Lecture 1 — Only the blameworthy are punished

^5:2^ Wrath kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple.

^5:3^ I have seen the fool taking root; I suddenly cursed his beauty.

^5:4^ His sons are far from health; they will be crushed at the city gate, and there will be no one to deliver them.

^5:5^ The hungry will eat his harvest, armed men will seize from him, and the thirsty will pant after his wealth.

^5:6^ Nothing on earth happens without cause; for affliction does not arise from the dust.

^5:7^ But man is born to toil and the bird to fly.

93. Wrath kills the fool. Because Eliphaz remembered in the revelation made to him, among other things, that men dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust and die eaten as by a moth (Job 4:19), he wants now to demonstrate this in the different conditions of men. For there is no condition of man in which there is no tendency to sin. Now there are two conditions of man. Some are great and haughty in spirit, and are easily provoked to anger, because anger is the desire for revenge originating from a previous injury. Thus, the more haughty a man is in his soul, the more he thinks himself offended for a slight cause, and is therefore more easily provoked to anger. Therefore, he says, wrath kills the fool, because a man especially exceeds the boundaries of reason through his pride, whereas humility prepares the way of wisdom.

As Proverbs says, where there is humility, there is wisdom (Prov 11:2). The foolishness of anger also corresponds with this, because the angry man, as Aristotle teaches, uses even reason in searching for revenge for an injury, but he uses it wrongly when he does not guard the moderation of reason in his revenge. The perversion of reason is foolishness. Other men are timid, and these are prone to envy. So he continues, and jealousy slays the simple. He says this with good reason. For envy is nothing else but sadness about the prosperity of another, in that the prosperity of the other is thought to impede one’s own prosperity. When someone does not think that he can prosper together with others who are also prospering, this happens from smallness of soul. So it is clear that man, in whatever condition he exists, is prone to some sin. For it would be easy to adduce things similar to these concerning other sins.

94. By all he has said up to now, Eliphaz intends to prove that adversities in this world do not happen to anyone except as a punishment for sin.

There seem to be two objections against this.

One is the fact that many just men seem to be subject to adversities, but he seemed to have answered this objection by showing that men easily sin.

The second objection is that some wicked men prosper in this world. He intends to answer this objection next, by the manner in which their prosperity superabounds to their own evil. So he says, I have seen the fool, who is the man who takes pride in his riches, taking root, to appear firmly established in the prosperity of this world. But I did not approve of his prosperity. Rather, I suddenly cursed his beauty. Consider here that he speaks about a man using the metaphor of a tree, whose roots, when firmly in the ground, produce beauty in the branches and the fruit. He therefore compares the prosperity of a man rooted in riches to the beauty of a tree, which he curses in pronouncing it to be evil and harmful. As Qoheleth says, there is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun, riches kept by their owner to his harm (Eccl 5:12). He adds, suddenly, to show that he in no way doubts this opinion.

95. He demonstrates the evils which proceed from the prosperity of the fool first as to his sons. For it frequently happens that when some rich and powerful man raises his sons without discipline (which is characteristic of the fool), his sons fall into many dangers. Sometimes, for example, they are destroyed without judgment, because of hatreds which are stirred up against them. Or when they do not take care, but use pleasures inordinately, they even lose their lives. Apropos to this he says, his sons are far from health. Sometimes, when they inflict calumnies and injuries on others, they are brought to trial before judges and are condemned. As to this he says, they will be crushed at the city gate, where judges give sentence, for judges at one time used to sit at the city gates. Because foolish men do not hesitate to offend others when they prosper, they find no help in adversities, and so he continues, and there will be no one to deliver them.

96. But someone could object, I do not care what happens to my sons as long as I enjoy prosperity in the world. As a second consideration then, he treats bad things which befall the fool, both in his property and in his person, saying, the hungry will eat his harvest. For frequently, foolish men who have a lot of money oppress the poor, who usually are not strong enough to sustain very many physical burdens, and so are almost compelled by need to steal the goods of the rich. Men like these live so extravagant a way of life that they usually lose their strength of soul through the delights of life and become unfit for work. So they are easily destroyed by the battle-hardened poor. He therefore says, armed men will seize him, as though without any resistance. What he has said about the harvest can be understood universally, and so he continues, and the thirsty will pant after his wealth, that is, men desirous of wealth.

97. After he answers these objections, he finally adduces an argument to prove his principal proposition; namely, that adversities in this world do not happen to someone, except as a punishment for sin. His argument is this: whatever happens on earth happens from proper and determined causes. If, therefore, adversities happen to someone in this world, this must have a determined cause, which can only be sin. So he says, nothing on earth happens without cause, for we observe that all effects happen from a determined cause. From this fact, he concludes, for affliction does not arise from the dust. This is a metaphor. For some plants are produced without seed. These are said to be produced by spontaneous generation from the soil itself. Anything which does not appear to have a proper cause, like a plant reproducing without seed, is, by a kind of likeness, metaphorically said to arise from the soil.

Affliction, that is, adversity, does not arise from the soil, that is, without cause. From the fact that he said, nothing on earth happens without cause, it is really clear that everything has a natural disposition suited to its own proper operation, from which it is apparent that the natural dispositions of things are not without a cause, but happen for a determined end. So Eliphaz says, but man is born to toil and the bird to fly. For, just as the proper motion which the nature of a bird requires is that it fly, so the bird must have the instruments from its nature suitable for flying; namely, wings and feathers. Man, however, because he had reason, which enabled him to discover all the necessary aids to his life by his own effort, was naturally made without the aids which nature gives to the other animals; namely, a covering, weapons, and other things of this kind, which he can make for himself by the industry of his reason.