Lecture 1 — Life is combat and drudgery

^7:1^ Man’s life on earth is combat, and his day is like the day of the hireling.

^7:2^ Like the slave, he sighs for the shade, or the workingman for the end of his work.

^7:3^ So I, too, have passed empty months and I have counted sleepless nights.

^7:4^ If I sleep, I say: When will I arise? And again I will wait for evening, and I will be filled with pains until dark.

121. Man’s life on earth is combat. Since Eliphaz spoke before (Job 5:17–27) to move blessed Job from despair, he promised him earthly happiness if he would not reject the rebuke of the Lord. Here then, after blessed Job demonstrated the rational causes of his sorrow, he wants to further demonstrate that this aforementioned consolation of Eliphaz, based on promising him the recovery of earthly happiness, is unfitting. He first demonstrates this from the condition of the present life, and then later (Job 7:5), from his own individual condition.

122. The opinions of men have differed about the condition of this present life. Some held that ultimate happiness was experienced in this life. The words of Eliphaz seem to follow this opinion. The ultimate end of man is in that place where he expects the final retribution for good or evil. So if man is rewarded by God for good deeds and punished for evil deeds in this life, as Eliphaz is eager to prove, it seems necessary to conclude that the ultimate end of man is in this life. But Job intends to disprove this opinion, and he wants to show that the present life of man does not have the ultimate end in it, but is compared to this end as motion is compared to rest, and the journey to the destination. He therefore compares this state to those states of man which tend to some end; namely, the state of soldiers who tend to victory in military campaigns. So he says, man’s life on earth is combat, as if to say, “The present life which we live on earth is not like a state of victory, but like the state of a military campaign.” He also compares it to the state of a hireling, so he adds, and his day like the day of the hireling, namely, the time of man living on earth. He compares the present life to these two states because of two things which threaten man in this present life.

First, he must resist impediments and harmful things, and on account of these he is compared to warfare. He must also do works useful for the end, and on account of this he is compared to a hired man. From both images, one is given to understand that the present life is subject to divine providence. For soldiers fight under a general, and hired men wait for their pay from an employer. Also, the falsity of the opinion which Eliphaz defended is plain enough in these examples. For it is clear that the general of the army does not spare the vigorous soldiers from the dangers or toils, but the whole nature of warfare demands at times that he exposes them to both very great dangers and tasks. After the victory has been won, the general honors those men more who proved more vigorous. In the same way, the father of a family entrusts the more difficult tasks to the better hired men, but on pay day he gives higher salaries to them. Divine providence does not dispose things so that the good are more freed from adversities and labors of the present life, but rewards them more at the end.

123. Therefore, since the whole position of Eliphaz is undermined by these arguments, Job intends to strengthen them, and demonstrates them efficaciously from reason. For clearly, each thing rests when it attains its ultimate end. So once the human will has attained its ultimate end, it must rest in that, and must not be moved to desire anything else. Our experience is contrary to this in the present life. For man always desires the future as though he were not happy with the things he has in the present. So clearly, the ultimate end is not in this life, but this life is ordered to another end, like warfare is ordered to victory, and the hired man’s day is ordered to his pay.

Note, however, that what we have now is not sufficient in this present life, but desire tends to the future for two reasons.

First, because of the afflictions of the present life, and so he introduces the example of the slave desiring the shade, saying, like the slave, worn out from the heat, he sighs for the shade, which refreshes him.

Second, from the defect of the perfect final good one does not possess here. So he uses the example of the hired man, saying, or the workman, for the end to his work. For the perfect good is the end of man. So I have passed empty months, for I considered the past months passed empty for me, because I did not obtain final perfection in them, and nights, that is, when I should have been resting from my afflictions, I have counted sleepless, that is, I considered them sleepless because I was delayed in them from the attainment of my end.

124. He next explains how his months have been empty and his nights sleepless, adding, if I sleep, when it was time for sleeping at night, I say: when will I arise?, longing for day. And again, when day has come, I wait for the evening, as he is always tending to the future in his desire. This desire is indeed the common experience of all men living on earth, but men feel it more or less in the measure in which they are affected by either sorrows or joys. For he who lives in joy desires the future less; but he who lives in sorrow, desires it more. So Job passionately shows that this desire for the future is in him as he continues, I will be filled with pain until dark, for because of these pains, the present time is tedious for me and I desire the future more.