Lecture 1 — God is just to the individual

^34:1^ Publicly, then, Eliud said these things:

^34:2^ Hear my words, wise men, and you learned men, hear me.

^34:3^ For the ear proves the argument and the palate judges the taste of food.

^34:4^ Let us choose what is right for us and among ourselves let us determine what is better.

^34:5^ Since you have said, Job: I am a just man and God has overturned my cause.

^34:6^ In judging me, there is a lie and my arrow is violent without sin.

^34:7^ What man is like Job? Who drinks derision like water,

^34:8^ who walks with those who do evil and walks with evil men.

^34:9^ For he said: A man will not please God even if he goes with him.

^34:10^ Therefore, prudent men, hear me. Let impiety be far from God and evil from the Almighty.

^34:11^ Truly he will render the works of man to him and he will render to each according to his ways.

^34:12^ Truly God did not condemn in vain, nor the Almighty overthrow his judgment.

^34:13^ What other has he constituted on earth? Or whom did he place over the world which he has fashioned?

^34:14^ If he should turn his heart to him, he would draw his spirit and his breath to himself.

^34:15^ All flesh will be destroyed together and man will return to ashes.

^34:16^ If then you have an intellect, hear what is said and perceive the voice of my eloquence.

^34:17^ Can one who does not love judgment be healed? How can you condemn one who is just?

^34:18^ Who says to the King: Apostate? Who calls army leaders wicked,

^34:19^ who does not discriminate in favor of princes and does not know the tyrant when the tyrant decides against the poor man: for they are all the work of his hands.

^34:20^ They will die suddenly, and in the middle of the night, the people will be moved aside, and they will pass away and take the violent man away without aid.

^34:21^ For his eye is on the way of men and he considers all their steps.

^34:22^ There is no darkness nor the shadow of death where those who do evil can hide.

^34:23^ For on the farther side, there is no ability in man that he should come to God in judgment.

446. Publicly, then, Eliud said these things. After Eliud accused Job of the fact that he wanted to dispute with God, he enters into the dispute against two things which he had referred to already (Job 33:9–10). First, he argued against the fact that he interpreted Job to say divine judgment was unjust. Since this subject is exceedingly difficult and sublime, he is not content in this argument to address his words only to Job, especially since he thinks that he is erroneous in this matter, but he invokes wise men to judge this thing. Some men attain wisdom by themselves, and expressing this he says, hear my words, wise men; but others are instructed in wisdom, and as to those he says, and you learned men, who are taught by others, hear me. He shows why he invites others to listen, saying, for the ear proves the argument; for I invite you, after you have heard my words, to judge them. He introduces this as a comparison when he says, and the palate judges the taste of food, for just as taste judges food, so hearing judges words. He shows what these words are when he says, let us choose what is right for us; let us judge from the common consensus what is more true, and among ourselves let us determine what is better, what Job has said or what I am about to say against him.

447. Therefore, he proposes the argument of Job, saying then, since you have said, Job: I am a just man. He had said this already, I will not desert my justification which I have begun to have (Job 27:6). Later on he had shown his justice clearly in many things (Job 31). Eliud continues with the words of Job, and God has overturned my cause. Eliud takes this to be the same as what Job had said: long live God who has rejected my cause (Job 27:2) and the same seems to pertain to what he had said: God did not afflict me with right judgment (Job 19:6). Eliud interprets these words in the worst sense.

For Job had said that his cause had been rejected, not because he thought that punishments were inflicted on him by a judgment which punishes a fault, but as justice from providence, with a view to proving his justice, and so he had said, he proved me like gold which passes through fire (Job 28:10). One who does not use a judgment does not take away right judgment, as does the one who pronounces judgment unjustly. So he interpreted what Job said, God took away my judgment (Job 27:2), to say that God has ruined my cause by judging me unjustly, and he quotes Job, saying, in judging me there is a lie, a falsity of judgment, which Job had never maintained. But Eliud believed that his intention in the words he referred to was to say that he had been punished unjustly. Therefore, Eliud had conceived this opinion because he did not see how someone could be afflicted without sin unless this was done unjustly. Since Job had said that he was innocent, he thought Job was of the opinion that he was struck by God in violence, against justice. So he says, and my arrow is violent without sin, where he attributed the opinion to Job that, since I am innocent, the arrow with which God wounded me, the adversities he sent, were violent and unjust. This seems to allude to the words of Job spoken already, the arrows of the Lord are in me (Job 6:4).

448. After Eliud had laid this perversity on Job himself, he begins to reprimand him about it, saying, what man is like Job? He implies that there is no one like him who seems to be as perverse as he is. For it shows the greatest perversity when someone laughs at God by detracting from his judgments, and so he says, who drinks derision, the derision and reproving of divine judgments, like water. This is drunk easily and for refreshment, as if he imputes to him the crime of hurling insults at God, because he would find refreshment there in his tribulation and he could do this without his conscience reproving him for it. It is characteristic of those who want to persevere in sins to condemn divine judgments, and so he says, who walks, that is, consents, with those who do evil, who despise divine judgments. Moreover, men acting against the piety of divine religion not only despise divine judgments, but also deny them or assert that they are unjust. He believed that Job was one of them, and so he says, and he walks with evil men, who cast aside the piety of divine religion. He shows why he asserts that he consents with them, saying, for he said: a man will not please God even if he goes with him, even if he had followed him in the way of justice. Job did not say this, but to impute this to him, Eliud takes his words in a sense they were never intended. For Job had said, my feet followed his steps (Job 23:11), and later, you have changed into someone cruel in my opinion and you persecute me with a heavy hand (Job 30:21). From these words he concluded that Job thought that he was displeasing to God, even though he had followed him, but Job referred these words to exterior persecution, not to interior reprobation.

449. Since, then, Eliud abused the words of Job and was eager to impose on him what he did not think, or had not expressed in his words, it is clear that the whole subsequent discussion is not against Job. Yet since Eliud thought Job was of such great perversity that he reckoned the judgment of God to be unjust, he scorned him as unworthy to challenge him to a dispute on this subject, but calls on other wise men to decide the question, and so he says, therefore, prudent men, you who understood, hear me. For as the heart is the principle of corporeal life, so the intellect is the principle of the whole intellectual life, and so he used the heart above for the intellect, saying, I have a heart just like yours (Job 12:3).

450. In his argument, Eliud first proposes what he intends to prove; namely, that there cannot be injustice in divine judgment. For God is himself the one to whom the worship of piety is due, and through his omnipotence he governs, establishing for men all the laws of justice. Therefore, it would be against his divinity if he were to favor impiety, and so he says, let impiety be far from God. It would also be against the rule of his omnipotence if he would stoop to injustice, and so he says, and let evil be far from the Almighty. After he rejects divine injustice, he shows the manner of divine justice, saying, truly he will render the work of a man to him, because he bestows good and evil on him according to his deeds. Since some of those who do good things do them better than others, and some of those who do evil deeds sin more than others, he then says, and he will render to each one according to his ways, to those who are better, better things; to those who are worse, worse things.

451. He proves there is no injustice in God first, from the fact that if God were unjust, one would not find justice anywhere, since the universal judgment of everything pertains to him, and so he says, what other has he constituted on the earth? For must one believe that someone was constituted by God to judge all the earth justly if he is evil? Thus, he says that one should not believe there is someone else to judge the earth, because the same person is the maker and the governor of the earth. So, just as he did not commit the making of the world to anyone else, so he did not give the governing of the world to anyone else, and he expresses this, saying, or whom did he place over the world which he has fashioned? as governor of the whole world. He implies the answer is “no one,” because just as he has fabricated the world by himself, so also he himself governs and judges the world by himself. True, he has executors of his government, like ministers, but he himself is the orderer of all. It is not possible that the governing of the whole world be unjust in any way.

452. Second, he shows by experience that there is no violence or evil in God. For so great is the power by which he conserves things in being, that if he should wish to use violence against his justice, he could immediately annihilate all men. So he says, if he, God, should turn to him, namely, to destroy man, his heart, that is, his will, his spirit, that is, his soul, and breath, that is, the life of the body supported by the soul, he would draw to himself, separating him from the body by his power. This agrees with the last chapter of Qoheleth, and the Spirit will return to God who gave it (Eccl 12:7). When the spirit which was divinely given to man is taken away, the consequence is that the corporeal life fails, and so he says, all flesh will be destroyed together, for the species of flesh will cease, and will be resolved into its component parts. So he then says, and man will return to ashes, as the Psalm says, you take back their spirit and they die and return to dust (Ps 103:29). He calls the dust unto which flesh is resolved ashes, either because among the ancients the bodies of the dead were resolved to ashes by being burned with fire or because those things into which the bodies of the dead are resolved are a certain residue, springing from the natural heat in the human body. Since, then, it is so easy for God, if he wills, to reduce the whole of the human race to ashes, it appears from the conservation of man, that he does not use unjust violence with them.

453. Since Eliud thought these arguments were sufficient, he invites Job to their consideration when he then says, if then you have an intellect, to understand the power of my arguments, hear what is said, with the exterior ears, and, with interior attention, perceive the voice of my eloquence, to recognize the justice of divine judgment. He induces him to avoid harming himself, or to do something to help himself, when he says, can one who does not love judgment be healed? for you who need healing, because you are crushed by many illnesses, cannot be healed unless you love the divine judgment.

He rejects, then, what he thought was Job’s opinion about the injustice of the divine judgment, using many evident indications of divine justice, and so he says, how can you condemn the one who is just, God, as this appears in many things? But you say he is a subverter of justice.

He commends divine justice by first assuming that he does not receive persons of power, but he accuses them and punishes them for their sins. Among human powers, royal power is preeminent, and as to this he first says, who, namely, God, says to the king: Apostate. For he is not afraid to accuse a king of apostasy from his oath in which he promises to serve justice.

In the second place he puts the generals of armies, about whom he says, who calls army leaders wicked, because he is not afraid to accuse them of cruelty.

In the third place he puts the rulers of cities when he says, who does not discriminate in favor of the princes, so that he does not accuse and judge them for sins.

In the fourth place he speaks about tyrants who do not enjoy legitimate authority, but have usurped power, and as to them he says, he does not know, that is, approve, the tyrant, by deferring to him when the tyrant decides against the poor man, because he does not favor the strong against the weak, which expresses his justice. He then says why he does not defer to them, for they are all the work of his hands, both great and small, and therefore he does not despise the little people but loves them as his own works, nor does he fear the strong, since they are subject to his power.

454. To answer the possible objection that God only accuses the powerful and does not punish them too, he continues with their twofold punishment.

First, death comes to them unexpectedly, and so he says, they will die suddenly, as Isaiah says, suddenly, when it is not expected, his grinding will come (Isa 30:13). For if death came to them in the usual way, as expected, this would not be attributed to divine judgment, but to secondary causes.

Second, he places the punishment of their rebellious subjects, through which they lose power, and so he says, and in the middle of the night the people will be moved aside, for the people subject to princes and kings suddenly are directed by some hidden plot to revolt against their leaders, and so he says, and they will pass by, changing lords, and they will take away, they will depose from rule or even kill, the violent man, he who bore violence to his subjects by despising justice, without the aid, of armed men.

For when a prince is deposed by foreigners, he must have an armed force against him, but when his own subjects, in which his whole power consisted, suddenly desert him, it seems that he is borne away without a hand being raised against him. Although this can be referred to the punishment of the people, the first interpretation is better, because he speaks now about the justice which God exercises over the great, and then he will speak about the justice which God exercises over the people (Job 34:24). He shows that punishments like this are caused by divine judgment when he says, for his eye, which is his providence, is on the ways of men, on their works. He then expresses the fact that God knows each and every one of the particular details of human actions, saying, and all their steps, all the process of human works, he considers, not just in general but individually.

455. Someone could believe that since God is light and the wicked are in darkness, that they are hidden from God, but he excludes this, saying, there is no darkness, of ignorance, nor shadow of death, which refers to the obscurity of fault leading to death, where those who do evil can hide, for just as they did not want to know God, so God does not want to know them, yet he is said not to know them when he reproves them. Since he had said that princes die and are dispossessed immediately for their sins (Job 34:20), which seems to be an irremediable punishment, and he then shows the reason for this from the fact that when God judges a man for his sins and finally condemns him, the ability is not given to a man that he can further contend the judgment with God. He expresses this, saying, for on the farther side, after God has judged and condemned him, there is no ability in man that he should come to God in judgment, as though God should retract his judgment because of him. He seems to say this especially against Job who, after he had been condemned to punishment, had said, I will come to his throne and I will place my case before him (Job 23:3).