Thomas Aquinas, on Job 5:19

“In six troubles he shall deliver thee, and in the seventh, evil shall not touch thee.”

“Eliphaz, then, did not maintain that he was blessed who is corrected by God because of the afterlife because he did not believe in it, but because of the present life during which man obtains immunity from evils and abundance of goods after the correction. Consequently, he next speaks about the immunity from evil, "He will deliver you from six troubles; in the seventh no evil shall touch you." Since all time is represented in seven days, a whole is commonly designated by the number seven. The sense would be that no adversity will harm the one corrected by God after correction. Since according to Eliphaz's opinion the more free one is from fault, the less he would suffer adversity in this world according to his opinion, he says, "in the seventh, no evil shall touch you." He means that before correction, man is not free from adversity; but when he begins to be free, he is touched by evil, but not crushed while God is freeing him. After perfect liberation he is not touched at all. This is true for the mind which is weighed down by worldly adversities as long as it places its end in worldly affairs. When it removes its love from them and begins to love God, it is sad in deed in adversities, but is not weighed down by them because it does not have its hope in this world. When it becomes completely contemptuous of the world, then worldly adversities scarcely touch it. But this opinion is not true for the body which is how Eliphaz understood it because the most perfect men sometimes suffer very grave adversities, as the Psalmist says, "Because of you, we suffered death all the day long," (43:22), which is said about the Apostles.”

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