Lecture 2 — The punishment of the wicked

^20:14^ His bread is changed in his stomach into the gall of asps.

^20:15^ The riches which he devoured he vomits forth, and from his stomach God will cast them out.

^20:16^ The asp raises its head, and the tongue of the viper will kill him.

^20:17^ Let him not see the stream of the river flowing with honey and butter.

^20:18^ He will care for everything he did, yet he is not consumed. According to the great number of his stratagems, he will pay his debt.

^20:19^ He broke in pieces and stripped the house of the poor; he pillaged the house and did not rebuild it.

^20:20^ His belly has not been satisfied, and when he gets what he desired, he will not be able to possess it.

^20:21^ Nothing remains of his food, and so nothing will remain of his goods.

^20:22^ When he is satiated, he will be bloated; he will burn with desire and every pain will seize him.

^20:23^ Would that he would fill his belly to the full that he might send on him the fury of his anger and shower his war upon him.

^20:24^ He will flee before the weapons of iron and he will fall on a bronze bow,

^20:25^ drawn forth and coming out of its sheath, and he will shoot lightning forth into his bitterness. Terrors go and come upon him.

^20:26^ Utter darkness will invade his hidden places. Fire will devour him, a fire which is not enkindled, abandoned and afflicted in his tent.

^20:27^ The heavens will reveal his evil and the earth will rise against him.

^20:28^ The seed of his house will be uncovered and carried off in the day of divine vengeance.

^20:29^ This is the lot of the evil men given by God, and the heritage of his words is from God.

302. His bread is changed in his stomach. Since he had said (Job 20:11) that the bones of the evil man are filled with the vices of youth so that he is punished after death, he now treats more broadly of his punishments.

First, he shows that the goods which he enjoyed in this world are changed into evil for him. He uses the metaphor of one eating, whose food sometimes becomes a cause of evil. This happens in two ways: in one way when food remains undigested in the stomach and is changed into ruinous fluids. He expresses this, saying, his bread is changed in his stomach into the gall of asps, for as the food eaten is sometimes changed into ruinous fluids, so the goods which he had in this world and remained until death are changed into the bitterness of death.

Second, the food which is eaten and sometimes cannot be digested is rejected and is vomited out in disgust and pain. So also it sometimes happens that sinful men lose the temporal goods which they acquire in this world because they do not use them well by divine judgment, which causes pain like undigested food. So he then says, the riches which he devoured, which he rapaciously acquired, he will vomit forth, and lose them with disgust; and from his stomach, from his dominion, God will cast them out, because they are taken violently from him by divine judgment.

303. Not only the goods which he possessed are changed into evil, but also his enemies inflict him with evil both in word and in deed. He gives two examples of this.

First, he gives the example of the asp, which kills by its bite. So he says, the asp raises its head, against him to bite him. By this he means the head of evildoers, or even Satan himself coming into him.

As the second example he gives the viper, which distributes its poison with its tongue. So the text continues, and the tongue of the viper will kill him, by which he means that every harmful thing comes from the tongue of a man like poison from the tongue of a viper.

304. Then he continues with the punishment, which is the privation of goods, when he says, let him not see the stream of the river flowing with honey and butter. Honey and butter both fittingly describe what is pleasant to the taste, but honey is produced by bees, who collect it from flowers. Butter is produced from the labor of men, who take it from domesticated animals. So honey can mean any enjoyable good which comes without the industry of man, whereas butter means any enjoyable good which is produced from human endeavor. A torrent comes on someone immediately and unexpectedly. The river means abundance, because of the great quantity of water. The streams mean the distribution of goods. Not everyone has every temporal or spiritual good, but some have the latter and others the former. According to the opinion of Sophar, it is necessary to admit that the pleasant delight of good comes to good men abundantly and unexpectedly, but in an ordered distribution, both from human work and from divine providence without human work. The sinner, he asserts, is deprived of this distribution. Because sometimes man becomes so weak from excessive punishment that he cannot sustain further punishments, he then says that although the sinner is punished in many ways in this life, he will be destined later for further punishment in the future life. So the text continues, he will pay for everything he did, since for each and every sin he will suffer punishment, yet he is not consumed, in the soul which is conserved to suffer punishments in the afterlife.

305. Consequently, he shows us the fitting character of the punishments for blameworthy acts when he then says, according to the great number of his stratagems, for the sins which he thought about with great care, he will pay the debt, because the punishment will fit the individual proportion of the sin.

First, he clearly demonstrates this in the case of the sin of theft, where he makes two points in proper order.

The first of these is the violent pillage, which he means when he says, he broke in pieces and stripped the house of the poor, showing violence in breaking it in pieces and theft in stripping it.

Second, he puts the lack of restitution, and to this he says, he pillaged the house and did not rebuild it, because he neglected to repay what he took from the house, or destroyed in breaking it in pieces. He adds the proportionate punishment for this sin when he says, his belly has not been satisfied, since he despoiled the house of the poor, and did not allow himself to be satisfied with their goods. His punishment for this is that his appetite is satisfied neither with the goods which he possesses lawfully nor with those he has acquired unjustly. As Qoheleth says, the avaricious man will never have enough money, and he who loves riches does not enjoy them (Eccl 5:9). As to this second thing, he continues, and when he has what he desired, he will not be able to possess it, because either he himself will be taken away from them, or they will be taken away from him. This is fitting, because since he did not want to restore by his own will the things which he had stolen, he loses them against his will.

306. Then he clearly shows the same is true in the sins of ravenous gluttony when he says, nothing remains of his food, because whatever he had he turned to his own use, leaving nothing for the needs of others. He then adds the corresponding punishment, saying, and so nothing will remain of his goods, for him, because he loses everything. This is a fitting punishment since, because he did not want to reserve anything from his goods for others, it is just that nothing is reserved for him. As to the fact that he consumed superfluous things for his own advantage, he then says, when he is satisfied he will be bloated. Here he uses the comparison of a man who eats too much and whose bowels become bloated because of an excess of food. By this he means the man who expends his superfluous goods for his own advantage, or who acquires superfluous things for himself, will suffer a kind of bloating, not being able to dispose correctly of all the things he acquired. This is clear in the Gospel of St. Luke concerning the rich man whose fields produced an abundance of fruit, and who wanted to tear down his barn and build a larger one (Luke 12:18). Rise in temperature and accompanying anxiety follow the bloating of the bowels, and so he then says, and he will burn with desire. The same is true of those who inordinately amass great wealth for themselves and are afflicted with excessive anxiety. At length, pain from too much food often comes to all the members of the body, and so he adds, and every pain will seize him. Likewise, even those who have amassed many superfluous things experience a great many pains as soon as they lose most of them.

307. Sophar considered then that the abundance of the evil man was harmful to him. So from apparent zeal for justice, he desires the greatest abundance of temporal goods for Job so that he suffers punishment. So the text continues, would that God would fill his belly to the full, with the abundance of temporal goods, that he might send on him the fury of his anger, revenge without mercy. He shows the manner of his anger, saying then, and would shower his war upon him. He says he would shower, to show an abundance of evils. By the fact that he says, on him, that is, upon the strength of the sinner, he shows the impotence of the sinner to resist. When he says, his war, he shows that evil things are not brought upon him to correct him like a father chastises his son by discipline, but like someone destroys an enemy by extermination.

So he then says, he will flee before the weapons of iron, the punishments of the present life which he sustains impatiently, because they wound him at close quarters, like an iron sword. And he will fall on a bronze bow, in the punishments of the future life, which wound from afar like a bronze bow, which cannot be broken, to show the infinite duration of future punishments. He consequently develops the image of this bronze bow, saying, drawn forth and coming out of its sheath (the bow here is understood). For as long as the bow is in its sheath, it does not strike down. In the same way, the revenge of future damnation does not condemn as long as it remains in the foreknowledge of God like a sheath, but it is taken out of the sheath when we provoke God through evil, and then it is brought forth by divine disposition. He shows its effect when he then says, and he shoots lightning forth into his bitterness. For, as a bolt of lightning comes from above, suddenly, violently, and brightly; so this vengeance is born to the sinner by God unexpectedly, with such great violence that he is unable to resist, and with such a clarity of justice that there will be no place for excuse. Because of this, the sinner will be filled with bitterness.

308. He then explains in detail the punishments of this vengeance.

First, he explains that the sinner is surrendered to the power of the demons. As to this he says, terrors go and come upon him, for the demons have free reign over him.

Next, he places the punishments of the damned when he says, utter darkness was in his hidden places, because he suffers perfect interior and exterior darkness, far from the brightness of God. He says this darkness is utter, for as the brightness of the saints is hidden from us in this life, so is the darkness of the evil.

He places next the pain of sense when he says, fire will devour him, not by consuming him, but by adding to his affliction. This is a fire, of Hell, which is not enkindled, by man, but by divine power, according to Isaiah, the breath of the Lord enkindled him like a torrent of sulphur (Isa 30:33). In these punishments no aid will come to him, and so he says, abandoned and afflicted in his tent, from the fact that he is left in thirst and in the place of punishment destined for him.

309. After he describes the punishments which he will suffer in himself, he then tells the punishments which pertain to him according to what remains of him after death in this life.

First, as to how the sinner remains in the memories of men, he says, the heavens will reveal his evil, for by the power of heaven, his evil, which was hidden while he lived, will be revealed after death, and the earth will rise up against him, because when his evil is clearly seen, the men of the earth will rise up against the dead man who was perhaps revered while he was alive.

He places next his punishment as to what remains for his sons when he says, the seed of his house will be uncovered, because his sons will be exposed to trials, and this seed, will be carried off, from this life on the day of divine vengeance. This can also refer to the final judgment, when the saints will reveal the evil of sinners and the whole earth will wage war against the foolish (Job 5:21), and the seeds or the works of sinners will be clearly seen, and at last the evil man will be carried off to hell.

310. Then in epilogue he says, this is the lot of the evil man given by God, which he acquired for himself by evil works, and the heritage of his words from God, which he acquired for himself by his evil words. Note that in the foregoing he mixes the present and future punishments together.