people. Therefore let us guard ourselves, lest those torches burn us; lest the grates of fire touch us. Before him runs destruction.

Destruction is like a forerunner and bodyguard of him; wherever he goes, his destruction runs ahead, and then he himself enters. If one does not first admit destruction, one does not admit the serpent; for when one sins, then, tickling the ear, one seeks teachers who are perishing; and seeking teachers, after being destroyed, one finds the serpent, and admits him, filled with so many evils, into one's own soul. CHAPTER 42. And the Lord gave double. So he who has endured every trial receives the prizes of his patience, all double compared to before; but the Lord gives prizes not only double, but a hundredfold; and he would not have received double the former if he had not displayed double the virtue.