Excerpta ex commentario in Jobum, qui manuscriptus Amstelodami exstabat, et putatur esse Hieronymi

From the Commentary on Job A manuscript that existed in Amsterdam in the library of the distinguished man Marcus Meibomius and is thought to be by St. Jerome, here first (as Vallarsius says) added, and also in several places enlarged and corrected from another Roman manuscript. From the Preface to This Commentary On the Method of Exposition Some things here are said historically, and allegorically, and morally. Some things cannot be taken literally, because they would be erroneous, or impossible, or mutually contradictory; for example: "under whom they bend, who place the orb," as if giants carry the world. And: "My soul chooses hanging," as if a patient person wishes to end his life by hanging. And: "Let the day perish in which I was born," etc. Sometimes he who neglects the literal sense hides the light of truth from himself, while seeking something else within, he loses what is without: as when he says concerning works of mercy: "If I denied what they wanted to the poor.

The divine word, just as it exercises the wise with its mysteries, so it refreshes the simple with its surface, because it is like a river both shallow and deep, in which a horse may walk and an elephant may swim. To erring man the law was given; the one disobedient to the law is confounded by the example of the greatest man, who without the law lived lawfully. Hence, "Be ashamed, Sidon," that is, the stability of those placed in the law; it says "sea," that is, gentility, which, while it keeps the law, rebukes the hearers of the law. It is said that Moses wrote these things about Jacob, as if about a predecessor, because in Genesis it is read that Jobab descended from Esau and succeeded Bela son of Beor in the kingdom. But it is the custom of sacred Eloquence, in earlier fathers, to briefly touch upon things that will follow long after, while it hastens to other matters. Therefore Job was not before the law, but in the time of the Judges. He himself is more truly believed to have written the account of his own victory. Nor does it harm that it says, "Job said or did this," because it is the custom of a holy man to speak of himself as of others. For it is the Spirit who speaks in them about themselves, just as about others. Hence the angel of Moses is sometimes called "angel," who serves externally, sometimes "lord," who presides internally. Hence also David: "Attend, my people, to my law." For the people or the law were not David's, but of him who speaks in him.

And from a Gentile, as from a Jew, he wished to be prophesied, who had come for both peoples. Unfruitful loquacity, like the leaves of words, is cut away from divine matters, while in the temple of God the planting of a grove is forbidden. It is unworthy that the words of a heavenly oracle be constrained under the rules of Donatus. The virtue of Job was great in quiet, known to himself and to God, but stirred by the scourges, like spices, it gives off fragrance for us. Hence faith is compared to a grain of mustard, which, if not crushed, is mild, but if it is crushed, it grows hot, and what lay hidden in it comes forth. Whence in the psalm: "By day the Lord commanded his mercy, and by night he declared it." The gift of mercy, which is commanded in the quiet of the day, is said to be manifested in the night of adversity. He is scourged, moreover, so that he might know how to give thanks even amid evils: which indeed was lacking to him. Therefore, what the enemy sought for evil, God permitted for good. And let no one think that Job's words are ever to be reproached, whom God so commends; in whom, as a middle ground, the devil contends against the Lord. That he recounts his own goods is not arrogance, but through them he strengthens himself, lest he despair, since through so many evils and the reproaches of his friends he was compelled to despair of his life.

Job is struck by every kind of trial. By losses of property, by which he was thought to be powerful in the world, he is shaken; but he scorns these. By bereavement of offspring, but he grieves this with equanimity. By the scourging of the flesh, which he patiently endures. And these were like the external onslaught of war, and like enemies fighting from the front. Within, however, through his wife, as through a fellow citizen, his mind endures the poisons of counsel; but he wisely instructs even her. Friends come for consolation, but they leap forth to rebuke. Among them, the youngest is last. Because he is unworthy, he rebukes more harshly; because sometimes words disturb more than wounds. Behold, like enemies from the side. Through wounds, patience is tested; he overcame those by strength, these by reason. Job’s friends sinned more through ignorance than through malice. For such a great man did not have wicked friends, but because they cannot discern the cause of the blows, they fall into fault. For there is one kind of blow by which the wicked is pressed so that he may be punished; another, so that he may be corrected; another, so that he may not commit future wrongs; another, so that, when salvation follows, the Savior may be loved more. If a good man is struck, merits are accumulated: not knowing how to distinguish these things, they believe the stricken man is guilty. Hence they return more quickly to pardon. Whom God humbles in such a way that he would receive them back into grace only through the one whom they had despised.

Morally. Many things... An innumerable crowd of thoughts, which, like handmaidens to their mistress, abandon their work when reason is absent, clamor, and when it returns, they labor in silence. These are the things, namely, by which the mind overcomes the mistress in their multitude. The Easterners and the angels clinging to the rising light—we are great associates of theirs, etc. FROM THE SAME COMMENTARY. On Chapter I, 1. It is necessary that the simplicity of the dove be instructed by the cunning of the serpent, and that cunning be tempered by simplicity. Hence Christ appeared in the dove and in fire: because those filled with him serve the gentleness of simplicity in such a way that they are inflamed against evils by the zeal of righteousness. Fearing God. Solomon: He who fears God neglects nothing. Withdrawing from evil. Likewise Solomon: He who offends in one thing loses many good things. First, the person is described as suitable, before his battle is recounted, so that such a one may seem capable of giving back the victory. On Chapter III, 8. Let them curse him who curse the day. Morally. In the old translation. Let him curse her who curses the day, who is about to catch the great whale. The devil, who is now night, will be seen as day in the end, when he is exalted above everything that is called God, or that is worshipped. But now his malice is destroyed by him who in the end will destroy his power by his coming: who in the waters of holy baptism extinguishes the great whale, that is, his strength. Or, let them curse him, that is, the night, condemning the darkness, announcing the chosen angels.

Those who curse the day, that is, those who show that its false brightness, by which it presumed to become equal to God, is to be despised. Those who are ready to rouse, that is, to release, so that it may act with all its strength against the Church. Now it is held bound in the abyss and pressed down, and that which raised itself up proudly above others has succumbed, subjected to the dominion of them, so that now it lies hidden, bound by them as servants, even if at the end, when they are loosed, it wages war openly. On Chapter 4, verses 10, 11. After he has kindly warned, he openly rebukes. The roaring of a lion, that is, the severity and terror of Job himself. The voice of a lioness, the talkativeness of his wife; the teeth of cubs, the voracity of his children, has been destroyed. This he rigidly mocks, as if in a condemned matter. He also compares Job to a tiger, on account of the spots of pretense. For a hypocrite, who seems upright, has hidden vices, which sometimes, bursting forth, change their color. The prey is the glory of the righteous, which he seizes for himself. Therefore, thinking that this holy man Job held the good things he knew in him through hypocrisy, he says: The tiger has perished, that is, the variety of your pretense has been extinguished, because the flattery of praise has been taken away. For "tiger" here in the Septuagint is read as "myrmicoleon," which in Latin is called "ant-lion," or more precisely, "ant and lion." It is, however, a small animal that, lying hidden in the dust, lies in wait for ants and eats them; for birds and other animals it is an ant, by which it is eaten.

Through this it is noted that Job was timid against the proud, bold against the submissive, but his elation no longer has its prey, because, struck by another's injury, it is restrained. The same is typologically about heretics. The lion is the devil for his savagery. The lioness is the city of the world, Babylon, joined to the lion, her cubs. Those who are reprobate, generated by them, the saints beware of. But heretics, secure, think they have surpassed everything, as if to say: Therefore we are not scourged, because we overcome the devil's power, and his voice, that is, the glory of the world, and his teeth, that is, the persuasion of the reprobate. The tiger is again the devil for his manifold cunning, or the ant-lion, which is weak against those who resist, strong against those who consent. They say he has perished, because in them he has no prey. They repeat this with joy, because what is said with joy is often repeated. To Chapter 19, verse 24. What is written in lead is quickly erased. On flint it is written with difficulty, but it remains. Thus Judea quickly receives and abandons the words of God: the Gentile world receives them with difficulty, but preserves them steadfastly.

To Chapter 19, verses 25–27. For I know that my redeemer lives. He does not say creator, but redeemer, plainly declaring that he, after he created all things, redeemed us from captivity by his passion. And he lives, although he fell among the hands of the impious. Whom I am about to see, that is, our flesh after the resurrection will be the same and yet different. The same by nature, different by glory. And it will be spiritual, because incorruptible, and tangible, because the essence of true nature is not lost. This hope of mine is placed in my bosom. We believe we hold nothing more certainly than what we hold in our bosom. Therefore he held hope placed in his bosom, because he presumed with true certainty concerning the hope of resurrection. He expressly indicates the truth of the resurrection. It is not that one person dies and another rises: as those who say the future body will be invisible, but it is the same person himself. My redeemer lives, and through the resurrection I hope for a similar thing for myself; just as other rods remained dry, but the rod of Aaron, that is, the body of our priest, burst forth into the flower of resurrection, by which flower that priest is shown who intercedes for us.

To Chapter 22, verse 11. And that you will not be overwhelmed by the force of flooding waters. Tribulations are compared to flooding waters, because they rush one upon another, just as wave upon wave. Therefore you did not think you would be overwhelmed, because you thought God does not see these lower things. And do you still think so? Heretics consider themselves wise and mock Catholics, saying they do not fear God because they do not see him physically; nor do they think he sees earthly things from afar. Indeed, that he is higher than the sky, and, as if hidden in a cloud, judges through the darkness. Therefore, because between us and the sky there are airy regions, and, intent on higher things, he sees lesser things less, or, encompassing the poles of the sky, he does not look upon lower things. To Chapter 22, verses 15, 16. Do you wish to keep the path of the ages? Just as the path of the Redeemer is humility, so the path of the ages is pride. Therefore, wicked men tread the path of the ages, because they walk in elation through the desires of this life. Those who are taken away before their time, who love the present life, promise themselves longer spans of the same life. But when death overtakes them, it cuts short the spans of their life, which they had stretched out in thought. And the river overturns their foundation. The wicked, because they do not see that present things are fleeting, fix their mind on love of the present life, and build for themselves a foundation of long habitation in it.

But the river undermines their foundation; because the very course of mutability subverts the state of his perverse construction. To Chapter 22, verse 16. Those who are taken away before their time. It should be known that God ordains years according to the merits of each, and arranges and sets a limit, so that the wicked may live briefly, lest he harm many, or the good may live longer, to benefit many; or again, the wicked may live long, to increase evils by which the good are tested, and the good is more quickly removed, lest if he live longer, he be corrupted by malice. And the sentence of God is changed, but not the eternal counsel. To Chapter 24, verses 5-11. Others go forth like wild asses in the desert to their own work. For there are heretics who shun mingling with the people, but seek a retreat of more secluded life, and infect all the more with the plague of their persuasion, the more reverent they seem by reason of the merits of their life. They are compared to wild asses, because, released from the bond of faith and reason, they are alien to their own wills. They go forth to their own work. For they accomplish not God’s work, but their own work, while they follow not right doctrines, but their own desires. And, watchful for prey, they prepare bread for their children. They are watchful for prey who always try to snatch the words of the just to their own sense, so that through these they prepare the bread of error for their perverse offspring. They reap a field not their own.

By the name "field" or "vineyard" the Church is signified, which perverse preachers reap, and they harvest its author by oppressing the members; those who persecute the Creator's grace, while they snatch away some from her who seemed upright, what else do they do but carry off the ears of grain or the clusters of souls? They strip men naked, taking away the garments, so that they have no covering in the cold. Just as clothing protects the body, so good works protect the soul. Heretics, therefore, when they destroy the good works of certain people, take away their garments. "For whom there is no covering in the cold": "covering" pertains to righteousness, "cold" to guilt. Therefore, one who grows hot for righteousness from one work and grows cold for guilt from another work is cold, and it is read. But when heretics take away good works from such people, they act so that they have nothing with which to be clothed in the cold. "Whom the rains of the mountains water," that is, the streams of preachers consecrate. "And having no covering, they embrace stones." It speaks of strong men in the Church, such as martyrs. Therefore, those who trust in none of their own works but run to the protection of the holy martyrs by praying, what do these do but embrace stones, since they have no covering of good action? "They used violence by plundering orphans, and they despoiled the common poor." Heretics, by plundering, use violence because they rage with the violence of words and works against the weak minds of the faithful. They despoil the common poor because, while they do not prevail over the learned, they strip the unlearned of the covering of faith.

They took the ears of grain from the naked and from those going about without clothing and from the hungry. He who does neither good nor evil is naked and idle; he who does evil goes about naked, because he proceeds along the path of wickedness without the covering of a good work. To the hungry, who through penance long for the nourishment of the word, heretics take away the ears of grain, because they destroy in their minds the sayings of the Fathers, which are signified by the ears of grain. For when utterances are brought forth through figurative language, we remove from them the covering of the letter, like the chaff of the husks, so that we may refresh ourselves with the marrow of the spirit. Among their heaps they have taken their midday rest, those who thirst after treading the winepresses. Those who persecute the Church tread the winepress. For when the unjust oppress the just, they place the grapes underfoot, which, stripped of flesh, hasten to the heavens as to a storehouse. Moreover, they tread and thirst, who by doing cruel deeds become themselves more cruel, and strive to do even worse things; when heretics see them acting cruelly against Catholics, they take their midday rest among their heaps. They thirst after treading the winepresses, because they join themselves to the multitude of those whom they see doing grievous things and still thirsting for more grievous ones, and when they cannot themselves stir up persecution, they rouse the powerful of the world to this, and while their fervor satisfies their desires, they rest in their deeds, as if at midday.

To Chapter 26, verses 2, 3, 4. Whom do you help? Surely not the weak? etc. To help the weak is a work of charity; to wish to help the powerful is a work of pride. And this is the meaning: While you intend to help him under whose greatness you succumb, the solace you offer proceeds from ostentation, not from piety. To whom have you given counsel? To give counsel to a fool is a work of charity; to give counsel to a wise man is a work of ostentation; to give counsel to Wisdom itself is a work of perversity. Hence follows: *and prudence*. Everyone to whom prudence belongs is upright. It is not abundant, because he does not seek to know more. Does he not [question] the one who made the breath? Baldad, because he believed Job was scourged for a fault, strove with proud temerity to penetrate the hidden judgment of God, which he ought to have reverenced humbly. He therefore set himself above [Wisdom] through prudence, whose judgment he judged by not understanding. But because Job, bearing the type of the Church, set forth a few things in the correction of the proud, he suddenly expands into teaching through sententiae, saying (verse 5): *Behold, the giants groan beneath the waters.* The giants are the proud; the waters are the peoples. The haughty, while they seek to attain the honor of high station in this world, groan beneath the weight of the peoples. One is subjected to these peoples in mind, to whom one is subjected in rank. And by these words it is indicated that all pride lies at the very bottom by the very fact that it raises itself on high.

To Chapter 29, verses 19, 20. My root is laid open beside the waters. By the name “root” a hidden thought is signified. The root is laid open beside the waters, because for the purpose of receiving the streams of truth, the hidden thought of the mind is opened. And the dew will linger in my harvest. It is understood, I was saying. The harvest of the Church is taken, when perfect souls, abstracted from bodies, like ripe crops cut off from the earth, migrate to the heavenly granaries. The dew will linger in the harvest, because grace coming from above acts so that we may be worthy, who are gathered from the lower things. My glory will always be renewed: Because he laments lost glory; because he recognizes that those whom he himself had believed to serve a new life, serve old desires. To Chapter 31, verses 25-28. The intellect either grows sluggish with idleness or vanishes with elation, and therefore he says: If I rejoiced. When someone performs what he understands, from that which is shown outwardly, he often slips. But blessed Job, just as the gold of understanding did not exalt him, so neither did the light of action. And this is: if I saw the sun. Truly, good men do not see their own goods, which they offer to be seen by others, nor the moon, that is, the fame of a good work, which shines for those walking in darkness. For Job was not exalted by these things, which are more to be feared. For then, like a tall tree, it is more agitated by winds, that which through understanding was as if dead in the seed of works. Concerning praises, indeed, he not only did not become arrogant in words, but not even in such great thought.

my heart rejoiced in secret. And because an unthinking mind, puffed up by favors, sometimes praises what it has done, it adds: and I kissed my hand with my mouth. This is the greatest iniquity. Every sin that arises from weakness does not destroy the spirit, because it seeks pardon from God. But presumption, the farther it is from humility, the graver it is in despair, and, while it attributes strength to itself, it does not seek it from God. — When the wicked admire good things, the lamp burns in the night. If the good also admire the best things, the sun shines. On the sixth day, when good shines through bodily action, it is a lamp, that is, light in a clay vessel; when through contemplation of the mind, the sun from heaven. To Chapter 38, verse 7. When the morning stars praised me together. Even the elect angels marveled at the mystery of Christ's incarnation, because they were created first in time, not in the beginning. They are called morning stars, either because, often sent to exhort men, when they announce the coming morning, they put to flight the darkness of the present life from human hearts. These morning stars also praise the Redeemer's power together with the evening stars; because they glorify the bounty of heavenly grace for men redeemed at the end of the world. And all the sons of God would rejoice. It is called jubilation when the joy of the heart is not fully expressed by the efficacy of the mouth.

The angels therefore praise, who already see such a breadth of brightness in the heights; but men rejoice, who still in the lower regions endure the narrowness of their mouths. Because the Lord knew these things would come to pass, he relates them as done. But because when the good rejoice, envy inflames the wicked, whom the Lord nevertheless tempers, he immediately adds concerning them. To Chapter 38, verse 31. “Can you join together the glittering stars,” etc. It is established that no man can do this; but when Job is questioned about these things, it is shown that he may take refuge in humility with the one who alone could do this. To the beginning of Chapter 39. Ibices are said to be small quadrupeds which move about on rocks and give birth; and falling on their own horns, they receive themselves unharmed. In these, the person of spiritual teachers is signified, who, like ibices, give birth on rocks, because in the teaching of the Fathers, who are called rocks for their solidity, they generate souls for conversion. They themselves, like ibices, suffer no harm from any fall, while they are caught on their own horns: because whatever temporal adversity of ruin may come, they receive themselves in the testaments of Sacred Scripture, and are saved as if by the catching of horns. They themselves are called “cervi” (deer), who, with vices slain, as if with serpents killed, live, and from that very extinction of vices burn more fiercely for the fountain of life.

To Chapter 42, verse 15. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. Therefore, from the number of the perfect, the beautiful ones are mentioned. They themselves also, from the type of the imperfect, as weak minds, receive an inheritance. Therefore, the sisters together with the brothers arrive at the inheritance: because the weak are admitted to heavenly things together with the strong. Moreover, Job lived after these things. A person is empty of days who, however much he may have lived, has consumed the times of his life in vanity; but on the contrary, a person is said to be full of days whose days do not pass away in perishing, but are preserved by the daily reward of good work before the just judge, even after they have been or will have been completed. In the type of the Church, if we proceed by tens, we arrive at the number one hundred and forty. And rightly is the Church both multiplied and counted: because, guarding both testaments, and living according to both the Decalogue of the Law and the four books of the Gospel, it is extended to the summit of perfection. Well, moreover, is Job said to live after the scourges: because the Church is first struck by the scourge of discipline, and afterwards is strengthened by the perfection of life. It also beholds its sons, and the sons of its sons, up to the fourth generation: because in this age, which revolves through the yearly seasons until the end of the world, it contemplates offspring being born to it through the mouths of preachers. It sees the sons of sons, when it recognizes that still others are begotten by them unto the end.

An old woman, full of days, dies: because, following the light from the reward of daily works, with the burden of corruption laid aside, she is changed into the incorruption of the spiritual homeland. She dies full of days for whom the slipping years do not pass away, but are solidified by the recompense of steadfast deeds. She dies full of days because through these transitory times she works at that which does not pass away. — By the usage of the old life, women do not have an inheritance among males: because the severity of the law, choosing the strong, despising the weak, was zealous to decree strictly rather than kindly. But with the coming of the merciful Redeemer, even the weak one is taken up with the perfect into the kingdom. MISCELLANEA Excerpts from various pages of the same manuscript codex. Page 3. Just as all the righteous, so Job prefigured Christ not only in words but in deeds, so that through the passion he might show Christ about to suffer, that is, the head with the body, which is the Church. His wife signifies the carnal, who within the Church, the closer they are through faith, the more harshly they are pressed in life. Job’s friends signify the heretics, who under the appearance of giving counsel wish to deceive, and while they speak as if for the Lord, they oppose the truth. Job is said to be grieving, whereby the passion of Christ or the labor of the Church is expressed. Eliphaz means “contempt of the Lord”; that is, the heretic, who, while thinking false things about God, contemns him through pride.

Baldad, old age, that is, alone, because they speak not with good intention but from a desire for glory: that is, not from the zeal of the new man, but from the depravity of the old life. Sophar, the scattering of a watchtower or one who scatters the watcher, because heretics seek to pervert minds that contemplate higher things with their words. Therefore, by despising God, they keep themselves in old age, remaining in which they harm those who contemplate with evil speeches. But because they themselves sometimes return to the Church, this reconciliation of the years shows, for whom Job prays: because the sacrifices of heretics are not acceptable to God unless offered by the hands of the Church. Sacrifices are offered for the seven princes, because, as they receive the sevenfold Spirit, they are purified as if by seven offerings. Bulls and rams have been offered for them. In the bull, the neck of pride is signified; in the ram, the leadership of the flock, because, springing back from the Church through pride, they afterwards drew weak flocks after them.

Page 147. The sardonyx holds a likeness of red earth; the sapphire holds an airy appearance. Page 148. And the topaz from Ethiopia, because it shines with every color, is called topazion as if topadion. Page 150. It was the custom of the ancients that elders would stand at the gate of the city and judge the cases of the innocent, if the city’s populace were peaceful, into which the discordant were not permitted to enter. And this divine Job did. Page 158. The path of adversaries is compared to waves, because the insolent restlessness of the wicked is troublesome, and, so to speak, like a storm it rushes in to overwhelm the ship of the heart. Page 169. To carry a book on the shoulder is to fulfill sacred Scripture by working.