Thomas Aquinas

But Job, answering, said, etc. Eliphaz had spoken rather harshly against Job in his reply; hence Job, at the beginning of his speech, charges him with an unfitting consolation — first, indeed, because he frequently repeated the same things, both he himself and his friends, whence he says, "I have heard such things many times," as if to say: your speech always turns upon the same point. For in different words they were aiming at the same thing, namely, at charging Job with having fallen into adversities on account of his sins; and therefore he adds, "burdensome comforters are you all"; for it is the office of a comforter to say those things by which sorrow is mitigated, and therefore a burdensome comforter is one who speaks things that rather exasperate the mind. Yet these things could have an excuse when exasperating words were uttered for some usefulness and contained truth, or even were said briefly and in passing; but if someone should pursue exasperating words against one already grieved, falsely, uselessly, and at length, he appears a burdensome comforter; hence he adds, "Shall windy words have no end?" For in saying "shall they have no end," he shows that they lingered at length over exasperating words; but in saying "windy words," he shows that they were useless and false, having no solidity.

He then goes on to show that there was no equality on both sides in this dispute, because Job's friends spoke without trouble to themselves, whence he says, "Or is it troublesome to you if you speak?" As if to say: you speak so lengthily against me in calumny because from this you feel no trouble; but Job was troubled. And lest anyone should believe that this disputation was easy for Job's friends on account of eminent knowledge, but troublesome to Job on account of a lack of knowledge, he excludes this, showing that if he were not weighed down by adversity and were in the state of his friends, he could speak similar things; hence he says, "I too could speak like things to you," namely, if I were not burdened by adversity. And he desires the opportunity of experiencing this thing for himself, saying, "And would that your soul were for my soul," that is, that you might suffer the adversity which I suffer. He says this indeed not out of a feeling of hatred or the malice of revenge, but so that they might be called back from the cruelty which they were using in exasperating Job with their words, when they should feel that such harsh words would be similarly grievous to themselves if said to them; whence he adds, "I too would comfort you with words," namely, with words similar to those with which you comfort me, "and I would move my head over you," as a sign of compassion or as a sign of reproach, just as you accuse me; "and I would also strengthen you with my mouth," lest you should fail through impatience, "and I would move my lips," namely to speak, "as though sparing you," that is, pretending that I would speak to you out of the mercy which I would have toward you, just as you do concerning me.

Thus, then, it would be easy for me to speak just as it is for you, if I were in your state; but now I am hindered by a sorrow that is removed neither by speech nor by silence; whence he adds, "But what shall I do? If I speak, my sorrow will not rest; and if I am silent, it will not depart from me." Now there are two kinds of sorrow: one interior, which is called sadness, arising from the apprehension of some inherent evil; the other is exterior sorrow, which is pain according to sense, as arising from the dissolution of continuity or from something of this sort. The first of these sorrows, then, can be removed by conversation, but not the second; and therefore he goes on to show that he means this second sorrow, which is not removed by words, saying, "But now my sorrow has oppressed me," that is, it has hindered me from being able easily and freely to use reasoning as I was accustomed before: for when there is a vehement pain in the sense, it is necessary that the mind's attention be called away or hindered from the consideration of intellectual things. And that he means bodily pain, he shows by adding, "and all my limbs have been reduced to nothing"; for all his members were ulcerated, as was said above, that Satan struck Job with a most grievous ulcer from the sole of the foot even to the crown of the head.

And not only do the wastings of my members bring sensible pain upon me, but they also serve as an argument against me: for Job's friends, seeing him thus ulcerated, argued from this that he had grievously sinned, thinking that this had happened to him as a punishment for sin; and this is what follows, "my wrinkles bear witness against me"; for the body becomes wrinkled from infirmities on account of the consumption of moisture, just as also from old age. But how the wrinkles bear witness against him, he shows by adding, "and a false speaker rises up against my face, contradicting me"; for Eliphaz had falsely said that he had fallen into this infirmity on account of sin. Or it can be said that Job understood, through the Holy Spirit, that his adversity had been procured by the Devil, with God permitting it; whence whatever he suffered, whether in the losses of his goods and children, or in the ulcer of his own body, or even in the vexation of his wife and friends, all of this he attributes to the Devil as its instigator; he therefore calls him the false speaker raised up against his face, because he understood that his friends were contradicting him at the Devil's instigation. And according to this sense, what follows is plainer: "he has gathered his fury against me"; for the Devil seems to have gathered his whole fury against Job, since he assailed him by every manner of harming; and not only has he afflicted me in the past but he also threatens me for the future, and this is what follows, "and threatening me he has gnashed his teeth against me." And he speaks by the likeness of a beast which, in threatening a man, bares its teeth against him; but he says this because Eliphaz had foretold that evils, under the guise of the impious man, threatened him even unto death: Job understood that such threats, uttered through the mouth of Eliphaz, had been procured by the Devil, and therefore he said that he had gnashed his teeth against him.

Not only, however, had Eliphaz used words of threat against him by foretelling evils, but he had also judged ill of his deeds, calling him impious and a hypocrite; and therefore he adds, "my enemy has looked upon me with terrible eyes"; for one looks upon another with placid eyes when one interprets his deeds kindly, but when one interprets good deeds as evil, then one looks with terrible eyes; and therefore he adds, "they have opened their mouths against me," namely, my friends, instigated by my enemy; and he explains this by adding, "reproaching me they have struck my cheek"; for one is said to strike another on the face who utters reproach to his face; but Job's friends had spoken many reproaches against him, upbraiding him with many sins. And because just men, seeing sins punished, rejoice on account of justice, according to that word of the Psalm, "The just man shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge," Job's friends, reckoning themselves just and Job a sinner, rejoiced in a certain way over his punishments, as though congratulating themselves on divine justice; and therefore it follows, "they have been sated with my punishments."

And lest anyone should believe that Job thought that such punishments had not been inflicted on him by God, because he had said that he was afflicted by an enemy, to exclude this he adds, "God has shut me up with the wicked one," that is, the Devil, by handing me over, namely, to his power, "and has delivered me into the hands of the impious," as regards those who, at the instigation of the Devil, had afflicted him either by deeds or by words: for Job understood that his afflictions had been inflicted upon him indeed through the Devil, but with God permitting it.

And he shows a fourfold evident sign of this: first, indeed, because he did not fall gradually from the greatest prosperity, as is customary in human affairs, but suddenly collapsed entirely, which does not seem able to have happened by sudden chance but only from divine ordination; and this is what he says, "I who was once wealthy have suddenly been crushed"; and in saying "wealthy" the abundance of riches is designated, but in saying "that one" the renown of his fame, by which he was pointed out by all, is designated. The second sign is that he collapsed entirely; to signify which he adds, "he has taken hold of my neck, he has broken me"; and he speaks by the likeness of some very strong man who, having seized the neck of some weak person, would break it and thus utterly take away his life: for thus Job seemed to have utterly lost his state of prosperity. The third sign is that he was oppressed not by one adversity but by many concurring together at once, as was narrated above; and as to this he adds, "he has set me up for himself as a target," namely, one that is set to be struck by various arrows; and therefore he adds, "he has surrounded me with his lances," where he describes the multitude of his adversities in three ways: for first he shows that he was wounded outwardly in his possessions, and to this pertains what he says, "he has surrounded me with his lances"; for external things around us are, as it were, extrinsic to us: a man is therefore surrounded by the lances of adversity when he is harmed in external things. Secondly, he says he was struck inwardly as regards the affliction of persons, and this is what he adds, "he has wounded my loins"; as if to say: not only have I been lanced round about, but the wounds have reached even to the interior parts in which he delighted, which are signified by the loins, in which there is delight or even the origin of generation, whence also by the loins his oppressed children can be designated; and moreover he shows the multiplicity of the striking by the bitterness of the wound, when he adds, "he has not spared," as though withdrawing his hand from striking lest he wound more gravely — but he wounded most gravely, and this is what he adds, "and he has poured out my bowels on the ground," namely, because he crushed all his sons and daughters in death in a single ruin. Thirdly he shows the multitude of the striking from what he suffered in his own person, whence he adds, "he has cut me down," namely in his own person, with the wound of a most grievous ulcer, added on top of the wound of the death of his children. The fourth sign is that his tribulation proceeded from divine providence, in that it could not be resisted nor could a remedy be applied, according to what was said above at Job 9:13, "God, whose wrath no one can resist"; and this is what he adds, "he has rushed upon me like a giant," whom, on account of the greatness of his power, a weak man cannot resist. And all these things can be understood either of God, who shut him up, or better of the wicked one, namely the Devil, with whom he shut him up.

All these things, then, Job recounted concerning the greatness of his adversity, to show that he could not contend with them on equal terms, because they were immune from adversities of this kind. But Eliphaz had charged him with pride, saying, "Why does your heart lift you up," etc. — a pride which would have been all the more detestable in that it could have been corrected by grave adversities, according to what is said against certain men in the Psalm, "they were broken and were not pierced with compunction"; and therefore, having described his adversity, he next shows himself to have been humbled — first indeed as to his outward garb, when he says, "I have sewn sackcloth upon my skin"; for such a garb is a sign of humility, as is read concerning the Ninevites at Jonah 3:5; likewise also ashes are applied for the recognition of one's own frailty — whence Abraham said at Genesis 18:27, "I will speak to my Lord, though I am dust and ashes" — whence he adds, "and I have covered my flesh with ashes"; for it is read above that he sat in the dunghill as a sign of humility. Secondly, he shows his humility through the abundance of weeping, of which he sets down two signs: first, the swelling of the face, when he says, "my face has swollen from weeping"; for when much matter of tears ascends to the head, the face of those weeping swells; second, the impediment of sight, and this is what he adds, "and my eyelids have grown dim," namely from weeping: for literally, on account of the flowing of the humors, the sight of the eyes is impeded.

Now from these things which he set forth concerning the gravity of his adversity and the greatness of his humiliation, someone might suspect that he, as it were recognizing the gravity of his sins, had humbled himself in repentance, reckoning himself afflicted for his sins — which Eliphaz wished to insinuate, saying, "Behold, among the saints none is unchangeable," etc. — and therefore, to remove this, he says, "I have suffered these things without iniquity of my hand," by which he excludes from himself the sins of deeds; he then adds, "while I had pure prayers to God," so as to exclude from himself the sin of undevotion and omission, by which he seems to answer what Zophar had said above at Job 11:14, "If you take away the iniquity that is in your hand, you will be able to lift up your hand without stain."

But to exclude Job's innocence, Eliphaz had already twice used an argument drawn from the frailty of earthly nature: for above at Job 4:18 he had said, "Behold, those who serve him are not stable, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay"; and afterward above at Job 15:15 he had repeated the same, saying, "The heavens are not clean in his sight, how much more the abominable and useless man"; and therefore, to exclude this, he adds, "O earth, do not cover my blood," and by "blood" he means the affliction of his body: now this blood would be covered if it had been poured out on account of guilt, for then it would have no glory; and it would be covered by the earth if, on the occasion of earthly frailty, a presumption of preceding guilt were presumed. But if his blood was poured out without guilt, he had a just complaint against the one pouring it out, just as it is said at Genesis 4:10, "Behold, the voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the earth"; but this cry would lie hidden if his complaint should seem unjust, as of one who had been punished for guilt; and therefore he adds, "nor let my cry find in you a place to hide," namely, lest, on account of the frailty of earthly life, I should seem to complain unjustly, as though I were punished for guilt. It is true, however, that it is difficult for a man to conduct an earthly life without the iniquity of mortal sin; yet it is not impossible, with God helping through grace, who is also the witness of interior purity; and therefore he adds, "For behold, my witness is in heaven," as if to say: therefore the earth cannot cover my blood, because the testimony of heaven is greater than a presumption drawn from the frailty of earth. Now this witness of heaven is fitting because he even searches out the secrets of conscience, whence he adds, "and he who knows me is on high," as if to say: therefore in the lowest part of the earth my cry cannot find a place to hide, because my conscience is known on high.

"My wordy friends," etc. After Job has described the greatness of his adversity and his humility and innocence, he proceeds further to disprove the vain consolation which his friends frequently repeated to him, namely, concerning the hope of recovering temporal prosperity; whence Eliphaz too had said above, "Is it a great matter that God should comfort you," etc. Hence, intending to show the vanity of this consolation, he first sets down, "my wordy friends," as if to say: they promise me empty words; for my consolation lies not in the recovery of temporal things but in attaining the enjoyment of God, and this is what he adds, "my eye drips toward God," that is, weeps for the desire of God, according to that word of the Psalm, "My tears have been my bread day and night, while it is said to me daily, Where is your God?" And in explanation of what he had said, he adds, "And would that a man might be judged with God just as the son of man is judged with his fellow." For a man is judged with his fellow when one is present to the other and they mutually set forth their arguments to one another: he desired, therefore, to be present to God and to know the reasons of the divine works and judgments, in which human happiness consists, in the hope of which was his consolation — not in the vain words of his friends by which they promised the recovery of temporal prosperity; and therefore, to show the vanity of this promise, he adds, "For behold, brief years pass away," because, namely, man lives for a short time, as was said above at Job 13:1; but a great part of the time of Job's life had already passed, whence brief years remained to him, in which, even if there were prosperity, it would not bring great consolation on account of the shortness of the time. Now there were some who believed that man returns again after death to the course of the present life, and thus it might seem that Job could have consolation in the hope of recovering earthly prosperity at least in that future life; and therefore, to exclude this, he adds, "and I walk on a path by which I shall not return": for man in this mortal life tends toward death through the progress of age, nor in this progress can there be repetition, namely, that man should again become a boy and pass anew through the ages of this life.