Lecture 1 — On the impatience of Job

^4:1^ Then Eliphaz the Temanite spoke in response,

^4:2^ “If one ventures a word with you, perhaps you will be offended, but who can keep from speaking?

^4:3^ Behold, you have instructed many and you have strengthened those with weak hands.

^4:4^ Your words have upheld the tottering, and you have strengthened those with trembling knees.

^4:5^ But now a trial has come upon you, and you too have fallen away. It touched you, and you are dismayed.

^4:6^ Where is your fear, your courage, your patience, and the integrity of your ways?”

72. Then Eliphaz the Temanite spoke in response. After Job had finished, the friends who came to console him, who had kept silent up to now because of the acuteness of his pain, undertook the boldness to speak. First Eliphaz the Temanite speaks, who had not taken Job’s words in the spirit in which they were spoken. He imputed the hatred of his present life, which Job said he suffered, to despair; his great bitterness to impatience; and his profession of his innocence to presumption.

73. First, he therefore accuses Job of impatience, and begins to speak to him as one does to a man subject to the sin of impatience, who immediately reacts angrily to the words spoken to him. So he says, if one ventures a word with you, you will perhaps be offended. Here he adequately assesses the usual temperament of an impatient and angry man, who cannot suffer to hear someone finish the argument, but is immediately provoked to answer him when he has only just begun to speak. He says perhaps, lest he be condemned for rash judgment, although one should also interpret words or deeds in presumptuous or suspicious things in the better light. But whereas he accuses Job of impatience, he shows himself the one given to impatience and silliness when he says, but who can keep from speaking? So Sirach says, as arrows inflicted in the thigh of a dog, so is the word in the heart of a fool (Sir 19:12), although one may grant that even the just, from divine zeal, are sometimes unable to be silent in speaking what must be said for the honor of God. As Jeremiah says, if I say I will not remember, namely, the words of the Lord, or speak any more in his name, there is a kind of burning fire in my heart shut up in my bones, and I am weary for holding it in and cannot (Jer 20:9).

74. He next proceeds to clearly demonstrate Job’s impatience, by exaggerating this impatience from two points of view: his former teaching and his former life. From his former teaching, indeed, because it is shameful for a man to not practice what he teaches to others. As St. Matthew says, for they say and do not do (Matt 23:3). Before, Job had held many back from impatience, and used to adapt his teaching to different men in different ways. For there are some who are impatient from ignorance, as long as they do not know how to use adversities for virtue. As to these he says, behold, you have instructed many. Others, however, practice virtue in adversity at first, but when the adversity lasts a long time they are discouraged, as though tired of right action. As to these he says, and you have strengthened those with weak hands, by persuading them to good works. There are also some who, in adversity, fall into a condition of doubt as to whether this happened from divine judgment. As to these he says, your words have upheld the tottering. There also are some who sustain a small adversity, but under great adversity fall, as crushed by a heavy burden. For these he says, and you have strengthened those with trembling knees; namely, with your counsels, for the knees of a man tremble when he carries a great weight. The Lord exhorts us to perfect ourselves in this condition, saying, strengthen the weak hands and make firm the trembling knees (Isa 35:3).

75. Eliphaz wants to show as a consequence that Job did not practice the things he taught others, and so he continues, but now a trial has come to you, and you too have fallen away, namely, from the firmness of mind which you seemed to have, and which you recommended to others. This refers to the adversity he had suffered in exterior things. It touched you, and you are dismayed, that is, you have lost the peace of mind which you seemed to have. This refers to the affliction of body he was suffering. So Satan said above: put forth your hand and touch his bones and his flesh (Job 2:5). He, therefore, had accused Job of not living his previous teaching by practicing subsequent patience. This is against Proverbs, a man learns good sense by patience (Prov 19:11).

76. He also exaggerated the subsequent impatience which appeared in Job from his past life. For virtue which fails so quickly in trial does not seem true because, as it is written in Sirach, gold and silver are proved in fire; men are proven in the crucible of humility (Sir 2:5). A man is preserved by many virtues so that he does not fail in trials.

First, some are preserved through fear of God, when they consider that the evil things they suffer come forth from divine providence. As Job said above, *as the Lord pleases, so has he done *(Job 1:21). Eliphaz said to exclude this virtue, where is your fear? with which you seemed to revere God.

Second, some are preserved through constancy of soul, which has two degrees. In some men, their strength of soul is so exceedingly great that they are not excessively bothered in adversities. This is due to courage. So he says, where is your courage? This should not be taken here to refer to the fortitude which men guard so that they do not succumb to fear, but that they are not discouraged in sorrow. Some suffer a very burdensome amount of sorrow from adversity, but they are not led astray by it because of the good disposition of their reason. This is due to patience. The difference between patience and courage is the same difference which the philosophers put between continence and chastity. So he continues, your patience?

Third, some are safeguarded by love of the right action and from the horror of doing something base, so that even if they should be interiorly disturbed by adversity, they still break out in nothing unworthy, either in word or deed. So he adds, where is the integrity of your ways? Ways here means actions by which one arrives at an end as if by certain kinds of roads. Ways can also mean carefully thought out counsel, by which someone comes to trust that he can evade adversities, and so he tolerates adversities more easily.