Fragments on Job 81–103

in other passages, that God is so loving toward humankind that, even while judging us kindly, he allows us to speak to him about whatever we wish, as if he were being judged along with us. I used, then, the words of Isaiah: "Come, and let us reason together, says the Lord." For "let us reason together" means this: "If you have anything to reprove me for, and my providence, as though I had neglected you, as though I had not done what was needful, speak; and I too will say whatever I have to say, and I will persuade you, condemning you as deserving to be condemned." [Job 22:5] Verse 5: "Is not your wickedness great?" Fittingly: I do not say merely that you have become unjust, since you suffer such things as none of them has fallen into, things as great as yours. It is likely that these things have come on you because of the countless number of your offences. (Of the same.) He did not first name sin and then wickedness; but seeing wickedness, the bad disposition, he then names the sins committed from the bad disposition, since he said the sins were countless. Verse 5: "And your sins are countless." Eliphaz supposes this about Job. He knew him to be rich, and says: "You took pledges from your brothers as though they owed when they did not owe." For "you took pledges for nothing" means this. [Job 22:6] Verse 6: "You took pledges from your brothers." (Of the same.) He adds yet another sin of his. Is it ever possible to take clothing? Not from the naked, but one may take from a rich man who has many garments laid up. … But if someone has one tunic, and I strip him of this tunic on the pretext of demanding what is mine, without pity for that naked man, I have taken away the clothing of the naked. Many such things happen among us when we lend, when we go to our debtors. Often our debtor is extremely poor and unable to repay, and we, shutting up our compassion, become pitiless and cruel, not seeing that he feeds a wife and children and scarcely feeds himself on the few obols he earns. We demand payment bitterly, sometimes while we have more than enough ourselves. So he says these things accusing Job of having taken away the clothing of the naked. [Job 22:7] Verse 7: "Nor did you give water to the thirsty to drink, but you deprived the hungry of a morsel." (On the same.) So not only doing wrong, but also failing to do good, is culpable. All these are accusations, and things truly blameworthy; but they were not true of Job, nor rightly said of him. (Of the same.) Such things happen in harsh

demands for repayment. Sometimes a person has a single morsel; and even if he does not have a whole loaf, we take it from him, saying, "But you owe." [Job 22:9] Verse 9: "You sent widows away [empty]." Let us take care, if a widow enters our house, never to send her away empty. Let each, according to his ability, fill the widow's lap from what he has. Verse 9: "And you mistreated orphans." (Of the same.) No one should be mistreated, but orphans above all must be spared; for God commanded us to fight for helpless souls. More than other people, the poor, widows and orphans need help. [Job 22:10] Verse 10: "Therefore snares have surrounded you." He calls snares the things that have happened to him, into which he has fallen, by which his soul is ensnared through what has befallen him. [Job 22:11] Verse 11: "The light has turned to darkness for you." You were in the light when your possessions were yours, when your children were alive, when your body was healthy; but now you have gone down as into darkness, into these circumstances. (On the same.) That is, into desolation, …, a wanderer, a fugitive, without a hearth. Verse 11: "And water covered you as you slept." "Water covered you as you slept" means this: the opposing power covered you, since you were not watchful, since you slept. Scripture knows a certain sleep of sin. That is why it commands us: "Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids, that you may be saved like a gazelle from the noose and like a bird from the snare." [Job 22:12] Verse 12: "Does not he who dwells on high watch over …?" But you think that God who dwells on high does not see what is done. Since he watches over everything, he brings down those whose minds are lifted up by a habit of insolence. Verse 12: "And he humbled those who are carried away by insolence." If anyone is carried away by insolence, swept along as it were by an insolent habit and practice, he is humbled by God. It is likely, then, since you too insulted widows and orphans and took pledges from your brothers for nothing, that for this you have suffered these things and been humbled. [Job 22:13] Verse 13: "And you said: What does the Mighty One know?" It is likely that you said to yourself: "What does the Mighty One know?", as if to say: "Can God know everything?" Verse 13: "Or does he judge through the darkness?" (Of the same.) But God can judge even when he is in a storm. [Job 22:14] Verse 14: "And he walks the circle of heaven." The providence of God goes all around. "And a multitude of waters will cover you."

[Job 22:15] Verse 15: "Will you not keep watch on the everlasting path?" Can you not watch the everlasting path along which the providence of God goes? Verse 15: "Which righteous men trod." (Of the same.) Righteous men trod the everlasting path; for they walk along an everlasting path, since everything they have before them to do is aimed at attaining the age to come. So even if they seem to walk like others, the soul itself sets foot on everlasting paths. [Job 22:16] Verse 16: "Who were taken before their time." Often the righteous have died before their time. For "being perfected in a short time, the righteous man fulfilled long years; for his soul was pleasing to the Lord." Verse 16: "A river flowing in is their foundations." (Of the same.) Such are the foundations of the righteous: they always advance, always grow in good things. [Job 22:18] Verse 18: "Who filled their houses with good things." (Of the same.) He filled the houses of the righteous with good things. I do not understand these houses, but "their houses," those of the ruling part of the soul, which he filled with good things. What good things? Self-control, justice, courage, prudence: those that come from works. This is what it means for houses to be filled with good things. [Job 22:19] Verse 19: "And the blameless one mocked them." Whom? Or is it the counsel of the ungodly? As when some, holding wretched doctrines, wish to teach things contrary to the truth in saying what they say: the blameless man, seeing this, mocks. [Job 22:20] Verse 20: "And fire will devour what is left of them." (Of the same.) What is left of the ungodly, when the earlier ones have died, fire will devour. [Job 22:22] Verse 22: "Receive a declaration from his mouth." I was asking myself what "declaration" means, and I found "confession" in its place in another version. So he means rather: Confess your sins; receive from the mouth of God the instruction together with confession; and lay up his words in your heart. Eliphaz said these things admonishing Job, as he thought. [Job 22:23] Verse 23: "But if you turn and humble yourself before the Lord." He admonishes him to turn back, thinking that he had suffered these things because he had sinned. [Job 22:24] Verse 24: "And like a rock of the torrent of Sophir." From the place where gold comes into being, it will come to you; that is, your speech will be rich and beautiful. [Job 22:25] Verse 25: "The Almighty will then be your helper," if you submit yourself, if you confess.

[Job 22:25] Verse 25: "And he will render you pure, like silver tried by fire." A sound teaching … tried by fire is God. [Job 22:26] Verse 26: "Then you will speak boldly before [the Lord]." (Of the same.) If you humble yourself, you endure what has befallen you; "you will speak boldly before the Lord": you will have boldness, as one who has put away his sins. [Job 22:28] Verse 28: "And there will be light on your ways." (Of the same.) If you keep my admonition and turn back and confess. These things, then, were said to Job, but they were not said justly, for he had not sinned. But if they are said to us, they are said justly. Verse 28: "And he will restore to you a dwelling of righteousness." To put it simply: he will restore to you, he says, the whole abiding state that befits righteous action, so that your actions are splendid and glorious. [Job 23:2] Chapter 23, verse 2: "His hand is heavy upon my groaning." [Job 23:3–5] If it were possible, he says, for the verdict on the punishments to be given at once, one could find him. Would that it were possible to go to law, he says, and meet him, and learn what he would have said to me about these things, and what to say. You see how he obtained what he prayed for; for this happened at the end of the book. "I wished to learn what he would say to me, and whether he would punish me in the same way." He said these things not as charging God with injustice. [Job 24:6] Chapter 24, verse 6: "Their bread was sweet to the young men." It is sweet, he says, to the ungodly to feed young men, so that through them they may carry out their abuses. [Job 27:2] Chapter 27, verse 2: "As the Lord lives, who has judged me thus." The devil received authority over Job and tested him night and day: first through external things, later through his very body, after that also through his friends. For when he had tested him through his wife and Job was not overcome, the devil brought three friends: not enemies, not men holding treacherous doctrines, but men bringing forward words of truth … The devil plotted through these friends to make Job say something against Providence, to commit impiety through …, to lose heart … But the truly brave and enduring man, what does he say after the speeches of the three? When … had finished … the two discourses being completed and they having fallen silent, see what he answers after the preface he has spoken,

named by Scripture. Let us attend to the text: what does he answer? [Job 27:1] Verse 1: "And Job, continuing further, said in his preface:" [Job 27:2] Verse 2: "As the Lord lives, who has judged me thus, and the Almighty, who has embittered my soul," and so on. I know what moved you to provoke me. But I swear to you, and I swear by the living Lord himself, who judged that I should suffer these things, who handed me over to these afflictions, who gave the devil authority to test and torment me with such trials. I swear by the Lord and say: "As the Lord lives, who has judged me thus, and the Almighty, who has embittered my soul." [Job 27:5] Verse 5: "Far be it from me to declare you righteous." If we agreed with what you say, that you have understood why I have suffered these things, I would have declared you righteous until I die. Verse 5: "For I will not put away my innocence." I will not cease to attend to righteousness; I will remember always to hold fast to it. [Job 27:6] Verse 6: "For I am not conscious of having done anything wrong." Great is his boldness, both about his former life and about the time of his afflictions, so that he says: "I am not conscious of having done anything wrong." [Job 28:12] Verse 12: "And what is the place of knowledge?" Knowledge is the grasp, by contemplation, of things that remain the same; understanding is discernment.

… the holy things of God; above all things, many as they are, draw wisdom. [Job 28:21] Verse 21: "It has escaped every man." It has escaped every man, even if he is a prophet, even if an apostle. [Job 29:6] Chapter 29, verse 6: "When my ways flowed with butter." We have already said about the ways of Job, along which he walked, that they were virtues. His ways, then, flowed with butter: he walked in self-control, and his self-control was as it were poured out, so that many, even infants, were nourished by Job's self-control, by Job's justice, by his courage. For this is the meaning of "When my ways flowed with butter." Verse 6: "And my mountains flowed with milk." Whatever lofty and great thoughts there were, these were the mountains of Job, which he climbed.

[Job 29:12] Verse 12: "For I saved the poor man from the hand of the powerful." Let us look at his brave deeds and unfold them. This has a meaning according to the letter, and still more an interpretation according to the higher sense. According to the letter, we ought, as far as we can, to help the poor who are oppressed by the powerful. [Job 29:15] Verse 15: "And a foot to the lame." He himself gave steps to those who were lame in their feet, the feet of the soul; and by his word he became their foot. [Job 29:16] Verse 16: "And the case that I did not know I searched out." He teaches us how we must judge, if ever we are called to arbitrate between brothers and settle their affairs. [Job 32:1] Verse 1: "And Job ceased from words. And his three friends also kept quiet, no longer contradicting Job; for Job was righteous before them." He did not simply cease; his heart, which understood divine things, did not cease. For there is "a time for every matter under heaven": "a time to keep silent, and a time to speak." So when it was time to answer the three, he spoke; when the time came, after he had silenced them, he fell silent. And I think the words "Job ceased" are said in praise. [Job 32:6] Verse 7: "Therefore I kept quiet, afraid to declare my own knowledge." He has knowledge of how people suffer; of why people come into certain afflictions in this life only; of how many unjust people prosper. "I saw them doing wrong and transgressing, and my feet were almost shaken." If I look only at this life, my steps had nearly slipped. [Job 32:9] Verse 10: "It is not the long-lived who are wise." It is not necessary, he says, that the old alone should be wise; one may hear something noble even from youth. For if time makes people wise, much more does God. [Job 32:18] Verse 18: "For the spirit of my belly destroys me." Just as a woman becomes pregnant and, when what is being born in her has taken shape within, comes to labour, until she brings forth what she had earlier conceived, so think that something like this happens in the soul of the lover of learning. It conceives the word, and as it is announced it shapes and forms it in order. And when, after shaping and forming it, the word has become ready, it delivers it, not as an unready and incomplete miscarriage, but, as I would say, brought to term and perfected. [Job 32:19] Verse 19: "And my belly is like a skin of new wine fermenting, bound up." It seems to me that from here comes what is said in the Gospel:

"No one puts new wine into old skins." [Job 32:20] Verse 20: "I will speak, that I may rest, opening my lips." One who has found an intelligent hearer and is full of words finds rest in speaking, and says: "I will speak, that I may rest." [Job 32:22] Verse 22: "For I do not know how to admire a person's face." I do not have this knowledge, to admire a person's face; but I despise people, and shame before mortals and the regard they give. Verse 22: "Otherwise moths will eat me too": as though moths devour those who show partiality to people. [Job 35:6] Verse 6: "If you have sinned, what will you do?" If you look up to heaven and consider the clouds, you will understand that you have sinned. What must you do? Approach the high priest and entreat him, so that the high priest may offer a sacrifice for you. For "if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins." Verse 6: "And if you have committed many lawless deeds, what can you do?" Will you do anything great enough to undo your many lawless deeds? That is why, for the incurable things that we cannot heal ourselves, Jesus Christ came from heaven, to heal what was incurable, so that this might come to pass: "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered." [Job 35:7] Verse 7: "And since you are righteous, what will you give him?" But if you are righteous as before God, what do you have to give in virtue of your righteousness? And even if you are righteous, as you say, what will you add to him? [Job 35:10] Verse 10: "Who appoints night watches." He goes through praises of God, his praises and hymns. The one who appoints night watches is God himself. … God is the one who appoints night watches. This whole age is night; it is darkness. The light is kept for you. The light you see now, you see "through a mirror." And "in your light we shall see light": we shall see it one day. So this age is night; and since it is night, there are many wars, many wild beasts prowl. [Job 35:11] Verse 11: "Who separates me from the four-footed beasts of the earth." If you are a sinner, you have not been separated from the four-footed beasts of the earth. For "man, being in honour, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless cattle and became like them." If you are a sinner, you have not been separated from the four-footed beasts of the earth; but it is said to you: "Do not be like horse and mule, which have no

understanding." And a little after: If you are a sinner, if you are sexually immoral, if you are licentious, you will not be separated from the four-footed beasts. "They became horses mad for females." That is why he says boldly that he was separated: "Who separates me from the four-footed beasts of the earth." [Job 40:7] Verse 3: "No, but gird your loins like a man." I give you boldness: I will ask you, and you answer me. God now gives him a prize. He questions a man; he inquires of him; he gives him the right to answer. Had he not conquered, he would not have received this; had he not endured, he would not have heard: "Gird your loins like a man; I will ask you, and you answer me." (Of the same.) Let no one answer God unless he has become a man and girded his loins like a man. For as long as his loins are not girded but loosened, not bound around nor drawn tight, he cannot fittingly answer the Lord. Verse 3: "I will ask you, and you answer me." The full rewards of the contests are laid up after this life for those who have contended well; but nonetheless, even now the grace of God gives the athletes a pledge. Therefore, when Job had fought the greatest contests (when, having lost his possessions, he glorified the giver; when, having lost his children, he gave thanks to the one who had taken them; when, perceiving that worms were coming up from his body, he was not overcome by his pains), God gives him the first fruits and pledge of the athletes' prizes, speaking to him through whirlwind and clouds. Having heard the earlier words, when he ought to answer God, he is silent, as having no boldness to answer him. For he did not yet know what was later written by Moses, that "Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice." Not knowing this, then, he does not wish to answer God; but God gives him boldness to speak. And after other things: So great is the kindness of God that he takes the role not of one who judges but of one who is judged together with the man. And many Scriptures have taught this: "Come, and let us reason together, says the Lord." And: "My people" (or rather, God will reason with the people), "My people, what have I done to you, or how have I troubled you? Answer me," and so on. [Job 40:8] Verse 3: "Do not reject my judgment." Do not repudiate this judgment of mine. Let us remember this saying as a useful one. When God judges that we should suffer something (lose a child, lose a ruler, fall ill in body, endure any of these things), we cannot suffer any of them unless God judges it. For not even a sparrow falls into a snare without the will of the Father in heaven. Since, then, none of these things happens without the judgment of God, it is said to the one who suffers:

"Do not reject my judgment"; do not deny that it was … for your sake. [Job 40:8] Verse 3: "Or do you think that I have dealt with you otherwise than that you might be shown to be righteous?" I make my defence to you: you were righteous, but you were not seen to be. You had patience; I had to give your patience an occasion to shine. You had courage, but it was hidden in you; the toils that befell you showed your courage. And a little after: Let us remember these things in times of affliction, and imagine that we hear God present and saying to us: "Do you think that I have dealt with you otherwise than that you might be shown to be righteous?" Let us not be shown to be unrighteous or impious. [Job 40:10] Verse 5: "Take up, then, loftiness and power." Be crowned; put on glory; put on honour. [Job 40:11] Verse 6: "Send out angels in wrath, and humble every insolent one." Verse 6: "And quench the proud." The insolent one made war against you. He said to me once, "Put forth your hand"; he said to me, "Touch all that he has"; he said to me about you that you would surely bless me to my face. But now you have conquered. That is why I say to you: Take heart; humble every insolent one, and humble his angels. That one became proud against you; but you, quench the proud. That one was ungodly against you; but you, strike the ungodly at once. [Job 40:13] Verse 8: "And fill their faces with dishonour." Convict sinners by showing them to be sinners; fill their faces with dishonour by the reproof that is in you. [Job 40:15] Verse 10: "But behold, wild beasts are with you; they eat grass like oxen." The wild beasts are the opposing powers, about which the prophet prayed, saying: "Do not hand over to the wild beasts the soul that confesses to you." The wild beasts are the opposing powers, over which you, O man, have received authority. If you serve God, "you will tread on the asp and the basilisk." Verse 10: "But behold, wild beasts are with you." (Of the same.) With you, Job; with everyone who endures; with everyone who has conquered. Verse 10: "They eat grass like oxen." He means the worms that came from him and devoured him. For, he says, … my hand …, and behold, it devours like grass. [Job 40:16] Verse 11: "And his power is in the navel of his belly." This is his first power against man: from here he begins to make him sexually immoral. (Of the same.) It is said to signify the female, to show that he makes war not only on males. Most fittingly he named the loins in the case of the male and the navel of the belly in the case of the woman: "Behold, his strength is in his loins, and his power in the navel of his belly."

[Job 41:6] Verse 25: "And the nations of the Phoenicians divide him up." Since the Canaanites, who are also the Phoenicians, are charged with great wickedness, he says therefore: "The nations of the Phoenicians will divide him up." Each takes some part of the dragon, if he is a Canaanite or a Phoenician by race. [Job 41:7] Verse 26: "All that floats, coming together, could not carry a single hide of his tail." The last and outermost parts of the dragon all the ships together cannot kill. People, using their bodies as ships, cannot carry a single hide of his tail. By themselves they cannot; but when divine power watches over us, we can not only carry a single hide of his tail, but carry him off whole and kill him whole. And each of us kills the devil, so far as lies in him, according to what is said by the apostle: "And God will crush Satan under your feet shortly." [Job 41:13] Verse 4: "Who will uncover the face of his garment?" Why did he not say, "Who will uncover his face"? What is "garment" doing here? "For who will uncover," he says, "the face of his garment?" To understand what is said, let us use the example of those who put on masks and appear not as what they are but as what they wish to seem. Actors on the stage, for instance, put on masks, sometimes of governors, sometimes of kings, sometimes of women; their own face is hidden, and what they are does not appear, but what they seem to be is seen. Such is the dragon. He never shows his own face, but takes a face for the deception of people and uses that. And this enemy has many masks: for each vice he takes the face of a virtue. And after other things, on what follows, the rest of the verse written above: Who is able to expose the face that he has put on? Who is able to uncover and … what the dragon is within? Such too are some others, his disciples, "who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." Verse 4: "And who could enter into the folds of his breastplate?" You see? This is called a breastplate, and a chest; and the breastplate is where the ruling part of the soul is. His breastplate is not simple; he has nothing simple about him. He is deceitful; he is folded. Who, then, could enter into the folds of his breastplate? But a holy man can expose him and show that his breastplate is folded; the holy man's is not folded. [Job 41:14] Verse 5: "Who will open the gates of his face?" He hides what is stored within. Who, then, will open the gates of his face? Who is this,

able to expose him and show how much deceit, how much poison, how many evils he has stored up? Verse 5: "Around his teeth is fear." Of these teeth it is said: "You have broken the teeth of sinners"; and: "The Lord will crush the molars of the lions." This is not the fear of God, but the fear around his teeth. But if you have Christ in yourself, do not be troubled by this fear. For "you shall fear the Lord your God," and apart from him fear no other. [Job 41:15] Verse 6: "His innards are bronze shields." These are his doctrines, his hidden thoughts. Everything is the poison of asps, everything within him; and they are not soft asps but hard ones, for they are hard shields. [Job 41:19] Verse 10: "From his mouth": the blasphemies and the words of ungodly and godless teachers. Verse 10: "From his mouth go forth burning torches, and grates of fire are cast about." I think that all the ungodly who introduce godless doctrines are properly members of the dragon; and if you wish to hear the names of the dragon's members, which they are … The mouth of the dragon may also be understood figuratively, as that from which come the words that destroy. [For from his mouth come torches … of fire.] For from his mouth come grates … of fire. If ever I have heard the accusing word that, under the pretext of Christianity, accuses the Creator (for instance, one advocating the doctrines of Marcion, or of Valentinus and Basilides), when they speak ill of the Maker of heaven and earth, when they say that he does not exist, or is not of spiritual essence, such things as these men say: you will see that from the mouth of such men come burning torches, and grates of fire are cast about. Therefore we who know this guard ourselves, lest the torches … us, lest the grates of fire … our … [Job 41:22] "And in his neck lodges power." There is a certain power. But the weakness that my Saviour and Lord took up for my sake, which is called the weakness of God, conquered his power. For "the weakness of God," the apostle says, "is stronger than men"; and I would say, stronger than the power of the dragon. [Job 41:23] Verse 14: "The flesh of his body is glued together." He could have said, "The flesh of his body is united"; but he did not say it, for it is not united; it is not one. What seems one in him is many, or seems glued into one,