Lecture 3 — Job desires a respite

^10:18^ Why did you take me from the womb? Would that I had perished so that no eye would see me in my mother’s womb.

^10:19^ I would have been as though I had not been, carried from womb to tomb.

^10:20^ Will not the short span of my days finish quickly? Therefore deliver me. Leave me for a little while to myself, so that I may find a little comfort in my pain

^10:21^ before I go away; and I will not return to the land of gloom, covered with the mental dullness of death;

^10:22^ a land of unhappiness, a land of shadows; of death and confusion where one dwells in everlasting terror.

185. Why did you take me from the womb? Job had finished his investigation with the statement that he has suffered a great many tribulations regardless of the fact that he is just or unjust. He wants to ask if this can be true to disprove that God rejoiced in his tribulation. It would seem unfitting that someone would cause an effect as his own just to treat it evilly, because every agent intends the good in its effect. This supposes, however, that he is the work of God, as he made clear in the foregoing arguments (Job 10:3–4). So he asks him, why did you take me from the womb, meaning, “Did you cause my birth in order to subdue me with trials?” As someone could object that, absolutely considered, it is still better to exist even in tribulations than not to have been born at all, he rejects this opinion, saying, would that I had perished, in my mother’s womb, so that no eye would see me, so as not to suffer shame from the great evils which the eyes of man contemplate in my existence. If I had perished in my mother’s womb, I would still have had the dignity of existing, without the unhappiness which I suffer while existing. He speaks about this, saying, I would have been, as a participant, because I would have participated in what is good in existing, as though I had not been, free from the evils of this, like as though I had never existed. For the dignity of man’s being does not consist in being preserved in existence perpetually. Rather, at length, as man dies and is carried to a tomb which is prepared for the dead, so that his memory may remain after death in some way. I would not be without even this, and so the text continues, from womb to tomb.

186. There is no one who delights in the torments of another who is so cruel that he would not give him at least a brief respite from his affliction. So, even if one supposes that God was not the cause of the birth of man, the days of man are still short, especially in comparison with the eternity of God. Man expects even that brief time will end quickly when he has passed a great part of his life. This is what he says now, will not the short span of my days, because all the days of my life are few, finish quickly, when I have already lived a great part of that short span? Would it not be a sign of greatness to stop persecuting me for the rest of my days, and so he concludes, therefore, deliver me. If it seems difficult for you to not afflict me for at least one hour, it is certain that even after you cease to afflict me, there will be no cause for joy remaining for me, but only cause for grief. He continues on this theme, let me find a little comfort in my pain, which I feel from the blows I am suffering. He says this because he still considered himself to be struck hard as long as his friends reproved him. He spoke about this when he said, you set up witnesses against me (Job 10:17).

187. But one could object: you should be afflicted even more here for the little time remaining to you, so that when you go from here, you will really find consolation.

This can be interpreted in two ways.

In one way, by returning a second time to this life. He excludes this, saying, before I go away, namely, in death, and I will not return to live again.

This can be explained in two ways.

In one way, it means that he will not return to the same kind of life as some have falsely maintained. A better interpretation would be that he is speaking in the manner of a disputation, adopting the point of view of his adversaries before he explains the truth (Job 14:13; 19:25). In a subsequent chapter, Job will clearly give evidence about the truth of the resurrection. In all the foregoing, therefore, he speaks about the resurrection, supposing the opinion of those with whom he argues to be true, for they do not believe that there is any other life but this one. They think men are either punished or rewarded only in this life for the evil or the good things which they do.

In another way, he could expect consolation after the end of this life in the state of death itself. But he rejects this, saying, to the land of gloom, where I will go after death.

188. This can be explained in two ways.

In one way, it can be interpreted to express the hell to which the souls of all men, even the souls of the just before Christ, descend. Although the just do not suffer sensible pains there, but only darkness, the others suffer both pains and darkness. But since Job had spoken as if there were a doubt whether he himself were just or a sinner, as his friends unjustly accused him (in fact, he was just), he describes hell in a way common to both the good and the wicked. If hell is considered in this common sense, it is called a land of gloom, because it lacks the clarity of the divine vision. It is said to be covered with the mental dullness of death, the mental dullness because of original sin, leading to death. It is said to be a land of unhappiness because of the punishments which those condemned there suffer. It is called land of shadows because of the darkness of actual sins which entangle the wicked. A shadow is said to be there, that is, a likeness of death, because they are so afflicted that it is like a perpetual death. There is said to be confusion there, either because of the confusion of minds which the damned suffer, or because of the fact that the order is not observed there which is observed here. Here fire burns and gives light but not so there. There, one dwells in everlasting terror, because although they grieve about present punishments there, they still always fear future ones.

189. But since those against whom he disputes about the immortality of the soul do not assert that they survive after death, he still speaks expressing their position. According to the literal sense, the whole text refers to the body, which is buried in the ground and converted into dust. So he says, to a land of gloom, to express the property of earth which is opaque in itself. Although it is opaque considered in itself, those who inhabit it are illuminated by the light in the air clothing the earth. The dead, however, do not enjoy this sort of light, and so he says, covered with the mental dullness of death, for because of death, someone does not, after death, use the light which he used while alive. For some people do not enjoy the earth, even though they are surrounded by light, while someone living deep in the hidden caverns of the earth enjoys things by desiring them, and considers truths according to his intellect. But the dead cannot do this, and so he says, the land of unhappiness, because of the lack of all desires, and of shades, because they do not consider the truth.

Among things enjoyed by the living, human society is special. Some are preeminent in society, others are under them, and others serve them in proper order. The dead are deprived of this society and so he continues, there in the shadow of death, for there are nothing but shadows among the dead from the point of view of the living. For Wisdom says, persons who appeared sad made them tremble with fear (Wis 17:4). Confusion, because the condition of the dead is one without honor or dignity. But one dwells there in everlasting terror, since the dead are a horror to the living, because there is nothing in the state of the dead which men do not fear, and this will be eternally true for them if they cannot return to life.

190. Therefore, Job shows in the investigation of the causal explanation for this trial that this is not caused by some unjust person into whose hands the earth has been given (Job 9:24), nor by God persecuting him unjustly (Job 10:3), nor God looking for faults (Job 10:4), nor by God punishing him for sin (Job 10:14), nor by God enjoying the experience of causing suffering for others (Job 10:18). As a result, he still remains in doubt as to the cause of his pains. Job pursues all these things to lead the friends to conclude that there must of necessity be another life, in which the just are rewarded and the wicked punished. From this, it is clear that those who assert only this life as a possibility cannot determine the cause of the suffering of the just, who certainly often suffer trials in this life.