Thomas Aquinas, on Job 21:22

“Shall any one teach God knowledge, who judgeth those that are high?”

“Since Job had established above that evil men sometimes experience prosperous things and sometimes adverse things in this life, which causes doubt, he therefore seeks to resolve this doubt. First he shows that this does not arise from a defect in divine knowledge, as though the evil of those men to whom he gives prosperity escaped his notice. So he says, "Will anyone teach God knowledge?" as if to say: He does not need instruction by anyone about the merits of men to know to whom he should give prosperous things and to whom he should give adverse things. His next statement, "Who judges the eminent," can be interpreted in two ways: in one way God does not stand in need of the instruction of anyone to be able to judge the great, that is, those who prosper in this world, like judges in human affairs need to be instructed by witnesses about the merits of those they are judging. This text can be understood in another way as introduced as a confirmation of the preceding idea. For the fact that God knows all things and he does not stand in need of instruction by anyone is clear because he judges men no matter how great they are. No one judges things of which he is ignorant, and so it cannot be that knowledge of anyone no matter how great may escape his notice.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.