Lecture 1 — A new description of his misfortune

^19:1^ Then Job answered and said:

^19:2^ How long are you going to afflict my soul and injure me with your discussions?

^19:3^ Behold, you have confused me ten times and you do not blush in oppressing me.

^19:4^ If without doubt I have erred, my ignorance will be with me.

^19:5^ But you raise yourselves against me and you charge me with my disgraces.

^19:6^ At least now understand that God would not have afflicted me with right judgment, and he would not have girded me about with his scourges.

^19:7^ Behold, I will cry aloud while I am suffering attack, and no one will hear me; I will cry out and there is no one to judge.

^19:8^ He has obstructed my path and I cannot go across, and he placed darkness on my footpath.

^19:9^ He stripped me of my glory and he took the crown from my head.

^19:10^ He destroyed me on all sides and I perish, and he has taken away my hope like an uprooted tree.

^19:11^ His fury is roused against me, and so he considers me his enemy.

^19:12^ His hired robbers came all at once, they have cut a path for themselves through me and they besieged my tent all around.

^19:13^ He has made my brothers far from me and my acquaintances turned from me like strangers.

^19:14^ My neighbors abandoned me and those who knew me have forgotten me.

^19:15^ The tenants of my house and maids have considered me as a stranger, and I was like a foreigner in their eyes.

^19:16^ I called my servant and he did not answer me; I begged him with my mouth.

^19:17^ My wife shuddered at my breath and I begged the sons of my womb.

^19:18^ Even the foolish despised me, and when I left them, they disparaged me.

^19:19^ Once my counselors, they despised me, and he whom I loved most is against me.

^19:20^ My bone clung to my skin after my flesh was consumed. Only my lips stand around my teeth.

^19:21^ Have pity on me, have pity on me, you, at least, who are my friends, because the hand of the Lord has struck me.

^19:22^ Why do you persecute me like God, and are you not satisfied with my flesh?

285. Then Job answered and said: How long are you going to afflict my soul. In the previous discourse Baldath seems to have intended two things.

First, he intended to silence Job for stupidity, pride and anger (Job 18:2). He intended to afflict him with this like his other friends had, and so Job says, how long are you going to afflict my soul?

Second, Baldath intended to prove his opinion that the adversities of the present life arise because of sins, which, in fact, he had explained at length by enumerating the different adversities without introducing any other proofs (Job 18:4). Regarding this Job says, and injure me with your discussions, that is, with tiresome words but not convincing proofs? It is tolerable if someone speaks against his own friend once, but if the man says the same things over and over he seems to be firmly established in malice, and so he then says, behold! You have confused me ten times, in saying the same thing while I listened with some anger. Before this present response, Job is found to have spoken five times, if we begin from when he said, cursed be the day I was born (Job 3:13), and the friends are found to have answered him five times. Even if they should not cease to afflict the one they were tormenting for friendship’s sake, they at least could stop afflicting him because they were confusing him, and so he then says, and you do not blush in oppressing me, for you wear me out with both your reproaches and your lengthy discourses.

Among other reproaches Baldath seems to have noted ignorance when he had said, reflect first and on this condition we will speak (Job 18:2). The friends certainly should have tolerated this ignorance. He should have been excused because of it, but he should not have been reproached with it, especially in a time of adversity, and so he then says, if without doubt I have erred, my ignorance will be with me. This is as if he should say, “Nothing burdens you, but only me, and so it was not your concern to reproach me for ignorance in adverse straits.” So he then says, but you raise yourselves up against me, making an ostentatious display of your excellence, and you blame me for my disgraces, that is, which only concern me and do not burden others.

286. After he begins with these things which concern the silencing of his friends, he goes on to pursue his chief proposition, with the intention of showing what they say is false: that present adversities always arise because of past sins. Immediately at the beginning he draws an unfitting conclusion from this supposition, saying, at least now, understand that God would not have afflicted me with right judgment, as if to say, “If adversities only arise because of sins, the judgment of God, by which he afflicted me gravely when I did not sin gravely, is not right.” He says, at least now, because up to this time he had not yet enumerated his adversities as particularly as he will now. He not only says that he is afflicted with adversities, but also, he concludes from them that he cannot find a way to escape them, and so the text continues, and he will not have girded me about with his scourges, because the scourges themselves have taken away the road to the cures. He begins to pursue this second point first.

Cure from adversities can be found through human aid, or by the man himself. Cure through human aid is found in two ways.

In one way in the deed itself, for example, when someone is violently oppressed by someone else and he receives aid from another.

He rejects this, saying, behold, I will cry aloud while I am suffering and no one will hear me, as if he should say, “If I cry aloud against those who oppress me violently, no one will hear to come to my aid.”

In another way, after the deed; for example, when someone who has suffered injury complains to a judge, who restores and vindicates him by his sentence. He rejects this, saying, I will cry out and there is no one to judge; that is, if I cried out in complaint, there would be no judge present who would free me by his judgment.

Or, a cure is found from adversities by the man himself, who escapes adversities in two ways.

In the first way, by his power, and he excludes this, saying, he has obstructed my path and I cannot go across, as if he should say, “He has placed so many impediments to my advance that I cannot remove them.”

In another way by prudence, and to exclude this he applies the text, and he placed darkness on my footpath, so that I could not see how I must go forward.

287. Then, after he has excluded the cures, he adds the adversities, beginning with the exterior goods which he lost.

He places first among these the loss of honor and glory when he says, he stripped me of my glory, because although he had previously been held in honor and reverence, now even those younger in age derided him, as the text says further on (Job 30:1).

He places second the loss of rank when he says, and he took the crown from my head, because before he used to sit like a king surrounded by his army (Job 29:25), as a text will say further on, but now he sat in a dungheap scraping the corrupted matter with a potsherd (Job 2:8).

He places third the loss of exterior things when he says, he destroyed me on all sides, namely, when all my exterior goods are laid waste, and I perish, while the adversity lasts, because there is no hope of recovery. So he then places, and he has taken away my hope like an uprooted tree, for a tree has hope that it will grow again if its branches are cut off, as long as its roots stay in the earth. But if its roots are torn out of the earth, it must dry out and perish. The same is true of him, as though his roots have been torn out and he has no hope of recovering temporal prosperity.

288. The root of hope is twofold:

one is on the part of divine aid,

the other on the part of human aid.

The root of the hope which comes from divine aid seems to have been torn up by the fact that God seems gravely angry with him, according to the opinion of those who put divine punishment only in the adversities of this life, and so he says, his fury is roused against me, which he says to show the vehemence of the anger. For fury is his anger enkindled. But the more violent fury is, the more quickly it usually passes away, and so hope can remain in the future for the one who is angry. But if anger passes into hatred, then no hope seems to remain, and to show this he puts here, and so he considers me his enemy. For one does not hope for a cure by an enemy. He puts the sign of God’s anger and hatred next when he continues, his hired robbers came all at once. The term hired robbers means the Sabeans (Job 1:15), the Chaldeans (Job 1:17) and the demons (Job 1), who together laid waste his goods almost like a conspiracy. He terms them robbers hired by God as though this happened from divine ordination, as even the friends of Job had said. These aforementioned hired robbers despoiled Job publicly and without any respect or fear, and so he then puts, and they have cut a path for themselves through me, as though to say: they despoiled me like an enemy whom one finds on the road. They have also attacked him everywhere tenaciously. Regarding this he says then, they besieged, tenaciously, in a circle, each and everything, my tent, the goods of my house.

289. Next he shows that the root of his hope, which is from human aid, has been torn out. He shows that he could not expect any aid from those whom he should most expect to give it.

He enumerates first those who do not live under the same roof, beginning with his brothers, saying, he has put my brothers far from me, so that they do not want or are not able to bring me help.

Then he places intimate friends next, and my acquaintances turned from me like strangers, not bringing help to me. As to his blood relatives or who depend on him in any way he says, my neighbors abandoned me, not bringing me any aid. As for those, however, with whom he had been associated once he says, and those who knew me, that is, once as an intimate friend, now in trial, have forgotten me, namely, do not care for me.

After these he goes on to enumerate the household servants when he says, the tenants of my house, who used to serve me, and maids considered me as a stranger, not caring about my afflictions; and I was like a foreigner in their eyes, for they utterly despised me. He places next the disobedience of the slaves, I called my slave and he did not answer me. He adds proud contempt, I begged him with my mouth, that is, for I had to urge him not by command, but by entreaties, because he despised me.

Then he enumerates the persons most closely joined to him, namely his wife and children.

Wives usually especially enjoy the presence of their husbands, unless they perhaps come to detest him because of some serious physical corruption. He shows this, saying, my wife shuddered at my breath, because of the stench of the sores, which made him dreadful to her. The duty of children is to obey the least nod expressing the will of their parents. As a result of great contempt of the parent, the father, to whom a son should show respect, has to beg his son humbly, and to show this he puts, I begged the sons of my womb. But this seems to contradict what has been said above (Job 1:19), when the text states that his sons and daughters were oppressed by the ruin of their house. The explanation may be that some small ones remained who were not killed at that banquet, or that perhaps some sons of his sons imputed the death of their own parents by their own sins to the sins of Job, and despised him.

290. So, after he said he was despised by those inside and outside his household, he shows next that he has been despised both by the foolish and the wise. But foolish men characteristically despise those whom they see in miseries, because they think only earthly goods should be honored, and so he says, even the foolish despised me, in their hearts, when I was present, and when I left them, they disparaged me, verbalizing things they were ashamed to say in my presence. Then he also says he is despised by wise men whom he once regarded as intimate friends, and so he says, once my counselors, they despised me, namely these men whom I used to admit to my counsel because of their wisdom, and he whom I loved most is against me. Perhaps he says this because one of those who were present was more hostile to him.

291. So after he has describes the adversities, which belong to exterior things, he places the consumption of his own body, saying, my bone clung to my skin, after my flesh was consumed, because his flesh had been so consumed from the gravity of his illness that his skin clung to his bones. But because the lips are flesh which adhere to the teeth like bones, he then makes a exception of them, saying, only my lips stand around my teeth, by which he makes oblique reference to the fact that all the other functions of the members of the body have ceased, and only his function of speech remains.

292. After he has enumerated his own adversities, he invites them to compassion, repeating his request for mercy because of the great number of his miseries, saying, have pity on me, have pity on me, you, at least, who are my friends, because I am abandoned by others. The cause of pity is affliction, which is all the more grave as it is incited by someone more powerful, and so he continues, because the hand of the Lord has struck me. For he understood that he had been smitten by God. It does not seem fitting for a man to add afflictions to someone who has been afflicted, and so he says, why do you persecute me like God? as though he should say, “The persecution which comes from God is enough for me, but it was more your duty to bring consolation.” He shows in what way they were persecuting him, saying, and are you satisfied with my flesh, which characteristically belongs to detractors, who are said to feed on human flesh insofar as they rejoice in the weaknesses of others, for the flesh is the weakest part of an animal.