Lecture 2 — Job ridicules his friends

^17:10^ Therefore, all of you convert and come, and I will not find one wise man among you.

^17:11^ My days have passed away and my thoughts are utterly scattered. They torture my heart.

^17:12^ They turn my nights into days, and I hope again for the light after the darkness.

^17:13^ If I am patient, my home is in the lower regions; in darkness I have arranged my couch.

^17:14^ I have said to corruption: You are my father; and to the maggots: You are my mother, my sister.

^17:15^ Where then now is my hope and who will appreciate my patience?

^17:16^ Into the last depths of hell will all of me descend; do you think that at least there I will have rest?

272. Therefore, all of you convert and come. After Job presented his refutation of the opinion of Eliphaz, he collects here what he has said and orders it to demonstrate the proposition. First, he gets their attention, saying, therefore, from what I have said which is true, all of you, you and your fathers, who have arrayed yourselves against me, convert from your errors, and come to consider the truth. Once you have ascertained the truth it will be clear to you how far you are from true wisdom. Therefore he says, and I will not find one wise man among you. He says this to curb the boast of Eliphaz above, when he said, what do you know that we do not know (Job 15:9), and wise men know what they have learned from their fathers (Job 15:18).

273. In this he really wants to show their stupidity when they promised the consolation of temporal prosperity to him (Job 5:15; 8:6; 11:17). He first proposes against their promises that the time of his life has already elapsed, and he therefore says, my days have passed away. Then he shows the evil things which he suffers when he continues, my thoughts are utterly scattered, for they are impeded from the quiet contemplation of wisdom because of the bitterness of my bodily pain. So he then says, they torture my heart, because his thoughts are changed from the easy consideration of truth to the bitterness which tortured his heart. This torture of the heart was not even interrupted by night, which is the time man gives to rest, and so he then says, they turned my nights into day, because he spent the night in insomnia, as though it were day. It is more painful to suffer the loss of sleep at night than during the day, because during the day the soul of man is lightened by the company of men and by the splendor of light. So as long as he could not sleep at night he desired that it end quickly. He explains this, saying, I again hope for the light after the darkness; that is, I hope that the light of day will come again after the darkness of night.

274. But since Eliphaz had invited him to tolerate all adversities patiently from future expectation, he shows as a consequence what seems to him to be left of temporal things in the future. So he says, if I am patient, that is, patiently bear all these pains, nothing remains for me but the dwelling of the grave, and he expresses this, saying, my home is the lower regions. He calls the grave the lower regions according to the opinion of those against whom he is disputing, who did not believe that the soul of man survives after death, but that only the body remains in the grave, which they called lower regions, because it was situated in the depths of the earth. Man lying in the grave suffers darkness, both because of the defect of the senses and because of the lack of exterior light, and so he then says, in darkness I have arranged my couch. As a man who takes his origin when he is born from his parents has an affinity with them, so after death, lying in the grave, he dissolves into corruption and maggots, which are born from his body, and so he then says, I have said to corruption: You are my father; and to the maggots, you are my mother, my sister, because I will have affinity in the grave with no other temporal thing except corruption and maggots.

275. From these things he concludes as though deducing an unfitting conclusion, saying, where then now is my hope? because if I must find my consolation in temporal prosperity, my hope would be vain. Again he concludes to a greater absurd conclusion, saying, and who will appreciate my patience? for even though I would suffer patiently, nothing remains for me but the grave and its darkness, corruption and maggots. If I should have patience to merit temporal goods from God, then it would follow that God did not regard my patience, which is to deny providence. Against the objection that he would be given temporal prosperity by God even in the grave, he then says almost jeeringly, into the last depths of hell will all of me descend, since whatever is mine will be lowered into the grave, which is all that remains for me. Do you think that at least there I will have rest; should I also expect earthly prosperity there? This is clearly ridiculous.