Lecture 1 — Job's character attacked

^22:1^ Then Eliphaz the Themanite answered, and said:

^22:2^ Can man be compared to God, even if he is perfect in knowledge?

^22:3^ What advantage is there for God if you will be just? Or what will you give him if your life will be blameless?

^22:4^ In fear will he blame you, and come with you in judgment?

^22:5^ Is it not because of your great malice and your infinite iniquities?

^22:6^ You took away the pledge of security of your brother without cause, and you despoiled the naked of their clothes.

^22:7^ You did not give water to the weary, and you have taken bread from the hungry.

^22:8^ You gained possession of the land by the strength of your arm, and you kept it because you were the most powerful.

^22:9^ You sent widows away empty-handed, and you weakened the arms of the orphans.

^22:10^ On that account you are surrounded with snares, and sudden dread throws you into confusion.

^22:11^ You thought that you would not see darkness, and you would not be oppressed by the force of flood waters.

^22:12^ Do you think that God is higher than heaven, and is elevated above the greatest of the stars?

^22:13^ And you say: what, indeed, does the Lord know? He judges as through a fog.

^22:14^ The clouds are his hiding-place, and he does not see ours, and he walks about the hinges of heaven.

325. Then Eliphaz the Themanite answered, and said: can man be compared with God. When blessed Job had finished speaking, Eliphaz did not understand his words according to the intention with which they were spoken. Indeed, when Job had spoken first about the exalted character of the matter, he said, is my debate against man (Job 21:4).

Eliphaz takes this to have been said in such a way as if to dispute contentiously with God, and so accuses him of presumption for three reasons.

First, one is provoked to discussion or dispute with another when one sees him comparable to himself in knowledge of the truth, so that from mutual discussion something hidden may be brought to light. However, it is especially presumptuous for man to dare to compare his knowledge to divine knowledge, and so he says, can man be compared to God, even if he is perfect in knowledge? as if to say, “no, because the knowledge of God is infinite.”

Second, someone is provoked to dispute or reason with another because of things which he received from him, so that a comparison of things given and things received may be made. However, it is presumptuous that man should think that the goods which he does are useful to God, and so the Psalmist says, I said to the Lord: you are my God because you do not need my goods (Ps 15:2), and so he continues, what advantage is there for God if you will be just, in doing good works? Or what will you give him if your life will be blameless, by abstaining from sin?

Third, someone is challenged in a judgment with another from the fear of the higher power of the one calling him into judgment, which is a wicked thing to think of God. Thus he says, in fear, of some judge, will he blame you, by accusing you, and come with you in judgment, as if summoned by an equal?

326. Then, since Job had said that the opinions of those who had said that his house had perished like the tents of the wicked (Job 21:28) were unjust, Eliphaz intends to show that his opinion is right when he says, is it not because of your great malice and your infinite iniquities? as if to say, “God accuses you by afflicting punishments, not because of fear, but because of the love of justice, to punish your sins.” Malice can refer to the sins by which he wounded others; iniquity, to the sins by which he omitted the works of justice. So he says the malice is great and the iniquities are infinite, because man sins in more things by omission than by commission. Then he first explains an observation about injuries born to neighbors, which are sometimes inflicted by means of calumny under the pretext of justice. So he says, you took away the pledge of security of your brother without cause, without necessary things, because you were able to trust your brothers without a pledge of security. Sometimes harms are inflicted without any tint of justice, and as to this he says, you despoiled the naked of their clothes.

This can be understood in two ways:

in one way, because in despoiling them, you have left them naked, leaving them nothing;

in another way, because although they were naked and without sufficient clothing, you took away what little they had.

He continues then with the omission of the good works, saying, you did not give water to the weary. They needed drink because of the thirst which arises from the toil of the journey, as if to say: “You did not bear help and solace to workers and the afflicted.” And you have taken bread from the hungry, saying in effect, “You did not help the needy.” These things are said about the sins which he committed as a private person.

327. He next speaks about sins which relate to things given into his rule.

Among these he places first that he obtained his dominion not by justice, but by violence, and so he says, you gained possession of your land by the strength of your arm, for you acquired dominion of the land by your own force.

He says second that he did not govern his subjects with justice, but with force, according to what is said in Wisdom, let our strength be the law of injustice (Wis 2:11). So he then says, and you kept it because you were the most powerful, as if to say, “With the might of force you used your subjects for your own will.”

He treats third of evil judgments, since he did not render justice to weak persons, and so he then says, you sent widows away empty handed, since you did not do justice for them against their adversaries, as Isaiah says, the cause of the widows has no place with them (Isa 1:23). You even oppressed the weak, and so he then says, and you weakened the arms of the orphans, as if to say, “If there were any power in them, you have taken it away,” contrary to what is said in the Psalm, to judge in favor of the humble and the orphan (Ps 9:35).

328. He then states that punishments have come upon him because of these faults, and so he says, on that account you are surrounded with snares, for you are oppressed on all sides with adversities, so that no place is open for you to escape after you have fallen into them. Nor were you even able to hide before, because they came upon you suddenly, and so he says, and sudden dread throws you into confusion, since evil things overcame him suddenly, resulting in his being able to fear others also. He shows the reason why they come on him suddenly when he then says, you thought that you would not see darkness; that is, you would not arrive at these doubts in which you do not know what to do, which refers to the snares. Then, as to the fear which throws him into confusion, he says, and you would not be oppressed by the force of flood waters, as if to say, “You thought that you would never come to be oppressed by the violence and the great number of adversities coming from above,” as Thessalonians says, when they say: peace and security, sudden destruction will come upon them from above (1 Thess 5:3).

329. The opinion that one will not suffer punishments for sins is related to the fact that one does not believe that God has providence over human things. He perhaps wished to twist what Job had said, will anyone teach God knowledge (Job 21:22), which he interpreted wrongly to express a defect of divine knowledge, and so it seems right to him to imply that Job denies the providence of God. Consider that some deny that God has knowledge and providence over human affairs because of the high character of his substance, to which they say his knowledge is proportioned so that he knows nothing except himself. They think that his knowledge would be defiled if it were extended to lower things, and so he says, do you think that God is higher than heaven, the whole universe of creatures, and is elevated above the greatest of the stars, above the highest of the creatures? He draws the conclusion of this thought, and you say: what, indeed, does the Lord know? about those lower things. Still, men of this sort do not totally take knowledge of things away from God, but they say that he knows them universally, for example, by knowing the nature of their being or universal causes, and so he says, he judges as though through a fog. For to know something only in the universal is to know it imperfectly, and so he calls this knowledge foggy, as if it depends on what is seen far off, as if in a mist. So he knows there is a man, but he doesn’t know who he is. He shows this to be analogous to what happens with men, among whom one who hides in some place is not seen by those who are outside the place, and he does not see them. The clouds are his hiding place and he does not see ours, as if to say, “Just as he is hidden from us as though obscured by the clouds, because we cannot know fully what is above the clouds.”

Therefore, the converse is true. He does not see those things which pertain to us as if they existed under the clouds, as Ezekiel says, speaking in the person of one who has this opinion, the Lord has forsaken the earth, he does not see (Ezek 9:9). For they thought that, since things which are on the earth are subject to many defects and disorders, they are not ruled by divine providence. Only the heavens, whose order remains without defect, are so ruled, and so he says, and he walks about the hinges of heaven. A hinge is something on which a door turns. Therefore, by this he means that heaven is moved by the providence of God, and divine providence descends to these lower things from this motion like a door. For just as they say that God only knows human things in universal, so they say that he governs human affairs, but through universal causes, which he governs by himself. Perhaps he wanted to allude to what Job had said above, who judges eminent men (Job 21:22).