Lecture 1 — Job again describes his trials

^16:1^ Then Job answered, saying:

^16:2^ I have often heard such things. You are all burdensome consolers.

^16:3^ When then will these hollow words end? What trouble is there for you if you speak?

^16:4^ I myself would also be able to speak like you. Would that your soul were like mine.

^16:5^ I too will console you with words. I will shake my head over you.

^16:6^ I will encourage you with my mouth and I will move my lips and appear to console you.

^16:7^ But what can I do? If I speak, my pain is not stilled, and if I keep silence, it does not go away from me.

^16:8^ Now my pain oppresses me, and all my limbs are reduced to nothing.

^16:9^ My wrinkles give testimony against me. The slanderer is raised up against my face contradicting me.

^16:10^ He has collected his anger against me. He gnashes his teeth against me threateningly. My enemy has fixed me with a terrible glance.

^16:11^ They opened their jaws about me, they struck my jaw reproachfully. They are satisfied with my sufferings.

^16:12^ God has confined me with the wicked man and he has surrendered me into the hands of evil men.

^16:13^ I myself, who was rich, became sad all of a sudden; he seized the nape of my neck and he broke me in pieces, he set me up as his target.

^16:14^ He encompassed me about with spears, he wounded my loins severely, he did not spare me and he poured forth my bowels on the earth.

^16:15^ He cut me down with wound upon wound; he has seized me like a giant.

^16:16^ I stitched a sack over my skin, and I have covered my flesh with ashes.

^16:17^ My face was puffed up from weeping, and my brows were darkened.

^16:18^ I suffered these things without iniquity on my hands because I wanted my prayers to God to be pure.

^16:19^ Earth, do not cover over my blood, nor let my cry be hidden from you.

^16:20^ For behold, my witness is in heaven, my conscience is above.

258. Then Job answered, saying. Eliphaz had been very hard on Job in his answer, and so Job accuses him of unfitting consolation in the beginning of his speech. First, because both he and his friends frequently repeat the same things, and so he says, I have often heard such things, because your speech is always about the same things. They really intended to prove that Job had fallen into adversities because of his sins, which was the same thing they had already said. So he then says, you are all burdensome counselors. For the purpose of counseling someone is to say something which will mitigate his suffering. Therefore, a burdensome counselor is someone who says things which aggravate the pain of the soul. Yet one could excuse this if the irritating words were useful and contained some truth, or even if they were spoken only briefly in passing. But if someone uses language which is calculated to offend the sad person falsely, uselessly, and over a lengthy period of time, he is a burdensome counselor. So he says, when then will these hollow words end? He shows here that they have dwelt for a long time on irritating words. When he says hollow words, he shows that they were useless and false, because they were without foundation in fact.

259. He shows in what follows that there is not equality of each side in this dispute, because the friends of Job spoke without being troubled about it themselves, and so he says, what trouble is there for you if you speak? for you speak for such a long time in deprecating me because you are not troubled by this. Job, however, was extremely depressed. To preclude this ease in argumentation from being attributed to the prominence of the friends' knowledge, Job shows that if adversity had not deprived him, and he were in the same condition as the friends, he would speak with the same confidence. So he says, I myself would also be able to speak like you, if I were not weighed down with adversity. He wants them to feel the same things as he does, saying, would that your soul were like mine, in that you suffered like I do. He does not say this because of any feeling of hatred or with ill-will, seeking revenge, but to get them to abandon the cruel approach they were using with him, if they were spoken to in the same way. So he then says, I too will console you with words, like those which you used to console me, and I will shake my head over you, as a sign of compassion or reprobation like you used to censure me. Also, I will encourage you with my mouth, lest you should despair in your impatience, and I will move my lips, to speak, and appear to console you, by pretending to speak from pity which I should feel for you, just as you have done to me.

260. It would be easy for me to speak just as you did if I were in your condition. But now I am impeded by a sorrow which neither speech nor silence can take away, and so he continues, but what will I do? If I speak, my pain is not stilled and if I keep silence, it does not go away from me. For there are two kinds of pain. One is interior and is called sadness. This proceeds from the experience of a present evil. The other is external pain, and this is pain according to sense; for example, a pain which is caused by a continuous injury, or something of the sort. The first kind of pain can be taken away by conversation, but not the second. He shows as a result that he understands that this second pain cannot be taken away by words when he says, now my pain oppresses me, that is, it impedes me so that I cannot easily or freely reason like I did before. For when sensible pain is violent, the soul is less attentive and is impeded from the consideration of intellectual things. He shows this is true of corporeal pain, saying, and all my limbs are reduced to nothing. This is because all his members were filled with sores, since Satan afflicted Job with sores which were loathsome from the soles of his feet to the top of his head (Job 2:7).

261. The dissipations of my members not only cause me sensible pain, but they also bear witness against me. For when the friends of Job saw that he was filled with ulcers, they concluded from this that he had sinned grievously, because they thought this had happened to him as a punishment for sin. The text continues in this vein, my wrinkles give testimony against me, for his body is wrinkled from weakness caused by the consumption of liquids, as happens also in old age. He shows the manner in which his wrinkles testify against him when he says, and the slanderer is raised up against my face, contradicting me. Eliphaz truly had slandered him when he said that he had fallen into this weakness because of sin (Job 4:7). This could also be explained by saying that Job knew by the Holy Spirit that this adversity had been brought on by the devil, although God had permitted it to happen. So whatever he suffered, whether it be the loss of goods and children, the sores of his own body, or the annoyance caused by his wife and friends, he attributed all this to the instigation of the devil. So he calls him a slanderer who has been raised up against his face, because he understood that his friends, caused by the instigation of the devil, were to speak against him. According to this second interpretation, the following verses are clearer, he has collected his anger against me.

For the devil seems to have collected his complete anger against Job when he assails him with every kind of harm. He afflicted me not only in the past, but he also threatens me in the future, and the text speaks about this, saying, and he gnashes his teeth against me threateningly. He uses the imagery of an animal who threatens man by baring his teeth. He says this because Eliphaz had foretold that evil things would befall him unto death, using the person of the impious man (Job 15:32). Job, however, understood that the threats pronounced by the lips of Eliphaz were directed by the devil, and so he said that he had bared his teeth against him to threaten him.

262. Eliphaz not only threatened him by foretelling evil things, but he had also rashly judged his deeds, claiming that he was an evil man (Job 15:20) and a hypocrite (Job 15:34). So he then says, my enemy fixed me with a terrible glance. For one fixes another with a tranquil glance when he interprets his deeds in a benign way, but when he interprets his good deeds as evil, then he fixes him with a terrible glance. So he continues, they spread their jaws about me, namely, my friends instigated by my enemy. He interprets this, saying, they struck my jaw reproachfully. For one is said to strike one in the face when he reproaches him to his face. The friends of Job had uttered many reproaches against him as they rebuked him for many sins. Because just men rejoice to see justice done in sins that are punished (as Psalm 57 says, the just will rejoice at the sight of vengeance), the friends of Job thought themselves just, and Job, a sinner. So they rejoiced seeing his punishments almost as though rejoicing in seeing God’s justice done, and so the text continues, they are satisfied with my suffering.

263. Job then wishes to show that he was not referring to God when he said that punishments of this kind were inflicted on him by an enemy, as he continues, God has confined me with the wicked, that is, the devil, by consigning me into his power. He has surrendered me into the hands of evil men, who afflicted me by the instigation of the devil with words and deeds. Job really understood that his trials were inflicted on him by the devil, but God permitted it.

He gives a clear indication of this in four ways.

First, because he fell from the greatest prosperity, not little by little as is usually the case in human affairs, but suddenly and completely. This could not have happened by chance, but only by divine ordination. He speaks about this, saying, I, myself, who was rich, became sad all of a sudden. By the fact that he says rich, he shows the abundance of his wealth, but in the fact that he says, I, myself he shows the glory of his reputation which was recognized by everyone.

The second sign is that he was utterly struck down. He refers to this when he says, he seized the nape of my neck and he broke me in pieces. He uses the image of a very strong man who seizes a weak man by the nape of the neck, breaks it, and so completely takes his life away. For it seemed to Job that he has completely lost his prosperity.

The third sign is that he was not oppressed with one adversity, but many all at once. He expresses this, saying, he set me up as his target, like someone practicing archery. Here he describes the great number of his trials using three images. He shows that he was wounded exteriorly in his possessions, saying, he encompassed me about with his spears. For exterior things encircle us as something extrinsic to us. Thus, a man is said to be encompassed with the spears of adversity when he loses exterior goods.

Second, he says that he is persecuted interiorly in the affliction of his body. He expresses this, saying, he wounded my loins severely. He seems to mean, “I am not only wounded round about me, but my wounds penetrate even to that inner part of me where I find enjoyment.” The loins may refer to the place we experience pleasure or the origin of generation. So this reference to the loins can also mean the destruction of his sons.

Moreover, he expresses the great number of the blows from the intensity of the wound when he says, he did not spare me, by taking away his hand which struck the blow, so that I would not be wounded too deeply. Rather, he wounded me very deeply. He expresses this, saying, and he poured forth my bowels on the earth, because he destroyed all my sons and daughters in one blow by death.

Third, he shows the great number of blows which he has suffered in his own person, and so he then says, he cut me down, in my own person, wound, namely, with a very grave ulcer, upon wound, coupled with the deaths of his children.

The fourth sign is that he can find no cure or resistance against his tribulation because it proceeds from divine providence, reflecting on what he said already, the God whose anger none can resist (Job 9:13). He expresses this, saying, he has seized me like a giant, whom a weak man cannot resist because of his great strength. All these things can be understood either about God who confined him or in a better sense about the evil one, the devil, with whom he was confined.

264. Job calls to mind all these things about the greatness of his adversity to show that he cannot be the equal of those with whom he is arguing, because they were free from adversities of this kind. However, Eliphaz had accused him of pride, saying, why do you puff up your heart? (Job 15:12). This was even more detestable as he could have been freed by grave adversities, as Psalm 34 says against some, they were dissipated and not filled with remorse. Thus, as a consequence, having described his adversities, he shows now his humiliation, saying, I stitched a sack over my skin, for such a vesture is a sign of humility, as we read about the Ninevites in Jonah (Jon 3:5). He wears ashes for the same reason, to show his frailty, as Abraham said in Genesis, I will speak to my God, since I am dust and ashes (Gen 18:27), and so he continues, I have covered my flesh with ashes. For the text said above that he sat in a dung heap (Job 2:18) as a sign of humility.

Second, he shows his humility by his great weeping. He uses two signs.

First, the contortion of the face, when he says, my face was puffed up from weeping, because when many tears ascend to the head, the face of the weeper is puffed up.

Second, he speaks of his vision being obscured, and expressing this he says, my brows were darkened, with weeping; because of the presence of humors, the sight of the eyes was literally darkened.

265. From what he has said before about the gravity of his adversity and the greatness of his humiliation, one could surmise that he had recognized in effect the gravity of his sins, and was humbling himself in repentance, thinking that he was afflicted for his own sins. Eliphaz wanted to make this clear when he said, look among his holy ones; no one is unchangeable (Job 15:15). Thus, to reject this he says, I suffered these things without iniquity on my hands. By this he excludes from himself sins of commission. But he then says, because I wanted my prayers to God to be pure, to exclude from himself the sins of indifference and omission. In this he seems answer what Sophar said above, if you take away the evil which is on your hands, then you would be able to raise your hands without stain (Job 11:14). However, to disprove the innocence of Job, Eliphaz had already used twice the argument based on the frailty of earthly nature. He had said above, even those who serve him are not firm, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay (Job 4:18–19). He had repeated the same thing later, saying, the heavens are not clean in his sight, how much more abominable and useless is man (Job 15:16). So to reject this he says, earth, do not cover over my blood, and he understands here by blood, the affliction of his body.

Here, blood would be covered over if it were shed for crime, for it would not have any glory. However, it would be covered over by the earth if, by the accusation of earthly frailty, one could presume a preceding fault. If his blood were shed without fault, he would have a just complaint against the one who sheds it, as Genesis says, behold the voice of your brother cries to me from the earth (Gen 4:10). This cry would be hidden if his complaint seemed unjust, like the one who had been punished for some fault, and so he says, nor let my cry be hidden from you, so that I would seem, from the frailty of the earthly condition, to complain unjustly, as though I were punished for faults. It is true that it is difficult for a man to act according to his earthly condition without the evil of mortal sin, yet it is not impossible, with the help of the grace of God, who is a witness also to our interior purity. Thus, he then says, for behold, my witness is in heaven, for the earth cannot cover over my blood, because the witness of heaven is greater than the accusation from the frailty of earth. The witness of heaven is fittingly used here because he investigates the secret intention of conscience, and so he then says, my conscience is above, for my cry cannot find a place to hide on earth here below, because my conscience is known above in heaven.