Literal Commentary on Job (Expositio super Iob ad litteram)

But Bildad the Shuhite answering said: "Power and terror," and so on. Job in his response had already repelled two calumnies which Eliphaz had cast upon him in his preceding response, showing that he was neither punished for sins nor a denier of divine providence. He had shown very expressly that it was not repugnant to divine providence if the wicked prosper in this world, because their punishment is reserved for another time, and therefore they could not press further against this point. But the other point, namely that he had not been punished for sins, he had not shown so evidently — rather he indicated the weakness of his demonstration when he said "no one can perceive his thoughts" — and therefore Bildad strives to resist further on this point, refuting Job because he asserted that he was not punished for his sins. And as though forgetful of Job's words, in which he had said it would not suffice for him if it were contended against him on the basis of God's strength, he takes the beginning of his disputation from the divine power, and sets forth the greatness of divine power in two ways.

First indeed as to this, that he exercises power over the higher creatures, preserving them in utmost peace, whence he says "power and terror" — that is, that by which he ought to be feared — "are with him," namely God, "who makes peace in his high places." For in the lower creatures manifold discord is found, both in rational creatures, as is clear through the contrary movements of human wills, and in corporeal creatures, as appears from their contrariety, through which they are subjected to generation and corruption; but in the higher bodies no contrariety is found, whence they are also incorruptible. Likewise too the higher intellectual substances live in utmost concord, whence they are without misery. But this utmost concord of the higher creatures proceeds from divine power, which established the higher creatures in a more perfect participation of its unity, as being nearer to itself, and therefore he says pointedly "in his high places," that is, in those more conformed to himself.

Secondly he commends the divine power from those things which it works in the lower creatures, in which it works through the ministry of the higher creatures, whose multitude is unknown to man, whence he adds: "can there be numbered any army of him?" He calls "soldiers" of God all the heavenly powers which follow the divine nod, just as soldiers obey the command of a leader; but the number of these heavenly powers is unknown to man, and similar is what is found in Isaiah 40:26, "who brings out their army by number." And lest anyone should believe that the heavenly powers did not conduct themselves like soldiers obeying another's command, but like leaders and princes doing all things by their own judgment, as the worshippers of many gods supposed, he adds: "and upon whom shall not his light arise?" As if he were saying: all the heavenly powers are directed through divine illumination, just as men are through the fact that the light of the sun rises upon them.

Having therefore set forth the divine power, he proceeds to his purpose, saying: "can man be justified when compared with God?" As if he were saying: since God is so great and preeminent in justice that he even makes concord in the high places, which is an effect of justice according to that saying of Isaiah 33, "the work of justice is peace," all the justice of man, compared to the divine justice, is reckoned as though nothing. Nor is it only that man, compared to God, cannot seem just, but — what is more — compared to him he appears unjust, just as in comparison to the most beautiful things, things which have little beauty seem unclean; whence he adds: "or how can he be clean who is born of woman?" He says this pointedly because from this very fact, that man is born of woman through the concupiscence of the flesh, he contracts a stain.

What he had said he then confirms through a comparison, when he adds: "behold, even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in his sight." Here it is to be considered that he makes no mention of the sun, because it does not appear sensibly that its light is dimmed in the presence of a greater light, but the moon and the stars are indeed obscured even in the presence of the corporeal sun, whence much more is their brightness, as it were a kind of obscurity, when compared to the immensity of the divine light. And from this he concludes his proposal, adding: "how much more man, who is rottenness, and the son of man, who is a worm" — that is, he cannot be reckoned as shining with the splendor of justice if compared to the divine justice, nor clean through innocence if compared to the divine purity. And he pointedly compares man to rottenness, as existing from matter close to putrefaction, and the son of man to a worm, because a worm is generated from rottenness. But he brings this in to show that man cannot set forth however much justice and innocence of his own, since it is reckoned as nothing in comparison to God, when it is a question of the divine judgment.