Lecture 2 — The pains of life

^7:5^ Decay clothes my flesh, and the filth of dust; my skin is dried up and wrinkled.

^7:6^ My days have passed swifter than a warp is cut off by a weaver, and they have vanished, leaving no hope behind.

^7:7^ Remember that my life is but a breath, and my eye will not turn back to look on good things,

^7:8^ nor will the eye of man look on me; your eyes will be on me and I shall not endure.

^7:9^ As a cloud dissolves and is gone, so he who goes down below will not ascend again.

^7:10^ He will never return home again, and his place will know him no more.

125. Decay clothes my flesh. Blessed Job had demonstrated above that the consolation in which Eliphaz offered the promise of happiness in this earthly existence was unfitting. He first demonstrated this from the general condition of the life of man on the earth. Now he intends to demonstrate that the same consolation is unfitting considering his own individual condition.

He proposes two things which preclude his hoping for prosperity on earth.

The first is the weakness of the body which he was suffering. When one is limited by grave weakness of body, nothing can happen which can make him happy in this life, and so he says, decay clothes my flesh, as if to say, “My body is covered on all sides with infectious sores, like a body is covered on all sides by a garment.” Since wounds tended in the beginning to heal, he shows that his sores were neglected when he says, and the filth of dust, for they were not tended in the proper way, because he was literally sitting in a dung heap, as the text already shows (Job 2:8). One can sometimes hope for health even if his sores have been neglected, because he has a strong constitution. But Job lacked the natural strength, and so he says, my skin is dried up and wrinkled, because the natural moisture has already been exhausted in it, either by old age or by weakness. So there seems to be no place in this life where I can expect to find happiness anymore.

The second is because the greater part of his life was already past, and therefore very little time remained, so he could not hope for a great deal of happiness during that time. Because of this, he says, my days have passed swifter than a warp is cut off by a weaver. The life of man is in a certain sense like something woven. Just as a weaver weaving a warp joins threads to threads to arrive at the product of cloth, and when he makes a cloth he cuts it from the loom, so days are added to days to complete the life of man. When his life is completed, it is taken away. Yet he says the days of man pass away more swiftly than the cloth is cut away, because the weaver rests from time to time in the work of weaving, but the time of man’s life slips away continuously, without interruption.

126. But one might object: although the greater part of his life has passed by, Job could still hope to return to the state of his past life. For some have advanced the theory that after death, when the course of many years has been completed, man returns to the same stages of life which he had lived before. For example, Plato, in future times will lecture at Athens, and will do the same things which he did before. So, although man has lived the greater part of his life, he could hope to be restored to happiness in this earthly life. To remove this possibility, Job continues, and they have vanished, leaving no hope behind, of returning to his former days. He had already seemed to address God in the text, saying, the life of man on earth is combat (Job 7:1). Now, to prove his point he adds, remember that my life is but a breath, like the wind. For as the wind passes by and does not return afterwards, so the life of man does not return when it has passed away.

He continues in this vein, and my eye will not turn back to look on good things, of the earth, which I once possessed but now have lost. In the same way that when my life has passed I will not return to see earthly goods, so I will not be seen by any eyes on earth. So he goes on, nor will the eye of man look on me. He posits these two things to show that he will not return to human association, which consists chiefly in seeing and being seen. Since sight is the most acute of the senses, it holds a position of authority in sensitive life. Although after death he says that he will not be seen by the eyes of man, yet he confesses that he will be seen by the eye of God, saying, your eyes will be on me. For the dead are seen by God, who observes spiritual things, because the dead live according to the spirit, not according to the flesh, which man can see with his eyes.

127. One could take this to mean that the eyes of God consider the dead, not according to the present state, but regarding future things, as though a dead man is going to return again to the life which he lost. Therefore, to exclude this, he continues, and I shall not endure, as if to say, “I say that your eyes will be on me after death because afterwards, I will not be present again in the state of this earthly life.” He proves this by a comparison when he adds, as a cloud dissolves and is gone, so he who goes down below, will not ascend. The dead are said to go down to the underworld, either because they all descended to Sheol, according to the soul there before the death of Christ, or because according to the flesh, they are buried under the earth. The exegesis here makes no difference for the meaning of the present text. For he only wants to say that the dead do not return to their past life, and he proves this in the comparison using a sufficient proof.

As Aristotle says in On Generation, a kind of circular motion appears in both corruptible and incorruptible bodies. But there is this difference. In heavenly bodies, the same one in number returns in the circular motion, as the same sun in number sets and returns at dawn. This is so because the substance is not corrupted in such a change, but only the place changes. But in the motion of generation and corruption, the same one in number does not return, but the same species does. It is clear that according to the annual circular motion of the sun, a kind of circulation happens in the disposition of the atmosphere, for in winter there are clouds, which are dispersed later in the summer. When the winter returns again, the clouds return; yet not the identical clouds in number, but only the same in species, because the clouds which existed before perish completely. It is so with men. The same men do not return in number through generation who formerly existed, but only in species.

128. From this, the solution to the argument of those who posited a return to the same life and the same acts becomes clear. For they believed that lower things are disposed according to the motion of the heavenly spheres; hence, when the same constellation returned after a very long time, they believed that the same thing would return in number. But it is not necessary that the same things return in number as has been said, but only things like them in species. Those men thought that a dead man, after a certain span of time not only returned to life, but also had the same possessions and houses he formerly possessed. To disprove this he says, he will never return home again. They also held that he would do the same works he had done before, and hold the same offices and dignities. To exclude this position he adds, and his place will know him no more, that is, he will not return again to his place. Here, the term place means the state of a person, in the manner of speaking we commonly use to say he has a great place in this community.

129. It is clear from these verses that Job here does not deny the resurrection which faith asserts, but a return to carnal life which the Jews hold and certain philosophers also held. Nor is this contrary to the narration of Scripture, which asserts that some men are brought back to the present state of life. For one thing is done miraculously and the other is done according to the course of nature, and Job speaks in this sense here. Consider also that in saying, remember that my life is but a breath, he did not speak as though God could forget, but he speaks hypothetically, putting himself in the position of his adversaries. For if God were to promise the goods in this earthly life to a man whose life has, as it were, already passed, he would seem almost to have forgotten that the life of man passes away like the wind which does not return.