SPURIA. ANONYMOUS COMMENTARY ON JOB
(From the edition of Rue)PROLOGUE OF THE INTERPRETER
It is the custom of skilled physicians, when they enter upon a sick man and have recognized the nature of the patient’s ailment, to apply to the recognized affliction those things that are necessary or suitable for the cure, and not to prescribe any care for the infirm person before they have thoroughly recognized the cause, for fear that they might seem to be treating an ear instead of an eye, or be found applying medicine to the head instead of to the hand—which is the mark of those who are utterly ignorant and unacquainted with the art of medicine. So also, what interpreter, unless he has first understood the force and sense of the reading, will be able to preserve the fidelity of an interpreter in all things? For unless he has read through the sense, I say, clearly and entirely according to the vernacular language, he will not easily, in any way, truly express the things that have been published by another into the flavor of a different language. And when he has not observed these things, or certainly (what I am ashamed to say) has been ignorant of them, he will begin to treat an ear for an eye or a head for a hand, like an unskilled physician. We have therefore set these things before you, because we have known, or rather we have read, that some people have translated this book of the blessed Job, which is in our hands, from Greek into Latin not in Latin speech, and because they have departed very greatly from the office of an interpreter, and because they have strayed far from the truth and the rule of interpretation. Therefore, I ask every wise man into whose hands this book may have fallen, that he read through this prologue before he proceeds to the reading of this book, so that, informed by the text of this preface, he may very easily know from what source these things have been translated. I promise, indeed, that I have in no way departed from the authority of the truth, but just as they were placed by him who first published these things, so I have preserved the integrity of their condition, in no way vitiated, and the diligent reader will find nothing rough, nor harsh, nor added, nor taken away: which fidelity the aforementioned interpreters did not presume to produce. This, too, I request of you, the greatest and most diligent lover of truth among studious readers, that you also, with the vivacity of your mind and the curiosity of a holy soul, might arrive at the reason of the things that have been said through a read-through. You will find, without a doubt, that they have omitted many things, and moreover have added many things superfluously, and have departed quite far from the office of an interpreter. When you have diligently recognized these things, you will very easily know whom you ought to read and whom you ought to reject. We do not say these things because we wish to prefer ourselves over others, for we are more unskilled and more abject than all men according to the Apostle in speech, though not in knowledge; but being attentive to the truth in all things, we have taken care to fulfill with the utmost diligence, God aiding us, those things which have been discovered by us.
ARGUMENT TO THE BOOK OF JOB
It is reported that Job lived in the land of Ausitis, on the borders of Idumea and Arabia, and before that his name was Jobab. And he took an Arab woman as his wife, and begat a son whom he called Enon. Now he himself was the son of Zare, from the sons of Esau, and his mother was Bosra, so that he was the fifth from Abraham. And these are the kings who reigned in Edom, in which he also reigned, but the first to reign in it was Balaach, the son of Beor, and the name of his city was Denaba. After this man, Balaac, and after him Jobab, who is called Job. After Job, Husam, who was a leader from the region of Theman. And after him reigned Adad, the son of Badad, who struck down Madiam in the field of Moab, and the name of his city was Avith.
ANONYMOUS BOOK ONE ON JOB
Just as the lights of heaven and the stars shine wonderfully in the firmament of heaven and are given by God to all things that are under the heavens without ceasing, and shine upon all things that are above the earth throughout time after time A and throughout generations, some during the night, as the moon and the stars, others no less during the day, as the radii of the most beautiful sun: so too the signs of the virtue of the saints B and their most blessed works.
A For that all the saints are compared to the stars and lights, the Apostle demonstrates, saying: *For star differs from star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead* 1, namely of the saints. But more clearly the angel shows this, who spoke to Daniel, saying: *Then the righteous shall shine as the lights of heaven, as the sun, and the moon, and as the stars forever* 2. Above all these things, the Lord Himself also says in the Gospels: *Then the righteous shall shine in the sight of their Father who is in heaven* 3. Thus, therefore, all the saints shine and sparkle, not only in the time of restitution, but also now in the time of this present age. For one shines by faith as Abraham; another beams with chastity as Joseph; another no less with meekness, as the man of God, Moses. But another shines with the constancy and endurance of vehement pains, as the admirable Job, of whom there is much discourse, of whom there is a vehement dispute, whose signs of holy virtue, whose admirable constancy, whose ineffable endurance, whose miserable pains, who could declare, or describe according to their merit, or admire, which were written in the Syrian tongue, either by Job himself or by his friends? For this reason the most blessed Job himself says: *Who would grant that my words might be written, and that they might be placed in a book forever* 4? But they were interpreted by that great man Moses into the Hebrew language, and delivered to the children of Israel. This the Scripture of Job itself shows, saying: *This is interpreted from the book of the Syrians.* By whom was it interpreted? It is manifest that it was by Moses into Hebrew. Again, it was translated from the Hebrew into Greek by the seventy interpreters. For it is understood that long ago in Egypt, Moses translated it from the Syrian into Hebrew. Again, also in Egypt, the seventy, under Ptolemy, translated it from the Hebrew into the Greek, and from thence, from Egypt, the Scripture of blessed Job was divulged throughout all nations: first indeed written in Syriac in Arabia, where Job also dwelt; but after this, both in Hebrew and in Greek, and in all nations, according to these things which have been intimated and shown, it has been transformed and interpreted. For surely, it was previously written in Syriac in part, D not so diligently nor so watchfully as it was afterwards by Moses. For only the responses and the replies were written from the beginning. For who among them could have known how the angels came that they might stand before God, or how the devil came, or what he said, or what he replied? No one of them could have known this, or that which God spoke to the devil, except Moses alone by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. For just as no other could so diligently know, or speak, or write concerning the making of heaven and earth as Moses, so neither could they concerning the things which were done regarding Job. But thus even now, just as no one else could A know, or speak, or write, which the Father alone spoke to the only Son, saying: *Let us make man* 5, and all the rest, except for Moses alone, what the Holy Spirit the Paraclete who was present revealed to him: so in like manner, no one of that time could have known in secret what God spoke to the devil for the rebuke of the thought that was in him, except Moses alone, to whom were revealed all things that were previously hidden, for the sake of those who were then to receive the inception of the law. Moreover, that Moses wrote these things in Egypt is proved most especially by the time itself, since it is of the same number. For just as Job was the fifth from Abraham, so in the fifth generation was Moses sent to lead the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. Beyond all these things, O friends, we find in the sayings of the ancients, that when that great Moses had been sent by God into Egypt, and saw the vehement affliction of the children of Israel, and could in no way console them from the anxiety of their lamentable affliction with which the Egyptians were afflicting them, he narrated to them those vehement and terrible pains of Job for their consolation, and, placing them in the Scripture while they were yet more recent, he gave them to that people: so that, reading these things through their kinships and tribes, hearing those vehement and terrible pains of that blessed man, they might console one another, and with patience and thanksgivings might suffer the evils that had surrounded them, and that, hearing of the good reward of the Lord which he bestowed upon Job after his endurance, they also might hope for liberation, and might expect the benefits of the blessed reward of their labors. For an evident and irrefutable proof of this matter is this, that even still unto this day the endurance of blessed Job is read before those who are in pain and mourning and weeping for the consolation and exhortation of those pains, and for the taking away of the anguish of their heart. Similarly, too, in the assembly of the church, the passion of Job is read on holy days, on days of fasting, on days of abstinence, on days in which they who fast and abstain are, as it were, sympathizing with that admirable Job, in days in which in fasting and abstinence we follow the holy passion of our Lord Jesus Christ: so that, passing through his terrible passion to his blessed resurrection, we may merit to come, sympathizing now and gathering together, condoling in this time of passion, and rejoicing together after this in the time of the resurrection. Which passion our Lord Jesus Christ, coming to the lands, sustained in human flesh for the salvation of all men, so that by his passion he might indeed kill death, and by his resurrection he might display the recurring life to all. The form and example of which passion and resurrection of the Lord because the passion of Job bore in many things, as those who have investigated more diligently have found: it is deservedly that even now in the days of passion, in the days of sanctification, in the days of fasting, the blessed Job
A is read, studied, and scrutinized. But let us return to our previous discourse.
We said that that great man Moses, writing of the passion, sorrow, labor, and constancy of Job, gave them for the consolation of the sons of Israel; speaking gently, kindly, and placidly to them, saying: “Be constant, sons of Israel; be of sound mind, offspring of Abraham; endure sorrows, suffer these evils, because there was once a certain man in the land of Ausitis, whose name was Job; who, although he was just, truthful, and without complaint, sustained huge sorrows and bore bitter torments on account of the zeal of the adversary and the envy of the most wicked devil.” So you too, he says, are now vexed by Pharaoh, you suffer oppression by the Egyptians, you endure vehement sorrows from the merciless, although you are in no way proven to be sinners or guilty, but are proven and shown to be holy, good-doers, perfect, and dear friends both to yourselves and to your fathers. But when you suffer these things, illicitly reduced to servitude by the Egyptians and worn down by them without fault, and unjustly afflicted, do not despair, nor succumb. Do not become despondent, but endure constantly and suffer manfully. For there will be liberation for you just as for him. There will also be returned to you a retribution for this tribulation, just as it was returned to him. If you, whom it behooved to be honorable and rich on account of your fathers' goodness and riches, have been rendered dishonorable and needy, do not be terrified: C because this aforementioned man Job was also cast down from a royal and glorious seat to a dunghill with ignominy, and was changed from immense riches and opulence to miserable poverty and want. If the Egyptians, whom it behooved to be friends on account of the favor of Joseph and the sincerity of Israel, have changed to the wickedness of enemies, let this not be a wonder to you, because even Job’s good companions, who should have been devoted and upright friends to him, were changed to enmity and were transformed into the greatest reluctance and accusation against him. Therefore, he says, you too, sons of Israel, enduring things similar to these, support until the end, suffer until the end. For your examination will be as his. There will be, and there will be returned to you, a reward for your tolerance, just as it was returned to him. For Moses, speaking to the sons of Israel, wrote these things and things similar to them, saying: “There was a certain man in the region of Ausitis.” “Man,” as being a man by nature; “certain,” as being singular among all. And “in the region of Ausitis,” as one who dwelt there, and was born there and of them, and lived among them. And who are these Ausites? The race of Esau, the posterity and tribe of Edom. For the Ausites and the Minites, and the Eucheans, and the Themanites, and all the rest of the tribes were from the kindred and lineage of Esau, the son of Isaac, who was also named Edom. Therefore, they were A inhabitants with one another, and integral friends, as being of one race and of one tongue, and, to speak briefly, they were of one nation and were close neighbors. For then all the tribes were called Idumeans, named so from the name of Esau. But now, all are called by the single name of Arabs; not only the Idumeans who were from Esau, but also the Ammonites and Moabites; all alike are now encompassed under the name of Arabs. We have said these things, therefore, that we might show who the Ausites were, from whose region Job is named, because there were tribes and kindreds of Edom, which is Esau. For just as the tribe of Israel, which is Jacob, so also the tribe of Edom, which is Esau, [is] according to carnal tribes and not according to spiritual pursuits. Therefore the Ausites and the Eucheans, B and the Minites and the Themanites, were all alike Idumeans. On account of this, therefore, he says: “A certain man in the land of Ausitis.” Immediately at the beginning, he demonstrates the praise of the most blessed Job. For when he mentioned that man, he shows instantly that he was a man, and not a beast of burden nor a beast. “A certain man there was”: but because he is proven to be a man, he is shown to have been deservedly made. “A certain man there was.” He was one out of all men according to body, according to corruption, but he was singular before all men according to the perseverance of spirit and the sincerity of soul, and the perfection of justice. “A certain man there was.” Truly a man, as one made a man, as one remaining a man, as one created in the image of God, and he was not changed to the likeness of beasts of burden and beasts and reptiles, as is said of some: “Man, when he was in honor, did not understand, he was compared to senseless beasts, and became like to them.” “A certain man there was,” an example of patience, a testimony of constancy, an indication of tolerance. “A certain man there was” whom countless persons called blessed, whom those present feared, whom those absent revered, whom the angels admired, whom the Lord himself loved. “A certain man there was” whom the most wicked one envied, whom the adversary was jealous of, whom the enemy of men, the devil, denounced before the Lord. “A certain man there was” who trampled underfoot the head of that crafty dragon, who turned the wicked devil to flight, who in the body supplanted the incorporeal one. “A certain man there was,” a man truly as a most constant combatant, as a singular single-fighter, D as standing constantly against all the armies of the devil, as one who singularly won the victory over all the powers of the demons alone. “A certain man there was,” he was not a bloodthirsty beast, he was not a serpent of wickedness, he was not a horse nor a mule of luxury nor of petulance, he was not a dog of filth, nor a fox of deceit and cunning, he was not a scorpion, nor a viper of lethal poison, but he was a man. For just as the obscene and the unchaste, the malicious also and the crafty, are compared to all these and are called by the name of all of these, just as it is said of these: “Man is made like vanity is made unto them.”
A Such was not this man, for when he was among the impious, he did not turn aside to impiety. When he was among the infidels, he did not possess infidelity. When he was among the unjust, he was not mingled with injustices; but he remained in the midst of the impious like an immovable adamant, an inextinguishable lamp, like a light that is not changed, like a ray that does not set. Thus also it behooves us to be, O friends, holy and immaculate, pious and religious, embracing charity and perfect, inviolable and uncorrupted in the midst of a perverse and crooked generation, that we may shine as lights of heaven in the world, holding the word of life in the day of Christ, so that it may be said of us as it is said of that blessed one: “And that man was blameless, just, truthful, a worshiper of God” (Job 1:1). B That man who was mentioned and designated, who was in the region of Ausitis, whose name was Job. He shows the man, he made known the region, he designated the name, saying: “Whose name was Job” (ibid.), which is written with the just, which is inscribed in the region of the living, which is appointed in eternal tabernacles. “Whose name was Job.” May the Lord deem us worthy also, so that our names may be written with the living, so that they may be named with those who are being saved, so that they may be numbered with the just. But still, he says, “a certain man was in the region of Ausitis, whose name was Job.” This discourse is against the devil, this dispute is against the most wicked one, as if he were saying: O most malignant devil, O most wicked Satan, against whom do you argue? C Against whom do you wage war? Against whom do you battle? Against whom are you inflamed with zeal? Against a man, against a corruptible one, against a mortal, against a fleshly one, against one of earthly nature, when you are incorruptible and incorporeal and immortal; against him who dwells in the region of Ausitis, you who have fallen from heaven. But even so you are overcome, you are trampled, you are humbled by one man, since you are a spirit, by one of the corruptible ones, you who have fallen from the incorruptible orders of the Cherubim. Therefore he signified these things, saying: “A certain man was in the region of Ausitis” who put to flight the entire army of the devil, who weakened all the power of the most wicked one, who demonstrated that all the power and argument of the devil were vain, who constantly withstood every wind and water and the onset of the malignant one colliding against him, D and stood immovable. And as if he were to say: There was a certain man, O devil, who prevailed over you. There was a certain man who showed all your power to be weak. There was a certain man who brought all your malice into derision, and what is greatest, dwelling in the region of Ausitis, that is, of the impious and infidels, of the obscene also and the unjust. For when he dwelt there, you could not, O devil, change him, nor turn him after the impious to impiety, nor after the infidels to infidelity, nor after the unjust to injustice, but among all
the unjust he remained just, as he testifies immediately afterwards, saying: And that man was great, <A> admirable. Blessed is that man who received testimony from God, who was praised by the angels, who became an object of admiration even to the very devil, inasmuch as he did not succumb to more vehement blows and perilous sorrows. This man, therefore, was without complaint, inasmuch as he was unstained by any spot, inasmuch as he was exempt from all reproach. He was without complaint before God and men, before angels and spirits, both corruptible and incorruptible. He was without complaint, inasmuch as he showed in himself the form of new grace, where it is fitting for a bishop to be irreproachable. He was without complaint in mind and body, in counsels and thoughts, in words and works, in pursuits and conversations. In his whole life, nevertheless, he <B> was without complaint. Thus it is said after this concerning Samuel in the praises of the fathers: And no man reproached him, that is, no man accused him, because he was without complaint, just as Job was of old. And whence did Job obtain this, to be without crime? He obtained it from this, that he was just. He obtained it from this, that he did not decline from justice. He obtained it from this, that he did not abandon justice, that he did not depart from justice, that he did not despise justice. Therefore, after he showed him to be without complaint, after this he nevertheless also demonstrating him to be just, says: just without complaint. He was just because he was without crime, and he was without complaint because he was called just. And that man was a just man without complaint in his judgments, just in his cases, just in his laws, <C> just in his ordinances. For when he was leader and prince of his province, he both established laws and rendered judgments. But there is no doubt that he ordered and judged all things justly, and determined them mercifully, not respecting persons, not accepting gifts, not walking after rewards, not despising the oppressed, not spurning the widow, not forgetting the orphan: for all these things, then, and from all these things, and through all these things, he was just, as if trampling underfoot all injustice, as if eradicating all injustice, as if humbling every unjust man and not allowing him to emerge. He was just, inasmuch as he did not share in injustice, inasmuch as he did not approach injustice, inasmuch as he held injustice in hatred and abomination. He was just because he loved Him of whom it is said in the prophets: And righteousness is the girdle of his loins. He was just because he hoped in God, of whom it is said: The Lord is just, and hath loved justice, his countenance hath beheld equity. For so he was just. He was so just that God Himself, who knows hearts, bore witness to his justice. He was so just that he himself said of himself: I was clothed with justice, and clothed with judgment as with a garment. I broke the jaws of the unjust, and took the prey out of their teeth. And so he was just, in such a way that he fulfilled in himself the form and example of the Lord God, of Him who, when He is just, hath loved justices. But since he was just, he was <D> truthful. For many seem to be just, but not truthfully, but fallaciously; not justly, but unjustly; not clearly, but fictitiously. Deservedly now here, when he called blessed Job just, he added also this, that he was truthful. For what reason? For this reason, that he might show that his justice was true. He was not deceitful, it was not feigned, but it was integral and acceptable to God. For this reason, therefore, he says, truthful. For that just man knew that the Lord requires truths. Therefore he was truthful, true, pure, simple, not fictitious. There was no hesitation in him. He did not speak one thing in his mouth while he thought another in his mind. He did not say one thing in his words and think another in his heart. His words were not soft on his lips, while being darts in secret, just as they are now of many, just as they are of countless people, of whom it is said: Their words are smoother than oil, and the same are darts. And again: He speaketh peace with his friend, but in secret he layeth snares. And elsewhere: With his lips he fawns and deceives his enemy, but in his heart he lies in wait. But blessed Job was not such, but he was truthful, truthful inasmuch as he was a servant of Him of whom it is said: Let God be true; as truly a servant of Him of whom it is said: This is eternal life, that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Since, therefore, he was a truthful servant of the true God, he was truthful, neither himself lying, nor communicating in lies, nor himself lying, nor permitting lies to be consistent in others. Truthful in his mouth, truthful in his heart, truthful in his thoughts and truthful in his responses, truthful in words and truthful in deeds, truthful with men and truthful with angels, truthful in corruption and truthful in incorruptions, and which is greatest of all, truthful in the sight of God who inquires into all things. For this reason it is said: Job sinned not in the sight of the Lord, nor did he speak foolishness against God. David is called good to the sight of the Lord, but Job is shown to be truthful in the sight of God, truthful in the law before the law, truthful in the mandates before the mandates, truthful in mercy and in justifications before the sanction of the Scripture. For since he had the remembrance of all these things written by the Creator in his nature, he truthfully fulfilled all these things, he truthfully perfected all these things. Therefore he is called and proved to be truthfully truthful. First, indeed, without complaint, as being in himself. Then just, as being toward all. Finally, truthful as if in the sight of God. Therefore after all these things in the conclusion of everything for the recapitulation of all he adds and says: A worshiper of God: because if they did not do all holiness, and all justice, and every good work that men may be seen doing, in the worship of God, in the knowledge and confession of God, they do it without cause and in vain. And that I may speak briefly and boldly, all things whatsoever men may do, whether in virginity, or in abstinence, or in the chastity of the body, or in the burning of their flesh, or in the distribution of their goods, and
all those things they do freely, if they do them not in faith, they act without cause, unless it be in the acknowledgment of the one unbegotten God the Father, and in the confession of his one only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the illumination of the glorious Holy Spirit, and of the venerable Paraclete, who helps the infirmity of our prayer, in whom we were sealed in the day of our redemption. If they do these things, any holiness whatsoever, and any injustice whatsoever, which anyone commits outside the true worship of God and true faith, he does it in vain, he does it unto destruction; it profits him nothing, it B does not help him in the day of wrath, it will not deliver him in the day of ruin. Concerning which the Apostle is witness, who says: *Everything that is not of faith is sin* (Rom. xiv, 23). Wherefore? Because they seem to have done good works not sought in faith, not sought in the acknowledgment of Him for whom they did them. For from whom will he receive a reward? From him whom he did not seek, whom he did not acknowledge, in whom he did not believe, whom he did not confess or profess as he ought, he will receive no remuneration from him, except judgment and wrath unto condemnation. For just as he who builds without a foundation profits nothing except for loss, and labor, and sorrow, so likewise, he who seems to do something good, if he has done it without faith, profits nothing. For just as to the believer all things are possible, that he may be saved and find refreshment with Him in whom he has believed, so to the unbeliever nothing is possible, neither that he be saved, nor that he find refreshment, nor that he enter into life. For He has not lied who says: *Seek the Lord, and your soul shall live* (Ps. LXVII, 33). But if you do not seek in faith, you cannot enter into life, that is, the souls of those who do not believe. For just as the sun, unless it has shone upon the face of the earth, none of its fruits grow, nor develop, nor ripen, so likewise, unless truth has shone through faith in the souls of men, they will never be acceptable before God. But that if the sun has not shone upon the fruits of the earth, they do not spring up, nor are they proven to ripen, is manifest from the example of Noah. For during that year in which Noah was in the ark, the sun did not shine upon the earth, partly indeed held back by the turbulence of the air, and partly because the earth was covered by the multitude of the waters. Therefore, the fruits of the earth in that year C neither germinated, nor grew, nor were they proven to ripen, as we have asserted in our writings in Genesis. For we said all these things because the blessed Job, while he possessed justice and truth, also possessed the worship of God—that is, a faith to God—that was delightful, and also precious and acceptable to Him. For just as nothing is delightful to men without light, so likewise nothing is delightful, nor acceptable to God, without the light of faith. For this reason He says of Job, that he was a worshiper of God, justly and truthfully worshiping God. Not because of riches and money, as the devil lied about him before God, but because of justice and truth he worshiped God. Nothing is more just and more true than that the Creator of all things and the benefactor of all things be truly worshiped as Him who is the God and Creator of all, and the overseer, and that it be believed as it ought, and confessed, and professed. God therefore accepts nothing without the truth of faith. For He does not need these things that are ours, except for our souls alone persisting in the truth of faith, except for our conscience alone confessing to Him in the truth of faith. For the blessed Job, knowing these things, built up justice, founded truth. But he embellished and covered this whole worship of God, that is, faith, and sweetened and perfected it. So it behooves us also, O skilled men, to walk in faith, to stand in faith, to persevere in faith, not to approach infidelity and the unfaithful, nor to communicate with them, nor with their conventicles, nor with their D assemblies, that all things which we do may be acceptable to God in faith: just as those things which shortly after it is asserted that Job did, were made acceptable, because he abstained from every evil thing, so that his religious worship might become acceptable to God, so that there was nothing that might disturb him or hinder him concerning the union and familiarity of God, being, as he was, without blame, a just and also a true worshiper of God, and abstaining from every evil thing. May God also make us worthy, that imitating Him in the footsteps of His blessedness, we may receive rest and refreshment in the time of the resurrection.
He had indeed seven sons and three daughters, but not from adultery, nor from unchastity, but from a lawful and immaculate marriage. For the blessed Job knew that children who are born from an illicit bed will be witnesses of iniquity against their parents when they are questioned. Therefore he truthfully says: *And if my eye has followed the wife of another man*, and similar things. Since, therefore, he declined all things obscene and execrable and illicit, he had seven sons and three daughters, holily and modestly according to the duty of nature, chastely and truthfully according to the promise of the Creator. Moreover, those children were seven sons and three daughters. To whom? To Job the just, the blameless, the true worshiper of God. Therefore to him there were seven sons and three daughters. By the bounty of God, the foreseeing of the Creator, the will of the Maker of all, there were to him seven sons and three daughters. Seven sons according to the week of the days of the age, or according to the week of those who by the apostles are ordained in the age of the new grace, or according to the seven stars which daily pass through the spaces of the heaven. There were to him seven sons and three daughters, all ten together, according to the ten words of the Law, which after this were delivered to the children of Israel. Therefore, because Job fulfilled all things which are commanded in the ten words of the Law, both before the Law and outside the Law, for this reason even to him, indeed for a pattern and a memorial, but to those who after this under the Law did not fulfill the Law, for admonition and for condemnation, ten children were given, as one who, mindful of the precepts of each individual, fulfilled all things. But someone says: But why did He not give him males only, but part indeed males, and part females? Listen. For this reason He gave...
A indiscriminately both sons and daughters, because for ages He has granted this to all. He begat, it says, sons and daughters. And for this further reason He gives both sons and daughters indiscriminately, because the minds of all desire this, and the desire of man requires that they possess both, indiscriminately, sons and daughters. To satisfy, therefore, human concerns, He gave and gives both sons and daughters indiscriminately. And He gives them indiscriminately for this further reason: that the harmony and union of humankind might be multiplied through the couplings of marriages. For where they give their daughters in marriage and receive wives for their sons, there a coupling of marriage is made, and union grows, whether among the poor or among the rich. But if, indeed, only sons were born to someone, while to another only daughters, when he gave his daughters away to men he would leave his house empty and his inheritance desolate. But now, he indeed gives his daughters away, but receives wives for his sons within, and by this means has kinship externally and inheritance internally. These things, clearly, are all accomplished by divine providence and operation, profitably and necessarily ordered for men from the beginning. For thus also of Job there were seven sons and three daughters, so that when he gave the daughters themselves away to men, he would have sons-in-law externally; and when he received wives for his sons from outside, he would have in them daughters-in-law externally. For often sons-in-law or daughters-in-law are found to be more sincere toward their fathers-in-law or mothers-in-law than their own children, if those daughters-in-law have held the fear of God and piety in their souls. Such was that blessed Ruth, who so clung to her aged mother-in-law that, even until death, she would not allow herself to leave her. For this reason, indeed, she is perpetually magnified in Scripture, and in God she is blessed for infinite ages; nonetheless, in the resurrection, He will judge and condemn all wicked and godless daughters-in-law who have brought insults or injury upon their fathers-in-law or mothers-in-law, not remembering that they begot and nurtured husbands for them, and acquired wealth through labor for their substance and food. If, therefore, you love your husband, O woman, do you also love those who begat him and reared a son for themselves, but a husband for you. Do not separate a son from his father or mother. Do not compel a son to dishonor his father or mother, lest you fall into condemnation before the Lord God on the day of the terrible inquiry and judgment. Let it suffice for you, O woman, that you possess a husband whom you did not nurture, and substance which you did not acquire, that you come into a house which you did not build, and are mistress, and have power over the labors of others for which you labored in no way. Do not return evil to those who provided for you and acquired all things by their own labor, whether it be a husband, or substance, or sustenance, O woman, lest a curse from the Lord God rise up against you. But these few things have been said by us on the occasion of the children of Job for the recommendation of daughters-in-law, but for the reproof and condemnation of all who are wicked, impious, and cruel.
A They were, he says, those seven sons. It is certain that to the religious they are religious, and to the holy they are holy, and to the good they are good, just as the former demonstration showed. For since the root was holy, the branches also grew holy, and good shoots have grown forth. With those mentioned seven sons of Job there were also three daughters. For the daughters themselves were in the same way like the sons, as being daughters of Job, and truly sisters of his sons in every good piety. For if they themselves had not been such as their brothers, they would not by any means have always been together with their own brothers, as this Scripture previously demonstrated. But yet there were those seven sons and three daughters, in number ten, but in soul they were one. In number they were many; but in consent and harmony they were as one; in unanimity and love they were as the same. Zeal did not separate them, nor did envy dissociate them, as formerly the brothers of Joseph. Why? Because there had not arisen among them prevarication, nor defilement, as in Ruben, nor rage that kills, as in Simeon and in Levi, nor the hatred of fraternal cursing, as in the other sons of Jacob: but they were all unanimous in piety, peaceful in justice, and concordant in the fear of God, as being the children of Job, and not as grandsons of Esau. For Esau, when he could not endure one brother, Jacob, sought to kill him. But the seven sons and three daughters of Job lived as one soul, undivided in unity, and such was the unanimity of the praiseworthy children of Job that even the wicked and envious demon could more easily destroy them all together than divide or dissociate their benign and true unanimity. Hear these things, O children of the religious, hear these, O offspring of the faithful, hear and imitate the unanimity of these pious brothers, who truly in their life were undivided, and in their death they are not dissociated. Let there be no strife among brothers, but benignity and concord. Let there be no contention among brothers, nor divorce, but peace and unanimity, sincerity and purity. Let not the adversary enter through the mouths of evil men, let not the wicked one disturb the concord of pious brotherhood through the ministers of his iniquity. There were many sons of David long ago, when they rebelled against one another, and D while their religious father was yet alive, impiously and unjustly attempted to occupy and seize his kingdom, for they rose up as rebels, that is, Amnon and Absalom and Adonias. For when they were wicked and unjust, they were justly delivered by God to condemnation and to destruction. But not such were or existed the seven blessed sons of Job, but they were as seven days undivided, and as a week indissociated. They did not contend for elegance, they did not litigate for strength, they did not struggle for riches, they were not troubled for a kingdom; but since they were unanimous, they esteemed all that was their own as common among themselves. For their heart and soul were truly one. Therefore, with the saints
A they are named in perpetuity; therefore, they will rest in eternity, and therefore they will be praised unceasingly with the angels. Concerning them, therefore, he says: "There were seven sons and three daughters." Three, as if they were faith, hope, and charity, just as body, soul, and spirit—indivisible, inseparable, and undefiled. For because they preserved faith, hope, and charity toward God, for that reason they also preserved their body, soul, and spirit unblemished. After the disputation and setting forth of all these things, he adds and says: "And his cattle were seven thousand sheep," according to the number of the seven sons; "three thousand camels," according to the number of the three daughters. Altogether, his children were ten, and likewise all these thousands, in equal measure, were also ten. For the seven sons, seven thousand sheep; and for the three daughters, three thousand camels; one thousand appropriated to each child. With God ordaining it, and the father thus disposing of it afterward, in the time of consummation they will divide the inheritance. In the time of life, however, just as the father thinks about everything, so also the father has authority over everything: as he cares for the whole, so he rules over all. Then also, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she-asses, both together likewise one thousand. This, too, is done in an orderly fashion, and fittingly, with fifty yoke of oxen and fifty she-asses for each of the ten children. All things are surely the father’s to rule, to govern, to manage, and to possess until the end of his life; after the rest of the father, they are calculated in an orderly way according to the number of the children. But there were still his cattle. He calls all the cattle alike—whether sheep, or oxen, or camels, or asses—he designates them all as cattle, because they were and are diverse, peculiar, and useful to men, both to those who now are, and to those who lived then, and to the blessed Job himself. Sheep, indeed, were for life, for the sake of milk and the clothing of wool; when slaughtered, they were for food and the eating of flesh. Similarly, oxen were for life, for cultivation and the convenience of bread; when killed, they were for meat and food, and for the footwear of the feet. Camels, moreover, were for every burden, for carrying and lifting from far and near. After all these, there were the asses for accomplishing and bringing light tasks, and for going and returning quickly. For what horses and mules achieve now, asses accomplished no less, especially such as are the asses in the region of Arabia and Palestine, which are as swift as horses. Therefore, he calculates the entire wealth of the blessed Job at seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses. But he does not mention gold and silver, and garments. Why? Is it to pass over them in silence, or because Job did not have gold and silver? For this reason, beyond a doubt: because he did not have them. Who testifies that he did not have gold and silver? Job himself, saying: "And if I have trusted in great wealth, and if I have set my hand to innumerable things," and other things like these. For this was truly so, that the ancients did not B store up for themselves so much in gold and silver, as much as in cattle and in four-legged animals. For they were not seekers after gold as we all are; they did not pursue gold and silver then as much as we pursue them now. Now the mind of us all is detained by gold and longs for silver, and men now think nothing of value except gold and silver alone. Now, in fact, those times are fulfilled which the Apostle, designating from afar, says: "In the last days perilous times will come, and men will be lovers of themselves, covetous," and all the other things which we now see being fulfilled in men. For because this world is now at its end, and being already dead, is hurrying toward decay, for that reason the mind of men longs for those things that are dead, since just as stars they are uselessly stored up and hoarded. Formerly, however, as the world was still beginning, and as this world was still living, men desired living and growing cattle, four-legged animals, and agriculture that produces for sustenance. For they knew that gold and silver stored away, and hoarded, and given for usury, would bring sin. But the usury of cattle and of the earth—that is, the multiplied offspring of cattle and the increase of the fruits of the earth—would not bring sin, but righteousness. For those who have them provide for them, and those who do not have them, when they are given and distributed by those who have them, they provide for. That blessed Job, therefore, had such riches—chaste, clean, unpolluted, and uncontaminated. For it is said of this, and of things like it, forever: "Blessed is he who is found to be a rich man, righteous, who has not walked after gold, nor hoped in the storing of silver." For truly, it is an inestimable and eternal beatitude that, when one has been made wealthy, he does not trust in gold, nor fix his attention on the storing of silver, but hoards these things in the commandment of the Most High, and gives them as alms to the poor, but sows and scatters them widely among the souls of the miserable, through the mouths of the hungry, or through the mouths of the weak, through the destitute and the miserable: according to this which is said: "Sow for yourselves to righteousness, that you may reap the fruit of life." And: "He has dispersed, he has given to the poor; his justice remains forever." He who is of this kind will reap manifoldly in the day of the resurrection. He who is of this kind will receive inestimable beatitude in the day of visitation. For one of this kind, by the justifications of almsgiving, shines forth like light before the angels of God. Such was the blessed Job, with whom a guest never remained outside, whose door opened to every comer, whom the invalid never failed to find regarding those things of which they had need, who did not send the poor away from his house empty-handed, at whose sheepshearing the shoulders of all the poor were warmed. For this reason, he nurtured this multitude of cattle, and practiced the greatest agriculture, that he might share with many, that he might do good to many, that he might be mindful of many;
not for his own mouth only, but that he might satisfy many who were hungry, and clothe many who were naked, and bring refreshment to many who were miserable and unhappy. For this reason his flocks consisted of seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses maintained by shepherds. And his service was very abundant A. It is certain that his table, and his dwelling, and his service were abundant, but the service which ministered to guests and travelers, to the infirm and the suffering, to the destitute and the strangers, to the poor and the unhappy, was more abundant. Therefore, for the reception of all these, he had a most abundant service: I believe that he had a most abundant service in heaven and in the highest places, too. For very many ministered to him upon the earth for the reception of the miserable, but more ministered to him in the heavens, the celestial angels, carrying his incorruptible alms and good works into remembrance before God in heaven, just as it was said to Cornelius: *Thy prayers and thy alms have come up for a memorial before God*. They ascended, without doubt, carried by angels and spiritual ministers, of whom it is said: *Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?* And elsewhere: *Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire*. Of these ministers, one was he who spoke to Tobias, saying: *When thou didst pray, and Sara the daughter of Raguel, I did offer the remembrance of your prayer before the sight of the glory of the most high God*. Such, therefore, was the service of Job, most abundant. C For according to the multitude of his good works, the heavenly ministers and angels who would testify to his benefits in the sight of God were multiplied. One, indeed, testified to his devotion of soul, another to his alms and mercies, another nevertheless to his anxious prayers, another truly to the justice of his judgments, to his patience also and longsuffering, and to the fullness of his charity. All, of course, testified to all his virtues in the sight of God, who foreknows all things. In all ways, therefore, the service was abundant for the blessed Job. What sort of attendance do you think was made for him at his reception, and with what glorious honor, my friend, when his soul, departing from the body, passed to that world, when all the angels went to meet him, when all the souls of the saints rejoiced unto him, when all the souls of the miserable and the needy, to whom he had done good upon earth, bore witness to his benefits? These all, proceeding into the light there, meet him gloriously and sanctified, testifying not only to the virtues of Job alone, but also to all who, in like manner as Job, bestow alms and benefits upon the miserable. All these things, because it says: *And his service was very abundant*. And further adding, it says: *His works were great in the earth*. Primarily, indeed, his great works were these, that is, fields and vineyards, orchards and olive groves. For these were the riches of the ancients; this was considered their treasure, the threshing floor and the winepress, the olive groves and the orchards, and all the works that are in the field, which are acquired with labor and sweat and the callouses of the hands A with justice, according to the command of God who says: *In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread*. These, of course, were the great works of Job on earth, and therefore he also needed much service for tending, for overseeing, for going about, and likewise for giving, for distributing, for ministering among the nations, for defending the oppressed, for helping the poor, for benefiting widows and orphans. For all these things, his works were indeed great on earth and his service abundant, because the works of his merits were great and his service was abundant. B But I believe that after these works of his which have been recounted, after the agriculture and the feeding of cattle, and all things else, there were also other great works of Job on earth: faith, piety, justice, holiness, constancy, patience, tolerance, and all things similar to these, and all the virtues which were demonstrated above, and the works of merits and alms. For these are indeed those great works which were so great that they reached even unto heaven, and arrived even unto God. They were so great that, having been performed in corruption, they were heralded in incorruption. Done among men, they were glorified among angels. These, I say, were the great works of Job. And where were these? *In the earth*, he says. In what earth? First, indeed, in the earth which is under heaven. Also, in his earthly body. For he perfected every virtue, every justification, every holy work, every endurance with acts of thanksgiving, all things in this earthly body, and bore and sustained them. The witness is he himself, saying concerning the virtue and greatness of God: *Who is to raise up my flesh, which has endured these evils*. And after all things, the works of Job were great. Where? *In the earth*, he says. In what earth? In the incorruptible earth, in the immortal earth, in the land of the living, in the tabernacles of the just, where there is no infirmity nor death, whence pain and sadness and groaning flee away. There, therefore, were the great works of Job; there they were demonstrated and shown, there they were distinguished and manifested. Here perfected, there harvested; here scattered, there gathered; here lent to God, there returned with glory by God to those who lend. For he who has mercy on the poor, lends D to God. And according to his gift, the Lord will repay him.
But after all these things, he demonstrates the latest virtue of Job, saying: *There was however this man of excellent race, from the parts of the East*. Likewise, also, he designates and mentions him singularly here. This man was unique, removed, who in the flesh separated those things which are of the flesh, who among men was above men, who was on earth, yet performed heavenly things;
A he is a blameless man, righteous, a true worshiper of God, abstaining from every evil thing; he is, therefore, of the best lineage, from the parts of the East, as if he were to say that he was more noble and better, more exalted and more sublime than all who are in the parts of the East. For designating this, he says: "Now this man was of the best lineage, from the parts of the East." But let it be permitted to answer the writer, and say: Whence is Job of the best lineage? If from Adam and Eve, they transgressed through disobedience. If from Esau, he was reduced under the curse of greed. If from the sons of Esau, they were impious even because of their insolence. How, therefore, was he of the best lineage who was born from such? Reuben the firstborn of Jacob, and Simeon and Levi, who were begotten of Israel, are not called of the best lineage. But Job, who arose from the impious, that is, from the sons of Esau, who was born from the lineage of Edom, is called of the best lineage. "I," he says, "do not seek a carnal birth, I do not signify a carnal generation, I do not praise a perishing nobility." For these things are not highly regarded before God, these are not required by the Creator. For just as the glory of a person does not stand before God, so neither is carnal nobility required by Him. Deservedly is Job said to be of the best lineage. Not from Esau, nor from the posterity of Edom, but Job is said to be of the best lineage, from holiness and justice, from piety, from faith, from mercy, from the worship of God, from a true mind, from a pure heart, from good thoughts. Therefore, from all these things Job is said to be well-born; for from all these things he is considered more noble, as if in the familiarity of God, as if in the patronage of God, as one who was related to God because of a true soul and faith, and integral justice. It is not earthly fathers, nor carnal B grandfathers, that rendered him well-born, but the works of truth, and the office of holiness, and not least, a sincere hope in God. Who was more noble or of better lineage than Ham the middle son of Noah, who was noble both from the nobility of his father, and noble and illustrious from the blessing and colloquy of God? But it availed him nothing, neither the colloquy of God, nor the blessing of the Creator, nor the justice of his father, when he himself turned away from justice to lay hold of impiety, because of which he was justly humbled and reduced into a curse and servitude. For his father Noah himself, who was about to defend his liberty and nobility, himself, by the righteous judgment of God, gave him over to a curse and servitude. For he was not worthy to enjoy the liberty and nobility of his father, whom he impiously brought to mockery as ignoble. Therefore, O friends, the justice of fathers by no means helps unjust and impious children, and the injustice and impiety of parents in no way harms pious and holy children. For whether fathers, or among children, anyone has committed sin, this one is a servant of sin; and since he is a servant of sin, he is not proven to be free or well-born. Even similarly, he who is free from sin, he possesses C liberty and is rightly called truly noble, because that liberty which was granted naturally from the beginning he did not corrupt by sin, nor stain by transgression. Such, therefore, was the blessed Job, righteous outwardly from every crime, a truthful worshiper of God, abstaining himself from every evil thing. Therefore, because he was such before God, deservedly is he rightfully said to be of the best lineage. For who will truly be well-born, unless he who has preserved the divine birth and integral condition? Like that admirable Job, who is worthily and justly called well-born, not because he was begun carnally from the generation of Esau, but because he imitated Abraham through the faith beloved by God, and because he followed Isaac in the truest chastity, and approached Israel in the clear purity of heart, and Melchizedek in the immolation of sons, and Joseph in chastity, and Moses in meekness, and Samuel in justice, and Lazarus in the passion of judgment, and all Saints in all virtues, so that he himself can also say with holy David: "I am a partaker of all them that fear Thee, and keep Thy commandments" (Ps. cxviii, 63). Therefore, because the blessed Job was made a partaker of the holiness of all the saints, for this reason he was worthily said to be of the best lineage, as one carrying in himself the nobility of all justice, as one containing in himself the liberty of all the friends of God. D Ammon or Absalon are not called well-born: for they denied, and departed and fell from the holiness and dignity of David their father; and others were innumerably similar to those first and last, who, losing all liberty of justice and being made servants of sin, are proven to be servants of eternal punishment among the dead. May the Lord of all hold all us as worthy saints, so that we may persevere well-born in the holy regeneration. May the celestial Lord Himself nevertheless grant to us, that we may remain in incorruptible nobility unblemished, not glorying only in the liberty of the flesh, but demonstrating in the chastity of the soul, in faith, and in all things before God and His holy angels: so that, free from all sins and transgressions, we may enter without difficulty into the eternal glory and kingdom of the King, our celestial Father, with the saints, His holy and undefiled children, persevering in His precepts until the end, and perpetually guarding the liberty and immaculate nobility granted to us by Him. Thus, therefore, in all ways the blessed Job is discerned to be well-born. Blessed are all who have imitated him. Blessed are all who have followed his divine footsteps. For all these together, like him, will be held worthy of glory before God. "But," he says, "he was also a man of the best lineage. And not only of the best, but from the parts of the East." Whence, therefore, is the delight of light? Whence also the rays of beauty? Whence the rise of health? From the parts of the East. Whence is the beginning of men? Whence were the first of the world? Where is the paradise of delight? "He planted," he says, "a paradise of pleasure in Eden, to the east—"
and in faith and piety, and tolerance, and all the pursuits of the virtues. For this reason, therefore, he is rightly said to have been of an excellent lineage and from the parts of the East. For just as all men, as the light of day begins, raise their gaze toward the east, hurrying to look upon the most beautiful rays of the sun; so similarly, or rather, every pious and religious and believing soul in every time raises its true spiritual gaze toward the incorruptible east, so that it may perceive the admirable rays of the Sun of Justice rising therefrom. He who says was warning of this, and signifying this, and teaching all men this: *Sing to God, who ascends above the heaven of heavens to the east (Ps. LXVII, 33). For so, when Daniel was praying to God and beseeching Him, windows were opened toward Jerusalem B (Dan. VI, 10). For where he was, from Babylon toward the east, thence was the rising of the sun to Babylon. Therefore, because when he was in Jerusalem he prayed toward the east, for that reason also when he was in Babylon, just as toward Jerusalem, he prayed toward the east to God and Creator of all. He prayed to Him toward the east, from whom is the origin of every benefit and salvation, and likewise of grace and mercy. For so also now all of us believers, concordant with holy believers, pray toward the east to our Lord God, who for our salvation and redemption indeed descended unto the sunset, as if to set in passion and death, but ascended toward the east, as if rising from the dead after the passion, and after the resurrection ascending into heaven toward the east. For the blessed Job, fulfilling the figure of all these things, is said to be from the parts of the East, because all holiness and piety and faith up to the end remained in him.
After adding all these things, he says: *And his sons went and made a feast in their houses, every one his day* (Job 1, 4). His sons. Whose? Job's. His sons, who were designated or mentioned a little while ago. Sons who were seven in number, and had one soul. There were seven persons, and one heart was in them. They were dissimilar in appearance and face, but similar and unanimous in the concord of mind and the communion of piety. These seven sons of Job, therefore, were coming together to one another. There was no pride among them, nor arrogance, nor inflation, nor elation. The first did not despise the last, the older did not extol himself, did not exalt himself over the younger, but observing unanimity regarding their brothers, they came together to one another. They came together purely and sincerely, they came together concordantly and unanimously. The junior rendered obedience to the major, the last showed honor to the first with precedence: one did not envy the other, as the sons of Jacob [envied] Joseph (Gen. XXXVII, 41). One did not resist the other, as Absalom [resisted] Ammon, and as Adonias [resisted] Solomon, but they came together to one another, as brothers to brothers, as A siblings to siblings. No one judged among them, nor did anyone say that anything was his own, but all things were common to them, and gifts, and substance, and riches, and unanimity, and money, and charity; all things were common to them. And the brothers themselves came together, fulfilling that which is said: *Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity* (Ps. CXXXII, 1). The brothers themselves, observing that which was afterward observed by the apostles and practiced and fulfilled by the believers, as it is said: *And the heart and soul of all the believers were one* (Act. IV, 32). Showing, of course, this pious unanimity and demonstrating sincere concord, those blessed sons of Job came together to one another. Thus it is necessary also for religious brothers to act; thus it is necessary also now for them to show themselves true siblings, gentle and mild to one another, modest also and unanimous. It is not necessary for them to have contention or divorce toward one another. It is not necessary for them to retain envy and zeal against one another. It is not necessary for them to reserve malice or iniquity toward one another, as formerly Esau kept against Jacob, saying: *When the days of mourning for my father shall come, I will kill my brother Jacob* (Gen. XXVII, 41). But similarly, as those religious sons of Job, they ought to love one another purely, and ought to feel for one another sincerely, and to defer their own glory and honor to one another, as the Apostle says: *If one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it* (1 Cor. XII, 26). It is not necessary to bite and accuse one another lest they be consumed by one another: as that most wicked Esau, who through greed lost the primogeniture, and after these things rising against his sibling brother Jacob, became stripped of divine grace. But they ought to imitate the kind sibling-spirit of the sons of Job, and the fraternity loved by God, who all grew as holy branches from a holy root, who all produced holy fruit as from a holy tree. Therefore, it is said of them here: *And his sons went and made a feast in their houses, every one his day*. They made a feast, that is, banquets, festivities, gladness, pleasantness. But they did not make such things only for themselves, but also C for their sisters. Having called, he says, their three sisters to them, that they might eat and drink with them (Job 1, 4). They made feasts, but not on account of drunkenness, nor for luxury, nor for turpitude, nor for intemperance, nor for illicit scurrilities, nor for wanton jokes, nor for impudent and obscene conversations. For if anything of this sort had been among them, if those blessed sons of Job had done anything of this kind, they would not have called their sisters to them, that they might do or speak illicit and impudent things with their sisters. But now, truly, because their works, and words, and gatherings and banquets were pious and modest, becoming and delightful, and nonetheless chaste and clean, they were deservedly in testimony of their purgation, D and of the cleanliness of their siblings.
C For the Lord your God walks with you through the needy and the poor, who says: "Whatever you did to one of these least ones, you did to me" (Matt. xxv, 40).
After all these things it says: "And when the days of feasting had come to an end" (Job 1, 5). He shows evidently here that what was said above was true: that they did not always feast, that they did not make feasts daily, but on certain days, those days which were numbered seven according to the number of the seven sons of Job, according to those seven that are celebrated in the Law. When, therefore, these were finished, after this, when the solemnity passed, when the feastings according to the custom of the festival were finished—for the sons of that blessed man did not make feasts every day, nor did they always cast their eyes into cups and bowls; they were not wine-bibbers, as very many are now, but they were holy, those most holy sons of Job. Since, therefore, they were holy men, holy in their solemnities, speaking among themselves and with their sisters regarding chastity and holiness, regarding also cleanliness and modesty, according to all these things which have been mentioned above—after, therefore, the days of feasting were thus finished in chastity, and in piety and modesty, what was done after this is signified, saying: "Job sent and purified them" (ibid.), sending to them those who would admonish them of piety, who would instruct them in justice, who would teach them the fear of God, who would testify to the terrible judgment of God in which an account of all works and words, both manifest and hidden, is sought and rendered, in which vengeance is impatiently brought upon all souls, in which wrath is inflicted upon all the ungodly in the flame of fire. Therefore, with words of doctrine, of discipline, and of admonition, he purified them, either through those whom he sent to them, or by calling them to himself.
But he sent, it says, and purified them. What did he send, or how did he send? He sent to the Lord, and directed them to the Creator. What did he send? His prayers and supplications for them, confession also, and thanksgiving for them. These, clearly, he sent and purified them. He purified them with his prayers, he purified them with petitions and requests; he purified them as Moses purified the children of Israel for their sake in the desert by praying; he purified them as Samuel did for all the children of Israel fighting against the Philistines, by placating and beseeching God for them with his prayers. Thus, therefore, this just Job formerly purified his sons.
But that he purified them by prayers and satisfaction, he shows through the things that follow, saying: "Rising early" (ibid.). Straightway he hastened to God, straightway he proceeded to God, for himself and his sons, beseeching and supplicating God, praying also and asking, hastening to make the terrible face of God propitious both to himself and to them: likewise also teaching and admonishing and showing the form, both then to his sons, and now to all of us in perpetuity, that rising immediately at daybreak from the rest of the night, before every work or word, before every conversation
or compact, we may offer to God the first fruits of our resurrection in sincere prayers and petitions, in morning supplications and thanksgivings. Showing, therefore, this form of piety and religion, Job, A rising early, offered for them a sacrifice according to their number. First he cleansed, purified, and sanctified them, and only then offered a sacrifice for them, that he might show to all for all time that sacrifices become the clean, the chaste, and the holy, so that having been offered holily and worthily, they may be received holily and worthily by the holy. For thus also the Apostle says after these things: Let a man prove himself, that is, let him cleanse himself, and thus take part in the most holy sacrifices of the Lord. Thus also Job, acting beforehand, first cleansed them, and then at last offered a sacrifice for them according to their number, according to their persons. Why according to their number? Because of the excessive sincerity he had toward them, and the devoted purification he had toward them. Likewise, each one was created by God, and they came forth one by one from the mother's womb, and one by one they shall rise again and be brought into the inquiry of judgment in equal number. For this reason, he says, therefore I offer a sacrifice for each one of them according to their number, so that they too, seeing these things, might hasten to perform the same for themselves, knowing that each one of all men shall rise alone for himself in the judgment, and alone shall come to the inquiry, and alone shall give an account for himself in the visitation of souls. For a brother shall not deliver his brother, nor shall any one defend another in the judgment. Rightly therefore did he offer sacrifices for them according to their number, and likewise one calf for the sins of their souls. But who was it that offered these same sacrifices? It is certain that it was Job himself. For if after this he himself was commanded to offer and sacrifice for his friends, much more did he himself offer sincere and thus acceptable sacrifices for his sons. Nevertheless, there were also priests at that time, though not yet ordained by the Law, but this was required and performed by natural wisdom. Thus Noah performed the priesthood. Thus Abraham performed the priesthood. Thus Melchisedech held the priesthood. Thus also Job himself after them performed the priesthood. But in the meantime (as we have said) there were also D priests in various places who offered sacrifices for the needy to the Lord at different times. That there were indeed priests at that time is shown by Job himself saying: Who sends priests away stripped. Whether therefore the aforementioned priests, or Job himself, offered sacrifices for them according to their number. If I distributed, he says, an inheritance to them, if I gave them great gifts, would I not divide them according to their number? Would I not give them according to their persons? But now, he says, when I distribute a spiritual inheritance to them and bestow divine gifts upon them, shall I not offer sacrifices for them, and offer sacrifices according to their number and according to their persons? But why do you sacrifice one calf for all? Why do you slaughter one calf in common for all souls? For this reason, he says, I slaughter one calf in common for the souls of all, that I may teach them all communion and concord, unanimity and consent, so that when one calf is slaughtered for all, they may all be judged to be unanimous with one another. Rightly therefore, for the souls of all, have I slaughtered one calf in common. But furthermore, which is the greatest of these, he says, one calf for the sins of their souls. Tell me, O blessed Job, who taught you to slaughter a calf for the sins of souls? Who taught you so long beforehand to fulfill the figure of those things which are to be performed in the last time? The Holy Spirit, he says, revealed it to me, the Holy Spirit taught me to offer a calf for the souls in the figure of that calf of which it is said: Bring hither quickly the fatted calf, and to slaughter a calf for sins in the type of him of whom it is said: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who taketh away the sin of the world. The Holy Spirit himself, he says, taught me to offer a calf for the sins of souls, and long beforehand to fulfill the figure of him who, as the fatted calf, is to be slaughtered for the world in the last time, who as the immaculate lamb is to be sacrificed for the world. For he who taught Isaiah to say: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer C without voice, and he himself bore our sins, and for our impieties was led to death; he who taught Jeremiah to say: I was as an innocent lamb led to the slaughter, and innumerable other things like these: he therefore who taught all those prophets to speak and prophesy of him who was to come, the same himself, he says, also illumined me, that I might offer a calf for sins and fulfill the type of the future calf and lamb. Rightly therefore did he offer one calf for the sins of their souls, that he might perform those things now and show the things to come. But furthermore, he slaughtered that calf before his sons for their sins so that the sons themselves, seeing that that calf was slaughtered and died for the sins of others, might fear and tremble and turn away from all the sins that destroy souls and kill all the souls, that is, that they might mortify the ignorances of youth within themselves. For this reason, therefore, he slaughtered one calf in the figure of that one aforementioned calf for the sins of their souls. These things, assuredly, the blessed Job did, wisely considering and holily thinking. For Job was saying within himself: Lest perhaps my sons have thought some evil in their heart against God. O sincerity of a father, O love of a parent, O devotion of a begetter! For he was not only solicitous for their bodies, but thought more of the soul. Lest, he says, my sons who have been nurtured in discipline, who in instruction
have grown A up—those who have been exercised in the fear of God—lest, perhaps, my sons, in whose life I rejoice, if they should live unto God, in whose life I congratulate myself, if they should be intent upon God, if they should serve God, if they should not depart from the Creator; lest, perhaps, my sons, in their heart, in their mind, in their soul, in their intent, in their thought, should have thought something against God. As if he were to say: Lest perhaps some evil thought should have ascended into their heart, which makes them far from God, which perverts them from holiness, which separates them from chastity, which draws them away from piety. Tell me, O blessed Job, how could you permit that any evil should escape your sons in their more evident words and deeds, you who were so exceedingly solicitous and concerned even for occult and hidden things, or perhaps for things that did not exist at all, since you said in your solicitude and fear: "Lest perhaps my sons have thought something evil B against God in their heart," lest perhaps they have thought of impurity, lest perhaps they have declined toward impiety, lest perhaps they have wandered after sins, lest perhaps they have meditated upon illicit things, lest perhaps they have coveted unjust things, lest perhaps some root of bitterness and gall has sprung up in their minds and harmed them? Blessed Job, revolving these and many other such things within himself, said: "Lest perhaps my sons have thought something evil in their heart against God." Lest, he says, my branches be broken, lest my shoots be uprooted, lest my fruit which I have begotten in justice, which I have brought forth in faith, should fall away: "Lest perhaps my sons have thought something evil in their heart against God." Lest they forget God, and departing from his fear, and abandoning his benefits, they say in their heart: "There is no God, there is no justice, there is no judgment, there is no resurrection, no inquiry, no retribution." For all these things are evil, and contrary to God, and far from God, and hateful to God; and every man who has thought these things, or planned them, or done them, or purposed them, is an enemy of God and hateful to him. Thus, therefore, thinking in every way most soundly for the souls of his sons, Job said: "Lest perhaps my sons have thought something evil in their heart C against God." For those who have thought evil against God perish quickly, and are condemned in perpetuity, are intercepted, are hindered, and are tormented in the depths of hell forever. But most men do not remember these things, who exterminate their sons from infancy, who do not train their sons and daughters from the cradle, do not correct them from their youth, do not forbid evils, do not hate the worst things, do not restrain illicit things, do not admonish them of the fear of God, do not threaten them with the judgment of hell, do not teach them the entrance into eternal life. For they do not educate us in the discipline and erudition of the Lord, who took no care for their souls, nor were solicitous for the salvation or perdition of their sons. Such as these, when they do not train and do not correct their sons, deliver their souls to the unquenchable fire and D give them over to the fury of judgment. For everything that sons have done amiss is required of their parents who did not train and did not correct their sons. A clear example of this is shown in Eli and in his sons, and elsewhere in others. Knowing this, the glorious servant of God, Job, did not only observe his sons from manifest sins, but also from occult ones, lest they should have thought anything evil in their heart. That blessed man, by his deeds, showed that which was afterward said in words: "Cleanse me from my hidden faults." For none the less, he solicitously cleansed them for the hidden faults and those perpetrated in the ignorance of his sons; and he was not only solicitous for those things committed and certain, but also for those uncertain and non-existent. Without doubt, this is what that blessed man did. Not once or twice, nor for one year or two, but Job did this all the days of their life. He did not rest, he did not resume his confidence, he did not sleep, nor did he forget; he was not negligent, he was not fastidious, but he did so all the days of their life, fulfilling before the apostles those things which belong to the apostles, as it is written: "He who began a good work in you will perfect it even unto the day of Christ," and before the advent of the Lord, fulfilling the precept of the Lord who says: "He who shall have endured unto the end, he shall be saved." Thus, therefore, Job acted all the days of their life, believing himself to have a great treasure in the kingdom of heaven, so that he might show his sons inviolate and immaculate, and send them to the kingdom of heaven. Thus, I say, Job acted all the days of their life. He acted as one before him had not done, as one older than him did not behave. Abraham was great in faith, but Job excels him in tolerance. Jacob was great in the purity of his heart, but Job was not inferior to him in mercy. Against all others, earlier and later, he did not succumb in his study of virtues. While he shared in the virtues of all, and imitated the faith, piety, and justice of all, he surpassed all, and excels in the tolerance of vehement pains. Deservedly is it said of Job alone: because he acted in such a way as no other did. For everything that the saints did, Job also did. But that which Job sustained with thanksgivings, none other nevertheless sustained. Therefore, in every way it is truly said, thus Job acted all the days of their life. Thus he acted, as one just and pious, as one beloved of God, as one believing. Thus he acted as was pleasing to God, as was the will of the Creator, as the holy king desired. But when Job acted thus, and brought all these good things to pass, the malignant one did not endure it, the most wicked one did not tolerate it, but, being jealous, he became malignant, and being envious, he was inflamed. What, he says, shall I do to him? How shall I attack? How shall I circumvent? How shall I supplant? How shall I lead into transgression? How shall I lead him away from justice? He does not think of the present,
but hopes for things to come; he desires divine things and seeks after the incorruptible. He is clothed in justice on every side, he is arrayed in holiness on every side, he is grounded in truth, he is confirmed in faith. A Thinking on these things, the most wicked demon, he who from the beginning has waged war against the saints, the devil, said: "I have considered what I shall do; I shall flee to that former wickedness of mine, I shall use that principal fraud, I shall accuse Job before God, just as of old I accused God before Adam, and I shall entrap Job before God, just as from the beginning I did Adam." (Job also possesses a paradise of riches, just as Adam once did), saying that God is envious of you, lest you become like God, He has not permitted you to taste of the tree of knowledge; I shall now say to God that it is not for love, but for money that Job appears to worship You. But when the most wicked one was thinking these things and speaking them to himself, "It happened," he says, "as that day." What day is that? The day which rebuked the devil’s wickedness, which manifested God’s justice, which revealed Job’s endurance. That day which made public God’s long-suffering, and Job’s alacrity, and the devil’s wickedness; just as that day shall manifest, which will be revealed in fire, so that day made public all the most wicked zeal of the devil, and the entire envy of the malignant Satan. For showing this, he says: "It happened as though that day, and the angels of God came to stand before God." They came not moving from place to place, nor coming from elsewhere where God was not present, but coming to where they might find or see God. For heaven and earth, things above and things below, corruption and incorruption, and all things are filled by His beatitude, all things are surrounded by His virtue, all things are contained by His greatness: and there is nothing outside Him. How then did they come, and whence did they come before the face of God, who fills all things? Let us understand well, O friends, both holily and worthily of God, all things that have been said or written: for the words and counsels of God must be perceived in a manner worthy of God. The angels of God came to stand before God, they came not by carnal footsteps, nor by bodily goings, but by spiritual access and an incorruptible celestial state. They came praising, honoring, magnifying, confessing, giving thanks. B By this, that he says they came, by this he signifies nevertheless what is the work or study of the holy angels: that they assiduously praise the celestial Lord, that they give thanks to the eternal God, that they incessantly render glory to the holy God for His benefits, for His grace, for His mercy, for His miracles, which He imparts to the human race at every hour, at every time, manifold and great and diverse—at one time delivering from perils, at another snatching from dangers, sometimes saving from straits, patiently sparing those who sin, mercifully receiving the penitent, C patiently sustaining the contumacious, most mercifully pitying those who treat Him with scorn, and bringing to completion other ineffable and incomprehensible benefits toward the human race. All these things the holy angels, seeing daily as they stand in His sight, praise and honor, and also magnify God, and give thanks to Him for His inestimable benefits and for His mercy, which, demonstrating it in this place, he says: "The angels of God came to stand before God." Using human custom and proverb and locution, he says they "came before God," who fills all things, who is everywhere present, and there is no place, neither in heaven, nor on earth, nor in the heights, nor among the dead, where God is not present. He knew this who says: "If I ascend into heaven, You are there; and if I descend into hell, You are present." Elias knew this, that both heaven and earth and all things that are in them are in the sight of God. Merely when he was upon the earth, he showed himself to stand before God, saying: "The Lord lives, in whose sight I stand." Similarly, the angel Gabriel: "Who stand in His sight and of God." And so Elias, in the body upon the earth, and Gabriel, without a body in the heavens, both alike said they stood in the sight of God: for the face of God is everywhere; only the just and holy God does not wish to see evil, therefore He says: "The Lord does not wish to see evil." And elsewhere: "And I, seeing you, shall despise you." And further: "When you stretch forth your hands to me, I will turn my face from you." Therefore the holy and worthy, and just, and believers, and the chaste also and veracious, whether they be in the body or out of the body, whether on earth or in heaven, whether they be glorious angels or holy men, stand constantly and incessantly and indissociably in the sight of God. But men are said to come before God when with greater devotion and zeal they have poured out their souls in prayer before God, as Anna the mother of Samuel, when in the grief of her soul she poured out her prayer in the sight of the Lord: as he of whom it was said: "The prayer of the poor man, when he was in anxiety and poured out his prayer in the sight of the Lord." So let all those who have worshipped anxiously with prayer stand before God. So the angels, as they confess His mercies while giving thanks, and D give thanks to Him for His benefits, which He incessantly imparts to the sons of men, or when they have seen the virtues of holy men, the signs of the servants of God, their constancy and their struggles, then truly with joy and exultation they assist before God, truly both that they may honor God and praise Him for the victory of the servants of God, and also that they may seek from the same God patience of endurance and holy completion for those who suffer for God’s sake. And so thus the angels of God came and come, that they might stand before God. Thus they stood when the salvation of the whole world came to men, taking its origin from the Unique-begotten God born of the Virgin, with
there suddenly appeared a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising and magnifying God for the salvation of the world. Thus they stood at the beginning of the whole of creation, just as God Himself says, a little later, unfolding to Job and saying: "When the stars were made, my angels praised me with a great voice, and sang a hymn." If they praised Him then, when inanimate stars were made, much more did they praise when animate and sensible stars were made—that is, the souls of the saints and the just. Of which stars it must be said: "For star differs from star in brightness, so too is the resurrection of the dead." And elsewhere: "Then the just shall shine as the luminaries of the sky, and as the stars forever." Thus, therefore, from of old and until eternity, the single benefits of the work of the Lord stand, which at all times He imparts to the children of men, confessing and calling upon and giving thanks to the beatitude of the eternal God.
But meanwhile, according to history, the angels stood then before God, confessing and giving thanks to Him on account of the holiness of Job, and his merit, righteousness also, and piety, innocence, and integrity, accountinig the innocence and holiness of the blessed Job a very great glory to themselves before God. But that which is for joy and glory to the holy angels, this nevertheless contributes to the inflammation and zeal of the malignant and adversary devil. Therefore, when the angels came to give thanks and to confess for the just Job, the devil came, filled with malignity and inflammation against the aforementioned Job. The angels having come, that is to say, the devil also came to stand before the Lord. The angels had come that they might give thanks and confess and praise; but the devil came that he might lie, and accuse, and blame. And truly, using as it were two persons, those of the angels and the devil, He shows the goodness of the angels, and refutes the wickedness of the devil, and uncovers his most wicked thoughts, which he had without doubt wickedly and unworthily pondered with himself, saying: "Who will grant me that I may come before the sight of God? Who will grant me that I may stand before the face of that Eternal One?" This, of course, being the devil's thought and his very desire, the writer, recording it as an advent, says: "And the devil came that he might stand before the Lord." He came, but not in presence, not in approach, nor in entry, but he came in thought, counsel, and desire. For just as some thief placed in prison and chains goes frequently in his mind and desires to be out in the mountains where he once was, yet he himself is not there, but his mind and thought are—and the thought comes to him, reminding him of those places and stations that are there, and the deeds also, and the pursuits—so the devil, when he reminds himself of all his former state and desires those things which are before God, and goes there in sense and thought, is said to have come before God, though in reality he has not come, but in sense and thought. For how would he who is not permitted to approach or even touch the holy soul of Job come before the sight of God? How would he come to the heavens who is not permitted to enter into Paradise? For if at the gate of Paradise a cherub has been placed to keep watch, and a flaming sword, so that that man who had once fallen thence—that is, Adam—could not enter beyond it: what are we to think of the holy guard of the angels, the virtues of the heavens, which guard those gates to which it is said: "Lift up your gates, O you princes, and let the King of glory enter in"? To pass through or cross over to heaven was and is impossible for the most wicked devil. For when he fell from the heavens on account of iniquity, he will never again enter heaven, he will never again return to it. For if God says to the impious and wicked, "You shall not add to tread my courtyard," B does not the devil—who is the author of all iniquity and the father and inventor of all crime—since he fell of his own volition from the heavenly court from which he fell, never again ascend, and never again return? For if the spirit exiting does not return, nor is the taken soul recalled: does not he who exited from heaven on account of iniquity—and he who was cast out from the choirs of the holy angels on account of impenitent wickedness—much more never again return thither, and never more be recalled to repentance? For he will stand as unrefined and in indomitable aversion. And further, if of old, when Cain departed from the face of the Lord on account of his impious daring, he never returned before the sight of the Lord God: does not the devil—who was the teacher of all cruelty to him, and who is rightly called the murderer from the beginning, having been justly cast out from the face of the Lord God as an unjust one—much more never again come before the face of the Lord, never more return in the sight of the holy glory? According to that which is said: "Let the impious be taken away, lest he see the glory of the Lord." And further: "If the impious do not rise in judgment, and sinners shall not appear in the counsel of the just, how shall he who stood as the father of impieties and the progenitor of sinners—that is, the devil—appear in the sight of the holy glory of God? How would death befit life? How shall darkness stand in the sight of inaccessible light? How shall stubble, hay, and wax endure the proximity of insuperable fire; of which it is written: "As wax melts from the face of the fire, so let sinners perish from the face of God"? How, hearing the voice of God, should the unclean and execrable fugitive devil—whom not even the holy angels deem worthy of their discourse, whose fellowship no saint has accepted, nor embraced—answer Him? Which was made clear in blessed Paul and Silas, to whom it was very troublesome that the devil, through the mouth of that divining girl, shouted at them who were following them, until Paul, not enduring it, confused and drove out that demon. By all means, therefore, it is proven that the devil was driven away by the saints and that the saints' presence...
did not sustain, “whether of angels or of men; A much more would they not sustain the more terrible presence of God, nor would they approach before the glorious face of God. For if, when the Only-begotten came to the earth, the creature, not sustaining the power and approach of the Godhead in Him, was tormented, he asked: how shall he, approaching unto incorruption, stand before that intolerable and inaccessible face of God, and hearing the voice of words, give answer and reply? This is in every way unlawful and impossible. After all these things, O friends, as I said above, let us understand the words of holy Scripture.
The devil is said to have come before God, and to have heard from God, and answered God, not that the malignant and unclean and dark devil stood face to face before God. Far from it: for who, he says, can sustain the harsh effect of His presence? A little later in the same book, that is, who can sustain the harsh effect of His countenance, unto non-repentance, fear, and virtue? Therefore, as we said above, the most wicked devil did not come before God in person, but in counsels, and thoughts, and meditations of his wickedness: and what he thought concerning Him, and what he thought concerning the righteous Job, these things came before God; the memory of these came into the sight of the eternal God. Moses, in relating these things, sets forth and shows persons. What persons does he use? Sometimes of the angels, sometimes of the devil, sometimes of God, in order that by the significations of persons he may designate those things which have occurred, and make manifest those things which were done. A clear example of which we find in ourselves, O friends. For we frequently journey in our minds to that place where we have never been present in body, whether to heaven to God, or to earth among men. Often we speak to the absent as if to the present, and with our thoughts we contend with those who are very far away, and we quarrel, and strive, and reply, and from their person we make for ourselves the controversies and replies. Often also we ascend in spirit to God and stand as if in the sight of God in the vision of the mind and the elevation of the spirit, and we speak to God, and hear from God, and give answer to God. And we say all these things while still placed in the body and surrounded by the corruption of the flesh upon the earth. That this is so, is known to those who are sincere toward God, those who always direct their souls to incorruptible and exalted things. Thus Moses spoke to God, when God answered him saying: Why criest thou unto me? Thus Elias stood before God when he said: The Lord liveth before whom I stand in His sight. And others innumerable are shown from the Scriptures to have spoken to God and to have heard from the age, and likewise to have answered God, yet not in body to have ascended into heaven into the sight of God, but to have come before God in the spiritual sincerity of the soul. Such were they to whom the Apostle says: You are not in the flesh, but A in spirit, as those who at all times think not of carnal things, but of spiritual things, as if seen among men upon the earth, but in the study of the mind proved to have been before God in heaven. They speak of this kind of thing with confidence: Our conversation or citizenship is in heaven. If, therefore, men clothed in flesh and surrounded by corruption are said to stand and be in heaven before God, having gone there not by nature but by will and desire, lifted up by the meditation of the mind, what is the great thing if the devil, since he is a spirit and incorruptibly passes through the air and the sea, is said to have come before God? Not that he himself came, but his immortal thoughts and his most wicked cogitations came. For just as it is said to Cornelius concerning good things: Thy prayers and thine alms have ascended into remembrance in the sight of God, so also it is said to the devil concerning evil things: thy malignities and thine iniquities have ascended into remembrance in the sight of God. How have they ascended? Offered by the holy angels. For just as the holy angels offer the remembrance of the just and their justifications before God: so in like manner do the same angels carry the remembrance of the malice and wickedness of the devil, as well as his spite and the envy which he has concerning the saints, into the sight of the terrible God. That the glorious angels offer these things in the sight of the Lord, Raphael the messenger of God is a witness, who spoke to Tobias saying: When thou didst pray, and Sara the daughter of Raguel, I offered the remembrance of your prayer, and its legality in the sight of the glory of God. Nevertheless, the holy angels of God offer these things not as if He who knows all things before they happen were ignorant, but that they may be made witnesses of the holiness and piety of the just. Again, as if lamenting the impieties and injustices of the unjust, or even of the devil himself. For showing and signifying this, the Lord says of those good servants (that is, of the angels): But they coming, reported to their lord all things that had been done. C
Thus therefore it has been shown in every way, both by the words and histories of the saints, and by the sayings of the angels, that the devil did not come into the sight of the holy and glorious God in his own person—that savage, cruel, obscene, and execrable, dark and also abominable person—but by the revelation of his wickedness, and by the proof of his spite and envy, and by the accusation of his injustice, and no less by the manifestation and commemoration of his wicked and most malignant thoughts. For the commemoration and memory of all these things came into the sight of God. For thus He says after these things: Now I will remember their impieties, and I will avenge their sins, not as if He had now forgotten, but because He has now judged it just to avenge. According to this very example, the devil is now said to have come into the sight of God, not that that most wicked one came into the sight of the good God, but as if his cruel and most wicked thoughts came into memory in the sight of God. These things...
A show that in this Scripture He makes use of persons, and sometimes, setting them over against one another, He says: The angels came to stand before God, and the devil came with them to stand himself before God. But He says this for this reason: that He might refute the iniquity of the devil, and show the patience of Job, and demonstrate the justice of God. The angels of God, he says, came to stand before God. They came as holy and glorious ones, as those deemed worthy of the most holy face of God. The angels came to attest to the holiness of the saints, and to demonstrate the diverse and various virtues of the just before God: Melchizedek’s priesthood worthy of God, Abraham’s unshakable faith, Isaac’s single marriage, Israel’s purity of heart, Joseph’s chastity, Moses’ meekness, and Job’s justice and devotion to God. For in those times was blessed Job. Therefore, to confess, to profess, and to testify these things, and, if I may so speak, to boast of these things before God, the holy angels came. Thus, both now and until the end of the age, they shall come, attesting in the sight of God most pressingly, some with unfeigned fasting, others with anxious prayers, others with pure repentance and good that is not feigned, others with most sincere almsgiving, and with the largesse of the poor and their miseries. For all these, I say, the angels came and shall come before God, and the devil came with them B to accuse, to disparage, to rebuke, to feign with lies, to vex, to contend: he came then and comes even now to contend, to afflict, and to stir up persecution, tribulations, and anxieties and annoyances against the saints and the just. For this reason therefore he is said to have come like the angel of death, like an angel inflicting punishments, and awaiting the time when they who are worthy of punishment may be handed over to him, and be assigned to punishment and perdition, like him of whom it is said: To deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, just as also those of whom it is said: Whom I have delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. For all criminals, infidels, the impious, and the unjust—all these are handed over and assigned to the wicked and most base angels of the devil, to them of whom it is said: He sent upon them the wrath of his indignation, missions through evil angels; to them of whom it is said elsewhere: The angel of death shall drag him from his house. These therefore come, and then they came in the times of Job. But those damnable ones do not come before the happy face of God; rather, their counsels and their thoughts, and also their desires, and their wicked, most base, and most vile thoughts, and the memory of these things is offered in the sight of God, according to all that has been mentioned and shown.
After all these things, it says: And the Lord said to the devil. For just as the devil did not come as a person before God, but in thought and desire, and in iniquity, or meditation: so also God did not speak to the devil with a mouth, nor did He exchange a word with the wicked one, but by an occult and hidden rebuke of his iniquity, and by a correction of his injustice. For if there is no one here upon the earth among true and just princes and judges who allows murderers, or thieves, or even wicked robbers to converse with him, or take counsel, lest he be judged like them: how much more does the just, true, and terrible God never permit that impious robber and murderer, the devil, to come before His glorious face for the sake of conversation, nor does He embrace this? For if when the Only-begotten came to the lands in the flesh, He did not permit him to speak before Him, but with a rebuke said to him: Silence and be dumb; how would He determine C in the aspect of the glory of His Deity to converse with the malignant devil, when He says to him: and he renders, and He suffers to hear an answer from him, or deigns to? But He spoke to the devil by an occult rebuke, and by a refutation of his hidden malignancy, and zeal, and most wicked thought. For often Scripture says that those things which do not speak have spoken, and those which do not hear have heard, and those which do not understand nor live have roared: as when it says: The sea has spoken, and the power of the sea has spoken: or, Earth, hear the word of the Lord, or, The earth roared upon those inhabiting it. For it is manifest that neither the sea, nor the power of the sea, that is, the waves, ever said or spoke, nor did the earth ever hear or roar. For the earth does not speak nor live, since it is inanimate, but it is the custom of the Scriptures to speak thus of very many things. For so the Scripture says that God spoke to the whale, and to the gourd, and to the morning worm, and to the spirit of burning fire, as it is written: And the Lord commanded the great whale that it should swallow Jonah. To whom did He speak, or whom did He command, or in what tongue did He speak to the whale? Of men, or of angels? For fish have neither tongue nor voice. Or how is it said that He spoke to the gourd, which neither lives nor breathes? How would He speak or, by saying what, would He command the spirit of fire which has neither hearing nor intellect, that it should burn, and strike upon the head of Jonah? For all these things, when they have no knowledge naturally, are turned and moved here and there by the efficiency of the Creator. Just as therefore it is said that God spoke, and had spoken, and commanded, and ordered all these things, not by speaking with a voice, nor by speaking with a tongue, nor by lifting them into His sight to the heavens, but turning them by the virtue of His occult operation as necessity or reason has demanded: so similarly, D according to the example of these things which have been mentioned, He is also said to have spoken, and to have said, and to have heard, and to have answered, and in His presence to have received, neither bringing forth anything in words to him, nor speaking with a tongue to him, nor lifting up the most wicked devil to the high holy places into His sight, when He detects and rebukes and reveals his occult and hidden iniquity to all. Which to us from the...
A Scriptures, now recalling this, clearly shows, saying: *And the Lord said to the devil: Whence comest thou?* And He who is foreknowing and provident questions the most wicked devil as to whence he comes, that unjust fugitive, whence he had approached. Thus did He once question Adam, *Where art thou, Adam?* Not as one ignorant, but knowing by foreknowledge, both then toward Adam and now toward the seducer of Adam—not, however, one who supplanted Job: to him who circumvented Adam, but did not overcome Job. Therefore, because the malice of the same most wicked one was in both, He rightly used the same word toward both: He said to Adam of old, *Where art thou, Adam?* to the devil later: *Whence comest thou?* But He did not ask whence he had come as one ignorant, just as He did not ask of old where Adam was, but He wished to uncover and publish his occult and hidden thought. For he was inflamed with hidden envy against Job, and in his hidden thought he rebuked God, as if He were defending Job and continually bestowing upon him a multitude of riches. For he said within himself: "If He had given me such great goods upon earth, I would surely also worship Him upon earth, just as Job does. Now therefore, who shall grant me to be able to ascend into heaven with the angels, and to stand in the sight of God in their midst, and to receive from God the power over all His goods? And I would show Him that he has lost his goods, because Job is not more useful nor firmer than all other men, because Job does not worship God for the sake of charity or piety, but for the sake of the multitude of his money and the abundance of his goods." For unless he served God for the sake of the allurements of these things, he would not be perfectly better than his great-grandfather Esau. But now Job appears to arise from the descendants of Esau like a flower from thorns; but if he be stripped of his riches, his worship of God will surely be stripped away immediately; if money be taken from him, he would surely not himself offer thanksgiving to God. Therefore, because the devil thought these things when he wickedly envied Job, and illicitly rebuked God, unjustly nonetheless and unworthily desiring to enter before God with the angels, and also because he wished — while illicitly slandering Job — to receive authority over his money and his children, and once he had received all, to lose them suddenly; and when he had lost them, either certainly to draw Job away from God, or even to torment the righteous Job to satisfy his own C wickedness. Therefore, because, as I have said, the most wicked devil came before God according to his own desire and counsel, it is said that he came into the midst of the angels, not that he himself came, but his desire and his thought came. In response to which thought God is said to have answered and questioned the devil as to whence he came. For these things could not truly be written historically, nor be recited to us in any other way, save that they were recited as persons answering one another; for this reason He says: *And the Lord said to the devil: Whence comest thou?* Not as if questioning, or seeking, or inquiring did He say: *Whence comest thou?* but blaming and unveiling, B disowning and refuting, and demonstrating his iniquity and his apostasy and his malicious envy regarding Job and regarding all the saints, He said: *Whence comest thou?* He did not say this to the angels, nor to the holy virtues; He did not ask His special ministers whence they had come or whence they come. For they go and come in Him and in His will, in His visions and in His ordinances, and they perform all things and fulfill all things, and all things work according to His will, according to that which was said: *Bless the Lord, all His angels, His ministers, who do His will.* Because therefore such are the holy angels, and they do the will of God in such a way, and they go and come in Him, and are never outside Him, He rightly does not ask them whence they come; but He questions that wicked fugitive and apostate as a stranger, as an outsider, as an adversary, as an enemy of all good things. Questioning him, therefore, He says: *Whence comest thou?* From murders, from bloodshed, from adulteries, from thefts, from lies, as a murderer and as the father of lies, and being the author and inventor of these things upon earth—*Whence comest thou?* From the slaughter of Abel, from the lewdness of the giants and their destruction, from the tower of contumacy and the dispersion, from the greed of Esau and the circumvention of his brother, from the pertinence and ruin of Pharaoh, from the idol-worship and ruin of Israel in the desert, from the persecution of the prophets, from the beheading of John, from the cruelty of the Jews, C and from the perfection of all evils from age to age. All evils, He says, which have arisen upon the earth have taken their beginning from thee, and through thee they have been disseminated under heaven, and thou art, O devil, the maker and abettor and beginning and end of all these. For these reasons, He says, O devil, both death lives, and hell flourishes, and the darknesses rejoice, and the obscurity is not diminished, and iniquity does not fail, and the judge of death receives the victory. When therefore I ask thee whence thou comest, I do not ask as one who does not know, nor as one who inquires in ignorance, but as one rebuking and uncovering, convincing and refuting, showing also and demonstrating that thou comest from the perfection and operation of all impiety and injustice. Say, whence comest thou, inflamed with zeal, laden with iniquity, full of envy? Truly I gave Job, and thou enviest. I added to him, and thou emulatest. I multiplied, thou truly art wasting away. I have bestowed, thou truly strivest to take away. For I shall catch thee, and I shall uncover thee by divine Providence, as one panting after another's goods like a thief, and hoping that through these thou couldst subvert the righteous Job. But I, He says, shall also refute thy iniquity by handing over the goods of Job to thee, that I may also show the righteous Job gaining the victory over thee through his endurance. Therefore, for this reason, as one questioning, I say: *Whence comest thou?* That thy occult meditation might appear, that thy vehement wickedness might be demonstrated to all.
A Thou art using bombast and arrogance, O most miserable devil, with exaltation and boasting, so that it may appear that all who are bombastic, boastful, arrogant, and proud are disciples of thy wickedness, and have learned from thee those things which are contrary to God: for *God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.* To these things, similarly, Anna the mother of Samuel also says: *Do not speak proud things in your pride, and let not bombast go forth from your mouth.* But the devil, unmindful of these things, both taught others and himself, having spoken great things, said: *I have circled the whole earth which is under heaven.* Pay attention, O friends, because he says that he has circled the whole earth which is under heaven, not with carnal footprints, nor with corruptible steps, but by a spiritual transit, and in a corporeal passage, suddenly flying over and traversing all things which are under heaven. As therefore the devil did not circle by corruptible steps nor by carnal footprints, but by an incorruptible and occult transit: so similarly, when he says that he stood before God, he did not stand face to face before God, but he is said to have come before God by occult thoughts and most wicked meditations; that is, his most wicked thoughts stood before God for his rebuke. But in the meantime, he says, *I have circled the whole earth which is under heaven, and I have come.* But thou boastest evilly; and this boasting of thine is evil. Thou circlest the earth, B but thou dost not return to heaven. Thou traversest things which are under heaven, but those which are in the heights thou shalt not possess. *I have circled the whole earth which is under heaven.* He circled it not with carnal footprints, but with circuits of iniquity; not with earthly steps, but with spiritual seductions. *I have circled the whole earth which is under heaven.* Thou didst not circle it through spaces of time, but suddenly, swiftly, and quickly thou didst traverse all things which are under heaven, and by flying over all things which are in the air, and by inspecting all things which are under heaven, by passing suddenly from the east to the west, and by flying over from the south to the north, and seeing, and hearing, and knowing the things which are done or said through the four ends of the world in all nations, provinces, regions, and languages, not as if having them in his presence, but as a flying spirit, hearing all things that are said by voice, and seeing all things that are done by works, D but knowing not the things that are pondered in the heart and within the mind. For if he had known the thoughts of men, he would surely not have allowed any man to be saved, nor anything good to be accomplished, but as soon as all good things had been begun in thought, he would have destroyed them continuously, nor would he have allowed them to be completed. But now, he is indeed ignorant of those things which are thought or pondered; but those things which are done in works, and are said through the voice, he hears and sees, as he is a crafty and subtle spirit, A and who is present and suddenly flies flying over the whole world. For if the winds suddenly blow through the regions and provinces of the air and pass on, do not the aerial spirits—that is, the most wicked demons—much more suddenly fly over the whole world, suddenly traverse all things that are under heaven, and suddenly are present everywhere? In every battle or fight, in every disturbance and ruin of death, in every sedition and tumult, in every contention and strife, in every murder and bloodshed, and in theft and adultery, and every lamentable war, whether of the east, or of the west, or of the south, or of the north, the wicked and aerial demons are everywhere present, more perturbing, and inflaming, and moving all things. From this come divinations, since the most wicked demons and aerial spirits, suddenly flying over this world, see all things that are in every place of this world, and, hearing those things which are said, those who might be positioned far off elsewhere reveal and demonstrate them to the ministers of wickedness, both in dreams and in vigils, and not even in phantasms; and according to these things which happen or emerge, they also teach them to hope for and to approve of other and further future things. Henceforth the error of divination began for the sons of men, as a scandal to those for whom there was an origin upon the earth. For having demonstrated and mentioned all these things, the most wicked and aerial devil says: *I have circled the whole earth which is under heaven, and I have come.* O most wicked adversary, O most malignant devil, how wicked thou art, and crafty and subtle for all evils! B For when thou speakest to God, feigning humility, thou sayest that thou hast circled the whole earth which is under heaven, and thou didst not make mention of heaven. But when thou speakest to men, then nevertheless, speaking great things in order to seize men, thou sayest: *I will ascend into heaven, I will place my seat above the stars of heaven, and I will be like the Most High.* C Thou surely sayest this for this reason, that thou mightest be able to be adored and worshipped by men instead of the Most High. *I have circled*, he says, *the whole earth which is under heaven.* Thou circlest the earth, O devil, to desolate, to exterminate it. Thou traversest things which are under heaven to disturb and pervert, and to stir up and exacerbate fury in nations against nations and regions. For all these things, therefore, he says, *I have circled the whole earth which is under heaven, and I have come.* But I have circled the whole earth still in another way: all the earthly ones, those who savor only earthly things, those who ponder, meditate upon, love, and seek only earthly things. These, therefore, thou circlest, explorest, searchest out, and tramplest, because thou hast an entrance and an exit, a way and a path, in them. Thus, I say, thou circlest the earth, O devil, and traversest those things which are under heaven. What are these? Hearts which are not in heaven, which have never ascended into heaven, neither by the integrity of faith, nor by the desire of the mind, nor by the memory of the Lord, nor by the expectation of resurrection, nor by the fear of judgment, nor by the hope of eternal glory, but of all these things which
are in heaven, they are unmindful, and they despise A them and commit sin. Such are the hearts of all the fierce and recalcitrant, of those who do not perform penance. For the devil goes about such hearts as these, persuading and infatuating, dulling and hardening those who, concerning the things that are above the heavens in incorruption, have no understanding, but seek only those things which are beneath the heaven in corruption upon the earth. Concerning all these, therefore, he says: I have gone round about the whole earth which is under heaven, and I have come. But from us he is averted when God grants a pure heart, a chaste soul, and a pious mind, a faith integral and full of charity, sincere mercy, unfeigned purity, and immovable hope, so that all the most wicked incursions and approaches may be turned far from us, and all his craftiness may be proved confounded and ineffective. But in the meantime, when the devil said these things, that he had gone round about the earth and traversed those things which are under heaven, God answered him, saying: Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth? As if he were to say: Since you boast that you have gone round about the earth and have traversed those things which are under heaven, tell me, have you considered my servant Job? But if you should chance to say, I know not who Job is, this is he, to whom there is no man like upon the earth. I say that there is not his like upon the earth: do you, however, who say that you have gone round about the earth and traversed those things which are under heaven, show me another like to him. And truly he convicts B the thoughts of the most wicked devil, and manifests his illicit envy, which he premeditated and wickedly conceived when he was jealous of and envied Job. As if he were to say: I convict your meditations, lo, I reveal your counsels, lo, I show your wickedness and envy. Lo, I give you boldness, that you may bring forth your malice, that you may express your malignity, that you may seek after the trial and the blessed battle. For unless you had received confidence, you would not dare to ask: Hast thou considered my servant Job? This is to say: You have relaxed your mind, your thoughts, your counsels, your meditations. Upon whom? Upon my servant Job. Will you, O adversary, rejoice with an arrow in the fashion of burning fire? This voice the devil by no means suffers to hear; the most wicked one does not tolerate that any should be a servant of God, or be named at all. But when he had hatred for Job and was jealous of him, he added upon his wickedness when he had heard that he was called a servant of God, with God testifying, To my servant Job. And observe how great a sense is demonstrated in this very utterance, when he calls Job his servant. First indeed, the Lord of all accounts it as glory and honor to himself when men serve him holily and chastely. Therefore, as if glorying, he says now well concerning Job alone, My servant Job, that is, my servant: but elsewhere concerning many: I have sent to you all my servants the prophets. Whence also he glorifies and magnifies them through that which he asserts and calls them servants and ministers, just as C my Moses, of whom he says to Aaron: Not as my servant Moses in all my house is he faithful. And after a little: How were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? What is greater than this, what is more exalted, than that one should be the servant of the Creator and the minister of the heavenly king? There is no greater glory than this. Moreover, he rebukes, casts down, and reproves the devil himself by the fact that he calls Job his servant: Hast thou considered, he says, my servant Job? As if he were to say: Are you not vanquished, and cast down and humbled, so that Job, a corruptible and earthly man, should be my servant, and remain in my service? You, however, O devil, although you are superior to the angels, although created by me among the cherubim, have receded from my service and abandoned my ministry, and deservedly, having been ejected from the holy choirs and driven from the heavens, you wander about the earth, you creep about the earth, and you endeavor to circumvent the earthly. For this reason, when you say that you have gone round about the earth and have traversed those things which are under heaven, because you have become a fugitive from heavenly things and creep upon earthly things, and eat of the earth, and in the person of the serpent are cursed, have you considered, with that most wicked, envious, cruel, perverse, fierce mind, my servant, meek, benign, subject, religious, not fraudulent, but devout—to my servant, to whom there is no man like upon the earth? In all virtues and pursuits there is not his like upon the earth. Abraham is not, Isaac has rested, Israel has passed away, Joseph has assumed rest: therefore there is not his like upon the earth. I, he says, bear witness to his virtues, as being the Lord, the knower of all things. Your malignant envy, O devil, evidently attests to it for him as well. Unless, he says, my servant had been holy and worthy, and well-pleasing to me, you would not surely have been jealous of him, you would not surely have envied him. You were not jealous of Esau, nor Ishmael, you will not be jealous of Saul, and Achitophel, nor Doech, nor any of those who have done your perverse will: but you have been jealous since the world began of all my servants and worshipers, that is, Abel and Joseph, and now Job himself, and all those like to them, and all who sincerely call upon me. Since there is not, he says, like to him upon the earth. In what is there no one like to him upon the earth? In all good D works, and therefore in the beloved, he is without blame, as one who could be reproached in nothing. Although, he says, you reproach him, O devil, as one who worships me on account of riches, after a little he will be proved true, because Job remains altogether without blame; and not only without blame, but also just, and with justice also true. But because many men in this world have been in all respects without blame and just and truthful in human judgments and causes at least, and in all corruptible justices, and what is the highest and greatest thing, they did not have the knowledge of God, nor the charity of God and his worship, Job deservedly adds to these universal good things that which is the greatest
A saying, "a worshiper of God": whether he had been without complaint, or just, or truthful, all these things were for the sake of God, and for the worship of God. To all of which he adds, saying: "abstaining from every evil thing," inasmuch as he worshiped God, inasmuch as he feared God, as one who served God, and as one who desired to please God. Thus, therefore, above all other virtues, by showing his chief virtue in the conclusion, he demonstrates that he was a worshiper of God, and one who abstained from every evil thing. And truly, when he speaks these things to the devil, through them he argues against and reproves the devil, as if he were to say, "Hear, O devil, for this speech is directed at you, and this is your reproof and censure. Job is without complaint, but you are filled with every crime. Job is just, but you yourself are unjust, and the supporter of all injustice. Job is truthful, but you are devoid of all truth, and full of all lying, and you are the father of all deceit. Job is a worshiper of God, but you are a fugitive from God, an apostate, and a rebel: and not only you, but you incite, persuade, and teach all men to this end. Job abstains from every evil work and word: but you have sown every evil, illicit, and impious work or word among men, and have caused them to spring up in those things which are under heaven." Finally, God says all these things to the devil when He praises Job and truthfully magnifies him, so that the devil might know against whom he was contending, lest he say later: "you did not indicate this to me, nor did I hope that there was such constancy in anyone on earth. I have seen all who have been from the beginning of the age, and I have surrounded most by my disciples, and caught them in my snares. I deservedly thought that I could easily overcome this man as one from among them all." For this reason, therefore, lest the defeated devil might later be able to say the things that have been mentioned, God testified to him, and forewarned him of all things that would happen concerning Job, as if he were saying: "Do not think, O devil, that you have facing you Job the grandson of Esau, or one of those like Esau, but you have Job before you, unwavering in faith, immovable in justice, unchangeable in thanksgiving, not succumbing in sorrows, not failing in tribulations." Knowing that Job was such a one, God testified beforehand to the devil, saying: "A man without complaint, just, truthful, a worshiper of God, abstaining from every evil thing."
But those things which God says in praise of blessed Job and in testimony to the most wicked devil, these things resulted in the greatest inflammation and kindling of the adversary’s wickedness and his greatest agitation of envy and zeal against Job. Relying on his audacity, the most wicked one deservedly uttered his iniquity without restraint, saying: "Does Job worship God for naught?" He answers nonetheless, and says—not drawing it forth with his lips, nor speaking with a human mouth, but thinking with the counsels of the wicked, and meditating on illicit things within his very thoughts—the devil answers, saying, "Is it for naught that Job worships A God?" He begins to show that he has meditated wickedly; he begins to make public that he has schemed maliciously. "Not without cause," he says, "does Job worship God. Not for nothing, but for a price; not in vain, but for a reward; not on account of piety, but on account of riches; not on account of love for the Lord, but on account of the multitude of his possessions. It is not without cause that Job worships God. He has that for which he recompenses, he has that for which he returns a retribution. It is not without cause that he worships God. For if you were to confer such riches, and such glory, and such honor upon fiercer and more monstrous men, they would surely all serve you and worship you with one consent. It is not without cause that Job worships God, but for riches, for possibilities, for substance, for faculties, for power and glory, and for honor. Therefore, he worships you for these things and for their blandishments. Now, indeed, it is easy for him to worship you; it is easy also for him to be without complaint and just and truthful. He is without complaint because he has innumerable things, and stands in need of nothing; he is just because he has riches; he is truthful because everyone bows to him on all sides, and they carry his word even to the clouds. But stretch forth your hand and touch all that he has, and see if he will bless you." "Take away," he says, "his riches, despoil him of his faculties, strip him of his glory, deprive him of honor, humble him from his high station, and then he will not only abandon this worship, but, if not in the present, he will certainly curse and blaspheme and slander you to your face." For Moses, that great man of God, when he wrote of Job, did not write as the devil spoke, but more decently and kindly, as a devoted servant of God. For the devil spoke cruelly and wickedly, and, as he thought, to provoke God the more to anger, he did not say "if he will not bless you to your face," but "if he will not curse you to your face." B But Moses, changing the illicit and cruel voice of the devil, said: "Will he not bless you to your face?" "It is not without cause," he says, "that Job worships God." And to what end? Or for what cause does he worship? Because you have fortified for him those things that are outside his house and inside his house. You have fortified, you have surrounded, you have overshadowed, you have watched over, you have kept unharmed all his goods, not only those that are inside the house, but also those that are outside the house, all the things that are in his circuit. "How often," he says, "have I wanted to approach, and have not found an entrance, since you cover and overshadow him? How often," he says, "have I wanted to destroy and exterminate, and your omnipotent hand has not permitted it? You have fortified for him all the things that are inside the house, and outside his house, like a flame of fire, with the custody of your angels before me, surrounding all his goods; you have not granted me access in the least, nor have you permitted me to approach, nor given me any power whatever. Why, therefore, do you praise Job as if he were just? Why do you magnify Job, as if he were a worshiper of God and religious? It is not Job’s religiosity, nor justice that has done this, but your gifts, and your manifold goods, for which he worships you.
But if this is not the case, "Put forth your hand, and touch all that he has, and see if he will not bless you to your face, or rather curse you," as the devil says. "You," he says, "have protected, you have blessed, you have multiplied, and you have preserved both the things that are at home, and the things that are without the house, but are in the circuit, and things that are near, and things that are far off, all of them." For all these things, he says, he prays and worships, and gives thanks: not giving thanks to you, but returning thanks for the goods themselves; not loving you, but loving and preserving the very multitude of wealth, and being unwilling to lose it. It is not, therefore, he says, for the sake of your love that he worships you, nor does he give thanks for your blessedness, but he worships you for the sake of the soothing of this wealth, and gives thanks for the sake of his own blessedness and the abundance of the many things that he possesses here, which you have given to him. Take away, therefore, from him all that you have given, and it will appear to all what Job’s perfidy is, and how he does not worship you out of pure love, but because of his money and the possession of such great things, fearing you so that you might not take this away if he appears ungrateful. To whom let it be worthily answered and said: I speak, most wicked Satan, I speak, maligned devil, you do not understand, O most wretched one, that you are casting yourself down, you are condemning yourself. For in those things which you blame in Job, that he is ungrateful, you condemn yourself, because you did the same things. For you yourself did this when you departed from God, and resisted God, and abandoned Him, and were ungrateful—things of which you now blame Job, who does nothing of the sort. But meanwhile, O devil, you say that Job does not worship me for the sake of my blessing, but for the sake of my gifts and money. Tell me, therefore, most wicked Satan, how much or what did I give to Job, compared to what I gave to you? Did I not make you superior to the angels, and foremost among the archangels? Did I not create you among the orders of the cherubim? Did I not clothe you with the glory of incorruption? Did I not establish you in the unceasing joy of my countenance? Because of all these things, you—being ungrateful—forsook me, and withdrew from me, and became a rebel against me. Tell me, therefore, O devil, what sort of thing did I give to Job? What sort of thing did I impart to him? Did I not create him mortal and corruptible, inferior to the nature of angels and archangels? Did I not place him in the valley of miseries with the rest of the sons of men? Did I not subject him, like other men, to the passions of his own mortality and corruptibility? Surely he does not live in sorrows upon the earth? Surely he does not eat the labors of his own hands? Surely he does not give thanks to me, sharing his labors with those who have none? Surely he does not worship me, eating by the sweat of his brow? How, he says, O most unhappy devil, when you have been ungrateful for such glorious things in incorruption, do you blame Job, who, being faithful in meager and small things, constantly worships me and gives thanks to me? Hearing these things, therefore, O men of understanding, let us observe cautiously, and let us attend carefully to our souls. For the same A devil is even now present, who certainly was then and is now; he has the same envy of iniquity even now concerning us, which he also had then and exercised concerning Job. Your adversary the devil never rests, but as a roaring lion, he goes about seeking whom he may devour. He never rests from accusing men to God, and God to men. Rightly, therefore, is he called devil, that is, accuser. For thus he also accused Job at that time before God, as if he worshiped God not out of sincerity, but for the sake of the flattery of money; and he accused and blamed God, not a little, but most vehemently, as if He had not distributed Job’s riches worthily, but continually, for this reason alone, that men might adore and worship Him. This very thing, indeed, he does even now, and until the consummation of the age, secretly accusing all men before God, both for word and for deed, setting snares and traps and nets for all men, multiplying scandals, and causing tribulations and annoyances, especially to all the just and holy, against whom he also has zeal and stirs up wars and commences battle, as the prophet says in a certain place: "And he made war with the saints of the most high God, and prevailed against them until the Ancient of days came, and gave judgment to the saints of the B Most High." Rightly, therefore, in every time let us observe cautiously and solicitously, and let us attend to our souls, that the most wicked one may find no access to us here, nor blame us there in the sight of God. "Put," he says, "your hand which now surrounds, which now protects, which now shields, which now overshadows on every side, which now in no way grants me access. Put forth now your hand," that is, your commandment, your order, your authority. For signifying these things he says, "Put forth your hand," as if he were saying, "Command, order, enjoin, permit." The most wicked devil, having all these things in his mind, said, "Put forth your hand." The unhappy one did not say to God, "Put forth your hand," concerning Job, because he wanted the hand of God to be put forth—for the wretch knew that wherever the hand of God is put forth, it is put forth with mercy, and there it both shields and aids, and helps and rules and heals and saves. Knowing this, indeed, the wicked one was saying one thing and thinking another, suggesting one thing and seeking another. For this reason, therefore, he cleverly says: "Put forth your hand." "Well," He says, "behold, I put forth my hand, as you say: for what purpose shall I put forth my hand? Put forth," he says, "your hand, and touch all that he has." "Why should I touch it?" He says. "To destroy," he says, "touch, to ruin, to exterminate, to perdition." "And how," He says, "shall I destroy, O devil, enemy of all good things, the things which I have created? How shall I exterminate the things which I have given? Or how shall I wipe out the things which I myself have made?" And again in another way: "How shall I destroy, O devil, the substance from which unworthy sacrifices are offered to me, and sincere oblations are immolated? How shall I exterminate the substance C ...
A from which widows are clothed and orphans fed, and the shoulders of the weak are warmed? How shall I destroy, O devil, his children who love me so much? How shall I close the mouths of those who, in innocence along with their father Job, devoutly give thanks to me?" But meanwhile, because he says it cannot be that your iniquity be calmed otherwise than thus: "Behold, all that he has I have given into your hand." For if I do not give it, you will depart rejoicing and applauding, as if you had departed a victor, as if I had not granted this contest, as if I had not permitted this battle to take place, as if Job had not been presumed capable of steadfastness, as if Job, who has been magnified and praised by me, had been overcome before the battle and the engagement. For this reason, he says, that you may not boast of these: "Behold, all that he has I have given into your hand." And further, B for this reason, that while you are not permitted to boast or applaud, by this very fact you may also be humbled, refuted, and proven a liar; while Job is exalted and blessed, and shown to be the victor, and God is revealed to be true, who has borne witness to Job, while you, O devil, are shown to be a liar and the author of lies. For this reason, therefore, "all that he has I have given into your hand," so that all may know forever both your iniquity, O devil, and Job’s justice and patience, and my presence; and because in tribulations and patience I test my chosen ones; and because "many are the tribulations of the just, and from them all will the Lord deliver them"; and because as gold in the furnace, so are the just and those acceptable to God tested in temptation. For this reason, therefore, responding, he says to the devil: "Behold," he says, "all that he has I have given into your hand." Because you asked for this, that I should put out my hand, therefore behold, I have given all that he has into your hand—both the property and the children and the substance and the labors and the riches and the capability. Everything that is inside his house and outside his house, everything he has, I do not defend, nor do I contradict, I do not hinder, nor do I obstruct, but I deliver it into your hand. Kill, destroy, demolish, and exterminate. Fulfill your malicious envy. Satisfy that accursed hatred of yours. For you will destroy the money and the children of Job, but you will not destroy his charity. You will seize his substance and his labors, but you will not seize his sincerity and his thanksgiving. D Therefore, "all that he has I have given into your hand," which contains wrath and the sword, which works battles and wars, which brings about destruction and condemnation, which is satisfied with sorrows, which hungers for crimes and impieties. "Into this," he says, "your hand I deliver all that is his"—into this hand, which, if it prevailed, would destroy, erase, and kill every man and every spirit that is beneath the heaven, suddenly in the twinkling of an eye, if it were permitted, and if it had power according to the will of its own iniquity. But the omnipotent hand of God resists it, and the very strong right hand of the Creator, A by overshadowing, protecting, and guarding all things that have been made under heaven. But that it is so given over to the destruction of the most wicked devil's hand is manifest in Job; which, as soon as it was permitted, and as soon as it received the order, immediately and mercilessly destroys everything, immediately kills everything. "Behold," I say, "all that he has I have given into your hand." Behold, I have taken away all occasions from you; behold, you have no contradiction; behold, you have no reply; behold, you have no excuse: "All that he has I have given into your hand," so that when you have destroyed all of Job’s substance, then you may know especially that it is not for the sake of substance that Job worships me, but for the sake of charity; that it is not for the sake of faculties that he gives me thanks, but for the sake of sincerity. For this reason, therefore, "Behold, all that he has I have given into your hand, but him do not touch." You said, O devil, that not for the sake of piety but for the sake of riches did Job worship me: you said, "Take away what you gave, and you will know what Job is." "I," says he, "do not need to know, for I presciently know the steadfastness of Job and the devotion that he has toward me. But all that is his, I give into your hand, that when you have tested him, you may know that Job alone is capable of resisting all your iniquity and malice. But meanwhile, all," he says, "that he has I have given into your hand, but him see that you do not touch." What you asked for, he says, you have: what you sought, you have received, the power over his substance and possibility and riches, of his property nevertheless and his children: "but him see that you do not touch," because it was not him you sought, but all that he has. C Therefore, with everything that he has taken, "him see that you do not touch," neither carnally, nor spiritually, nor openly, nor secretly. "Him see that you do not touch." Why should I not touch him? For this reason, he says, because he is being kept for a second struggle, and for the contest and the approval of his patience. It is enough, he says, for now, this temptation which happens through the destruction of his money and his children. Rightly, him do not touch. O your goodness, O King! O your virtue and majesty, O Eternal One! How great a consolation you grant to those who have fled to you, and who have hoped for the trust of steadfastness from you, that the adversary may have power over neither men nor beasts, nor over animate nor inanimate things, unless where he has been permitted! Nor is he permitted, except where God knows it is for the manifestation of faith, and the approval of steadfastness, and the glorious retribution of his reward. Knowing these things, let us anxiously and devoutly flee to God; most insistently and sincerely let us invoke God in our prayers, that he may avert from us the snares of the wicked one; that he may deliver us from his cruel incursions, and may not permit us to be tempted beyond that which we can bear.
"Behold," he says, "all that he has I have given into your hand." Not therefore, he says, have I given all these things into your hand because it was necessary or just, but because of the...
iniquity, envy, and malice on your part, so that you might be proven inexcusable and be convicted without contradiction; therefore, behold all that he has I have given into your hand, only take care not to touch him. And it came to pass as that day. What day? The day on which the wicked one received permission, on which that most wicked one relied on his own confidence, the day on which the devil contrived the death of the innocent ones: And it came to pass as that day, on which the devil rejoiced—he who has never rejoiced—on which the wicked one exulted—he who has never been shown to exult. For he considers the perdition of those who are lost and the mortification of the living to be an exultation. And it came to pass as that day. What day? The day, he says, on which the sons and daughters of Job partook of that last feast of unanimity and concord upon the earth. For in the heavens they are partakers of eternal glory and incorruptible beatitude alike. B But that they then partook of that last feast in the flesh, he shows immediately thereafter, saying: "And the sons of Job and his daughters were eating and drinking in the house of their elder brother," and just like young children, free from all evils, they sit and stand together, play and drink together, and think nothing of evil, or of the illicit, or even of the obscene toward one another: so too the most blessed sons and daughters of Job were chaste in mind, of pure heart, of immaculate conscience, and free from all filth and illicit things. Deservedly, being of such a character, they were eating and drinking together in chastity. Thus were Adam and Eve together of old, so long as they remained in innocence in paradise. Thus, too, are chaste and holy souls in the holy Church today, like simple infants, and free from all evils. Thus, indeed, the most benign sons of Job, beloved by God and by all his holy angels, were also so, because of their innocence and holiness. Regarding these sons of Job, then, he says here: "And the sons of Job and his daughters were eating and drinking in the house of their elder brother." And in the fact that the honor of primacy was shown to the elder by all, in this very thing also, just as in all things, they hastened to walk according to the ordinance of God. For this is the ordinance of God and the justice of God, that the honor of primacy be shown to the elder by all. They were eating and drinking, therefore, not luxuriously, nor petulantly, nor speaking superfluous things, nor telling illicit stories, but they were eating and drinking, praising their Creator, adoring their benefactor, and blessing him who sustains them. Thus, then, did the sons of Job eat and drink. At what time? It is certain that it was at the time of the feast. For neither was he accustomed to eat or drink outside C of ordered time, but at a fitting time, at a time disposed and ordered, he himself ate, and he taught his sons to eat by the order. So, therefore, while they were eating and drinking at the hour of the feast, Job was in his house, but his sons and daughters were in the house of their elder brother; a messenger came to Job. For the craftiness of the most wicked devil was such that he observed the hour of the feast, that while he was feasting he might send sad and deadly news to him, so that he might the more weary and kill him, so that by sending sad news at the time of eating and drinking and enjoyment, he might make him falter. Showed this, he says: Behold a messenger came to Job, the herald of sorrows and bitterness, the preacher of tribulation and anguish. A messenger came to Job, who having been preserved by the adversary was sent by the devil. A messenger came to Job, cut, lacerated, disheveled, bruised, weeping, lamenting, wailing, and shouting, and showing all things that are miserable by his mourning, so instructed by the wicked one that by his own miserable mourning and wailing he might stir up the mind of that just man toward the blaming of God. A messenger came to Job and said to him, he said to him in a miserable and tearful voice: What are you thinking, O Job? You sit at the table, and you are ignorant of the things that have happened. You enjoy your delights, and you do not know the miseries occurring to you. He said to him: You sit at a splendid table, Job: but today at the table, tomorrow, however, at the burial of your children carried forth, now in joy, but a little later in miserable poverty. But if you do not believe, if you do not hope that it is so, listen: Your yokes of oxen were plowing and the donkeys were feeding beside them, and the raiders came and stole them away, and they killed your servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped, and I have come to tell you. O, the manifold and crafty cunning of the adversary, that he should relate the same evils that he had inflicted so artfully, that he might provoke the soul of that just man to the blasphemy of God! "Your yokes of oxen," he says, "were plowing." For they were not standing idle or useless, but they were plowing the last plowing and carrying out the most recent cultivation. What to this, he says? "And the raiders came and seized them." Job, or from where will you live, or from where will you bestow favors upon others? From where will there be food even for you, or replenishment for the needy and those who do not have? Your yokes of oxen were plowing, which will no longer plow for you or for others. Your donkeys were feeding, which will not again produce offspring, which will not benefit you or others. Why, he says? For this reason, he says, because the raiders came and seized them. Who says: You terrify me greatly, O man, as if I could not live without the plundered yokes. There are many servants, most abundant husbandmen, who, performing all kinds of trade, both feed me and themselves, and both support me and themselves. But the messenger who had come answers and says: You flatter yourself in vain, O Job, and you hope in vain.
A For those who have been spoiled from the beginning of the age and continue to be spoiled throughout the age, some through the lust of adultery, like Ammon, others through the ambition for honors, like Absalom, others through avarice, like Judas. These, therefore, the most wicked enemies of the devil have spoiled, but others have spoiled others: Noe spoiled Cham, Abraham spoiled Ismael, Isaac spoiled Esau, Israel spoiled Simeon, Levi, and Ruben, Eli the priest spoiled his sons Ophni and Phinees, David spoiled the aforementioned sons, and in turn, others spoiled others, the first and the last. Knowing and hearing all these things, let us be wary for our own souls, that we may not be spoiled, and that the bandit demons may not plunder us, lest it be said of us: "Bandits have come and they have spoiled them," lest we be compelled to sing the song of weeping and lamentation, saying: "By the rivers of Babylon B we sat down and wept." For what reason? "Because there they asked us, who led us away captive, for the words of one of our songs." But when Job heard all these things—the plundering of such great wealth, and the lamentation of the one coming and reporting—he did nothing worthy of this matter that had befallen him, but enduring this news calmly, he gently answered the one telling him, saying: "Why do you wail, O man? Why do you lament, O man? The possibility of wealth is always so changeable that it is here today and elsewhere tomorrow." And especially, he said, because enemies have spoiled [it], because adversaries have taken away, because the unjust have plundered. "I," he says, "did not act so that I might acquire enemies, nor did I think I had enemies. And because, although I did not sin, enemies acting toward me brought these things upon me—so that they killed my children and snatched away my property—let them possess these things with iniquity, but to us God will give other things without sin." But when the most wicked devil heard these things C from blessed Job, both spoken by the mouth and pondered in the mind, he dissolved within himself, saying: "I have foolishly brought about that [he] should name bandits; I have taken this blame away from God. For Job does not impute to God what was done, but to the wickedness of evil men. I," he says, "have outwitted myself; I have acted against myself. Therefore I have considered what I will do; I will now turn the discourse toward heavenly things; I will turn these into blasphemy against God." When the most wicked one thinks these things, he immediately sends another messenger to Job; who, as he was entering, said to him: "Fire fell from heaven and burned the sheep, and burned the children likewise, and I alone escaped and came to tell you." "It is not," he says, "as you think, O Job, that these betrayals and this incursion are from men; it is not from men, but from God, it is from the heavens. Fire fell from heaven and burned the sheep." "Do not," he says, "seduce yourself, O Job; do not outwit yourself; the deceit is not from men, D but this extermination is from God. This incursion is not from earthly things for you, but this destruction is from the heavens for you. But if you do not believe, listen: Fire fell from heaven and burned the sheep, and the children likewise. For when it burned the sheep, it had no pity on the children. It did not spare the shepherds, but likewise...
A destroyed all things, that through all these it might bring upon you damage and sorrow, and through all these fill you with tribulation and anguish: "Fire fell from heaven"—not from itself, nor by itself, nor through itself, but by the command of heaven and the terrible decree of God: "Fire fell from heaven." Just as once upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and over all that region, so too now, by Him who then rained fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah for their destruction—by this very One, I say, fire also fell from heaven, and burned the sheep, and the servants, and the shepherds; it set everything on fire and destroyed all alike. For just as the remnants of the Sodomites did not remain, so too now, he says, no remnants are left to you, as is the custom, because the wrath of the same God is poured out upon you, He whose fire fell from heaven upon them as well. Not that the fire itself fell from heaven—far be it—but because the most wicked devil fashioned it so, and taught the messenger himself to say it thus, so that blessed Job might think and believe that these miseries were being inflicted upon him from God in heaven, and so that he might be turned to blasphemy against God: "Fire fell from heaven and burned the sheep." This is not, he says, a earthly ambush, O Job, that has happened, but a heavenly fury. This is not human violence, but divine smiting. For if this had happened in the dwellings, it would be believed that someone, willingly or unwillingly, kindled this fire. But now, when we were in the wilderness, he says, the fire was poured out and hurled upon us like an arrow from heaven, so that neither could the fleeing escape, nor the resisting avoid it. B "Fire," he says, "fell from heaven." Do not lie, O devil, that fire fell from heaven, but not that which God sent, but that which you fashioned by changing yourself into various shapes, sometimes into raiders, sometimes into fire, sometimes into three horns of horses; and finally into a spirit touching the four corners of the house. And it is no wonder that, being permitted, you have changed yourself into such shapes, since even before the Lord Himself you have simulated this by changing into every kingdom of the world, and this in a moment of time, that is, suddenly, surprisingly, and swiftly, fire fell from heaven. Do not lie, O most miserable enemy of all good: not sent by God, but kindled by your own iniquity. You, he says, O devil, are the very fire that fell from heaven, you who ignite countless ones with the unclean fire of sins. You are the fire itself, O devil, you who make many sinners for the fire of Gehenna, for whom fire and darkness are deservedly reserved above all. You are the fire itself, O devil, who, when you had descended from the heavens, were cast into the midst of the fiery mountains, as the oracles of the saints say. You are the fire itself, whom the Lord Himself also, likening to the fire of a lightning bolt and demonstrating your fall from heaven, says: "I saw Satan falling like lightning from the heaven." These things, indeed, because—he said—that most righteous One, the fire from heaven, fell, showing through these things the ruin of the Gehenna of fire. But let us say a few more things against the devil’s pride. Being proud, O devil, you say that fire fell from heaven and burned the sheep, as if by your own will and action. Say then, O unhappy one, if you were able to bring fire from heaven upon Job’s sheep and burn them. When Elias invoked God and by sincere prayer brought fire from heaven upon the holocaust, could you, O most miserable enemy of all good, in no way check or call back that fire, or that which the same Elias called down from heaven upon the two captains of fifty? For those captains of fifty were his ministers and the messengers of his wickedness. But we have said all this for the rebuke of the devil and the condemnation of the malignant one. But let us hear what blessed Job answered, how he crushed the second arrow of his fury, how he passed beyond the assault of the iniquitous one after the former, by the affection of his C tolerance, just as with all other things. For he answered the one who had come, saying: "And who will be greater than me, O man, or who more glorious, O man? If it is true, therefore, that fire coming from heaven has consumed all my flocks immediately, thanks be to Him who simultaneously and immediately received all my sheep into an acceptable holocaust." For what I, he says, was going to offer at separate times, this God evidently chose, so that He might immediately receive it all together in one holocaust through the fire that was sent from heaven. For every acceptable offering is received and consumed by the fire that has been sent from above. For what I was going to do in a long time, this, undoubtedly, God hastened and accepted in one time. And who is happier than me under heaven? A little before, he says, all the yoke of oxen were slaughtered for me at once. Now also all the flocks of sheep were burned and sacrificed in the same way. And these, he says, I offered, with God choosing. "But still the camels remain, which may profit me for business and suffice for the sustenance of life." But when Job was thinking and saying these things, and with patience was enduring these unbearable blows, and was in no wise succumbing to the temptations of the malignant one, another messenger came to Job and said to him: "You flatter yourself in vain, O Job, that you have camels for the sustenance of life, and that they remain for you in the hope of business: For the cavalry made three horns and surrounded the camels and plundered them: and not only this, but they killed the servants by the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped and have come to tell you." Therefore, he says, I alone have escaped and remained, that I might make known to you what has happened and tell you what has been done. The oxen, he says, and the donkeys you have lost, O Job, your flocks of sheep have been burned from heaven, behold and now after all those things the very last hope of business, the camels, have been taken from you. The first plague, he says, by raiders, the second by the fire that
fell from heaven—not that this fire fell from heaven, but because the malignant one fashioned it and taught it so, that he might accuse God regarding Job, and compel Job to blaspheme God. The third, therefore, was through the three divisions of the horsemen, who surrounded the camels and destroyed them. The first, then, was undoubtedly by pedestrian raiders; the second by fire burning from above; the third by the three divisions of horsemen who plundered the camels. "Will you endure all these things, Job, as you lie there? Will you support all these things patiently, O man?" He says, "Heaven and earth have risen up against you, and you are silent? They are armed by the command of God to fight against you, and you keep silent?" Another messenger, he says, came to Job, another, after the first; yet in number it is the third: another in wickedness, but the third in the announcement of misery. For the most wicked one was sending these most wicked messengers of miseries and suggestors of evils as though they were messengers of good preaching. He also caused them to survive so that his own malice might serve this announcement of miseries. For they were not angels, as some suppose, nor spiritual demons, but certain men from the servants of Job, preserved by the adversary and incited by the devil to speak and do all things by which they could subvert Job to the blasphemy of God. This third messenger, therefore, came to Job, and he was rendered a third herald of sorrow for him; the third made mention of it, saying: "The horsemen formed three divisions [or 'horns']." What horsemen, O man? Do you lie even here as you did concerning the sheep, when you said that fire had fallen from heaven? Rather, the devil who speaks in you lies. "Here," he says, "O most cunning Satan, you wished to pervert God, as if He were sending fire from heaven upon the sheep; here, however, you wish to accuse men, as if they had risen up against Job illicitly, so that regarding both, you might acquire hatred for Job, blasphemy for God, and war for men—of which the most constant Job did not agree to believe regarding either." But still, he says, the horsemen made three divisions for themselves. What horsemen, O man? For at that time there were not many horsemen among men, but a great many men, as pedestrians, were waging war against one another. Who, therefore, were the horsemen who made three divisions for themselves, that is, who armed themselves in a threefold manner, who surrounded the camels in a threefold battle? They were spiritual horsemen—that is, the aerial spirits who roam the earth, who cross the sea, who fly through the air, who are more vehement than every wind and water and all tempestuous storms, and swifter in their aerial iniquity. Whence they are also worthily called horsemen, who sit upon all the lustful and unchaste as upon horses, and according to their own wickedness goad them, and for the perfection of their own iniquity and unchastity pursue them all—of whom it is said: "A horse, like a stallion, neighs at every rider." And: "Do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding." And further: "They have become well-fed stallions," A everyone neighing after his neighbor's wife.
These, therefore, are the horses of the devil, these are the horses of the malignant, and all these who serve the same iniquity, they whose feet run toward iniquities. For the feet of such horses are swift to shed blood. The horsemen are the most wicked demons and aerial spirits. For such a horse was Nebuchadnezzar of old, but not constantly, only for seven years, during which he was incessantly goaded by the most wicked horsemen, that is, by demons. Such a horse was also he who in the Gospels was similarly driven by a legion through deserts and through mountains, until the coming Lord put those bad horsemen—that is, the demons—to flight and delivered that wretched man. And countless others from the age, some openly, others secretly, have been made in diverse and various ways the horses of the demons: and while they were all unclean and execrable, the most wicked demons used them in evils, some indeed for the speed of homicide and bloodshed, of devastation also and most wicked envy, and of all things that the will and work of the devil required. Concerning these horsemen, therefore, he says here: "The horsemen formed three divisions, and they surrounded the camels." And why three divisions, and not four? For the reason that he reserved the four for the four corners of the house to kill his children. For this reason, therefore, they did not make four but three divisions; that is, they fashioned, simulated, and armed them—as horsemen sitting upon horses, having all armor, showing fear, and manifesting strength: "The horsemen formed three divisions." O what a multiple inquiry and disputation this discourse holds! First, indeed, every wise person ought to understand this, that all the power and host and all the crowds of demons convened there at once, and together armed themselves in battle against blessed Job, and despised the whole world, only that they might overcome Job. For they judged their own whole world, and waged war against Job alone, inasmuch as there was no other like him in the whole world. Further, they also made three divisions for the consumption of his possessions, for the ruin of his children, and for the wound of his body, striving to overcome him. They made three divisions, because they also engaged with him for the third time. Truly, at one time they suddenly killed all his possessions and his children; secondly, when they filled his whole body with putrefaction and worms; thirdly, when they seduced him through his wife, while his friends blamed him. Furthermore, they made three divisions, as if striving to plunder the three principal and singular things, that is, hope, faith, and charity. The faith which he had in the worship of God, the hope of eternal liberation and heavenly refreshment, and the charity toward God, than which there is nothing greater, neither in this age nor in the future. For all these things, therefore, the most wicked demons made three divisions—all equally fighting against Job, all unanimously standing against him. But the devil himself
A incessantly fights against the unity of the Church. But just as he was then defeated with confusion when he stood against Job, prevailing nothing against Job: so too now he has assembled against the Church in many ways, and through countless heresies fights against it, and is sent back in confusion, prevailing nothing against souls that truly believe. For the firm foundation of God shall stand: And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it 18, as the Lord says, recalling by the gates of hell the diverse sects and heresies of the unfaithful, which lead down to the gates of hell all who follow them. After all these things, let us observe one more point. The devil made three horns in the image and likeness of that trionymous sect, and the heresy of three gods, which has filled the whole world like darkness, B which sometimes worships the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit as three, and sometimes as one, just as in the Greek tongue it is mentioned as a "triad" or "homousion." That sect and heresy and infidelity of the Trinity, therefore, the most cunning devil, having designed it long ago from afar, sent as three horns to plunder Job. For thus also even now that aforementioned trionymous heresy, in particular, plunders and attacks the Church. But when the most wicked devil saw that he had accomplished nothing through all the things he had done, he added that which was greatest, and the most miserable slaughter of the children. He shot the first arrow, and did not wound the just man. He shot a second, more dangerous one, and did not harm him who was grounded in the truth. He shot even a third through the three horns, C but this proved ineffective because of his patience. Since this did not turn Job backwards, he said, "I have one more, the latest, and more terrible, the final and more lamentable, that is, the slaughter and destruction of the children, the suffering and the breaking of my offspring." He said, "He bore and suffered the former things while he consoled himself concerning his children, but this one he will not endure nor bear. This, therefore, I will do: I will not allow him to breathe, I will not allow him to recover his senses, I will not allow him to be consoled, but I will disturb him with lamentable messages one after another." When the most wicked one debates these things and speaks with himself, he immediately carries them out. Deservedly, while the previous messenger was still speaking, another messenger came to Job. D The first had not rested from telling of evils, and the other was beginning to tell of worse ones. It did not occur to the blessed Job to groan for his prior pains, because of the other various straits that were coming upon him. For the most wicked one was hastening to inundate the soul of that just man with diverse miseries, in the manner of violent waters. Therefore, another messenger came to Job, one after the former, and a fourth in number. Another messenger came to Job, because of the diversity of the messengers and the pains and the evils. Another messenger came to Job, and says to him: "Behold," he says, "a fourth messenger of pains and evils awaits you, O Job,"
and you do not succumb, nor fail? But although you did not succumb to the former ones, yet you will succumb to the latest, and you will fear and fail, when you are unable to bear hearing the latest and lamentable news of your children: "Your sons," he says, "and your daughters, while they were eating and drinking in the house of their elder brother, suddenly a spirit came from the desert, and struck the four corners of that house, and it fell upon your sons, and they are dead." This, he says, is the latest and lamentable and wretched news, which even to those ignorant of the love, affection, or attachment for their children, A recalls the mind by compassion because of such a wretched cause. Your sons, he says, whom you nourished, whom you educated, whom you brought with toil to maturity; your sons whom you taught piety, whom you imbued with the worship of God, whom you introduced to love one another, whom in all justice you rendered like unto yourself; your sons whose children you longed to see, whose posterity you prayed to await, by whom you hoped to rest in your old age; these then, your sons, and not only sons, but also daughters, chaste, pure, immaculate and unstained, whom you hoped to crown with glorious crowns in the time of their nuptials; these then, together in one, unanimously and concordantly, chastely, benignly, purely while they were eating and drinking, not wandering, nor straying, nor running after impurity, nor tending toward illicit things, nor speaking superfluous things, but eating with thanksgiving, and drinking with blessing, and fulfilling that which was said after this by the Apostel: "Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God"; thus therefore, with your sons and daughters eating and drinking... It is well, he says, look, you have shown that they were eating and drinking, show also this which happened while they were eating and drinking. It is a greater thing, he says, than I am able to express, it is more terrible than I dare to utter. But in the meantime, he says, because it must not be kept silent, I will speak, I will bring it forth. Suddenly a spirit came from the desert, so strong, so copious, so vehement, so terrible and unbearable, that it struck the four corners of the house, and dashed it upon your sons, and they are dead. B Whose house, he says, was this? Their elder brother's. They were not, he says, in an outside house, nor in a strange one, but they were in their own home, in the house of your son, their elder brother. O most wicked adversary, O most cunning devil! Why did you not say simply, "and they are dead," but you enumerate everything, you name everything, both sons, and daughters, and food, and drink, and house, and brother, and your elder son? Saying, "In the house of his brother, your elder son." For this reason, he says, I enumerate and name all these things, the more to wound and afflict his soul, and for this reason I speak all these things, the more to crush his heart, to whom I relate these things. If I had named only the sons, and not the daughters, he says, certainly thinking that daughters remained to him after the sons died for his consolation, he would console himself. For this reason, he says, I name and intimate all things, that I may rather disturb the mind of that righteous man, that I may easily provoke the sufferer to the blasphemy of God: "While they were eating," he says, "and drinking at midday, the hour of the meal, suddenly a spirit came from the desert." Knowing these things, the saints, and mindful of them, that at the very hour of midday, the hour of the meal, the sons of Job were overtaken by ruin and died, they prayed to God to be preserved just as from the business that walks in darkness, so also from the ruin and the noonday devil. For as in the darkness of the night, so likewise in the middle of midday more temptations of the demons present themselves than at other times. This, indeed, was manifest in the sons of Job, who were killed not at another time, but at the middle of midday. C "Suddenly," he says, "the spirit came from the desert, and struck the four corners of the house." O most malicious adversary, again you desire to attribute it to God, again you seek to debase the Creator, therefore you say that the spirit, that is the wind, came from the desert. For since it is God who brings forth the winds from his treasuries, rightfully you say that the wind came from the desert as if sent by God: that this which was done may also be imputed to God, not in good, but in evil, and to the hearer for a scandal. For as he said fire from heaven fell upon the sheep, so now he also says the spirit, that is the wind, came from the desert: that he might attribute both to God for the provocation of blasphemy, and for the occasion of reproach: "Suddenly," he says, "the spirit came from the desert." Suddenly, unexpectedly, forthwith with force, the spirit, the wind, the tempest, the storm came from the desert. And what did it do? "It struck," he says, "the four corners of the house, and fell upon your sons, and they are dead." Who, therefore, he says, is responsible for their death, O Job? Is it not he who produced and brought the wind? Just as who is the author of the burning of your sheep, if not he who sent fire from heaven? But hear, he says, O Job. When you despised losing the abundance of your substance, and with all your possessions taken away you endured: how will you endure the loss of your children? How will you bear the torment of those born of you? "Suddenly," he says, "the spirit came from the desert, and struck the four corners of the house, and fell upon your sons, and they are dead." By that which he says "your sons," he stimulates his sense, he afflicts his soul with pains, he makes his heart melt, he provokes his mind, so that he might burn all the more as he melted after his sons. But the more the most wicked one multiplied D the temptations of Job, so much the more he increased the crown of glory for him before the eternal Judge. For he who shall have passed a simple temptation or probation, without a doubt will receive a simple reward. But he who shall have been tried multiply, he will without a doubt be crowned with manifold glory by the righteous God, just as blessed Job, who was proved superior to all the maliciousness and versions of the devil, and proved stronger in all his temptations, answered him, saying: "You say that the spirit coming from the desert, that is the wind, and striking the four corners..."
of the house, threw it down and killed my children. But you are lying, O devil, and you shall not mock me. You are lying, O most malignant one, and you shall not deceive me. For winds stirred up by God have never blown against one another, nor do they blow; either it is one, or it is the other. Never has it been heard that winds, blowing, have overturned houses from their foundations, and especially those which are built upon dry land—like ships that float on the sea—subverting them entirely and submerging them. These things have never happened, nor will they happen, from the blasts of winds or tempests. Do not, he says, falsely accuse God with your lies, O devil; do not corrupt the Creator with your ruinous iniquities. For these things are from you, not from God; they are from your iniquity, and not from the mission of the Creator. 'Suddenly,' he says, 'a spirit came from the desert.' You speak these things of yourself, unhappy devil. You are, in fact, the spirit coming from the desert; you touched the four corners of the house and caused the slaughter of the children. You are the one who once transformed yourself into plundering enemies, at another time into fire falling from heaven; and sometimes, too, into three bands of horsemen, just as now into a blast of wind touching the four corners of the house, overturning the house itself from its foundations, and killing those who were within. These are all the works of your iniquity, he says, O most wicked devil. For God did not make death, nor does He take pleasure in the destruction of the living, but by envy and zeal death entered into the world. B For as death entered into the whole world through your zeal, so now against the children of Job, through your zeal and envy, destruction has arrived, and ruin, O most wicked devil. This, however, you yourself show regarding your own self by saying: 'Suddenly a spirit came from the desert.' For suddenly, secretly, and furtively, you subvert countless people, you deceive countless people, and you make those whom the eternal turning of the age suddenly seizes heirs of your condemnation, inasmuch as they have been seduced by you into evils. Therefore, for this reason, the spirit comes 'suddenly.' You yourself are the devil who penetrates the air, the airy spirit from the desert: a spirit indeed cast and expelled as if into a wilderness and solitude, where neither the footprint of a man nor of a beast is left. Or does it further come from the desert, as being bereft of all divine things and desolate of all? Or does it further come from the desert, as being sequestered and destitute not only in corruptible and inanimate solitudes, but even more in human and animate solitudes—which are the impious, wicked, wandering, and faithless souls—which are desolate of all holiness, which are not inhabited either by the holy Spirit the Paraclete or by the holy angels of God? Inasmuch as you dwell in such deserts, you say that you yourself come from the desert. Such a desert also became he whom the most wicked and unclean spirit, finding swept and garnished, took seven others more wicked than himself and dwelt in him. C Such a desert became that unhappy Judas, after he expelled from himself the familiarity and illumination of the Holy Spirit, and removed from himself the conjunction and habitation of the holy angels, as it says: 'And after that, Satan entered into him' (John xiii, 27). Such solitudes were of old all the false prophets and false priests, those to whom the prophet Micaiah says before Ahab, king of Israel: 'The Lord hath given a lying spirit in the mouth of all thy prophets' (III Reg. xxii, 23). When the prince of those false prophets, Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah, heard this, striking Micaiah on the cheek, he said: 'Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me, to speak to thee?' (ibid., 24). By which he clearly shows that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him, and the spirit of the devil had dwelt in him, inasmuch as he was desolate of the Holy Spirit. Such deserts became the Jews, who did not believe in the Lord, nor did they wish to receive Him. Therefore the Lord said to them: 'Behold, your house shall be left to you desolate' (Matth. xxiii, 38). Such deserts, indeed, have also become now all the sects and heresies of the faithless, which, desolate of the truth of the faith and of all piety, have the devil dwelling in them, causing multitudes of scandals to arise in them like weeds. After all these things, in the end, such deserts are all the obstinate, all the cruel who do not perform penance, who grieve the Holy Spirit, in whom they were formerly sealed in the day of redemption, who grieve the holy angels, who rejoice over them that do penance for their sins. All those, therefore, are desolate who have not done penance. But the malignant adversary dwells in them, as in deserts, who holds their heart so that they neither confess to penance, nor exercise fasts, nor perform alms. For sins dominate these. Therefore, when all these are desolate of holiness and faith and the fear of God, they are desolate of the kingdom of God, and are cast out from the choirs of the saints, and shall be driven into the exterior darkness and into the inextinguishable fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. These things, therefore, signify all this, because he says: 'Suddenly a spirit came from the desert, and touched the four corners of the house.' In the third plague the devil made three bands, but in the fourth plague he touched the four corners of the house, and the house fell. And what if he had touched one corner, could it not have fallen? Therefore, if it could fall by one corner, why did he touch all four corners? Hear. He touched the four corners, that is, the four parts, for this reason: to show his ferocity and insanity, and intemperance also, and cruelty, bloodshed, and his homicidal spirit. For all the most wicked demons, as soon as they were released and as soon as they received permission, immediately and universally, from all parts, rushed eagerly upon the house itself, and snatched against one another as to who might be the first to receive this iniquity, who might be the first to perpetrate this homicide. For this reason, therefore, through four D parts did the most wicked demons rush, as if...
A lions springing from an ambush, each of them considering the pain to be his own, should one of them precede another in [achieving] his ruin. And furthermore, through the four parts, because the wretches feared lest anyone from this ruin might perhaps escape besides that one whom the most wicked [demons] had of their own accord reserved, who might both serve their iniquity and recount the very pains of Job [to him]. And yet, furthermore, by rushing through the four parts, they touched the four corners, so that they might show their discord and contradiction toward one another. For toward the perfection of iniquity they all agree, while they are all discordant and contrary among themselves. And he says, "The house fell upon your children, and they died." The house fell when the demons seized it, agitated it, roared against it, and overturned it from its foundations. The house fell. Nor is it anything great. For if Samson alone, after this, threw down suddenly in one house the countless thousands of the foreigners, what wonder is it if countless demons seized one house by the four corners and overturned it? "The house fell," he says, "upon your children, and they died." O how great is your faith, blessed Job! O how wonderful is your wisdom, truly a servant of God! The first wave did not agitate you; the second danger did not move you; the third arrow did not wound you; nor did the fourth temptation overcome you, nor the destruction which, as if beginning, is complete on earth. "Your children are dead," he says, "and would that it were according to the common death of all." But now, not so; but, "The house fell," he says, "upon your children, and thus they died." Sigh, he says, O man, and weep, O Job, even if not, he says, because you have lost such children, at least because they died by such a lamentable death, or because they departed from life in such a miserable way. Who among those seeing [this] would not be stunned for Job? Who among those hearing [this] is not disturbed, O man? Yet you have shown yourself harder than stones and more firm than rocks. Your children are dead, and what do you expect so that you do not mourn? They were crushed with stones, they were mixed with dust. Their flesh B was crushed with blood and bones, with even their very entrails; the crushing of all [of them] with sisters and sisters with brothers, was mixed together with the very food placed before them, and nevertheless the food of all the viscera was mixed with the very wine which they held in their hands. For the wily devil, using immense fury, and showing both wrath and full indignation, left nothing that he did not crush—neither skulls, nor entrails, nor bellies, nor arms, nor hands, nor feet, nor any limb, nor any joint of the body. And not only these, but the very stones and wood, inflamed with too much fury, he crushed everything, softened everything, mixed everything, made everything uncertain and indistinct. For he raised the foundations of the house upward above the roof, and plunged the upper roof into the deep of the foundation. For he did not do this only for this reason, that he might C more crush the mind of Job's children, but because he did not succumb to the earlier blows, for that reason he also demonstrated all his iniquity here, and in return for his previous tolerance, in the crushing of his children, he took vengeance on him, and crushed limbs and flesh and bones, and mixed them with the stones and dust of the ruin itself, so that he could not separate, nor collect, nor bury them, from whom he hoped and wished to be buried. For this the last messenger of the most wicked adversary came to announce to Job. These things came to announce what now contain the mind of the hearers, sadden the heart, and melt the soul. Yet the mind of blessed Job remained unmoved, his soul was not dismayed in acts of thanksgiving. Who of men now, if he should lose one son, having others, would not mourn the loss and death of this one alone beyond measure, even with lamentations and clamor? But that magnanimous Job, when he had ten religious children, and lost all these together at once, did not mourn, was not saddened, but gave thanks to God, who gives and again takes away: and what is greatest, not with disgrace and miserable movement [as they were] dying themselves and crushed in the ruin of the house itself, whose meal was mixed with the flesh of those eating, and those who were serving, each where he was caught, there was crushed, and the drink of those ministering was mixed with blood. The sight was lamentable, and the aspect of what was done was miserable, or rather, neither a sight nor an aspect. For there was nothing that could be seen, nor that could be separated from the crushed bodies of those who died. For the most wicked one crushed them with such fury that the bodies could not be recognized by their faces, nor by their persons, which were mixed and concreted with the earth and stones. This transcends every word and every narration in pain and misery. Which we now hearing are terrified and shudder. But blessed Job was not terrified by the hearing, nor did he shrink from the proof itself, but remained unbending and immovable in all [things], surely showing by his deeds all things which God had previously said of him truthfully in words. D Hearing these things, Job—O great man of God, Moses, what are you saying? What are you writing? What are you saying? For you are the one who wrote these things. Why then do you say: "Hearing Job," as if it were something light or moderate, and why did you not say, "Job experiencing these things, having suffered these, enduring these"? For these things which were done were trial and passion and tolerance, and not words nor tales of hearsay. Therefore, he says, he did not say "trial," but "hearing," because Job did not estimate it as a trial, but as a passing hearing, and like tales passing by. But there was trial and passion: but as long as Job endured these with tolerance and with acts of thanksgiving, it passed by like a hearing. For this reason therefore he says "Job hearing these," as if they were vehement, as if they were terrible, conferring astonishment and leading into fear. Hearing these things which another before did not hear, which another...
greater than that which anyone else before him has suffered. Hearing this, Job—whom the devil had contemplated, whom the most wicked one had sought, whom the unjust one had devised—hearing this, Job, whom the angels admired, whom incorruptible beings praised, as one who was fashioned from the earth, fought manfully against him who had been cast down from the heavens, as dust against spirit, as man against the devil, as one corruptible against one incorruptible, and he stood fast and did not succumb, but instead gained the victory over him. Although he was shot at by the devil with three malicious arrows, he protected himself with the shield of patience and faith and passed through unharmed. After those three, the inimical tempter shot a fourth at him shortly thereafter, one that was extremely painful and miserable; but he achieved nothing by this, nor did he attain his desire through it, and therefore he counts it as though it were one: for it was not just one, but ten were present in this very one. For the loss of the ten children was one, a single destruction. But that the devil did not wound him, nor did the most wicked one inflict pain upon him, he clearly shows immediately in what follows: *And Job arose*. For if he had been wounded, or defiled, or lacerated, he could not have arisen at all. Therefore, because he arose, it is manifest that he persevered most strongly and remained unharmed. *And Job arose.* He arose in spirit, he arose in faith, he arose in the pursuit of truth, he arose for battle, he arose for virtue, he arose to the duty of constancy. *And Job arose.* It is certain that when he had arisen, he said: Now is the time of battle, now the proof, now the reception of victory, now the arrangement of the crowns, now the expectation of reward, now the manifestation of boldness. But that Job arose for all these things, and for the demonstration and perfection of them all, according to these things that follow, it is manifest: *He tore*, he says, *his garments*. Why did he tear them? He tore them for this reason: that he might be more agile and constant in the battle, that he might lay aside those things that retard, that he might cast from himself those things that hinder, so that, as a most courageous combatant and as a lone champion against countless enemies and against immeasurable adversaries, he might remain singularly immovable. For this reason, therefore, he tore his garments. For it is truly such a custom among some nations that, when they come to a hard battle, they certainly tear their garments with fury and indignation and run against their adversaries intemperately, with naked chest, offering themselves with confidence, as is the custom with the Syrian nation. Likewise, other barbarian nations, despoiling themselves and girding themselves in their very tunics, go into battle with naked chest and shoulders manfully. And so the admirable Job, tearing his garments and laying aside all obstacles, stood naked and bold for the spiritual battle. Or did he perhaps tear his garments to ready himself without delay for the very blows? Lo, A he says, naked back, lo, the body exposed. "You flagellate, but I shall suffer. You strike, but I shall endure," saying with Jeremiah: *I gave my back to the scourges*; saying with David: *The sinners have built upon my back*. But still with the same David: *And I was scourged all the day*. Again, he tore his garments, as if to say to those very most wicked adversaries: O malignant and iniquitous adversaries, you esteem me dead, as you think, and as it seems to you, you are preparing to bury me in the earth! If, therefore, you consider me dead, O enemies, let me anticipate, in my precious sepulture, the tearing of my precious and royal garments, so that not even after death may you rejoice in possessing them. I think that from that time men have become accustomed, when they send a precious burial to anyone, to tear it, lest some wicked ones cast out the body itself and possess the precious burial. "But if you judge me as living," he says, "lo," he says, "even so, naked and with back exposed, I stand against you, never to yield to you." Or again he tore his garments. Lo, he says, O malignant enemies! You have consumed my property, you have destroyed my children, you have plundered my substance, and you have left me nothing but my body alone and this garment. "Take," he says, "also this garment; I cast even this to you, so that nothing of those things which have been given into the power of your wickedness may remain with me. Let this favor not be mine from you; my head shall not be anointed with the oil of sinners." Above all these things, lo, he says, and the body itself, naked, exposed, prepared for the bearing of punishment, for the tolerance of pains. "Torment," he says, "crush, strike, and when you have tested me in all things, you shall know that Job alone, remaining insuperable in all things, shall never yield to the scourges of wickedness." Therefore, when he pondered and spoke all these things, and fulfilled them by his very deeds, *He arose and tore his garments, and shaved the hair of his head* as something superfluous, idle, and useless: *He shaved the hair of his head*, fulfilling by his deeds that which was later hardily threatened by the Apostle in word, that if a man nourish his hair, it is a shame to him. B Therefore, observing these things, Job shaved the hair of his head. When he had shaved it, he undoubtedly cast it to the adversaries themselves: "Lo," he says, "take even this, have even this, swallow even this. I am," he says, "a fruitful tree; I cast off all things that are superfluous from me, so that I may bring forth perfect fruit while unharmed. For I am a well-pruned vine; I cut off all superfluities from me, so that I may be called cleansed from all incongruous things, and may bring forth the perfect fruit of justice." He shaved the hair of his head, not as one mourning, but as one putting off and casting away mourning, and by tolerance becoming superior to all mourning. He shaved the hair of his head. As Joseph when he was led out of prison by Pharaoh, as Jonathan's son when he was returning with David to Jerusalem after the death of Absalom, and countless others, before and C D
A after, as long as they were mourning, did not cut their hair; but once the mourning had been laid aside, they immediately did cut it. So too, now the blessed Job cut the hair of his head, that he might humble himself, that he might submit, that he might show his misery. What is the indication of this matter? That which was said in the following: "For he sprinkled earth upon his head." Unless he were humbling himself greatly, he would not by any means have sprinkled earth upon his head: I say, he sprinkled earth upon his head. From whom, O blessed Job, did you take this notion, to sprinkle earth upon your head? From my great-grandfather Abraham, he says, who says: "I am earth and ashes," and from Adam, the patriarch of the whole human race, to whom it was said: "You are earth and into earth you shall go." Hearing these things from them, therefore, and mindful of them, he sprinkled earth upon his head. I am not, therefore, like the devil who fell from heaven, but I am like one of those men who have arisen from the earth, and therefore I sprinkle earth upon my head. I am not like the devil, cast out from incorruption, but I am like one of those who are corruptible, fashioned from the slime of the earth. Deservedly I sprinkle earth upon my head, so that—he says—the most wicked devil may know against whom he has designs: because he has designs against one who is earthly, against one who is corruptible, against one who is mortal, against a man fashioned from the slime of the earth. On this account, he sprinkles earth upon his head, that he might instruct all those who are earthly, corruptible, and mortal, that they too can similarly stand against the most wicked one. They can, I say, similarly suffer and overcome all the temptations of the devil, if they have loved and feared God, just as the admirable Job sustained and carried not something small, but great and huge and terrible pains and torments, which no one else, neither before him nor after him, has sustained. And what is more significant, he did not have a model from another before him, nor did he receive an example from anyone who came earlier. B When Jacob seemed to have lost one of his many sons, he could not be comforted by all the rest, but said: "I shall go down after my son, mourning, into the underworld." But the magnanimous Job, after the loss of his property, and after the plundering of all his goods, and after he had heard of the miserable death of all his children at once, did not sigh, did not groan, did not reproach, did not curse, did not blaspheme, did not complain; he did not say the things that reason—which many now illicitly invoke—would demand be said. "Why did you give first, or why did you take away now? Why did you delight me at first, whether with property or with children? Or why did you deprive me now of all these at once? It would have been better if you had not given at all, than to give and then take away again. It would have been better if you had not shown them at all, than to show them and then punish me by taking them away." But he said none of these things, nor did that most holy and most constant Job think them at all—not so much to refresh his mind, except only to show that the pain of what had been done was immense. He tore his garments, he cut his hair, he sprinkled earth upon his head. Through all these C things, while humbling himself before God, he cast down the most wicked devil even to the underworld. What do we say, O men? Was Job perhaps created from a different body? Far from it! For God did not create others of this sort and some others of that sort with respect of persons, but the molding from the slime of the earth is the same for all, and the soul is equal in all by the operation of God. But because the will, the piety, the religiosity, the faith, the purpose toward God, the hope of eternal life, the fear of Gehenna, and the punishment of the underworld in the exterior darkness are not the same in all, for this reason not all men show the same purpose, nor the same endurance; not because they cannot, but because they will not. Therefore, the blessed Job is worthily and justly magnified, because he willingly sustained all these things with thanksgiving. For after all these things which have been mentioned and shown above, he said: "And he prostrated himself on the ground, and prayed to the Lord." First he stood up, and then finally he prostrated himself. He stood up for the battle, he prostrated himself for prayer. He stood up for virtue, he prostrated himself for supplication. He stood up for the perfection of victory, he prostrated himself for the reception of the crown. For even before rulers, those who have been victors do not receive the crown standing, but by bowing down. So indeed did the blessed Job, in the first temptation which he sustained through his property and children, gain victory over the adversary and prostrate himself in prayer, that he might receive from God the perfect crowns of his endurance. On this account, therefore, he prostrated himself and prayed to the Lord. When the devil saw him prostrated, the unhappy one rejoiced greatly; but when he heard him adoring and praying, he was struck dumb and terrified. "Prostrated," he says, "he prayed to the Lord." Job, prostrated, cast down the devil; he humbled the proud, he supplanted the exalted, he confused the strong, he deformed the arrogant. But above all these things, which is the greatest and most superior of all, by which Job cast down the devil with his prostration and overcomes the most wicked one with his endurance, he shows the form of Him who came from heaven: who, falling into the earth like a grain of wheat, cast down the devil, and bound the strong one, and plundered his vessels, and divided the spoils, and led captivity captive, and by his passion and resurrection redeemed the world and saved the age. For showing the form and example of all these things, after the endurance of all these lamentable things, he prostrated himself on the ground and prayed to the Lord, that his prostration might become the destruction of the devil and the malign subverter, and he might carry in himself through these things the figure of the passion and resurrection of the Lord. "Prostrated," he says, "he prayed to the Lord from his whole soul, and with his whole mind, and from the depth of his heart." He prayed to the Lord. What did he pray for? Endurance, suffering, consummation. He prayed to the Lord for the health of his senses, integrity of mind, the soundness of his soul. This, therefore, he prayed for to the Lord: that, he says, the Lord might guard my soul sound and my heart unblemished.
And the King of all, and the wicked one shall never prevail against me, nor shall the crafty enemy ever overcome me. Although he may corrupt the flesh, although he may bruise the bones, although he may consume the sinews, if, he says, the sense of my soul remain unblemished and be guarded, I shall never be led astray from thee, O Lord my God, I shall never be drawn away from thy love, O my King. Therefore, God, hearing his prayer and accepting the supplication of such a just judge, spoke after these things to the devil, saying: Behold, I have delivered him to thee, only do not touch his soul 47. Thus, therefore, prostrated, he prayed to God. Truly prostrated, that is to say, greatly humbled down to the ground, he deservedly tore his garment, cut the hair of his head, and sprinkled dust upon his head. After these things, completely prostrated, he prayed to the Lord. Thus, he says, the King of Nineveh, after this, sitting in ashes and sackcloth, and praying with humility, escaped the impending calamity after three days. Thus, he says, also Josiah, the King of Jerusalem, tearing his garments for fear of the threat of God, sent his servants with rent garments, and sprinkled with earth and ashes, to pray for and entreat the face of the Lord. Thus also, before all these, the admirable Job tore his garments, and cut the hair of his head, and sprinkled earth upon his head, and thus prostrated himself and prayed to the Lord. He was prostrated for prayer, but he did not fall into contumacy like an adversary. He was prostrated for supplication, as Abraham was when he prayed for Lot; but he did not fall into reproach, like the devil who was cast out of heaven because of apostasy. C But perhaps someone says: and why at all did he cut the hair of his head, or for what reason did he tear his garments, or for what cause did he sprinkle earth upon his head? Listen: first of all, for all these things which have been demonstrated; furthermore, he tore his garments for this reason, because he wished nothing to remain with him of those things which were given to the devil. He cut the hair of his head for this reason, in order that, having laid aside the abundance of his riches, he might also lay aside the excess of his hair; and that he might show to the adversary that, just as he suffered nothing by cutting his hair, so when he laid aside and lost the multitude of his goods, he deemed that he had suffered nothing: take away, he says, all superfluities; let nothing remain for me of those things which were given to you. He sprinkled earth upon his head for this reason, that he might partly show the grief for his children. For unless he had done this, we would say that he was foreign to human nature. He did all these things, evidently, on account of natural grief. But he gave thanks on account of his constancy and the truth of his soul, and that sincerity which he had toward God. After which things he said to them 48. To whom? To the arriving messengers of the demons. For four were waiting for him, and bringing to him the proclamations of his miseries, piercing him with four lamentable arrows. The last D and most lamentable was the loss of his children, which was close to his soul. To these four, therefore, who were waiting, he said, as they seemed to be mourning and sorrowful in pretense: What are you expecting, O men? Why do you endure, O men? Is it, that I may mourn with you? Is it, that I may lament with you? I do not mourn, he says, the loss of my substance; for the troubles and cares were taken away from me along with the property. I do not lament the death of my children, for sadness and pain have passed from my eyes. For if they were living with me upon the earth, I would have been in pain considering what they might have been, what progress they might have made, what end they might have expected. Being made secure, therefore, regarding them, I do not lament, I do not wail as you desire, I do not reproach what you seek, I do not blaspheme what you wish. The devil, he says, shall not laugh at me; the enemy, as he hopes, shall not rejoice over me; the most wicked one shall not find in me what he expects: Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I go under the earth 49. I had nothing when I came; I seek nothing when I depart. I brought nothing when born; I shall carry nothing away when taken: Naked came I out of my mother's womb, having neither property nor children, nor clothed in riches or possibilities, and naked shall I go under the earth. For that which has been placed in the earth along with the body becomes earth with the same body. Deservedly shall I go naked under the earth. Naked, he says, shall I go, naked of property, but also of sin: naked of riches, but also of impieties: naked of substance, but also of injustice. For just as I have been made naked of all carnal possibilities, so, he says, also from all illicit things shall I go naked under the earth. There do not accompany me, he says, neither malice, nor wrath, nor pride, nor envy, nor jealousy, nor greed, nor the desire for the things of others, nor reproach, nor slander, nor violence, nor unchastity, nor lasciviousness, nor any of those things that are contrary to God. For naked of all these shall I go under the earth. For I am not such as those of whom it is said: Because they had no covering, they were clothed in hell. Naked, I say, of all evils shall I go under the earth; naked of evils, but truly clothed with all good things, dressed in justice, surrounded by holiness, adorned in charity, crowned with mercy and good works. Blessed are they, and blessed shall they be, O glorious Job! all who have imitated you, all who after you have been able to say with confidence: Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I go into the earth: who also with the Apostle can truly say: We brought nothing into this world, and certainly we can carry nothing out 50. But woe to those who indeed came naked, but are laden and burdened with innumerable injustices and impieties, as well as with cruelty and infidelity, and shall go into the earth. Of this kind shall be the calamity and misery with which they will be clothed, in the day of the just judgment of God which does not accept persons. Naked came I out of my mother's womb, as also all men, as also all flesh, as also all corruptible beings, and naked shall I go into the earth. For this is what awaits...
all, for the entrance for all is the same, and the exit likewise, whether king or servant, whether rich or poor, whether great or small, whether free or slave; naked he shall go into the earth, and he is able to take nothing away with him. For even this very thing which is buried with the body, he shall not take away with him. Yet he will not take that away with him, because it feels not, because it understands not, because it becomes earth, and because in the resurrection it is not the burial of the body, but the faith and piety of the soul, and also mercy and sincerity that are required. Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, naked also shall I go under the earth. As if he said: O men of prudence and wisdom, what is this mortal garment, what is this superfluous glory, what are these earthly and faithless riches, which today exist and tomorrow are not, which today mock this man, but on the morrow pass to another? It is smoke that vanishes, a flower that passes away, grass that withers; and those who have them are as if they had them not, because they do not have them for long; and those who have them not are as if they had lost nothing, because they are not left permanently. Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, having only body and soul, naked also shall I go under the earth. As I came, so also shall I go, so also do I depart, leaving all things that are another’s, with the body alone shall I go, and by the soul shall I pass through. What I received, he says, I have, what I brought I have not lost. Leaving all superfluous things behind, naked I shall go there. There, he says, where there? First indeed I shall go there where all my ancestors went, where all have gone from the beginning, there into the earth, the mother of all, into the house of all. For the earth is the house of all mortals. There, where he went to whom it was said: Earth thou art, and into the earth shalt thou go. Thither, he says, I shall go naked, even as I came naked. Or rather, he says, I shall go thither where the tabernacles of the just are, where the glories of the saints are, where the rest of the faithful is, where the consolation of the pious is, where the inheritance of the merciful is, where the beatitude of the immaculate is, where the joy and exultation of the truthful is. A Thither I shall go, where light and life are, where glory and pleasantness are, where joy and exultation are, from whence pain, sadness, and groaning flee, where they shall forget those former tribulations which are in the body upon the earth. Thither I shall go, where the laying down of tribulations is, where the reward of labors is, where the bosom of Abraham is, where the possession of Isaac is, where the kinship of Israel is, where the souls of the saints are, where the choirs of angels are, where the voices of archangels are, where the illumination of the Holy Spirit is, where the kingdom of Christ is, where the untainted glory and blessed vision of the eternal God the Father is. Thither, he says, I shall go, thither I shall arrive, not finding fault, not cursing, not blaspheming, not accusing, but giving thanks and confessing, and saying with thanksgiving: The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it is done. I shall not be, he says, ungrateful, I shall not be a faithless debtor, as thou art, O adversary; I shall not return evil for good, as thou dost, O unhappy devil; but I confess that the Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away, B as it pleased the Lord, so it is done, blessed be the name of the Lord. Thou hast sent to me, he says, O devil, lamentable messengers, and the harmful and merciless envoys of thy wickedness, by whom thou hast shot at me with the cruel arrows of thine iniquity, which I, he says, will all in turn convert against thee, making the wounds in thy spirit more cruel. The Lord, I say, gave, the Lord hath taken away, as it pleased the Lord, so it is done. This was a wound to the devil, this was for the devil affliction and pain, tribulation also and anguish: because when he thinks and wishes to hear blasphemy from Job, and reproach and cursing against God, he heard confession and thanksgiving. This became a devouring fire to him, this became a burning conflagration to him, because he heard that which he did not hope: The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, as it pleased the Lord, so it is done, blessed be the name of the Lord for ever. For those lamentable arrows of the devil did not touch Job as much as his sincere thanksgivings wounded him. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. When He willed, he says, He gave as one who is good, and when He willed in turn, as one having power, He took away. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. He gave, he says, that it might be known how faithful I am, how piously I dispense, how mercifully I distribute. But He took away, that it might appear how I give thanks, how I confess, how I adore, now more with things taken away than formerly with things given. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. He gave His own and again took away His own; I, he says, have lost nothing, I have suffered no loss. Deservedly, after I have made use of them, I have returned them to the lender, giving thanks. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, as it pleased the Lord, so it is done; blessed be the name of the Lord. What sayest thou, O blessed Job? The Lord truly gave, but the Lord did not truly take away, but the enemy of all and most wicked adversary and envious devil took away. The Lord gave, but the adversary took away. The Lord gave, and the enemy and fugitive took away. But if the devil took away, how does Job say that the Lord took away? He speaks in ignorance and by suspicion. For he thought and supposed that the Lord had taken away, and he knew not that the devil had taken away, while the Lord stood by and permitted it. Therefore Job says: D The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as it pleased the Lord so it is done. For this was that truly great constancy of Job, that since he knew not that the devil had taken away, he thought that the Lord had taken away, and thinking this, he gives thanks to the Lord, as if He were the one taking away. The Lord, he says, gave, and the Lord hath taken away, as it pleased the Lord, so it is done; blessed be the name of the Lord for ever. For if Job had known that he was dealing with the devil, and that the devil was waging this war with him, and that the malicious enemy had taken away his property and children, he would surely have reduced those very temptations to nothing, and having him in derision, he would have evidently resisted against the enemy and openly
A stood against the manifest foe. But now, the devil indeed concealed this, while he brought these labors upon him; but the most merciful Lord was under suspicion and was accused by all these things. For when the devil said: Fire fell from heaven, and, *Suddenly a spirit came from the wilderness*, he accused God by these pains. Likewise, when Job had heard that fire fell from heaven and consumed the sheep, and that a spirit came from the wilderness and a disaster killed his children, what else could he suspect but that God Himself had sent those very pains from heaven? For this reason, then, Job is especially magnified, because when God is suspected in these afflictions and pains, he received them with constancy and thanksgiving, and did not say: "What have I sinned against you, that I should suffer such things from you?" But when he was struck by the enemy and afflicted with pains, he suspected the Lord in these pains, and gave thanks to the One striking him and afflicting him with pains, saying: *The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it was done; blessed be the name of the Lord forever.* These things, therefore, and more, the blessed Job said to the messengers of the most wicked one who were waiting for him, and through them to the devil himself who had sent them, who were standing before him sad and weeping, as they had feigned, and showing and detailing all misery, that they might easily provoke the blessed Job to blasphemy. To whom, having said many other things, Job said: "Why are you sad, O men? For what cause do you wail, O men? Lest perhaps this saddens you, that I give thanks to God. Lest perhaps it is troublesome to you that I give confession to the Giver, and send up invocation to the Taker. No man has afflicted me, but God from heaven, who gave me various things, took them away, as even you say, that fire fell from heaven. If, therefore, no man brought damage upon me, but God gave when He willed, and likewise took away when He willed, thanks to Him who gave, and thanks likewise to Him who took away. He gave His own, and likewise He took away His own, and I, he says, have lost nothing. For coming naked from my mother’s womb, I had nothing. He who had them gave them to me, B lent them to me who used them, and took away what were His own; I have lost nothing, but I give thanks to the Lender, having used those things which were given to me, and I confess to the Giver, saying: *The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it was done.* It pleased Him before that He should give, it pleases Him now that He should take away again. As it pleased the Lord, so it was done. Everything that has pleased God is good, everything that has pleased the Lord is just. It pleased Him to give, He did well. It pleased Him likewise to take away, He did justly. As it pleased the Lord, so it was done. As long as it pleased Him, we had them; when it pleased Him, we do not have them. As it pleased the Lord, so it was done. When we had them, we did not therefore have them as our own, but as the Lord’s; and when we were losing everything, we were not losing our own, but the Lord took away what were His own. As it pleased the Lord, so it was done, as the Lord willed, as it pleased the Lord. Everything C that the Lord wills, is life, is light, is rest, is eternal blessedness, for *life is in His will, and anger in His indignation*. Whatever, therefore, has pleased the Lord, whether to strike, or to punish, or to enrich, or to make poor, or to rebuke, or to correct, everything is blessedness, incorruptible and incessant. *Blessed*, he says, *is the man whom You, O Lord, have instructed*. As it pleased the Lord, so it was done; blessed be the name of the Lord forever. Thus it behooves all Christians, and all believers, to say and to do and to think in all things that have surrounded them, and have happened to them, whether they lose wealth, or children are taken away, or poverty presses, or infirmity is sent. Let them say in all these things with sincerity: *As it pleased the Lord, so it was done; blessed be the name of the Lord forever.* The name of the Lord, he says, for which I sustain and endure all things, for which I am superior to all things that have happened to me. Blessed be the name of the Lord forever. The name of the Lord, which miraculously stretched out the heavens, which firmly founded the earth, which terribly marked out the abysses. Blessed be the name of the Lord forever: which, when the lions in Daniel had seen, they were changed into lambs: which, when the flame of fire had recognized it in Ananias and Azariah and Misael, it fled outside from the furnace, and burned those who were outside the furnace, since they did not have the holy name of the Lord in them; but to those who were inside the furnace, it did not approach, because it saw the terrible name of the Lord in them. Even the whale, when it saw this in Jonah, was amazed and returned him unharmed, whom it had taken from the ship, it returned undefiled whom it had taken alive. This, I say, is the name of the Lord, blessed forever. This name which few of the ancients recognized, but all those who came after received. This name of which the saints say in the person of God: *To you who fear my name, a new name shall be named which shall be blessed over the earth.* And furthermore: *There is no other name under heaven given to men in which it behooves us to be saved*. This, I say, name of the Lord be blessed forever: which averts anger, which took away and remitted the curse, which terrified demons. This name of the Lord be blessed forever. Let it be blessed in angels and in men, in celestial virtues, in spirits and in all the souls of the just, in nations, and in all congregations of the faithful. Blessed be the name of the Lord. How long, or until when is it to be blessed? Forever, he says, until the end D of the present age and at the beginning of that infinite age. Let, he says, the name of the Lord be blessed in the souls of the chaste, in the hearts of the pious, in the minds of the religious, in the church of the saints, in the congregation of the most truthful servants of God. Let the name of the Lord be blessed not in measured and appointed time, but forever. Forever, he says, whether in the present age until the end, or in that future age, infinite and in-
- deficient. Let the name of the Lord be blessed forever. A For, B establishing those who are in the world, he says: *In all that happened to him, Job did not sin.* Wealth and glory happened to him, but he did not sin; for he was not puffed up with pride. Splendor and joy happened to him, but he did not sin at all. For he did not forget the fear of the Lord, nor did he abandon mercy and compassion. After this, poverty and misery happened to him, yet Job did not sin, because he did not blaspheme the Lord of all. Pain, and a plague, and worms, and rottenness happened to him: yet that just man did not sin. For he sustained those vehement pains with thanksgiving. Truly, therefore, the great Moses writes concerning Job, and truly he says: *In all that happened to him, Job did not sin, neither in the sight of the Lord nor with his lips.* What is it that you say, O great Moses? What is it that you speak, *neither in the sight of the Lord nor with his lips*? I speak, he says, without falsehood, and I speak justly. For in the sight of the Lord he did not sin, that is, in the counsels of the soul, nor in thoughts, nor in the movements of the heart. For toward these things the face of the Lord watches and looks, which are pondered and moved in the heart, according to that which was said: *Not as man sees, does God see, for man sees the face, but God looks into the heart*, and into the face and into the thoughts, and into the very counsels of the heart. Designating these, therefore—the thoughts of the heart, the counsels, and also the movements—he says: *neither in the sight of the Lord.* And designating the words and the utterances: *neither*, he says, *with his lips*, as if he were to say: All things that befell him, Job sustained and endured in such a way that he neither blasphemed God in the words of his lips, nor reproached Him in the thoughts of his heart, nor blamed Him in the counsels of his soul. How was Job going to think evil in his heart against God, he who, taking care for the hearts of his children, said: *Lest perhaps my sons have thought something evil in their hearts against God*? He did not sin, he says, in the sight of the Lord by thinking evil in his heart, nor with his lips by speaking illicit things. Above all these things, *He did not give,* he says, *foolishness to God.* What is it that he says, *He did not give foolishness to God*? As if he were to say: He did not exist as an unbeliever toward God; he did not exist as weak, nor unstable, nor perfidious, nor shaken. *He did not give foolishness to God.* For he was not like that house which is built upon the sand, which had no foundation—that is, the foundation of faith and piety—which easily fell, moved by winds and waters. But the blessed Job was not such; rather, he was firm, stable, and immovable. Therefore, every assault of the most wicked one, and every inundation of the devil, could not subvert or cast down that immovable man. Consequently, demonstrating this, he says: *He did not give foolishness to God.* As we have said, he did not exist as an unbeliever toward God, nor as a faithless man, nor as an ungrateful one. Or still, he says, *He did not give foolishness to God*, as if he were to say,
“he did not make the words of God, nor His testimonies, faithless or useless or false.” What words of God, or what testimonies? Those which he spoke to the devil, giving testimony to Job; he did not make them invalid or useless by yielding and slandering, but he made them faithful and firm by enduring all the things that happened to him with thanksgiving. Rightly, therefore, he says: *He did not give foolishness to God* A; for the testimonies of God concerning him did not turn out to be invalid, nor were they falsified by him, but were proven faithful and firm and true. He did not give that occasion, or suspicion of faithlessness, to God. God had no need to be ashamed of those things for which He had borne witness to him as a faithful man. For since he was firm and faithful, he did not give foolishness to God—that is, faithlessness to God. That God is ashamed of the faithless and the infirm is shown by the Lord Himself, saying: 60 *Whoever is ashamed of me, the Son of man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His majesty*. But God testified to the faith of Job, while the devil testified to his faithlessness. God bore witness that Job had not worshipped Him for the sake of money, but for the sake of love; the devil, however, confirmed that Job had not worshipped Him for the sake of love, but for the sake of his substance. But once the devil had taken everything away from him—both his household property and his children—and Job still remained in the same acts of thanksgiving toward God, then it appeared anyway that he did not B serve God for the sake of money, but for the sake of love: then, clearly, the testimony of the devil was rendered invalid and mendacious, but the testimony of God was proven true and faithful. Showing and summing up all these things in one word, he says: *In all these things that happened to him, Job did not sin, neither in the sight of the Lord, nor with his lips. And he did not give foolishness to God* 61. Let us also strive, O men, let us strive with all our virtue, O friends, that we may not give faithlessness to God, that we may not exist as faithless to Him, neither in faith, nor in words, nor in deeds, nor in thoughts, nor in counsels, nor in impiety, nor in tribulations, nor in delights, nor in glory, nor in poverty, but let us pass through all these things with patience, and sustain them with thanksgiving, so that in our entire life we may be found faithful to God, and firm in faith and piety, after the example of the blessed Job, who in all things that happened to him remained faithful before God, and showed all his testimonies to be true concerning himself: who first of men after Abel and Abraham left behind a model for those in the world, who is named and magnified among men forever, who rests with the choirs of angels in incorruptible glory for endless ages. Of which rest may the mercy of the Lord make us all worthy.
BOOK TWO
Just as the sun’s most beautiful rays are delightful to the sight of every man who has unblemished eyes, so also the passion of the admirable Job is desirable and delightful and necessary for all pious men, all believers, all who look to God, and all who love God to hear. For when the admirable Job finished his victory over the devil in the first engagement, and stood forth as a victor over the malignant one, the more victory he won over him, the more he stirred him to envy regarding himself, and to a greater struggle and war. For the most wicked one, ignited like the flame of an inextinguishable fire, C reflecting with himself, said: “Now is my time for war, now my hope of victory is nowhere; now I shall arise for the struggle against Job, now I have evidently fallen because of his endurance.” “No,” he says, “I must not flee. For the virtue itself that now is does not permit defeat, but I must still engage. I fear that I may fall terribly again before him.” But meanwhile he flees when he is not strong and does not dare to engage, and fears to struggle. “It is better,” he says, “that I should engage than that I should flee indecisively before the second struggle,” or before the second engagement turn my back in vain. “Perhaps,” he says, “victory will return to me in the second engagement. Perhaps he despises his own things, and his children, but he does not despise himself; he does not spurn his own proper body, he does not disregard his own pains. I will seek him, I will seek him out himself, I will strike his body with pain, I will melt him with wounds, I will consume him with worms: perhaps, succumbing to these D pains, he will curse; perhaps, not bearing this punishment, he will blaspheme.” For disparate times are interchangeable; sometimes they bend this way, sometimes that way. “Rightly,” he says, “is there still for me hope of victory.” Reflecting on these things, therefore, and things like these, and dwelling upon them within himself, the most wicked devil uses impudence again, demonstrates importunity again, and again like a rabid dog rushes at a stick, not considering his own downfall, not understanding his own deformity. He dares to enter again before the face of God, again he does not fear to rebuke the irreprehensible Job, that he might the more be confounded and convicted through all things. Showing and commemorating all these things, he says: *And it happened as…*
that day.* What day? The day of time, the day of opportunity. *And it happened as that day.* The day of patience, the day of consummation, the day of the fulfillment of the first victory of Job. *And it happened as that day.* The day in which the devil fell, but Job arose: the day in which the devil was humiliated, but Job was exalted: the day in which the devil was confounded, but Job was crowned. *And it happened as that day.* In which the revived judgment between Job and the devil was heard, in which the revived crowns were fitted and consecrated to Job by the angels. It happened, I say, as that day, similar to that of which A it was said above, concerning which we have already spoken many things previously. *And it happened as that day*, and the angels of God came to stand before the Lord, and the devil came with them to stand before the Lord. The angels came, not moved from place to place, not traveling from province to province, but ever persevering before the Lord. For as light is always with the just, so the face of God is always upon the just, so the just are always before God; much more so the glorious and holy angels, who incessantly and perpetually remain before God in glory. They are said to come or to go when they are sent for ministry, when they fulfill embassies, when they carry out commands, when they praise God on account of those who have sustained patiently, when they praise God on account of those who obtain salvation, when they have made confession for the perfect to the heavenly Lord, when they have rendered thanks incessantly to the eternal King for all of God's miracles. And do not wonder, O friends, that angels are said to come or go, because you are to hear greater and more wonderful things. For even God Himself, who is the ruler and creator of the angels and of all spirits, is said to come and to go, to descend and to ascend, to sit and to rise, to sleep and to rise from sleep, and—what is more stupendous than all—is said as a mighty man who has been drunk with wine: *Arise, why do you sleep, O Lord? Arise and do not cast us off to the end.* And the Lord was awakened as one sleeping, as a mighty man who has been drunk with wine. And the Lord descended and spoke with Moses. And God ascended after He had spoken to Abraham, and other innumerable things similar to these are found to have been said about God in Scripture. If, therefore, God—who is immovable and unexcitable and unmoved and simple, remaining always in the same state—is said to do all these things, and to go and to come, *God comes*, he says, *to Balaam*, and to sit and to rise: what is so great if His angels and ministerial spirits are said to have come to God to accuse the devil, and all who perform his will, and to bear witness to their holiness and sincerity which they have before God? To magnify God in His mercies and His kindnesses, and His long-suffering and His inscrutable miracles, which He incessantly shows concerning the human race? Thus, therefore, they came, B and the angels come before God. The first time they came to bear witness to the justifications of Job and to his faith in piety, but then indeed they bore witness to the justifications of Job alone. Now, however, coming the second time before God, they have borne witness not only to his justifications, but also to his endurance and justifications, as well as his patience and constancy, and the fullness of the love which he held towards God. For the glorious angels, bearing witness to all these things, and also accusing the wickedness of the devil and proving him a liar, came before God, with whom the devil also came. He came, nevertheless, not face to face, but in counsels and thoughts, in sentiments and reasonings, in desires and deliberations, as was demonstrated above through many things. When God saw these thoughts, He answered him, saying: *Whence do you come, you?* He answered, nevertheless, not speaking with his lips, nor bringing forth words, nor making that unjust one worthy of his conversation, nor receiving him at all in His presence. For he, since he is detested by the saints, and is held in hatred and is trodden underfoot, will never come into the sight of God. For if the ungodly (as it was said above) shall not rise again, nor sinners in the counsel of the just: much more the overseer of all impieties, and the author of all sin, the devil, shall not come into the divine counsel, nor shall he be held worthy of a deific conversation, according to all things which we have recorded previously. He came, therefore, in counsels and thoughts and desires, and heard not a conversation, but a rebuke and a chastisement of his most wicked thoughts, and of his hostile desires and deliberations, which He, showing, says: *And the Lord answering, said to the devil: Whence do you come, you?* C He asks, foreknowing and provident, He who grants all knowledge to men; He asks the fugitive, the apostate, the adversary, the most wicked, the unjust. He asks so that from his mouth, and from his response, He may argue and condemn him, and convict him, as being a liar, and filled with the zeal of malice and envy. Whence do you come, you cast-down, confounded, humiliated one? Whence do you come, defeated, overcome, trampled upon? Whence do you come, you who are expelled from the heights, and condemned upon the earth, who are cast out from the heavens, rejected among men? Whence do you come, you who hasten after iniquities, who run after injustice? You who desire homicides, you who are covetous of adulteries, you who are drunk with blood, you who are the overseer of all impieties upon the earth, the inventor of all evils among men, whence do you come? You who have no time, you who do not expect peace, you who are not mindful of reprisal, nor hope for rest, whence do you come? Confess, and do not deny; show, and do not conceal. But that most wicked one, not accepting these things, and pretending that he had heard nothing at all, answered for other things, saying: *I have gone about the whole earth,* D
and have walked through the whole world that is under heaven. A Subtly you feign, O most unhappy devil; you cover your humiliation, you keep silent about your deformity, you do not at all reveal your confusion for having been overcome by dust. For Job is mud and earth and dust by reason of his earthly body, but meanwhile an earthly and muddy man has overcome you, O devil, who, being an incorruptible spirit, fell cast down from heaven like lightning. A muddy body, in truth, has overcome the incorruptible brightness, the immortal and incorporeal spirit. It is this confusion of yours which, keeping silent and passing over—O cunning devil—you boast and applaud that you have gone about the earth and walked through those things that are under heaven. But you say this to your greatest deformity: for your glory and elation are filled with every dejection. For if you were able to do so much that you could go about and walk through the whole earth, and after this all earthly things and all who are under heaven—that is, to trample them and subject them under yourself—how were you not able to prevail over the one earthly and corruptible man Job? But all your power, and your strength, and your predatory armies, and their sword, and the triple horns of your cavalry, and the fire that fell from heaven—as you spoke—and the winds that came from the desert, which was the inspiration of your wickedness, all these things, he says, were rendered weak and useless through the endurance of the just Job, and were confounded and overturned by his thanksgiving. After all these things, he says, I do not ask you, O devil, about what earth you have gone around, and what things under heaven you have walked through; for I have no task to question you about these. I know, indeed, that with ceaseless wickedness you incessantly go around all things that are under heaven and fly through them, as an airy spirit likened to the velocity of lightning. I do not ask you about this, he says, but this: whence you come, or from whom you come. Confused by the unconfounded, humiliated by the exalted, voided of hope by the glorious. Of these things, he says, I ask you and of these I admonish you, while you stand as if goaded by fiery darts. For who is a greater fire to the devil than this, that he should be overcome and trampled by a carnal and earthly man, even though he is an incorporeal spirit? Whence do you come, seducer, insidiator, humiliated, dejected, confused? Whence do you come? Where is your arrogance? Where is your elation? Where is your magniloquence? Where are your lies, by which you said that Job worshipped me for money? You took away his wealth, but I received from him thanksgiving and confession. For though you, he says, took away all his substance so that he had nothing with which to offer me sacrifices, he offers me sacrifices with the customary thanksgiving from a clean heart and pure conscience. Whence do you come, O devil? Not from repentance, not from conversion, nor from the fact that, seeing your deformity, you are confounded. And so, most malignant one, I ask you whence you come. For you do not come as you once did from Adam with victory, but as B after Job with confusion. For you once led Adam astray, but you did not after this supplant Job. You eradicated Adam from paradise, but you did not turn Job away from holiness. Whence do you come, cast out from the heights, and thrown down from the heavens, ejected from the choirs of angels? Whence do you come, you who have germinated injustice over the earth, who have disseminated impieties under the sun, who have filled everything that is under heaven with evils? Whence do you come? You who are the author of death, the inventor of evils, and the beginning of all evils, the operator of iniquity, the father of lies. Whence, he says, do you come? I have gone about, he says, the whole earth, and have walked through all things that are under heaven, and behold I am here. I am here, he says, I who do not succumb nor bow, who do not turn nor make amends, who do not show repentance, but stand before you, as one untamed by vices. You shall be changed, he says, O devil, in your most beloved, that is, in yourself. For when you are not bent, nor subjected, nor show repentance, you are plunged into the irremediable punishment of the underworld, you are delivered to the inextinguishable fire of Gehenna, both you and all who follow you unto infidelity: you, I say, and all who through you are persuaded to impietv. I am here, he says, I who am not made thus in my creation, but in my works am thus demonstrated, who am not made thus by nature, but departed by will. For the devil is not made in the creation of nature, but in the operation of the will. I am here, he says, I who rejoice in sins, who delight in impieties, who am gladdened by iniquities, who take pleasure in all injustice and all unchastities and all evils. I am here, he says, I who have no hope, who expect no salvation, who do not sustain mercy, who am not mindful of refreshment. I have gone about, he says, the earth and walked through it, and those things which are under heaven, and behold I am here. To whom, after all these things, God answering says: I do not ask you about this, how you have gone around the earth, that is, those who mind earthly things, nor about this, how you have walked through those things which are under heaven, that is, those who do not desire heavenly things, even as you yourself, who can no longer return to heaven; but this I asked you and I ask: Have you marked my servant Job? As if he were to say: Have you understood what Job is? Have you relaxed your mind toward him? Have you known him, or have you tested his unswerving faith, and his immovable firmness, and his inviolable fortitude, and his inviolable piety and religion? Have you marked or attended to my servant Job? As if he were to say: Are you certain, O devil, enemy of all goods, which of us has spoken the truth, I or you; which of us has spoken without lying, I who have borne witness to him, or you who have accused him? You say that you have gone about the earth, and have walked through those things which are under heaven; have you found a similar man to Job? Have you seen his equal? For this reason, he says, I ask you whence you came, or whence you come, that I may show the holiness and merit of Job, his patience also and victo-
- A tory, his glory no less and his crown, but your rejection and humiliation, your confusion also and perdition. For although you deny it, I shall show it. Although you do not confess it, I shall not be silent. For you say that you have circled the earth, yet you do not bring forth your own perdition. While you hide your own rejection, you steal the crowns of Job. Have you considered my servant Job, who trampled your head, who humbled your height, who cast down your pride? You boast, he says, most wicked Satan, that you have circled the earth and wandered through the things which are under heaven: but this boasting of yours is evil and a useless exaltation. For it is for evil that you have circled the earth, and unto injustice that you wander through the things which are under heaven. For you fly over the sea and the air and penetrate all nations, provinces, and regions, that you may make many sons of Gehenna, that you may make more partakers of your punishment. For just as a rabid dog runs through roads and passages, so that he may wound with bites those whom he finds before him, while nonetheless leading others into the stupor of dread: so also you, he says, most wicked Satan, circle the earth and wander through all the things which are under heaven, not to set anyone aright, but to exterminate all, wounding the soul of some through sins, while nonetheless dulling and stupefying the minds of others. And why does he rightly call him the devil above, but now Satan? For "devil" is interpreted as "accuser," but "Satan" as "resisting" or "rebellious," or even "contumacious." Therefore, because he secretly accused Job to God above, for that reason he calls him the devil above, as being an accuser: but now, having again arrived at evident contumacy concerning Job, he rightly calls him Satan, as being a rebel. Have you considered my servant Job, O unhappy devil? With sorrow you heard that God called Job His servant. This word of bitterness was sorrow to you; this hearing was heavy for you; this statement was a "woe" to you, because of this testimony which God bore to Job, saying: Have you considered my servant Job? And before, he says, he was my servant and now he remains my servant, and the accusation of your wickedness will avail nothing against him. Have you considered my servant Job? Above he said: Have you noticed my servant Job? But now, Have you considered my servant Job? As if he were saying: You have seen, you have tested, you are certain that he was my servant before, and now he remains my servant, and he has never fled from my service, he says, nor will he flee. And he says, I myself am his witness, and my angels his hearers, who coming into my presence and wondering at the patience of Job, said: we have seen a great miracle among men, O terrible Creator of all things, worthy of exceeding stupor, O eternal Ruler of the universe. A single earthly man, formed from clay, far inferior to our immortal choirs of angels, has alone withstood the devil, him who fell from the immortal offices of the cherubim and was cast down. But Job, while enduring for a very long time, remained afflicted for a longer period B and was punished and struck with various sorrows. In which, he says, it appears that there is no man like him upon the earth. Abraham is not, Melchisedec was translated, Noah rested, Enoch was taken up, Abel was assumed. In merits there is no other man like him upon the earth. Of those who live now, there is no one like him upon the earth. Understand that he does not say "there is no one like him upon the earth of those who have been, or will be," for after this came John, than whom no greater has risen among those born of women. Rightly, of those who were then, he says: There is no other like him of those who are upon the earth. As if he would say: Of those who are upon the earth in his times, in his days, in his life, there is no one else like him in justice, in faith, in piety, in patience, in constancy, in thanksgiving, in mercy, and in all virtues; there is no other man like him on earth. Who else before him, or after him, endured such things, and while enduring, repaid with thanksgiving for the most vehement sorrows and most bitter punishments? Who has existed as a pattern of Job's patience? None. For Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son, but he immediately received him back alive, the very one whom he had been about to slaughter and sacrifice. But Job was not so; rather, suddenly, unexpectedly, he heard and saw seven sons and three daughters all dead together at once, and never returning to life: yet his faith did not die because of this, nor his patience, nor his thanksgiving, nor the love which he had toward God. But just as gold passing through C the fire is made cleaner and more glorious, so too Job, passing through the fire of temptations, was proven clearer and more precious and acceptable to God. Rightly therefore he says: There is no one like him upon the earth. He shines, he says, like the sun in truth and patience; he glows in faith and patience like the luminaries of heaven. Because of this there is no other like him upon the earth, firm as a stone, immovable as a foundation, like an unbroken diamond. There is no one like him of those who are on the earth. Without complaint, as being D and overcame through patience and devoted acts of thanksgiving and turned him to flight, and demonstrated all his frauds and vain iniquities. Have you considered, he says, my servant Job? The obedient and true servant, who upon being struck did not depart, who was beaten and did not sin, who was handed over to you and did not deny me, who was struck by you and offers thanks to me. This one, he says, this servant you considered who stood against you and did not resist me, who fought against you and adored me, who trampled you and did not despise me, who held you in hatred and loved me? At this servant of mine, he says, did you look? At this one to whom no one like him in patience has existed since the times of Abel? For Abel, when he once endured slaughter, passed on and rested.
A nor by angels, nor by men is he in anything reproached. Just, in that he is approved just by the just judgment of God. True, in that he approaches falsity neither in word nor in deed, nor in great matters, nor in small, nor shares in falsehood. A worshiper of God, in that with an unerring conscience of soul he worships the one Omnipotent, Creator of all, the Father of Jesus Christ. Abstaining from all evil works, both before and now, from the beginning and even to the end. For neither before, by the abundance of resources, nor now, by the loss of goods, have they turned him to evil. Above all these, he remains in simplicity in a supreme, singular, and admirable manner. When he has endured so much from you, he says, when he has suffered so much from you, has supported so much from your malice, he still remains in simplicity. All those who have been in pains and in torments and in passions are made more bitter, more harmful, and worse, being embittered and exaggerated by the very pains. But it is not so, he says, with the most constant Job, but it is not so with that admirable man, but he still remains in simplicity. As if he were to say: he remains even more innocent in his very pains, even more long-suffering, even more modest, even more benign, even more just, even more sincere toward God. For by as much as you, O devil, have increased evils for him, by so much has Job added to his innocence: still remaining in simplicity. Still, he says, as if to say: Above all you have done to him, above all you have shown him, above all with which you have afflicted him, above all these he clearly still remains in simplicity. In what preceded, Job is praised by God as a just and true worshiper of God: now, however, God has added to these that praise, saying: *Persevering in his simplicity.* Well and worthily. For he was a figure of those who in the new grace passed through and endured all things in simplicity, rendering evil to no one for evil, but fulfilling the precept of the Lord, saying: *Love your enemies* (Luke VI, 27), and: *Bless those who curse you* (ibid., 28), and: *To him who wishes to take away your cloak, yield to him also the tunic* (ibid., 29). For the blessed Job, bearing the type of all these, along with the fact that he persevered in simplicity and endured all things, along with this he also yielded the cloak to the one taking it—that is, his whole substance—to the devil; and he even dismissed the tunic, tearing it off and throwing it to him, and saying: "What you asked of God, you have received; take also these things which you did not ask for, my tunic and my cloak." B Still remaining in simplicity. For as far as the devil's words are concerned, adversaries rose up against him, enemies plundered him: but he did not reply to these in any way, but displayed simplicity toward them all. Worthily he says, *Persevering in his simplicity*, bearing the type and figure of the Lord saying of Himself through the prophet: *But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter* (Jerem. XI, 19). And thus the admirable Job remains in simplicity: beyond all these things which you have heaped upon him, he remains in simplicity. And who, he says, after this among those who have heard or known him, would not reproach me, who have allowed you so much to rise up against that just man, and so mercilessly to vex the innocent? After all these things he remains in simplicity. Behold, he says, before I praised him, testifying to you who Job was; behold, now I add to his praise, saying: *He remains in simplicity.* He remains, he says, that is, he expects. What, then, does he expect? He expects the reward of patience, he expects the crowns of innocence. Or does he still expect, he says? What, you ask, does he expect? Him, he says, he expects, O devil, as a bold warrior, as the most constant combatant, as an admirable strong man. And so he says, he expects, he does not doubt: he did not turn his back, but he still expects. Still, he says, he expects so that he may overcome and conquer you, trample and humiliate you, and demonstrate you to be in every way cast down and confused. Since, therefore, you know Job to be such, and to be expecting you so readily for a second contest, if you dare, approach, begin, seize him; you will find him expecting you. Still, he says, he expects in simplicity: but you wander the earth and traverse the things that are under heaven, so that you may build up idols, so that you may germinate adultery, so that you may multiply homicide, so that you may shed blood, so that you may disseminate magical arts, and auguries, and divinations, and sorceries, so that you may teach infidelity, so that you may fill with blasphemy against God and all evils the things which are under heaven, so that you may defile the chaste, both men and women, so that you may decline the pious to impiety, so that you may incite annoyances and tribulations for the just. For all these things, he says, you, O devil, wander the earth and traverse the things that are under heaven. Job, however, does not do so, but still expects in one place, as if founded, established, and confirmed in the same patience and truth, in the same faith and piety and worship of God, and never declined from it, or faltered. And thus he remains immobile and innocent. Still he expects in simplicity. The dove, he says, is simple, rational, spiritual, worthy of incorruption, acceptable, familiar to the angels of God. Therefore, he displays simplicity like a dove. For just as a dove, driven from its nest, with its chicks carried off and slaughtered before its eyes, is not indignant, nor terrified, nor deserts the nest, nor is changed toward malice: so too the blessed Job, when his nest was taken from him—that is, wealth and substance—and his children were slaughtered before his eyes, was not indignant, nor was he changed toward malice—that is, toward blasphemy or cursing—but endured all things with innocence and acts of thanksgiving. For all these things, therefore, he says, *persevering in innocence*. You, however, said to destroy his things; you said that you would destroy; but you say that you will destroy his flesh a little, so that, by Job enduring these things in simplicity, he may receive...
A those glorious crowns, and, he says, you may perceive the wheat, and so on. For all these things, because of your wickedness and impudence, O crafty devil, and the zeal and envy which the evil one has regarding the saints, have been spoken. To whom, speaking of these things, God says: "But you asked to destroy his things without cause." Whose things? Those of the just, pious, and believing Job. You desired to destroy his things without cause, for the sake of your own zeal and envy, for the sake of your own malignant suspicion, O most cunning devil. You asked to destroy his things without cause, accomplishing or perfecting nothing, except for your own iniquity and malice. You asked to destroy his things without cause. But they perished without cause. Why did they perish? Because of the devil, he says, they perished without cause. For he accomplished and perfected nothing when he destroyed his things, B save that he displayed his own casting down and humiliation. But for Job, this matter did not turn out without cause, but for the immense glory, praise, and honor of this matter did the destruction of his things turn out before God and his angels, and before God an increase of glory accrued to him, and upon the earth a double reception and retribution for his reward. Thus, therefore, for the devil indeed the perdition of this thing was without cause. But for Job it was not done without cause, but for the reward of eternal blessedness, both in the heavens before the angels of God, and on earth in the sight of all nations. Rebuking, therefore, and refuting and upbraiding the devil, he said: "But you asked to destroy his things without cause; you desired, you asked, you sought, you hastened to destroy his things without cause;" as if he were to say: Where is your presumption, O devil, that as soon as you had taken away his things, you would have immediately made him depart C from the pious worship of God and his thanksgivings? Where is your arrogance, O devil, enemy of all good things? Where is your tumult and sedition? Where is your labor and anxiety? Where is your contention and altercation? For you labored and strove by finishing diverse wars, and by establishing camps, and by showing cavalry, and by burning with fire, and by bringing on winds, and by shaking foundations, and by throwing down houses and demonstrating every anxiety, so that you might destroy the things and the children of the just Job—but your immense labor and anxiety existed in vain. For you destroyed the things of Job, but you did not destroy his justice, nor did you dissipate his faith and piety. Therefore hear, he says, with rebuke: "You asked to destroy his things without cause." But long ago indeed you destroyed the things of Job without cause; after this, however, when the Lord had come to the earth, you reckoned the destruction of that ointment to be done in vain, D saying through the mouth of Judas: "Why has this waste of the ointment been made?" And, indeed, you judged the ointment which was poured out for good with faith to be destruction; but you did not deem the things of Job, which perished with iniquity, to be destruction. And what is greater than this, that ointment which was poured out by Judas, that is, the blood of the Only-Begotten, you esteemed as destruction. For just as when that ointment was poured out there, that house was filled with the odor of the ointment; so also is this...
A, that is, in the passion of the Lord, when the blood of the Lord was shed, the orb of the earth was filled with the sweetness of salvation. But in all things, the most wicked, the base, and the shameless devil did not cease, nor did he acknowledge himself to be confounded: but like a rabid dog, he ran in unhappiness toward the staff, since he does not perceive his former deformity, but hopes that by a newest war he might be able to repair his former ruin, the wretch not knowing that the newest things were to be done to him, worse than the previous ones. Therefore, after all these things, the devil answered before God, and said: *Skin for skin*. O your impudence and wickedness, O devil! You do not consider your such great deformity and confusion, but shamelessly and repeatedly—that is, again and again—you recur to things contrary to yourself B by speaking and saying and seeking, and destroying yourself. For first you said, when you had spoken to God about Job: "Take away from him his property, deprive him of his riches, diminish him of his opulence, humble him from his height, strip him of those things which you have given him, if he will not immediately curse you to your face, and disparage, and blaspheme," as if it were a great thing that his riches and household were taken away. What, therefore, you then magnified—that his household goods should be taken away—this you now undoubtedly diminish. What you then judged to be singular and indubitable—that with riches removed, Job would immediately blaspheme—this you nevertheless now reduce to nothing, saying: *Skin for skin*. The skin of riches for the skin of the body, the skin of goods for the skin of the bones. For this is why the devil here repeats and records the skins: the household and riches are the outer skin; but the inner skin is the body and the bones. The skin which does not cause much pain is the household; the skin which causes much pain is the skin of the body. Thinking these things, of course, the most malignant devil, from whom evil thoughts never fail, this most wicked devil, treating things wickedly and cunningly, says to the Lord about Job: *Skin for skin*, as if he were saying: "What great thing has Job suffered? What grave thing has he endured, whom you defend? He has lost his household and his children, but he hopes that he may again acquire both property and children; he trusts that you will give them again just as you gave them before. Because of this hope and confidence, therefore, he has not yet departed from you, nor has he abandoned you, nor has he spoken against you, nor has he blasphemed you, because the pains of the body have not yet touched him, because the suffering of the bones has not yet apprehended him." *Skin for skin*. "Stripped," he says, "of the outer skin—that is, he has despised the household property that was taken away and reduced it to nothing—touch his inner skin, that is, afflict his flesh with torments; and crush his flesh, and his constancy, which he now seems to have, will appear. For his faith, which he now thinks he has toward you, is vain." *Skin for skin*, as if he were saying: a lesser pain for a greater pain, a more moderate punishment for a more severe C punishment. He says Job appears to have constancy still, because he easily endures lighter things for heavier ones, and gently suffers milder things for more severe ones. For every punishment and every pain that is outside the body seems to be lighter than those pains which are in the body. Therefore, *skin for skin*, that is, a smaller punishment for a greater punishment, a lighter pain for a more vehement pain. For it is one thing to lose household property and to endure losses, but it is certainly another thing to rot in the flesh itself, and to be filled with worms, and to be heaped together into the dust of the earth by the moisture of the ulcers which is drawn out from the very liquefying flesh. Therefore, Job easily endures the pain of the outer skin for the pain of the nearer skin—this robbing of household property for the affliction of the body. As long, therefore, as he endures the lighter pain, he does not depart from you, nor will he deny you. "Change," he says, "the skins," that is, change the pains, "and you will immediately perceive that he is changed to blasphemy." *Skin for skin*, he says. We see an example of this thing even in ourselves. For when anyone is struck or beaten, he frequently extends his hand for his whole body, and protects his head and back with his hand, and it seems to him that he is struck more in the hand than in the back or head, and he gives skin for skin—the skin of the hand for the skin of the head. Thus, the most wicked one, designating all these things, says cunningly about Job: *Skin for skin*. For just as those who are beaten protect the other skin of the body with the skin of the hand, only so that they may have the body whole: so, he says, Job also despises all outer detriments of his household, only so that he may escape the punishment of the body. For so also those who sail on the sea, when they have suffered danger, despise all things which they have in the ship and cast them into the sea, so that they themselves may escape. So also, whoever among the rich, when they have fallen into the infirmity of the body, willingly offer all their substance, only so that they may recover the safety of the body. So, he says, Job also easily despises all his riches and all his household property, only so that pains may not touch his flesh. With what intention, however, the most wicked demon said all these things, he shows through these things which follow, saying: *All that a man has, he will give for his soul*. So, he says, Job also despised all that he had, only so that he might keep his body unharmed. But still, he says, *skin for skin*. Who said this? The devil. To whom did he say it? To God. Of whom did he say it? Of Job. With what intention did he say it? As demonstrated above in many ways. But beyond all these things, hear also of those things which were done long ago in the beginning. The most wicked devil here reminds [God] that formerly, when Job’s father and patriarch Adam, he says, obeying my seductions, despised you, because of this he was clothed by you, the Creator, in leather tunics as a retribution for his being a denier, because he had abandoned you, but [had turned] to me.
A And from this he became to me a debtor of this matter; rightly now, he says, "Skin for skin." "Skin," he says, "give me Job's skin for Adam's skin. I was going to harass Adam's skin, and you did not permit me. Give me, therefore, Job's skin for Adam's skin. Give me the son's skin for the father's skin. I will exact," he says, "from the son the debt of the progenitor. Let him pay, he says, the hide or skin, the latest [debt] now for the former debt then. I will avenge the sins of his former father, and of the father of all." Thus, memorializing all these things and admonishing about all these things, the most wicked one says most maliciously: "Skin for skin." Job's skin for Adam's skin. The son's skin for the father's skin. The later one's skin for the father's skin. Thus, assuredly, is this which he says "for skin" diversely demonstrated and recorded. And he added, saying: "All things that a man possesses he will give, and ransom his soul." This is true, because when a man arrives at danger or crisis, he despises every domestic thing, he scorns his entire substance, only so that he may ransom his soul, that he may liberate his soul unharmed. And now, when you hope that you are speaking against Job, you are speaking for Job, O devil, enemy of all goods, and you do not understand. For Job evidently despised and contemned all things that he had more than most others, both riches, and power, and children, and domestic goods, for this reason only, that he might acquire and gain his soul, that he might keep his soul unharmed, and uncontaminated, and inviolate. By saying this, O devil, you confound yourself, but you show Job's B purpose: "All things that a man possesses he will give, to ransom his soul." For what reason? Because the ransom of a man is his own substance. "All things that a man possesses he will give, to ransom his soul." This Job did, and therefore he preserved his soul inviolate. The blessed martyrs did this; therefore after they despised all corruptible and earthly things, after this they nevertheless delivered their own bodies to punishment and to fire, enduring fire and sword, only so that they might exhibit their souls clean and chaste to God. But in the meantime let us see further after these things what has been well digested. For often even from evil something of good is derived, not because the basest and malignant one so willed it, but because the good and blessed God converts the malice of the malignant one into good for those who fear and love Him, just as Job, or the martyrs and the believers, who, overcoming his wickedness with all tolerance, will receive the inheritance of eternal life and glory before God. So even now in this place, the speech which was maliciously said by the devil: "All things that a man possesses he will give, to ransom his soul," profits those who love God for the memorial of piety. Nevertheless, as we have said, after all these things, let us show the mark of the malignant devil himself from his very words, when we turn the weapons of his iniquity against him. Tell me, O most wicked devil, against you, from the beginning regarding the matter you propose concerning the soul, naming the soul. For what reason, if not for this, because you are already treating of Job's soul maliciously? Because you are craftily seeking his soul? You have not yet received power over his skin, you have not yet tested the constancy of his hide, that is, of his body, and already you are seeking the subversion of his soul? "All things," you say, "that a man possesses he will give for his soul." After this he added, saying: "It is not so, therefore." What do you say, O devil, it is not so? Or for what reason do you say this, "It is not so, therefore"? As if to say: "It is not yet determined, it is not yet deliberated. It is not as Job thinks, that he has already won, that he has perfected and fulfilled everything; he is not yet at the end of pain, but at the beginning. It is not so, therefore, as it was said, that there is none like him on the earth. What has he accomplished at all? What has he endured? What has he supported? And nothing great against the future. When he has endured the latest things, then finally he will be praised, but now it is not so. But stretch out your hand, and touch his flesh and bones, if he will not bless you to your face." Touch, he says, his domestic affairs and children, touch his riches and power; touch, he says, his flesh and bones, if he will not bless, that is, curse, you to your face. "Patience," he says, "should be shown in the pain of the flesh, endurance demonstrated in the tribulation of the bones." "Stretch out your hand," again, O devil, you feign to ask that he might stretch out [the hand], just as above. For truly you desire that it be delivered to you, that the power be given to you. "Stretch out your hand." For what purpose should I stretch it out? "Touch," he says, "his flesh and bones." Afflict, he says, mince, crush, affect with pains, cause to rot his flesh and bones, and all the joints of his nerves, if he will not curse and blaspheme you to your face. Let this, he says, be the evidence of his patience, and firmness, and constancy, so that he may suffer the torments of the bones without number, so that he may endure the pains of the body without complaint, so that he may support the rot of worms without blasphemy. For this reason therefore I say: "It is not so, but stretch out your hand," so that there may be an initiation of this war, and of the struggle and disputation as well, so that Job's perfect constancy may appear, or my speech be truthful. To whom it may be rightly responded: "O enemy of all goods, O devil, your own things did not suffice for you, but you use such cruelty and impiety against this just man? You so desire to perfect your injustice that I should betray the just Job to you, the unjust? That I should deem the innocent as impious? That I, who am without sin, should afflict him with miseries? That I should inflict trouble on him who is devoted? That I should strike him who does not depart? That I should scourge him who does not do wrong? That I should tribulate him who gives thanks? What is more indecorous and illicit than this? Who of those who are carnal would do this at all? Who of those who are from the earth would do this entirely, that he should unjustly betray a well-mannered and devoted servant to punishment?" But in the meantime, so that I might rebuke your iniquity,
A behold, I deliver him to you, that you might be convicted without contradiction and condemned without excuse, and be proven a liar in all things. Behold, I deliver him to you. You sought after his substance and received it; now you seek him himself, you have him. Behold, I deliver him to you. I do not contradict you, O accursed one; I do not deny you, O condemned one; not on account of your malice, he says, but on account of Job’s innocence, so that he might appear righteous, so that he might be proven to be without complaint, so that he might be crowned gloriously, so that he might be shown to be truthful. For these reasons, he says, behold, I deliver him to you entirely. You left him naked, you made him naked, you rendered him alone; I deliver him to you alone, and you shall receive him alone. You did not seek his soul; do not touch his soul. You sought his flesh and his bones; do not touch his soul. Crush only the flesh, afflict the bones; do not touch his soul. I deliver the earth to you; do not approach the heaven. Have the corruption, do not touch the incorruption—that is, the soul. Break the earthen vessel as you will, but do not approach the interior treasure. Do with the earthen pot what you will, but do not touch the pearl of great price. Iniquity has not stained it, B nor has the vilest thought violated it, nor has blasphemy against God perverted it, nor has the reproach of the Creator polluted it. Therefore, do not touch his soul. My creation, he says, is inviolable; my dwelling is uncontaminated; my abode is unpolluted. Therefore do not touch his soul, which was created in the image of God, which is imbued with incorruptible wisdom, which is crowned with word and knowledge, which is clothed in the knowledge of God, which is honored with the corruptible dominion of this world, which has attained a glory a little less than the angels upon the earth. Truly, do not touch this soul, nor approach it, nor communicate with it, nor mix with it, nor make it dull, nor mislead it, nor tire it, nor deceive it. Therefore, by all means take care not to touch his soul. For when you do not touch his soul, nor approach it, never will his innocent soul deny me. Therefore, for all these reasons, take care not to touch his soul. You did not touch, he says, the soul of Joseph in luxury, you did not touch the soul of Abraham in temptation, you did not touch the soul of Noah in the midst of the giants, you did not touch Enoch in the midst of the unjust, you did not touch the soul of Abel, the innocent, in his slaughter. Therefore, because you have touched the soul of none of them, O devil, for that reason they are all immaculate and blessed, and have been perfected in my sight. Therefore, do not touch the soul of Job either, and he too shall be perfected gloriously in my sight. You did not touch, he says, the souls of my martyrs; you did not touch the souls of my wonderful, truth-telling witnesses. Therefore, though all of them succumbed, on account of faith they despised death; therefore, unstained, they mocked the entire punishment of fire C and of the sword, and deservedly are they crowned with unfading crowns in my sight. Do not touch him, he says, the soul of Job. For he will trample your head, and will crush your strength, and will grind down your fortitude, and will humble your loftiness, and will cast down your pride, and will demonstrate to all flesh the confidence to stand against you constantly forever. For you are malignant and invalid, artful and weak, cunning at laying traps, but impossible at oppressing, learned at deceiving, but invalid at resisting. For just as he easily seduces the unstable and the incredulous, since he is most cunning, similarly all the righteous and believing, all those fearing God and imitating Job, easily resist him as being invalid. Therefore, in the arbitrium of men is power, holiness, and constancy. D In the arbitrium of men is the power of faith and piety. For if they should want to turn away from evils and to do good, they are both able and capable, and the wicked one does not prevail over them, if their heart is according to God, if their will is in holiness, if their soul is in truth, if their mind is in faith and piety, if they have admonished themselves unto mercy and compassion, into good works and all things that are performed in the fear of God, and those things which are done according to the will of God. For when the will of men consents to the will of God, then men easily accomplish all things that are good. When men are delighted by those things by which God is delighted, then likewise all things that are worthy of life are at the disposal of men. For Job too was a carnal man, he was earthly, corruptible, such as all men are, but more devout and more diligent concerning alms and good works in faith and the fear of God than all men. Therefore, Job was acceptable to God above all men; therefore, he overcame the most wicked devil more than all men in his time. Thus, therefore, all men who wish can both please God, and resist the devil, and do the will of God, and enter into the kingdom of heaven, and rest in eternal life. Or still according to the history itself. Do not touch his soul, he says, that is, do not cast it out of the body before the time. As if he said: Measure out the pain and the punishment of the body in such a way that you do not compel the soul itself to depart from the body before the time. Therefore, do not mortify the body, so that the soul does not depart before the completion of constancy or the consummation of patience. Thus, therefore, in all ways, both carnal and spiritual, do not touch the soul. After all these things, he says: The devil went out from the face of the Lord. How did he who is unworthy of the presence of the Lord go out from his face? He went out from the face of the Lord just as he also came before the sight of the Lord. Thus he went out, just as it was shown and mentioned above: The devil went out from the face of the Lord. He went out, but not with carnal footsteps, nor with corruptible strides, but with most wicked thoughts, by which he wickedly medi
meditated and thought, while envying and showing jealousy to that innocent and just man. Thus, it was with these thoughts that he came before God, seeking and desiring that Job might be placed in his power. In this way, having received the perfection of his most wicked counsels—that is, the power to afflict the flesh and bones of Job, for he sought exactly what he had meditated upon—he went out from the face of the Lord; that is, he ceased to meditate and think, he who had previously meditated and thought of these things. For at first, wickedly meditating and thinking within himself, he said: "Who would give it to me to be able to come before God, and to find power over the flesh and the bones of Job, so that I might force him to be afflicted according to my mind, to reproach Him whom he now preaches, and to deny Him to whom he now gives thanks?" It was with these thoughts that he had previously come before the Lord. Then, when he had received power over Job, and these thoughts had ceased, after he had finished these meditations and counsels, he is said to have gone out from the face of the Lord. Therefore, since his thoughts went out from the face of the Lord, he himself is deservedly said to go out from the face of the Lord—that is, his discourse, and his thought, and likewise his wicked meditation and unjust desire. He went out from the face of the Lord, that is, he ceased and stopped meditating and thinking after he had received what he sought. For truly, both the justice of the just and the impiety of the impious come before God. For so the angel says to Cornelius: "Thy prayers and thy alms have gone up in memory before God A." So too, the angel once said to Tobias: "When thou didst pray and Sara the daughter of Raguel, I offered the memory of your prayers in the sight of God." Furthermore, concerning the impious, the Lord says: "Now will I remember their iniquities, and will visit their sins." And Jeremiah says to the counsel of the impious: "Hath not the Lord remembered the incense of your idolatries, and did it not come into his heart?" As, therefore, all these things come before God, so the devil is said to have come, and to have gone out from the face of the Lord, not coming in person, but by thoughts and the meditations of his malice, which sometimes came when he was thinking, and sometimes went out when he ceased to think. Thus, demonstrating these things, he says: "The devil went out from the face of the Lord." He went out indeed—that is, he departed, he abandoned, he forgot, he no longer esteemed nor cared, nor remembered that God exists. For he is said to have been before God only as long as he thought about God while accusing Job. After he had received what he wanted and what he sought, immediately abandoning the memory of God, he is justly said to have gone out from the face of God. The devil went out from the face of the Lord; he went out wholly, in sense, and in counsel, and in meditation, and in discourse, and in memory he went out from the face of the Lord. Thus went out in the beginning the first disciple of the adversary, the fruit of the opponent, Cain, once he had killed the just Abel. Thus he went out, as the Scripture says: "Cain went out from the face of the Lord C." Thus, even now, all the persistent and the impenitent, who do not convert to God, who do not confess their penance, who do not seek the face of God, who do not fear the judgment of God, who do not tremble at the punishment of the infernal ones, who are not terrified by the condemnation of Gehenna, go out. Fearing these things, all the just have devoutly prayed to God, saying: "Cast me not away from thy face." And elsewhere: "I will seek thy face, O Lord. Turn not away thy face from me," and many other things similar to these. From all these, therefore, the devil goes out. All who are led and seduced into error by him, and all who do his will, and all who harden their hearts against repentance, all these are cast out from the face of God; all these are expelled into the exterior darkness and the inextinguishable fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels, and for all who do his will. The devil went out from the face of the Lord, carrying away Job, as he thought, killing that just man, as he trusted. For thus also his first disciple, Cain, after he had killed Abel because of envy (as it is said), went out from the face of the Lord. And so the devil, the father and origin of all evils, being a killer in regard to Job himself, went out from the face of the Lord. It is certain that, wickedly and impiously treating within himself, he said to God: "I no longer have need of thy face, because I have received the power over him whom I envied or sought." But God, knowing the firm consummation of Job, consented that he should be tested by the diabolical fire, just as if someone were to hold a diamond in his hand, and another were to say to him: "Give this diamond to me into my power, and I will crush it in the fire and shatter it with blows"; provided he who holds it in his hand, trusting truly that it is a diamond, were to say: "Take it, test it, try it, because you will not prevail against this diamond at all." Thus, therefore, God, the knower and foreknower of all things, as if having a diamond that cannot be broken—Job—gave him into the power of the devil, trusting truly that Job is a true diamond. For so that unique and divine, celestial and incorruptible diamond, the only-begotten God, was sent from the Father to the earth, of whom God the Father says: "Behold, I will place a diamond in the midst of my people"; whom the fire of temptations in the desert did not crush, whom the blows of the impious on the cross did not shatter, whom neither the sepulcher of the tomb, nor the entrance of death, nor the infernal regions violated, but overcoming all things, he proved himself to be a divine and incorruptible diamond. For a diamond, by nature, is such a stone against which neither fire, nor iron, nor anything else prevails. For if it be struck by iron, it is submerged into the iron like lead cast into the fire. If it be cast into the fire, it remains similarly as it was when cast, and is not violated. Therefore, because nothing prevails against it, it is called a diamond. A diamond, indeed, is interpreted from the Greek language as indomitable, inflexible, and uncrushable.
to speak briefly, against whom nothing prevails, neither by striking nor by burning. For one who is struck is not crushed, and one scorched is not worn away. Rightly, therefore, is he called adamant, as being insuperable. And if anyone should say: "Where is he now, or where can a stone of this kind be seen?" hear this: all these things were a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, because they existed and were seen until the coming of the Lord; but after the coming of the Lord, they are not seen. Where is the phoenix now seen? Where is the urn of Adam? Where is the ark of the covenant seen? Where is the urn of manna? Thus, similarly, where is the adamant seen now, or those things which bore the type of the Lord? These things were indeed seen until the coming of the Lord as being figures, and they were hidden thenceforth since the Lord fulfilled the figures themselves. Therefore, neither the ark of the covenant, nor the urn of manna, nor cinnamon, nor the adamant, nor the phoenix are truly seen by men at this time, unless perhaps someone might contend that something similar is simulated, saying that it is what it is not. B Since, therefore, Job was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, God delivered him for a trial like an inviolable adamant; and the devil, receiving power over him, went out from the face of the Lord. The devil went out, that is, as an informer. For he had entered to inform; and having progressed as much as his iniquity allowed in that very informing, and having received power over the one informed against, he went out from the face of the Lord. He went out rejoicing—he who never rejoiced; he went out glad—he who was never glad, as one having Job in his power to punish him according to his iniquity. The devil went out from the face of the Lord; he went out like a rabid wolf, like a roaring lion, like a bear hungering for blood, like a malignant serpent, like a cruel and pernicious viper. The devil went out from the face of the Lord. He went out filled with all iniquity and wrath, and with fury and indignation, and nonetheless with cruelty and all impiety. He went out like a ferocious, cruel, and savage beast. The wretched one went out, planning to afflict Job with punishments in his own most bitter fashion, which he also did immediately without delay. He struck Job with a most grievous stroke from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. C Unable to express and show in any other way the magnitude of the stroke and the wonder of the wound, and the strength of the pain, he said, "He struck Job with a most grievous stroke"—not only a stroke, but a most grievous stroke. It would have sufficed for this alone that it was a stroke, but now he even said it was a most grievous stroke: "He struck Job with a most grievous stroke." Consider also this which he says, "He struck Job." He struck, he says, with fury, with wrath, with indignation. "He struck Job." How did he strike? He struck just as he was preparing, just as he was intending. He struck Job so as to crush his spirit, so as to grind down his soul, so as to afflict his vitals. He struck thus, hoping that a second stroke would weaken all the constancy and fortitude of Job. Thus, therefore, he struck Job with a most grievous stroke—a lamentable, burning, afflicting, blazing, scorching, painful stroke, having in itself every torment: both putrefaction, and worms, and the dividing of the bones, and the fatigue of the nerves, D and the weakening of the limbs, and the anguish and pain of the entire bodily frame. For just as the malignant one spared no member of the body, nor left any unharmed, but filled all with a vehement wound and struck everything with a most grievous stroke, so likewise he left no torment, nor punishment, nor pain that he did not mingle into this stroke. But showing and demonstrating all his power and the evidence of his wickedness in this most grievous stroke, he hoped to perfect here the final glory of patience; thus, indeed, he struck Job with a most grievous stroke, from the feet to the head. A "most grievous" stroke, he says, as being one. And why is one stroke mentioned, as if it were one, and he does not say "strokes" as if they were many? For this reason it is mentioned as one stroke, because it covered the whole body of that just man and all his members with one wound, and turned all into one pain, so that across the whole body and members of that blessed man there would be one pain and one wound. For this reason, therefore, he says "a stroke," because it was one wound throughout the whole body. That there was truly one pain and suffering across his whole body and members, he subsequently shows, saying: "from the feet to the head." "He struck Job with a most grievous stroke from the feet to the head." Just as from the feet to the head, so likewise from the head to the soles of the feet, from the hair of the head to the nails of the toes; he left nothing sound, nor whole, or without pain, but covered everything with one wound and covered all with a most grievous stroke. Most grievous, I say—that is, lamentable, insanable, incurable, in which there was nowhere to apply a poultice, nor medicine, nor aid, nor any oil, nor bandage. In which stroke, all the skill and wisdom of physicians was superfluous and vain. For just as he says that no argument could illuminate the dark and lamentable night of the Egyptians, so no remedies could cure that most grievous stroke of the devil, until the tolerance and long-suffering of Job were fulfilled. Tolerance, for the restoration of (heavenly) crowns; the long-suffering of God, for the approval of justice; but the iniquity of the devil, for the correction of his own wickedness and his damnation, which he exercised upon that just man. "He struck Job," he says, "with a most grievous stroke from the feet to the head." For this stroke was as most grievous as the devil had iniquity. For according to his iniquity, the devil measured this stroke, this wound. He left nothing of torment, nor of bitterness, nor of ferocity, nor of cruelty, nor of impiety, nor of malice, which he did not exercise in the stroke of this lamentable wound. Let us consider, therefore, O friends, the vehemence of this pain according to the vehemence of the devil's iniquity. Let us consider, O men, the diverse torments of that just man, and indeed this also: against how great a torrent of pains the innocent one stood firm. He was consumed by one pain; he was clothed in one complete stroke. For there was made
A for him this stroke as if it were a garment of clothing, as if a garment with which he was dressed, and as if a belt with which he was always girded—not for his condemnation, as for that impious Judas, but for a crown of glory, as fitting for the just Job. Therefore, the entire body and all the limbs of that just man were surrounded by one pain and one wound; whether head or feet, or eyes or ears, or sides or shoulders, down to the very soles of his feet they were weeping from a single wound; he was held by one rotting putrefaction, and he was swarming with the *same* worms. He could not lie down; he was unable to sit; he had no rest; he found no respite; and, what was the greatest of all, beyond all these things he was being killed by hunger and thirst. For he could not lift food or drink to his mouth with his hands. Even if he were able to lift them to his mouth with his hands, he could not receive them with his mouth and lips, which were full of rot and worms. He himself attests to this, saying a little later: "I see my food swarming like the stench of a lion." For since he was swarming excrably with these abominable pains, the wicked one made the stench of this rot [arise]. For, lamenting this, he says: "I see my food swarming like the stench of a lion."
For what reason, O blessed Job? For this reason, he says: because my body is boiling in the rot of worms; for this reason, because I am furrowing the furrows of the earth with the moisture of my wounds from my pains; for this reason, because I am enveloped in pains, and many other similar things. When Job had resisted and fought against such vehement pains, he did not renounce his constancy, he did not cast away his patience, he did not lay aside his faith, he did not forget his thanksgiving: but the more numerous the pains he endured, the more abundantly he added thanksgivings and confessions to the eternal King. For that holy man knew that according to the multitude of his pains, a multitude of crowns was being prepared for him. O blessed Job, how are we to admire you, how are we to praise you, or how are we to magnify you, you who alone before the Gospel endured the perfect passion of those who are under the Gospel, who alone before the martyrs perfected the endurance of the martyrs with thanksgiving? For just as the devil inflicted all tortures and scourges upon the martyrs through the princes of this world: so he similarly brought all punishments and burnings upon Job through himself and his own iniquity, with Job praying against this in all things, just as the martyrs also did, so that he might not be forced to blaspheme the glorious name of God. But that great, adamantine Job remained uncontaminated, according to the multitude and excess of his pains, multiplying and adding thanksgivings. B This is indeed apparent through what follows, for it says: "And Job took a potsherd and scraped his pus." He did not take something soft to wipe it away softly, lightly, gently, and skillfully in order to moderate and relieve it; but he took a hard, rough potsherd to scrape his pus with pain, and not to wipe it away in a flattering and modest manner, soothing and relieving that vehement and C ineffable pain. He took the potsherd to scrape the pus. To which it may be worthily said: Tell me, O blessed Job and beloved of God, for what reason do you do this? Why do you exasperate this pain? Why do you augment? Why do you exaggerate [it] by scraping this lamentable and most savage wound and this stroke with a potsherd, when you ought rather to have attended it, to aid, to lift, to cherish, to anoint, to rub, so that through all these things you might render this most savage pain and terrible stroke milder and gentler? But the just Job, responding, says: "O men, I do not succumb to these pains, nor do I fail from these torments, I am not weakened, nor am I made weary." For these pains are not stronger than the firmness of my soul; these torments are not harder than the hardness of my heart. Deservedly, he says, do I exaggerate and stir up these very pains, so that through everything I may show to the most wicked devil that I mock his malice, that I despise his iniquity, that I hold all his strokes and wounds as nothing. For this reason, therefore, he took the potsherd to scrape his pus. Behold, he says, O most malignant devil, just then when you took away my family and my sons from me, at that final moment D I tore and clipped the garment and the hair of my head that remained and threw them at you—the garment after the family, and the hair after the children. So, he says, even now when you strike me with a most savage stroke, whatever of this pain remained for you, this I surely add, provoking, exaggerating, and exasperating the pains with this potsherd, so that, he says, you may be informed in all things of my constancy, so that you might not think any further, O most wicked devil, that I would detract from my most benign Creator, or ever blaspheme my holy benefactor. For this reason, then, he took the potsherd to scrape his pus. Observe, O men, the very great faith and charity that Job had toward God, and his endurance and constancy as well. For it was for this reason that Job scraped his wounds with a potsherd, not because they did not pain him greatly, but he scraped them with the potsherd for this reason, that he might give us a standard of patience and endurance. For this reason he scraped with the potsherd, that he might demonstrate the figure of the holy martyrs, who, after all the strokes and pains, after all the punishments and torments, were scraped and pierced with claws for the augmentation of all their pains. Thus also the blessed Job, after the excessive pains that were in his body, scraped his wounds outside his body with a potsherd, so that he might hand down a form of patience and endurance in perpetuity to all who fear God: so that all who endure pains and strokes, whether in the body or outside the body, or with detriment and infirmity, might receive from God the remuneration of eternal glory with thanksgiving, and might await the reward of unfading crowns from God. Moreover, that in the history itself the holy martyrs were lacerated and killed is manifest and irrefutable. For after all the tortures, they would shut them in prisons, and strew crushed potsherds under them, and stretching them out to the four parts, they themselves, the impious, would kill them with a cruel death. Thus was perfected the blessed
and glorious Lucianus, A lucid in his life, lucid in his faith, and lucid also in the consummation of his endurance. For this reason Lucianus was so named, as if being lucid—either because he shone for himself with his own light, or because he kindled others. For this blessed man, having been stretched out upon crushed potsherds for twelve days, was perfected on the thirteenth day; and numberless other holy martyrs, passing through death in the same way, were likewise perfected. Bearing the type of all these, Job took a potsherd to scrape the pus from his wounds. "Behold," he says, "O malignant devil, I tread upon you, I deform you and humble you, and I show all your malignity and malice to be contemptible to everyone." He took the potsherd to scrape the pus from his wounds. "A potsherd," he says, "a potsherd to scrape this corruptible and carnal skin, this earthly and rough potsherd." He took the potsherd so that he might scrape the pus from his wounds. "I am," he says, "a type, bearing these pains without sin, of Him who in the last time, descending from the heavens, the Only-Begotten of God, putting on from the Virgin the potsherd of an earthly body, scraped off the pus, the uncleanness, and the putrefaction of the whole world, and cleansed all sins by undergoing them. Afterward, He was led to death for their impieties; by His stripes all are healed and cleansed, He who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth." In all ways, therefore, he says, he took a potsherd to scrape away his pus. And he himself sat upon a heap of ashes outside the city. Not that he wished to desert his dwelling, but he did not allow annoyance to be brought upon those who were in the city and in the houses. "He sat upon a heap of ashes outside the city," he says, "my evils surround me alone, my wounds are a burden to me alone. I will not," he says, "become an object of execration to others, lest I be an abomination to those who are within the city, lest even the citizens of the city be exacerbated on account of my pains." He who had a little before been master, ruler, and governor of cities and mansions sat outside the city. Therefore, he sat outside the city. It is certain that he was pondering many things within himself and saying: "Why should I remain in the city? Why should I sit in houses? Since I have lost my property and my children, and my city and my houses; since I have lost my family and my children, and the crown of the kingdom has been taken from me; since I have lost my property and my children, I have indeed given up my garment and the hair of my head. Now, however, along with my kingdom, I shall also leave behind my city and my home." He sat outside the city alone, bearing that most cruel pain, and it is certain that he was mindful of and imitating Him who alone bore the pain of all outside the city, that is, the Only-Begotten of God, and he consoled himself concerning His future passion, saying: "What great thing do I endure, since I am a man acting for myself, if the Only-Begotten of God is to come to the earth, and since, being Lord, He is to suffer many things for all?" "Brief," he says, "is this my passion, and temporal will be this my pain. For either death will exclude him, or surely health will expel it, or in this way he will approach." And he sat B upon a heap of ashes outside the city, changing one seat for another, and putting off one session for another. For he who a little before sat upon a royal throne, now sits upon a heap of ashes; he who a little before was clothed in a royal diadem and glory, now sits in an abundance of putrefaction; he who a little before was surrounded by countless crowds, now is eaten by a multitude of worms. He sat upon a heap of ashes, judging this seat to be worthy and appropriate for this plague—ashes for worms, putrefaction for putrefaction. "Let putrefaction," he says, "take up putrefaction; let the putrefaction of these ashes take up the putrefaction of this body and of these worms." He sat upon a heap of ashes. Ashes upon ashes, putrefaction upon putrefaction. For since every man is putrefaction, and the son of man is a worm, deservedly he who has been turned into the putrefaction of worms sits in the putrefaction of ashes. "Because all men become putrefaction and worms after the departure of the soul, I," he says, "anticipating this while the soul is still placed in the body, have become this. Therefore, having been made like putrefaction and ashes, I deservedly sit upon ashes, instructing all men that all their earthly glory will be turned into putrefaction, ashes, and worms." He sat upon a heap of ashes. "Attend," he says, "all you sons of men, to how great a misery earthly glory is devolved, to how great a humility earthly sublimity is changed. Deservedly let no one esteem the present, but let him fear the future: let no one seek these things which are seen, but let him sustain those which are not seen. For all the glory of man is as grass, and all the splendor of corruptible things is as the herbs of the field, and all species of earthly things are like the falling flower. What is more beautiful than the sun? Yet it will set. What is pleasanter than the flowers of the field? And they too will wither similarly. What is more glorious than human glory and form? And when they have withered at the departure of the soul, what is more abominable and execrable? And what is more humble than those who are changed into ashes, and worms, and putrefaction? Concerning me," he says, "O men, and concerning my transformation, be informed in all these things. What sort of man did you see me a little while ago, and what sort do you discern me to be now? What sort of man did you magnify a little while ago, and what sort do you discern me to be now? Where are those many who C surrounded me? For the sake of all of whom," he says, "a multitude of worms and putrefaction now surround me." Thus, the admirable Job, speaking these things and things like them to all who approached him, evidently bore witness to the future transformation for everyone. And he himself sat upon a heap of ashes, taking more pleasure in the worms and putrefaction themselves than he once did in the glory of the kingdom and the multitude of the peoples surrounding him. For after all these things which are glorious, the death of the flesh awaits the end of them all; and after all putrefaction and worms, it awaits the resurrection of the flesh; but the resurrection from the dead is the end of the putrefaction of death and of the worms. For all these things, therefore D
A sat upon the heap of ashes outside the city, showing all things that are human, corruptible, and earthly, just as has been demonstrated above.
After all these things, it says: "And after much time had passed, his wife said to him." Many have understood and spoken differently concerning this time which is mentioned here, some perceiving it to have been a short time, while others nevertheless assert that it was a very long time, as if to show it as a type of the Lord's preaching—three years and a half—and also to show the time of this passion, just as they do in other matters. Therefore, let those of the listeners who wish, perceive it in that way. But we, agreeing with Scripture, let us understand, and as we understand, so let us assert, saying and asking this first: Why would the blessed God have allowed that just man to be afflicted for a longer time, when a very short time would suffice to overcome the wickedest devil? For God did not take pleasure in Job being tortured; rather, this was so that the devil might be convicted, and the blessed Job might be proven just. God therefore expected nothing else but this alone: when the devil would complete all his iniquity, and when Job would fulfill all his patience, so that the devil might be convicted without excuse, and Job might truly appear just. This, indeed, was not accomplished in a long space of years, but in a very short time of months, beyond refutation. For Job himself is proven to be a witness B to this fact, saying: "I have endured months of emptiness," not years, but months. For just as Job did not keep silent about months, so he would have remained silent much less about years, if he had endured for years. But now, because he did not endure for years, but for months, he rightly does not mention years, but names months, saying: "I have endured months of emptiness."
Therefore, those who argue that Job’s passion lasted three years and a half should have said three months and a half, so that they might at least in part not resist the truth and might make that conform to the Lord's example. For the Lord preached for three years and a half, from His baptism until His passion. Thus, the history itself does not signify three years, but a short time of months. First, indeed, through that which happened when the evil one brought his plagues upon him. For always, while the first one was still speaking, another messenger would arrive. Then, immediately without delay, the most savage and terrible plague struck him. Then, soon after, he seduced him through his wife, then consequently rebuked him in turn through his friends, C all of which he completed in a few months. Immediately subsequently, the Lord spoke to him, demonstrating him to be a just man, and testifying of him as a holy man to all, both to those who were then present and to those who will be until eternity. For these things could have been completed within a few months. For it was not just, nor did it embrace the goodness of God, that the just man Job should suffer that lamentable passion for many years. Therefore, it can be demonstrated in all ways that these things were all fulfilled not in many years, but in a few months. How
could the flesh of Job or his limbs have been eaten by worms and rot for three years and a half? How could his flesh and bones have endured, had they been vexed by the most bitter pain for three years and a half? A In which most bitter punishment all the fury and indignation of the malignant devil is demonstrated. For after the approbation of all these things, he says: *And after much time had passed.* And a month is time, and two or three months is a very long time; therefore he does not say "after many years," but "after much time," he says. For indeed, since people frequently send someone to a neighbor, if he who is sent is slow-footed, they are accustomed to murmur saying: "What have you been doing for such a long time?" If, therefore, a single day is called a long time, much more may the time of months be called a long and very great time. For this reason, then, he says "after much time had passed." For this time is recorded as "the most" [or "much"], not only because it was the most in length of time or in the prolixity of the span, but the time is said to be and is estimated as "the most" especially on account of the most extreme pain, the most extreme wounding, the most bitter punishment. After much time had passed, [it is said] on account of the excess of the blows, on account of the moisture liquefying the body and the limbs, on account of the numberless worms devouring the nerves and bones. On account of all these great and many, heavy and terrible things being present, this time is recorded as "the most." B After much time had passed, when Job did not succumb, nor was weakened, nor grew weary, nor failed, but remained in the same acts of thanksgiving and confessions—for whence he began, there he also persevered, in acts of thanksgiving and in blessings: "May the name of the Lord be blessed forever," he says—when Job persevered in these things, the most wicked devil was struck dumb, was terrified, despaired, and consuming himself said: "Where is my presumption? Where is my boldness? Where is my labor? I exercised every solicitude, and in Job I achieved nothing; I showed all my arguments, and I did not cast down the fortitude of Job; I emptied all the arrows of my most wicked quiver, and I did not wound the soul of Job. I lost his children," he says, "and I did not cause his mind to swerve from God. I exterminated his material wealth, but I did not extinguish the love which he holds for the Lord God. I consumed his flesh and bones with worms and rot, but I did not violate the faith and sincerity of his soul. What therefore shall I do to him still that I have not done? What more shall I exercise in him that I have not exercised? Therefore, since through all the tortures and torments I could not force him to abandon God, I shall betake myself," he says, "to seduction; I shall betake myself to persuasion. Perhaps, then, what the force of punishment could not do, this will perform with less C effort: the seduction of persuasion. I shall have recourse to my ancient weapons, through which I supplanted the seduced Adam. There, clothing myself in the serpent, I spoke to Eve; then through Eve I spoke and seduced Adam. Job also has a wife, and clothing myself in her, I shall subtly seduce him through her and fraudulently persuade him." When the most wicked one was thinking these things over to himself and meditating upon them, the wife immediately hastened to open her mouth to persuade him. The Scripture shows this by saying: *And after much time had passed, his wife said to him.* After much time had passed, when Job persevered and was not changed, when Job was strengthened in faith and confirmed in truth, was grounded in piety and established in justice, was instructed in charity and remained devoted and solicitous in acts of thanksgiving—when Job persevered in such harmony, his wife said to him. And in truth, it was not the wife who spoke, but the devil who spoke through her mouth, who is accustomed to speak frequently to men through the mouths of women, who has often been wont to subvert men through the mouths of their spouses and to incite them to evils and teach them wickedness: rapine, calumny, violence, greed, the coveting of what belongs to others, and hatred toward neighbors. For they frequently kindle envy among men, just as they have quarreled with one another on account of their own wickedness. Immediately, those unhappy women strive to stir up hatreds and contentions D among men toward one another. Although they were peaceful and of one mind, and it behooved them to stand concordant with their adversaries (whether those who are within or those who are without) and to defend one another and help one another, these, surely, are compelled on account of the wickedness of their wives to rise up against one another and to hold one another in hatred, so that they may satisfy the malice of their iniquitous wives. For the devil frequently speaks these things to men through the mouths of their spouses; frequently he says to men through the mouths of their spouses: "You went out, and brought nothing in. You came from the road, and entered the house with empty hands. Others go out and return bringing something; others set out and are led back with gains." You, however, are worse than the rest; you are weaker than other men, more useless than all, and many other things which impious women are accustomed to say to their men, forcing them to evils and selling—or rather, destroying—the souls of their men for a small gain; for whom it is not a care whence their men acquire things, whether from rapine or from plunder, whether from violence or from theft, so long as they amass and bring them to them. These truly are the subversions of men. These are the destructions of men, through whose mouths the devil speaks to many; after whose words very many have been changed and have been rendered miserable—and are being rendered so—both on earth and in heaven, and among the ones above, and among the ones below. Thus spoke Jezebel, and she destroyed Ahab. Thus spoke Herodias, and she killed Herod, the brother of Philip. Thus spoke many who have brought evils upon many. Thus, indeed, to Job
A Job his wife began to speak, and the devil through her mouth, just as he has spoken and still speaks through others to others. But those who fear God, mindful of the dread punishments of eternal judgment, do not heed these rational [arguments], just as Job did not heed her. But why does Job rebuke his wife as though she were serving the most wicked serpent, the devil? For this is a great rebuke and chiding. First, he rebukes and scolds her for this reason: that all the living may know that God is no respecter of persons, and that He neither overlooks, nor remains silent regarding the faults and ignorances of His own, whether great or small, neither in word nor in deed. For this reason He once reproved Sarah, when she laughed and disdained His promise. For this reason he now, in this place, also argues with and rebukes Job's wife, so that all women might take heed lest the devil subvert the hearts of any of them, lest Satan open their mouths, lest an evil spirit speak through their lips, lest they serve the devil for the subversion of the souls of their husbands. And he rebukes Job’s wife, who served the devil for his subversion, to this end: that we might know the very great and manifold malice and craftiness of the devil. For he lays snares in all things; he strives to subvert all things, [acting] through friends, through companions, and through wives. These things were fulfilled in Job, whom his friends rebuked, while his wife sought to subvert him. The later prophets, mindful of these, indeed said: "Do not trust in friends, and do not take counsel with friends or brothers; keep watch [against] the wife of your bosom." Therefore, accusing and rebuking his wife for all these things, Job spoke. B Now his wife spoke, being mindless, changeable, and unstable—whom the devil's waves easily subverted, into whose soul the allurements of the most wicked one easily crept. This, then, his wife said to him, whom the most wicked devil had willed to leave alone from among all others, so that he might use her as a final means for Job's seduction and the subversion of his soul. For whether God commanded her to be preserved—as indeed He commanded—so that that just man Job might not have the task of taking a second wife; or whether the devil himself kept her, contriving to have her as a minister of his own iniquity, so that he might have her as a final snare for Job, so that after Job had despaired of all things, he might then destroy the justified man through his wife, as he himself, miserable wretch, supposed, estimated, and hoped. For his eyes consider from afar; his iniquity, looking forth from afar, surrounds him; he catches all snares, [thinking] how he might enter in, how he might cast down, how he might subvert through the familiarity of Adam. For this reason, therefore, he preserved and left Job's wife, just as he left those messengers who said: "I alone have remained to tell you." For this reason alone he left them, so that they might subsequently recount his sorrows. Demonstrating this, he says: "His wife said to him." He says that his wife spoke, but in truth the devil spoke. For so he also said of old: "The serpent said to the woman." He said that the serpent spoke, but it was not the serpent [that] spoke, but the devil who spoke through the serpent. So, too, now in this place, he says his wife spoke, but in truth it was not his wife who spoke, but the adversary who spoke through his wife. His wife said to him: "How long do you endure? What still remains? What do we suspect? What do we judge?" With what countenance, O man, or with what face did Job's wife speak to him? It is manifest and evident to all that she did not speak with a cheerful countenance, nor with a joyful look, but with a sad, damp, cloudy, weeping one, and none the less filled with every misery: and with a tearful voice mixed with lamentation. And so, the wicked and cunning devil, showing himself miserable and opening his mouth, says to Job: "How long do you endure?" O most wicked Satan, how cunningly you seduce, how craftily you speak, O most cunning devil. "How long," he says, "do you endure? How long do you suffer? How long do you delay? How long do you constantly persist?" "How long," he says, "will you be more robust than stones and harder than rocks, and firmer than any iron? When iron is cast into the fire, it melts, but you, placed in the fire of putrefaction and worms, do not melt in your soul? How long do you endure? How long," he says, "are you not bent, how long do you not fail, how long are you not weakened?" As if he were to say: "I fail, O Job, and you do not fail; C I am weary, and you are not weary. All arguments have failed me, but from you devotion and patience do not fail. How long do you endure? How long are you scourged? How long are you tortured by me and endure all things, and sustain all things, and not only torments and punishments, but also seductions and the subtleties of words, you sustain all things, you suffer all things, but by no means are you bent? How long," he says, "do you endure, O Job?" He who was enduring, who was being tortured, was not weakened, nor was he dismayed in his endurance: but his torturer, the devil, exhausted and failing, says: "How long do you endure?" Job, who was being tortured, does not say, "How long shall I endure? How long shall I be tortured?" But the devil, who was not enduring sorrows, but confusion, said to him who was patient and enduring: "How long do you endure?" Job, who was enduring, was not succumbing: but the devil, who was not enduring, was failing. For this [question] that he says, "How long do you endure?" does not demonstrate the strength of the one enduring, but shows the failure of the one striking. The one who beats D complains, and the one who is beaten does not complain. "How long," he says, "do you endure? Your flesh, O Job, has melted away," he says, "your bones and nerves are consumed, the very earth beneath you has rotted, and yet do you still endure, O Job? You have become a discourse of tongues, and talk of travelers, and a messenger of those passing by, and a spectacle to those who are far away, and a turning away for those who are near, and yet do you still endure, O Job? Nights and days and months have passed in your sorrows, do you still endure? I have failed," he says, "even I, standing by you, keeping watch and hoping that in some way, failing, you might blaspheme, or in some way, succumbing, you might slander: and you did not fail, nor did you succumb, but you still endure...
O Job? Have riches vanished? Have sons vanished? Have your flesh rotted away, your sinews dissolved, and your bones been reduced to dunghills, with the earth mixed into your fevered body, and you still endure? That status which mortals attain in the sepulcher after death—rot and worms and mingling with the earth—this, evidently, you appear to have attained while still alive, and yet above all this you still endure, O Job? Can you be suffering a passion of such a kind that no one before you endured it, nor will anyone else after you endure it to eternity? How long, he says, will you endure? Weakened, now rest, so that you may also allow me to rest from the war and the struggle and the conflict that I have around you. But to all these things he answered in one word, saying: If you ask me, O enemy, how long I shall endure, listen. As long as you strike, so long I endure; as long as you torture, so long I suffer; as long as you lash, so long I wait; as long as the malice you hold against me has not failed, so long the tolerance I have toward you will not fail. B You have deceived yourself, he says, O devil, when you think that you found Adam unguarded, and did not know that you had Job as one who is constant against this. But let us return to the previous thought and discourse. How long, he says, do you endure? Then, as if making a summary of his thoughts and hopes, and responding, he adds, saying: *Behold, I wait still for a little time, hoping for the hope of my salvation.* It is as if he were saying: As long as you endure, managing this and thinking this, and have this hope that you still endure for a little time, waiting for salvation and deliverance and rest, you are deceiving yourself, O Job. For you are not caught in such a way that by enduring for a little time you might escape. Such evils do not surround you, O man, he says, that when you have borne these for a little time, you could hope for salvation: but by enduring, he says, you will endure, and suffering you will suffer, and there will be no end of your passion and your pain. For why do you not do quickly that which you are about to do in the end, when you have suffered and endured many things, so that you might blaspheme, so that at least by fleeing you might rest from even one of these pains? Thus, while the most wicked devil spoke all these things and more, even if not in more evident words, nevertheless, through hidden thoughts, he spoke to Job, wishing subtly to seduce the inviolable servant of God. Above all these things, he adds, saying: *For behold, your memory has been exterminated from the earth.* What do you wait for? What do you endure? What do you hope? What time of salvation do you wait for? Your memory has been exterminated from the earth. For it has been exterminated, taken away, finished. You seem, he says, to have been cast out, and you are reckoned by all as if you were not. For all have forsaken you, all have departed, everyone has forgotten, all have despaired of you, both those who are near and those who are far away, because your memory has been deleted from the earth. How many, he says, A have been great from the age, and for the most part their memory remains, either in words, or in deeds, or in children: but your entire memory has been suddenly exterminated from the earth; there is, he says, no word after you, nor son, nor daughter, nor deed by which your passing memory could stand. Therefore, because nothing of these has remained in memory after you, for that reason your memory has been exterminated from the earth. Not only been obliterated or taken away, but exterminated, as if washed away and wiped out, as if there is no longer anyone else to whom it could worthily be answered: *The just man will be in eternal memory, and the memory of the just man with praise.* Next, the devil, hiding and covering his iniquity, turns this speech to the person of the wife: and speaking as if from her person, he says: Your sons, whom you taught faith, whom you adorned with piety, whom you instructed to have mutual charity toward all: your sons for whom you were solicitous in your heart and thought in your mind and offered singular sacrifices, concerning whom you said to yourself: *Lest perhaps my sons have thought evil things in their hearts against God.* These, therefore, are the sons whom you hoped would be your heirs, from whom you expected to receive burial, through whom you believed your name and memory would remain after you. These, therefore, are the sons than whom there is nothing sweeter among men, than whom there is nothing dearer among the carnal. These are your sons, whose vision you shall not wait for any longer, whose face you shall not see further, whose return you do not hope for any longer. For they did not go forth on a terrestrial journey, that you might again hope for their return, nor did they travel sailing in ships to foreign provinces, so that you might receive them returning after a time, and be able to see them. The earth suddenly covered them, and death destroyed them all together; the ruin of the house made a common sepulcher for them all. These, he says, are your sons, and not only sons but also daughters. For if only the sons had perished, but the daughters had survived, the misery would have been diminished, and the unspeakable pain diminished. For you would expect the prosperity of the daughters for heirs, you would consider the progeny of the daughters for consolation, the children of your daughters would restore to you the destruction of your sons. But now, both your sons and your daughters have all perished together, all were deleted under one hour, all were submerged at one time in death as in an abyss: all were swallowed up in one house as in a ship from the abyss of the earth: and just as for those who have been submerged in the abyss, there is no hope of ascent or salvation further, so of your sons, he says, and daughters submerged in the lamentable depth from the dead, there is no hope of return or reparation any longer, that they might celebrate the day of your memory, that they might spend a time of your remembrance. Thus, I say, your sons and daughters perished before the time, all were snatched away by death before the time, so that they did not leave behind progeny, so that when grandsons do not survive, grandfathers are mentioned by no one. But do not think, O Job, that I assign these sons only to you, but I assign them rather to me, and I assign them more to me.
I am angry, she says, for my uterus is full of groaning and sorrows, which were carried in vain; I have received no reward for my labors from them; I have no compensation from them. My uterus, she says, is full of groanings and sorrows, and they, nourished by me with groaning and sorrow, have left me wretched and solitary; they have abandoned me in sorrows and groanings. With sorrows, she says, and groaning I gave birth, suffering pains and dangers on the day of their birth; with sorrow and groanings I nurtured them, having compassion on their infancy and infirmity, groaning together with their languishings and their cries. For when they groaned, I groaned together with them; when they were infirm, I took upon myself their infirmity and their pain. Who, she says, of those who beget children, O Job, is ignorant of the pain of children? Who of those who produce offspring does not know the love and affection for children? For parents willingly take upon themselves every pain and infirmity of their offspring, only so that nothing troublesome might befall them. I devotedly expended this, beyond all other gifts, on the sons and daughters begotten of me, A with the sorrows and groanings of my uterus. But although I have suffered and endured all these things, I have waited in vain for nothing, since I was unable to provide them with a proper burial, from those whom I hoped would provide me with an honorable burial. After all these things, nothing, she says, would I have said, nothing would I have complained of, if I did not see you, O Job, infirm, if I had found you whole: but all the things which I endured while you were whole would have been light to me. For just as I would not have been mindful of the loss of worldly goods if I had not lost my children, so likewise I would not have remembered either my goods or my children, if I had congratulated you on being whole. But now you yourself, Job, sit in the corruption of worms, passing the night and keeping vigil, while your vehement pain and your miserable passion, taking away your rest and procuring for you vigils, makes your sorrows more bitter. You yourself, she says, sit in the corruption of worms. For that which all become after death, you alone have become before death. For that which all who die become in the tomb, you alone have clearly become B in the murana. Why do you glory in a multitude of justifications? But you, sitting in the corruption of worms, passing the night and keeping vigil, have many who stir you up—the worms. For not even that cock which later will call to Peter will be able to rouse him as the worms rouse you, which devour your flesh. Not even those many plagues stirred up the Egyptians as much as the manifold corruption stirs you. After all these things, and I, she says, like a wanderer, and in the habit of a maidservant, walking from place to place and from house to house for the sake of work, waiting for the sun to set so that I might have rest from the labors and groanings which now have seized me. O the malignity of the adversary, O the craftiness of the devil, O the deception of the most wicked one, how blandly he speaks, how cunningly he deceives, how miserably he speaks, that he might provoke the senses, that he might wear down the mind, that he might exaggerate the soul, that he might perturb the breast, that he might change the conscience, that by wearying and fatiguing, and by making one weak and despairing, he might provoke and convert him to blasphemy. For he who has suffered some pain, when he has consumed his pain, is provoked more by the admonition of words than by insults: and reproaches seem lesser and milder than when they are provoked by words, and admonished by speeches, and by the subtlety of words the soul of the sufferer is ulcerated. The most wicked devil, knowing this, speaking craftily and cunningly through the mouth of the wife, reminded him from the beginning of all his sorrows. When you hear the name of the wife, do not think that this wife has spoken, but through the mouth of the wife, the most malignant one—who even sowed impious thoughts in her soul—spoke, utilizing her as a servant. Notice how he enumerates all those very sorrows, how he reminds him of all of them. How long will you endure poverty, C want, nakedness, deformity, insults, curses? Then your sons and daughters have perished, they have died, they have been cut off, they have been destroyed. Yet you sit in the corruption of worms, to all detestable, to all abominable, to all loathsome to see, to approach and to hear, and to manage the very corruption that is hateful to all. Then after all these things: And I, she says, like a wanderer, and in the habit of a maidservant, going around from place to place and from house to house, and so on: than which he could speak nothing more subtle or more crafty for subversion. After all these things, as a conclusion to everything, after he thought his heart was perturbed and provoked and stirred up against God, he said in supplementation of all: Say some word against the Lord and die. For he was leading and drawing him to this, and for this the most malignant devil flagellated him while he was saying all these things. For when he could not succeed through pains, he strove and thought that he would subvert him through seduction. But there was truly fulfilled what was said after this: The firm foundation of God shall stand. There was indeed fulfilled that parable, which was told by the Lord about that firm house, which was founded and built upon the rock, which all the winds and waters, and D all the impulses of the devil could not move. Such indeed was the admirable Job, whom no torture of the devil compelled to abandon God: whom all the arguments of the adversary did not seduce, that he should depart from the Creator. But let us still make mention of this word as if from the person of the wife: And I, she says, as a wanderer and in the habit of a maidservant. And I carry your evils with you, she says, I sustain your sorrows with you, I suffer your miseries with you, and I, she says, cannot depart, I do not endure to abandon you. And I as a wanderer and in the habit of a maidservant. A wanderer as if a stranger, lurking, miserable, solitary, unhappy, needy. And I a wanderer, as if a stray, like one of the roads and exits, and of the whole city, ignorant of passage. For within the pal...
Aatia it was reared, and living in the kingdom, and dwelling in principality and opulence, I was ignorant of all things outside. Because of this, she says, I go about as a wanderer, and I err, as one ignorant of all things, both of roads and journeys and ways and conversations; and not only a wanderer, but in the guise of a handmaid as if a hireling, and needy of others, as one unhappy and entirely destitute. In the guise of a handmaid, as one working and laboring and doing a hireling's task; and supplicating to all, and humble to all, as one subject to all, and thus as a wanderer, she says, and in the guise of a handmaid. Countless servants and countless handmaids once served me and ministered to me and brought to me and gave me rest, and from all sides they worshipped me with reverence: but now I have been devolved to such unhappiness, I have arrived at such misery, that I myself, a wanderer, have served others, needy of all, subject to all. I, who, she says, once from your and my labors and resources satisfied, clothed, benefited, gave rest to, and refreshed an immense number of the needy and poor, and also the unhappy, and the naked, and the thirsty—I, she says, have arrived at such pains and miseries and unhappiness, that, wandering about like a stray, I serve others because of need, that I might, she says, O Job, acquire daily food as a hireling for you, that I might find daily sustenance for you. Because of this, she says, as a wanderer and in the guise of a handmaid, I go about from place to place, and from house to house, wherever I might beg, and ply the beggar, and seek, or even exact as a hireling, from place to place, from house to house I go about. Somewhere, she says, I am received, but somewhere I am not received; somewhere it is brought to me, but somewhere it is not. Somewhere I am honored, but somewhere I am nonetheless execrated. For besides the fact that they do not receive me, they even execrate, shun, and abhor our unhappiness, each one fearing for himself, and, as if from an omen, shunning my approach and entry out of fear, lest by chance they be touched by our misery. Because of this, she says, O Job, I go about from place to place and from house to house. I, she says, who once never went outside, who never looked outside, now indeed, wandering from place to place and from house to house, I am seen by all, I am looked upon by all, and by the bad and by the good, and by the known and by the unknown. For, she says, those who once neither saw me nor could see me, these now see me as a wanderer going about with ignominy, and they look upon me with contempt. Because of this, she says, I go about from place to place and from house to house for the sake of work, and waiting for when the sun may set, that I might have rest from the labors and groans which now have seized me: which now have occupied me both for your passion and for my wandering, both for your labors and also for my tribulations, waiting for when the sun may set. For what cause? Because of this, she says, that I might have rest from labors and tribulations of my own. For when the sun, she says, shall have set, night approaches, and darkness arises, and sleep comes upon one, which mitigates all pains, which calms every wound, which lulls every sadness to sleep. Because of this, therefore, she says, as though awaiting rest and the deposition of all tribulations, I watch for when the sun may set, that I might at least, even in the brief time of night, find rest from the tribulations which have now seized me. For just as place renders me to place, and house to house, a seeker of alms and charity and wandering humanity going about, so likewise day delivers me to day and night to night, seeking rest from tribulations and consolation for pains, waiting for when the sun may set, that I might have rest from the tribulations which have now seized me. For the setting of the sun imposes an end upon all human labors and fatigues; the setting of the sun provides rest to all human natures, both for the poor and for those who have nothing, and for servants and free men, and all await the evening and the setting of the sun as liberty and indulgence and rest. With all of whom, she says, I also await when the sun may set, that I might have rest from the tribulations which have now seized me. Some have wished to say these things otherwise, as if she could not go through the houses by day out of shame and confusion and receive alms, because of the onlookers and those who shun her on account of a bad omen, lest they should run into her, or receive her into the house, fearing lest they too might suffer the same things to whom she had approached or whom she had drawn near. Because of this, therefore, she says, waiting for when the sun may set, that in the darkness of the night I might find rest. But truly the superior interpretation is the true and irrefutable one. But after these things, let us turn all these words to him whose words these also were, that is, to the devil. For he boasts that he goes about from place to place and from house to house, to seduce, to perturb, to mix, to deceive, to teach all things that are contrary, and waits for when the sun may set, that he might have rest from labors and tribulations. For where the Sun of justice has not set, where the light of truth has not shone, where there is the obscurity of unhappiness and error and impiety, there the malignant one rests, there the iniquitous one lays aside all his own labor. Therefore he circles from place to place, and from house to house, as an aerial spirit penetrating and flying through all things, and looking around at all things, and everywhere inquiring into all things, wherever he might make the wickedness of his malice rest. That it is even so, the Lord Himself demonstrating in the Gospels says: When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it goes about seeking rest. So likewise also here it circles from place to place, and from house to house, wherever it might find the setting sun and darkness and obscurity and night, vices, and adulteries and persistence, that there it might complete the resting of all his iniquity, and all his labor. For thus the head of such things rests so that he may no longer have to labor to seduce them. For his own...
A indeed he has, and in them he rests. Therefore the devil himself truly said: “I have gone about the whole earth, and have walked through the things that are under heaven.” He himself, even now, has said that he went around from place to place, and from house to house. The same one even now, going about, seeks rest. But when the devil has completed all his malice, and has displayed all his iniquity, he shows in the end what he had thought, what he had sought, and what he had desired, saying: “Say some word to the Lord and die.” O your iniquity and malice, your deceit and craftiness, O devil, how much you have traversed, and how much you have gone about, and how much you have entwined with your speeches and cunning discourses, when you remind him of sorrows, plagues, worms, rottenness, of children, and of the wandering of his wife. And after he thinks he has taken him through all these things, and has turned him after himself, nevertheless, after all these things, he shows him, as it were, grace and sincerity, and as though he solicitously offers him counsel, he says: “Say some word to the Lord and die.” Better, he says, is death, O Job, than a bitter life, and eternal rest than persevering infirmity. Therefore say some word to the Lord and die, so that you may finish this empty life, that you may leave these bitter torments, that you may pass over from these more vehe- B ment sorrows. For this reason therefore, say some word to the Lord and die. Say some word that might irritate, that might exacerbate, that might exasperate. Say some word to the Lord. Accuse Him of injustice, criminate, mock Him for malice, reproach Him for impiety. Say some word that might deny Him, and His providence and provision, His foreknowledge also, and His virtue and greatness. So therefore, say some word to the Lord and die. For if you say anything of this sort, you will die immediately, you will immediately be rendered secure and removed from all present labors, you will immediately, he says, suffer no confusion, nor will you hear reproaches, nor will you suffer pain, nor will you endure punishment, but putting down all things immediately, you will rest among the dead. Say, he says, some word to the Lord, and die. This, he says, I expect, this I sustain, this I desire, this I seek, that you might say some word to the Lord and die. For this reason, he says, for a very long time I have watched for you, observing and sitting upon the watchtowers, when you would succumb, when you would be bent, when you would fail, when, wearied in these sorrows and exhausted in these very torments, you would be bent to the reproach of the Creator, and would turn yourself to blasphemy against the deeds of God. When I, he says, have finished and accomplished all these things, grant me one word, hear me for one word, say one word to the Lord, and die. For that which you are about to say in a little while, O Job, “I have endured vacant months and nights of sorrows”: this, he says, I am already from this time sustaining, having passed through vacant months because of your C mutable passion and the nights of sorrows passing because of your soul which does not succumb in sorrows. For these sorrows do not afflict you, O Job, as your tolerance kills me. For all these things, therefore, say some word to the Lord, and die. But say such a word that it may immediately procure death for you, but well did he who said later: “Many waters shall not quench charity, and rivers shall not drown it.” For all the rivers and all the impetus and all the inundation of the malignant one and the malice of the devil, could not quench or drown Job’s pure charity which he had toward the Lord God. An indication of this matter and of those things which were said long ago, and those which are subsequently brought forward, demonstrate it. For soon here in the following he says: “But he, looking at her, says: Why did you speak as one of the foolish women?” But he, looking at her. He. Who? Job himself looked at her who was looking toward God before, who was formerly contemplating the Lord, who formerly sincerely intended toward eternal incorruption. He therefore looked. That same unmovable, undeclinable, unsubvertible, unseductible one. He who was not circumvented, he who was not abstracted from God. He looked at her. At what her? At his wife, at the snares, at the trap, at the subversion, at the ruin. For she who should have been a wife, and a counselor and advocate of all goods, became to him snares, nets, and fraud, and a counselor or patron of all impiety, although the just Job did not hear her. But in the meantime, when she made herself a minister to the malignant one, and as much as she studied to circumvent and supplant the blessed Job, that just man, looking at her, deservedly looked first at him who spoke in her, that is, at the devil: he understood that first enemy who through her mouth was setting snares, and meeting his malice he resisted, and through her who spoke to him, he refuted and rejected the devil’s iniquity. Showing which, Scripture says: “But he looked at her with a troubled look, with a changed face, with a threatening speech, with a perturbed countenance.” But he, looking at her, with anger and fury, with indignation and contempt. For he knew that these were the seeds of the malignant one, because this had been the seed of the cursed one, because that had been the fruit of the unjust one, because this agitation had belonged to a most wicked one. Therefore, looking at her, he indeed looked, but he spoke to the devil, he spoke to the devil. Why, he says, O devil, enemy of justice and adversary of all goods, why do you hope in vain? Why do you think foolishly? Why do you humble yourself, who have been humbled, when you think that you have found an Adam, not knowing that you have a case against Job? Nor did this recall you, that the Lord, the foreknower of all things, said: “There is no one like him on earth”? Nor did this recall you, that all your iniquity now
A rising against me, has rendered you confused in all things, changed, and convicted in everything? After all these things, just as you once sent to Adam, so too have you sent to me, your husband, hoping, unhappy woman, that because you did not accomplish through those torments what you had intended, you might nonetheless accomplish it through words of seduction, deceiving and circumventing yourself. For you have found the model of Eve, yet you have not found the ruin of the man; rather, you have encountered Him who will avenge upon you the fraud against Adam. You have risen up against Him who bears the likeness of the One who, coming in the final time, shall trample upon your head, shall crush your strength, shall confound your fortitude, shall humble your height, and shall cast down your pride; He shall avenge Adam’s former subversion by stirring up the ruin of that life, and by casting down your pride.
All these things, therefore, and more than these, he spoke regarding the person of his wife, to that devil, rebuking him and bringing him to shame. For just as the devil seduced him through his wife, so he, in turn, put the devil to shame and refuted him through her. Yet he also said to his wife herself: “Why have you spoken as one of the foolish women?” Why, he asks, did you seize and undertake such great foolishness? Why have you made yourself a vessel of the devil? Why have you prepared yourself as a dwelling-place for the evil one? Why did the devil speak through your mouth, first stupefying your mind and the intellect of your soul? You were worthy of such great curse and denunciation, o woman, and also of such indignation and deformity, for having persuaded me to blaspheme and reproach, and to accuse God, and through that very blasphemy you strove to bring death upon me: there is nothing more wretched, more wicked, more illicit, and more imprudent than this, namely, the blasphemy of God and self-inflicted death. “Why have you spoken as one of the foolish women?” Why, he asks, did you not remember my teaching, o woman? Why have you forgotten my commands, o female? Was it from me that you heard that the Creator should be blasphemed? Was it from me that you heard that God should be criminated? I recognize your voice, he says, o woman, just as Isaac once did Jacob’s, but I do not recognize your seduction, and I do not accept your teaching. For I have recognized that this is the deadly poison of the most wicked adversary. “Why have you spoken as one of the foolish women?” You have not hesitated to criminate Him from whom you received sense and wisdom. You have not feared to blaspheme Him from whom you received prudence and intellect. “Why have you spoken as one of the foolish women?” Very many women, he says, have shown themselves foolish throughout the ages, and numberless women have been shown to be irrational from the beginning—some less, others more, some carnally, others spiritually. Foolish was Rachel when she said to Jacob: “Give me children.” For this was not in Jacob’s power, but in God’s B power and operation. But more foolish was that obscene Egyptian harlot, who, having engaged in the greatest impiety, said to that most chaste and righteous Joseph: “Lie with me.” Foolish was the wife of Tobias, who unjustly says to Tobias: “Where are your righteousnesses and your alms? Behold, what you have suffered is known to all.” But more foolish than she was that accursed and unclean and wanton Delilah, who, secretly seducing Samson, who loved her purely, handed him over without mercy to derision and to death. Indeed, numberless other foolish women can be shown from Scripture, all of whom Job, pinning them down with one word, now says: “Why have you spoken as one of the foolish women?” “Of the foolish,” he says, “useless, stupid, ignorant, irrational, impious, and unjust.” Why, he asks, have you spoken as one of the foolish of this kind? But because he does not say “as some one of the foolish women,” but “as one,” therefore one must ask who or what sort this “one” foolish woman might be. For she must be singularly foolish, and beyond all, and more than all, inasmuch as she alone is shown and demonstrated to be more foolish than all other women. Who is this? Eve, the first woman, the first in folly, the greatest in irrationality, destitute of sense and knowledge, devoid of prudence and intellect, who brought the greatest foolishness into the whole world, who brought the singular irrationality of all mortals into the age, and then produced sins and deaths into the world forever through disobedience. Of her, Job is now clearly mindful; and, commemorating her to his wife, he said to her: “Why have you spoken as one of the foolish women?” And not only that, but something more, something worse, and something more grave. For, he says, when Eve of old, in the beginning, had spoken to Adam, and was teaching and seducing him to forsake the command of God, for the sake of persuasion, she brought forth and showed him the appearance of the tree and the sweetness of its fruit. But you, o woman, outside of any occasion, with manifest impiety, teach me to blaspheme the holy God and to bring death upon myself, and therefore you deservedly and justly hear from me before all others: “Why have you spoken as one of the foolish women?” You, C he says, o woman, have become worse than Eve in folly, but I, he says, have not become like Adam in stupidity. Therefore, I do not obey your seductions; therefore, I am not seduced by the devil who speaks within you. “Why have you spoken as one of the foolish women?” With the stronger battle now finished, with more dangerous pains already endured, with more bitter torments already borne, with the terrible sea already crossed, with more vehement dangers now brought to an end, when the hope of salvation is already manifest, when the unfading crowns are now clearly displayed, you now compel me, o woman, to blaspheme God and to die: so that, after all those most bitter and miserable and lamentable torments which I have sustained, I might D
be rendered an alien from the most blessed rewards hereafter, and not only this, but also that, after death, I might be a perpetual heir to terrible punishments in the lower world, as one who has unworthily and unjustly blasphemed the holy God. After all these things, o woman, do you compel me to curse and deny and blaspheme God? For what reason? Tell me. For this reason, she says, that you may die, and may leave behind the evils which now surround you. Well. Listen again. Yet if it should not please God, who has power over life and death, that I die immediately after I have denied Him and cursed and blasphemed, but rather that He should afflict me even here in these earthly pains for a longer time, as one who has apostatized, and hand me over to those eternal punishments, as one who has blasphemed Himself? If, therefore, while serving Him and worshipping Him and giving thanks, I endure such pains, what torments would I endure in the lower world, o woman, if, departing from Him, I were to deny and renounce and blaspheme Him? For these most short-lived pains which I endure in corruption will have an end, and, by enduring them with gives of thanks unto the end, I hope for the remuneration of eternal blessedness from God. But for those who have blasphemed God, while living longer in the body, there will be woe. There will be still more woe for them in the lower world, when they are tormented forever in the flame of unquenchable fire. Why, therefore, have you spoken as one of the foolish women? Since you persuade me to blaspheme God, and teach me to procure for myself death and destruction, than which nothing is more wicked or more criminal. For every sin will receive indulgence through repentance, and all who have sincerely repented will obtain and find remission and mercy from God. But those who kill themselves, who bring death upon themselves, will never have rest for infinite ages, will never find relief, but their souls, as soon as they have departed from the body, will be led down into darkness: where they will be tormented forever with Judas and Achitophel, who, after other impieties, dared to lay hands upon themselves. No one, therefore, among those of good understanding or those fearing God, ought to find for himself a cause for death, no one ought to kill himself, nor should any of those who fear God ever wish for death for himself. But if death is not to be wished for at all by a word, much more ought no one to bring death upon himself by deeds, lest he be handed over to the aforementioned eternal torments in the lower world. For this reason, therefore, Job says to the devil, who was counseling him to blaspheme unto death: Why have you spoken as one of the foolish women? As if he were saying: Why have you spoken thus as one of the foolish, fatuous, wicked, impious souls, hateful to God, resisting God? Because you neither fear God, nor respect a man, nor clothe yourself in shame, nor sympathize with my more vehement pains. A Super all these things, moreover, have you not considered this, lest perhaps after blasphemy, if we have blasphemed in this way, we begin to suffer worse things? Why have you spoken as one of the foolish women? I suffer, and you compel me to blaspheme. I am afflicted, and you force me to seek death. I endure such pains, and you teach me to blaspheme my Creator, so that you might add evil to evils, and torments to my pains, o woman, or rather, you, the inimical devil who speaks in or through you. Why, therefore, have you spoken as one of the foolish women? Thus spoke Jezabel to Achab after these things, he says, thus spoke Herodias to Herod, when the former surely persuaded [them] to kill Elias, but the latter [persuaded them] to kill John, and [they] taught them all other impieties. Thus, he says, you too, o woman, persuade me to death and destruction through the blasphemy of God, so that, with this, that I die miserably, with this very act I might unjustly blaspheme. But I watch, he says, in the battle which I wage against you, o devil, but I do not fall asleep in the stadium which I occupy regarding you, o most wicked adversary. For you shall not find me slumbering, as you found those already mentioned, nor sleeping like those in whom you afterward easily sowed tares. I rebuke you, he says, O enemy, through the person of my wife. For you are foolish and the author and father of all impiety, [and] those who censure you even through this as [if you were] a fool will say as the holy one [says]: The fool has said in his heart: There is no God. You, he says, o devil, sowed the greatest folly in that most ancient woman, and in this woman now you have brought forth an impious folly. Deservedly he says to her: Why have you spoken as one of the foolish women? Remembering you, o woman, after this the prophets and those harshly detesting your evil and foolish counsel have said: Beware of your own wife, lest you say anything to her, and many other things similar to these. After all of which he added, saying: If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, why should we not endure evils? Pay attention, he says, o foolish one; consider the deposited folly, o woman. If we receive good things from the hand of the Lord, why then should we not endure evils? Glory, riches, pleasantness, delights, sublimity, honor, seats of kingdom, principalities and powers, the joy of children and the multitude of friends, these were the good things which we received from the hand of the Lord, which were given to us from the hand of the Lord. But the evils were the loss of property, the loss of children, the abundance of rot, the multitude of worms, unbearable punishment, intolerable pains, the seduction and subversion of the malignant one, the snares and temptations of the enemy. All these things seem to be evils and are called evils, and are estimated as evils by men, not because these things are evils, but they are those which procure eternal goods, nevertheless preparing an inheritance of perpetual glory in the kingdom. Job knew this, and deservedly gave effort to endure them with thanksgivings. This the prophets knew.
and the apostles too, and all the martyrs. For this reason they passed through life in this world, for this reason they endured all the torments of fire and sword. By human custom, therefore, he calls these things good and evil, saying: "If we have received good from the hand of the Lord, shall we not also endure the evil?" When, he says, you had the sublimity of honor, when you rejoiced in glory, when you lived in luxury, when a multitude surrounded you, A honoring you as you went out from the palace and repeatedly returned to it, when your children filled your eyes with joy, then you did not say, O woman: "Speak some word, and die." Then you were not able even to name or hear of death at all. Now, however, because our family wealth has perished, and our children are gone, because glory has fled and riches have departed, because evils have found us and sorrows have seized us, you compel us to blaspheme God, you teach us to reproach Him for this, and for this reason you force us to seek death, and that not justly but unjustly, through the blasphemy of God: and what is greatest of all, you seek for yourself not a bitter death, but for me, so that you might be able to live after death in rest, just as you hope, not knowing nor believing in the promises of God's goods which His eternity sees from afar. "If we have received good from the hand of the Lord, shall we not also endure the evil?" If we have never felt disgust for goods, nor ever wish for an end to come to them, why then shall we not endure evils? Why shall we not sustain tribulations with thanksgivings? Especially knowing that, just as there will be an end to goods, so also the utter consummation of evils will arrive. And indeed the end of goods, that is, of riches and opulence, will be useless, unless one should have justly expended them for the sake of justice and the almsgiving of the poor: but the endurance of tribulations in faith, and the support of sorrows with thanksgivings, prepare an inheritance of eternal glory in the kingdom of heaven. "If we have received good from the hand of the Lord, shall we not also endure the evil?" Have you suffered disgust for goods, O woman? Have you borne rest and glory with consternation, O female? But if you did not feel disgust for them for a long time, how have minor tribulations now made you faint? How have abundant sorrows now exhausted you, which wear me down but not you? Worms eat me, and you have grown weary. My flesh is rotting, and you have been weakened. "If we have received good from the hand of the Lord, shall we not also endure the evil?" You think, he says, O woman, that this punishment is not from God for us, but from someone else. If, therefore, it is not from God, but from someone else, why should I take vengeance on God by blaspheming Him, when it is another who has afflicted me? But if it is certainly from God, which perhaps it is, it is for our sins. What then is better—to pray and beseech the terrible face of God, or to blaspheme and accuse and disparage, so as to rouse a more B vehement wrath and indignation against us? If, therefore, it is He who has inflicted this punishment, let us be reconciled to Him as to one who is merciful. But if there is some other who has stirred up this war against us, let us likewise beseech Him as an intercessor and defender, as being most strong and most powerful. For if we have received good from the hand of the Lord, shall we not also endure the evil? For where there are joys, there also is the expectation of tribulation. Where there is pleasure, there also are miseries to be expected. For what has befallen us, O woman, out of those things that have not happened in this age? Is it not the case that every man is sometimes healthy, sometimes suffers poverty, and sometimes has wealth? Those things, therefore, which are found among all men in the world, these, he says, have also happened to us: and not only in all men, but also they happen at times in all the elements of this world; thus sometimes spring, thus sometimes summer, sometimes winter, sometimes cold, sometimes indeed heat, sometimes greenery, and sometimes drought. If, therefore, it is so among all corruptible things, what is the great matter if we also, who, like all corruptible things, flourished long ago in riches and other goods, have now withered in want and grown scorched in infirmity? Just as, therefore, we delighted in those, now let us also sustain these. Just as we willingly received the former, so let us support the latter also with thanksgivings. "If we have received good from the hand of the Lord, shall we not also endure the evil?" Not that good and evil proceed from the hand of the Lord, but all things that are good. For from the Good all good things proceed. For just as the sun never brings forth darkness, so likewise the good God never brings forth evils, but all things good and most excellent. Although, indeed, by impious and undisciplined men those things which are brought in by God for the sake of vengeance and conversion and the memory of repentance are thought to be not good, but evil, nevertheless they are truly good, because when they have turned men to repentance, they are found to provide C eternal goods in the kingdom of heaven. Thus, indeed, all doctrine and discipline is estimated or judged by irrational infants not for good, but for evil: but in truth they recognize in the end that the discipline—which was execrable in the beginning—was the cause of all good and grace for them. In accordance with human manner and custom, and using a human proverb, Job mentions evils and goods, saying: "If we have received good from the hand of the Lord, shall we not also endure the evil?" After all which, Moses, bringing a crowning and perfect testimony of glory to blessed Job, says in the following: "In all these things which happened to him, Job did not sin with his lips, nor in the sight of the Lord" [*]. O praise, O honor, O glory and advocacy, O delight and precedence of blessed Job! What should be magnificently praised first of that just man? Whether his just and pious life from the beginning, and his merciful and good nature? Or his endurance of vehement sorrows with thanksgivings? Or even the fact that, when he was being cunningly tempted by the devil D
A through the mouth of his wife, he wisely resisted, and in all these things considered God—who bestowed all these good things upon him—to be just and good? Thus, demonstrating this, he says: *In all these things that happened to him, Job sinned not with his lips, nor in the sight of the Lord.* In all these things, he says—these numerous, great, and wondrous, and terrible things, lamentable also and miserable, the like of which have not been done, in miseries and in misfortunes, in all things that have been from time immemorial, and will be even unto eternity, the like of which have not been seen, nor heard under the sun from the beginning of time and unto the consummation of the ages. In all these, therefore, Job sinned not, neither in the words of his lips, nor in the utterances of his mouth, nor in the thoughts of his heart, nor in the meditations of his mind. And that it is so, he shows B immediately in the following, saying: *Neither in his lips, nor in the sight of the Lord.* And it was not sufficient to say, *nor in the sight of the Lord*, but he also said this: *nor in his lips*. What is this, *nor in his lips*? Or what is this, *nor in the sight of the Lord*? Listen, O friends, to a truthful explanation. What it says, *in the sight of the Lord*, this is: in the thought of the heart, and in the deep examination of the soul against God, thinking nothing in reproach or in blasphemy and accusation, which weigh one down in the sight of God, who searches the reins and hearts, who knows the hidden things of the heart, as the Scripture says. The words of the lips, however, are sometimes spoken from the heart, but are sometimes rashly uttered from imprudence, and not from iniquity or from malevolence: for frequently a man speaks with his mouth what he has not thought at all in his heart, nor does he think. Therefore, because the admirable and most patient Job, when he was passing through such great tribulations, and enduring such great and unspeakable pains, and overcoming such temptations, thought no evil of God in his heart, nor against God, and uttered no small word through negligence with his lips, for this reason, magnifying and praising him, it says: *In all these things that happened to him, Job sinned not, neither in his lips, nor in the sight of the Lord.* As if to say: O great and vehement admiration, o great and immense patience of the man, that in all such powerful sorrows and in all such continuous punishments, he so observed himself that he sinned not at all in his lips nor in his heart regarding God. For just as he kept the thoughts of his heart and the meditations of his soul chaste and pure, C and thought nothing wickedly regarding God, so he observed the words of his lips and the utterances of his mouth, so that he would neither sin in his heart nor in his speech, but rather turned his whole self, both the counsels of his heart and the utterances of his speech and the words of his lips, into thanksgiving and confession unto God. Manifestly, that blessed man fulfilled what was said thereafter by the Apostle: *Glorify God in your body and in your spirit.* Therefore, because he kept himself immaculate and inviolate and uncontaminated from the words of his lips even to the thoughts of his heart in the sight of the Lord, it is as if to say he did not commit that which happens to very many, namely, that they slip in word and not from the heart. For he did not fall in the speech of his lips, according to that which was said in a certain place in Scripture: *There is who slips in word, or in mouth, and not from the heart.* Therefore, because the blessed Job in no way slipped, neither in mouth, nor in speech, nor in lips, nor in heart, for this reason, the great man of God, Moses, magnifying and also praising him, says: *In all these, that happened to him, Job sinned not with his lips, nor in the sight of the Lord.* Thus, he says, the admirable Job passed through that most savage sea of sorrows, thus he overcame his inexhaustible multitude of temptations, so that he sinned nothing, neither in his lips nor in the sight of the Lord. He did not sin before the temptations; he did not sin in the temptations. O blessed Job, who like you shall boast on account of righteousness? Abel died, but he died once and quickly; the admirable Job, however, while sustaining a thousand deaths, overcame death, conquered death, and in death assumed victory. Alone of all the ancients, when he looked upon himself as a dead man, he did not tremble at death: for he saw that men become dead, when namely he saw himself becoming rot and worms, but he did not therefore grow afraid before death; rather, he put death to flight with all its arguments and wiles and with its iniquitous armies. For when death (that is, the devil) received all power over him except for the soul alone, and in order to strike and to ulcerate and to torture and to seduce, when insatiable death exercised all things according to its power, in no way could anything of righteousness die in that blessed man. Therefore, death died in the case of Job with all its effects; righteousness, however, which long ago flourished in him, lived again more and more in him through divine visions and divine colloquy. O blessed Job, living forever with God, and remaining a victor in the sight of the King, the Lord, pray for us wretched ones, that the terrible mercy of God may also protect us in all our tribulations, and rescue us from all the oppressions of the evil one; and count us with the just, and enroll us with those who are being D saved, and make us rest with them in His kingdom, where we may praise Him forever with the saints.
BOOK THREE
A We have demonstrated, in what has been said before, that the great and numerous, truly stupendous and terrible sufferings of Job were not according to the merit of that just man, but according to the virtue of our own human nature and the gift of God. For who could exalt that just man according to his merit, when the Lord himself, who knows hearts, exalts him, saying: "There is no one like him on the earth"? If, therefore, before his passion there was no one like him on the earth, and if neither before nor after was there anyone like him on the earth, who among those who are on the earth can offer a narration or praise of him according to his merit? For not only all men, but I dare say even the angels themselves and all the demons were struck with awe by the patience, constancy, and faith of Job, when, though he was but earth and clay, he overcame all the virtue, strength, and cunning of the most malignant devil. When the devil B received power over him, he exercised upon him all those things that fill every heart with terror and make every soul stand aghast. For over whom else did the devil ever receive such power, if not over Job alone? For if the devil had received power over anyone else, surely it would not have remained hidden; rather, he would have accomplished in him what he also exercised in Job: whose property he destroyed, whose body he filled with decay and worms, to whom he left no remains for consolation, to whom he did not leave the hope of salvation, but left only his wife for his subversion—through whom he aimed at him that final and most savage arrow of seduction and subversion. But just as one who shoots an arrow at a rock does no harm to the rock, but turns all the arrows back upon himself, so the most wicked devil, when he shot at the inviolable rock Job and the untainted diamond, wounded and cast down himself, but did Job no harm. All believers who hear these things C should guard themselves diligently against evil conversations, because "evil conversations corrupt good morals," as the Apostle says after this. Let them guard themselves cautiously also from friends, companions, and household members, and from their persuasions and incitements: because every friend who subverts, subverts through deception and proceeds deceitfully. But especially observe yourselves, and attend to your own souls, O men, against the incitements and evil instigations of a wife. For through her, in the end, the devil strove to subvert Job; through her he hoped to overcome him, whom he could not overcome through many and great sufferings. Through these means he even now subverts many, through these he even now persuades many to evil, leading some to slander, D and others to robbery, and others to other iniquities, and others nonetheless to hatred toward one another, and to contention and quarrelling. For when they have contended with one another in this way, they think themselves justified in inciting their husbands to war against one another, and also to enmity and iniquity. This, indeed, the most malignant devil works through them, inflaming and setting fire to their hearts with zeal and anger, and thus they make their wretched husbands hateful both to God and to one another, so that they earn God's wrath and remain enemies toward one another. And what is worst, when they ought to stand unanimously for one another against their enemies and adversaries—whether within or without, whether in war or in battles—and to attend to one another and help one another, and defend one another's backs with mutual love, they are found to be enemies and traitors to each other, and rejoicing in each other's ruin. These things, indeed, all arise from the instigation and persuasion of wicked and contrary women; which those who are truly wise men ought not to heed, just as blessed Job did not heed them. Therefore he is acceptable to God, and for that reason he is magnified forever among the choirs of the saints.
"Now when his three friends heard all the evils that had happened to him." "When they heard," he says. From whom did they hear? First, indeed, from those who were passing by. For who was there who did not proclaim the things that had happened to Job? I think that even the sea itself and the air, and no less the blasts of the blowing winds, wafted that miserable report and that lamentable news through all the provinces. Moreover, all men who saw this matter and who heard of it, as they heard, divulged these things, named them, inquired about them, and asked about them in the villages, in the squares and streets of the city, in the porches of houses, and all who were traveling, and all who met one another anywhere, talked of these things to one another, and questioned each other about them. Especially those who were coming from afar and were traveling somewhere, asked all whom they met about these things, saying: "Is it true, men, this which is said about Job? Is it true, this which is preached about that just man, to whose righteousness heaven and earth and all men bear witness, that he is so bitterly afflicted with miseries, that he is so miserably struck down?" When they speak these and similar things, they hear the truth from them concerning the things that had happened, which they had carried afar into every region and province. Whithersoever, therefore, they arrived, all regions and provinces, and cities and castles too, with this miserable news and...
lamentable report. The three companions or friends of his, therefore, heard what was already certain and known to all; for these also heard it. For nothing is so widely heralded as the ruin of a great man. For when anyone from a humble station rises to greatness, the report of him does not spread everywhere as it does when someone from a high station is humbled, or when a great man has perished; as soon as the blasts of the wind catch it, the report penetrates every region and every ear. Therefore, because it so happened to the just Job, and because all who were both near and far had heard, his three friends also heard of all the evils that had happened to him. Some have wished to say that demons announced it to them, which no wise person accepts. For this is a blasphemous statement. For those men were worshipers of God, being associates and friends of Job, pious and believers in God. For the just Job would not have embraced having unjust or impious men as friends and associates. Therefore, let us who fear God understand it in this way, that the holy angels, coming to them either in dreams or in waking hours, warned them to make haste to come and console that just friend. B However, upon their arrival there—as they foolishly thought they were standing up for God—the most wicked demon, having found an opportunity, turned them toward the blasphemy of the righteous Job. For just as he changed his wife, who had previously been religious and in agreement with him in all acts of justice, into blasphemy, so too did he the aforementioned men. Of whom it is said here: Hearing that his three friends experienced all that had happened to him, the destruction of his children, the loss of his possessions, the rotting of his body, the devouring of worms, the wicked consumption of his children, they did not grieve in a moderate way, but in a miserable and lamentable way, as was demonstrated above. Therefore, hearing all these things, his three comrades were stunned, and they said, "Do you think, whence have all these things come? And which is more grievous to us, O men: this, that our friend has suffered such miseries, or that the friend of the Lord suffers such evils, to whose justifications and mercies heaven and earth bear witness?" These, indeed, all these things, as those good comrades heard and spoke to one another: they came immediately together to him so that they might console him and visit him. "We have heard," they say, "O men, from our former fathers, that that ancient brother of our grandfather Esau, Jacob, had twelve sons and one daughter: when he had lost one of them, as he supposed, he mourned only for that one, and all his sons and daughters, and no doubt many of his other friends, coming together on account of one son, consoled him; and he refused to be consoled, even with his property intact and all the others living and the health of his body remaining; and when there was no other thing that saddened him, he could not be cheered. But if that Jacob bore so grievously the loss of one son, how does Job sustain A the lamentable destruction of all his children, which happened under one stroke, all at once? How does he sustain the previous loss of his property? How does he sustain the terrible and most savage plague of his body? For all these, O men, it is just to console him, who has no consolation, except that he has his hope solely in God." Therefore, speaking all these things to one another, either by messengers or by writing, those good and religious men came together to him, each from his own city, so that they might console and visit him. "O," they say, "he who had a testimony in all justice is being punished as if he were one especially among the unjust. He, the true one without complaint, the merciful one, is struck and afflicted as if he were one among the impious. He who was a worshiper of God, and a priest solicitous for his children before God, is being tortured as if he were one among the unjust." They arrived together to him. How? They set a time; they measured out the day. How did they come together at once, and not each from himself, nor by himself? By God’s providence and by God’s action so disposing and foreseeing, that they did not come singly, one after another, but all straightway, all together at one time, on one day, at one hour, as being of one mind, as being of one thought, as being in concord. So they came to him suddenly, as those who worship the one God, as those who serve the Creator, as those who loved the one Job most fully. And so they came together to God. But from where did they come? Not from one city, nor from one place, nor from one province or region; nevertheless, from their own kingdom they came together to him. For with all the miracles, there is also this huge miracle, that although they dwelt so far and wide from one another, they came together to the blessed Job, each from his own city in which he dwelt, in which he ruled, in which he had dominion. Each one, then, came from his own city, that is, from the city of his kingdom. And for what reason did they come? To console and visit him. And truly, because they themselves indeed came for this reason, that they might console and visit him, but the most wicked devil, the enemy of good and righteous men, hating all things that the Lord loves, having taken the opportunity by which they might offend God and criticize God’s justice, and accuse Job of injustices and sins, so changed and perverted them that he might further ulcerate the heart of Job through these things that they spoke, than through all the pains which he had previously inflicted upon him. For what would be more cruel to the most chaste soul of Job than that he should have been accused by his friends of sins when he had sinned not at all, and reproached for impieties, he who was a stranger to all impieties, and that for sins he had sustained all these pains, and that for injustice all these evils had come upon him? But that these men arrived at such great blasphemy against Job, and did not fear, being inflamed by the envy and zeal of the devil, is proven from their own words, which
the blasphemers and detractors say to him in high degree: Who are you? Since you say, I have not sinned in my deeds. But if you have not sinned, O Job, remember that no righteous man has perished, or when shall the servant of God be eradicated? This is just like you. Then they continue with tremendous insult, rebuke, and vituperation: How long will you speak, you A spirit of many words from your mouth? Does God judge unjustly, that is, like you who are a sinner? Or has He who created all things distorted justice? This is as if to say, if there were justice in you, the righteous judge would not have distorted your judgment and your life. For the hope of the ungodly shall perish just as yours, because you are ungodly: and the house that is under heaven shall be uninhabitable, that is, just like yours; and countless others harsher and more bitter than these have the blasphemers spoken concerning that righteous man. For which cause they were also severely rebuked by God in the end, as those who had spoken nothing of truth concerning Job. And so, although they had come to visit and console him, they were turned to enmity, to accusation and to rebuke, to curse and also to blasphemy. But after the most wicked adversary had attempted everything, he even arrived at this point, that he might convert friends into enemies, and make sincere companions his adversaries, cunningly dealing with himself and saying: If I could not seduce him through the mouth of his wife, I shall succeed with the mouth of his friends, changed into enmity; I shall irritate, exaggerate, exacerbate, and inflame them, so that being inflamed and exaggerated beyond measure, he might be turned to the blasphemy of God. He compelled them to speak nine responses full of blasphemy against Job, three for each one of them. But blessed Job did not falter before them in the slightest, but with just as many responses, or rather with even more and greater ones in answer to all of them, he manifested the justice and goodness of God, and refuted their unjust accusation both by many other things and indeed by those things which he says to their face: You are all unjust physicians and worst healers. Because when they had come to heal his pains and console his soul, they were turned toward bitterness and malice against Job. Rightly, therefore, does he call them unjust physicians. If, I say, they came to him that they might console and visit him, they came with their own intention for this reason, but C the most wicked, malignant, and hostile adversary persisted as an enemy and exercised his hatred through everything, through his wife, through his friends, and through his companions. Therefore, the arrival of visitation and consolation became for the most blessed Job one of complete sadness and grief. After all these things he says: But seeing him from afar, they did not recognize him. But let us first inquire briefly into the reason why they rose up so harshly concerning Job, or rather against Job. Hear: inflamed by a bad opinion and unjustly emulating God, as they themselves thought—that they were emulating and defending God—they were blinded by the enemy so that they did not investigate the judgments of God. B It was this reasoning that those men held, and they said: Because God is just and good, He does not bring evils upon the righteous and innocent. But if He brings evils upon the innocent, how shall He be proven good or just, when He has brought such evils upon Job, a righteous man? It must be, they say, either that Job suffered on account of injustice, or certainly that God is found to have brought evils upon him unjustly: either that Job suffered for his sins, or that God brought evils upon him unjustly. The devil, making this bad and illicit thought arise in these men, inflamed their heart to all wrath and indignation against Job, while he strove to confirm that God was just, but Job was unjust, impious, and a sinner. Against this, Job, standing firmly, did not permit himself to hear those vain-talkers inflamed by the devil, but he manifested both that God is good and that he himself, though without fault, was suffering all these things. For it was not God who brought these evils upon him, but the devil's zeal, malice, and envy. Nor did Job sustain all that he sustained for his sins, but because he was righteous, the devil envied him, just as he envies all the righteous, and excites tribulations against them. Many are the tribulations not of the unjust, but of the righteous. Therefore, God Himself is shown as the witness of Job's justice, saying: Righteous, truthful, a worshiper of God. That this inflammation and perturbation was of the devil is apparent also from those things which now take place. For frequently, even now, the same devil mixes up unanimous companions and disturbs them through any trivial reason, and changes them into immense enmity against one another, so that they become enemies to one another out of friends, and cruel adversaries out of sincere ones. For this is the operation of the malignant one. Blessed are those who have turned away and resisted his cunning and craftiness, and his cursed persuasions. After all these things let us return to the proposition. Seeing him, he says, from afar. Who? His three companions, not yet changed nor having fallen into error, but while they were pure, seeing him from afar. For they looked from afar and contemplated and saw him. For as soon as they saw the city itself, they immediately searched D just where they might see him. For their whole heart hung full of pain and anguish as to where Job might be resting. Rightly did they see him from afar, because they were thinking of him from afar and were anxious for him from afar. For that reason they beheld him from afar. For a friend sees his friend from afar, whether by bodily vision or by the sincerity of the soul, when he is mindful of him in gifts, in offerings, and in the perfection of his affection. Seeing him from afar. Where? Upon a heap of dung, upon the muck in the public road. Seeing him from afar, they were filled with pain and groaning and weeping and lamentation, as will be demonstrated below. Seeing him from afar, they did not recognize him. For truly there was nothing by which he might be recognized; there was no royal throne, there was no diadem, there was no glory or royal robe and mi-
nistrants to surround him on every side were absent. Therefore, because they saw none of those things in him which they had previously known to be in him, and which they had been accustomed to see in him before, they deservedly did not recognize him when they saw him. In what were they to recognize him? The hair of his head was not there for him. For, shearing his hair and casting it to the devil, he covered his head with earth. In what were they to recognize him? By his face and the glory of his countenance? Not even that existed. For putrefaction had consumed his face, and worms had changed his look. On account of all these things, therefore, they did not recognize him when they saw him. They did not recognize his face, but they recognized his conscience. They did not recognize his appearance, but they recognized his sincerity. For when they saw him so miserable and lamentable, they neither showed contempt nor spurned him, but displayed immense sincerity, as will be demonstrated below. For those blessed men were not such as, indeed, malevolent and ungrateful men are nowadays: who, when it is well with anyone, are then his friends and seem to be sincere and pure. When tribulation comes to anyone, then, obviously, they depart and despise, they forget, they abandon, showing oblivion and ingratitude for all past favors. But in olden times men were not such; rather, they preserved sincerity and love toward one another and for one another even unto death, as he who says clearly shows: *A companion sympathizes with his friend unto death, and in the time of war he takes up arms* (Eccli. xxxv, 5). Such were those blessed, sincere men, Job’s friends, who were never changed toward Job into enmity, nor to the point of renouncing him or abandoning him, except for a controversy of words and a struggle of speeches; for they thought they were defending God’s justice. But in truth, the devil had inflamed their hearts, so that they might inflict more distress upon Job, so that they might bring more multiplied temptations upon that just man. *Seeing him*, he says, *they did not recognize him*. They did not recognize him as he had been before; but they recognized him as he was then: miserable, lamentable, unhappy, filled with every evil. Therefore, each one tearing his garments and scattering earth upon their heads, they sat with him for seven days and seven nights. Those men, admiring and standing aghast at his vehement, terrible, and lamentable transformation, rent their garments. "What you have done, O Job," they say, "we do; and what you have suffered, we suffer; we scatter our garments; for just so did you yourself do a little while ago, O Job; and would that we could share your other pains with you, so that a revelation of the punishment grasping you might come to pass." Tearing their garments, each one, and scattering earth upon their heads. It was a custom among all the ancients everywhere that when they heard or had suffered something grievous and lamentable or dangerous, they would immediately tear their garments, and pour ashes and earth upon their heads, and furthermore clothe themselves immediately in sackcloth. Thus, long ago, Jacob rent his garments and put sackcloth upon his body when the death of Joseph was announced to him (Gen. xxxvii, 34); and, to pass over very many, thus David rent his when he found Ziklag captured by the Amalekites (I Reg. xxx, 4), and again when he heard of the death of Saul and Jonathan (II Reg. 1, 12). Thus Hezekiah rent his when he heard the threats and blasphemies of Sennacherib and Rabshakeh; thus the king of the Ninevites rent his garments and sat in ashes clothed in sackcloth, when he heard from Jonah the prophet about the destruction of Nineveh (Jon. iii, 6). Thus the last chief priest of the Jews under the Law rent his, when he sought out blasphemy against the Lord (Matt. xxvi, 65), from which time the priesthood of the Jews and the entire rite of the Jewish law was rent asunder and perished completely. B According, therefore, to this custom of the ancients, when those men, Job’s friends, had looked upon the terrible sufferings of Job, tearing their garments and scattering earth upon their heads, they sat with him seven days and seven nights. They sat with him like physicians to a sick man, but they could find no medicinal cures for the sick one. They sat with him as comforters of one suffering, but they could find no consolation for the miserable one. They sat with him. And where did they sit? Outside in the dunghill and in the heap of dung and on the ground? No, God forbid! For such a multitude of sorrows had not inundated Job that he did not understand the honor of those coming to him, or that he did not consider the dignity of those present. As long, therefore, as those men were coming, he stayed outside in the dunghill, on the ground, clearly showing everyone his passion, and that although he was just, he had endured vehement sorrows. But after the aforementioned men had arrived, showing honor to their sincerity and honoring their persons, he went into the house and sat down. And thus those venerable men sat with him seven days and seven nights. They sat with him for a week of days, from which week this whole age is completed. They sat with him seven days and seven nights, inseparable, undivided, and unassociated [from him]. They sat with him seven days and seven nights, nowhere departing, nowhere withdrawing, nowhere deserting, neither for food, nor for drink, nor for bed, nor for any other refreshment. But perhaps someone says: And how did they endure not eating or drinking for seven days? First, indeed, they were comforted by divine power, as much for Job’s sake as for their own sincerity. For these men were just and religious, and deservedly were they held worthy of the colloquy of God after this. Therefore, comforted by the power and providence of God, they endured. Again, these men also came in another way, and seeing him, they were struck with amazement, and were filled with immense pain and sadness and groaning. They sat with him seven days and seven nights, the very... D
image of people saturated with sadness and the pains themselves, saturated with the voices themselves, inebriated with the tears themselves. Remembering these things after this, the saints expressed in words what they performed in deeds. *My tears have been my bread day and night*; and: *I have forgotten to eat my bread because of the voice of my groaning*; and: *You have given us tears to drink in measure*. Therefore, those men were filled with such great sadness and pain, and also with sighs and tears and lamentation, that they forgot all carnal and present things, and were nourished and satisfied and filled with sadness and mourning itself. For just as Job was saturated with more violent pains, in the same way those blessed men were saturated with immense sadness and wailing. Thus, it says, they sat for seven days and seven nights, and they fulfilled the mourning of the dead beside the living Job. For mourning for the dead is kept for seven days and seven nights. O the solicitude and devotion of those blessed men, which they had toward Job! O virtue and constancy! O patience and strength of mind! They died with that righteous Job, not eating nor drinking, which things all signify death. For just as they did not eat or drink, so neither did they speak; and just as they did not speak for seven days, so neither did they eat nor drink. That they did not eat for seven days is shown in what follows, where it says: *They sat with him seven days and seven nights, and none of them spoke a word to him*. Why? Because they had seen that his affliction was most savage and very great. Not to open the mouth for seven days and seven nights, not to speak a word, not to utter speech, is evidence of great pain. But in the meantime, those blessed men fulfilled that duty, not departing, nor turning away their face, nor abandoning the place, but remaining constantly, and sitting with him for seven days and seven nights, and none of them spoke a word to him. For amazement and dread had seized them, seeing such things being suffered by a man holy and righteous, who had obtained testimony from God. It is certain that each one of them was worried not only for Job, but also for himself, fearing what might happen or what might be expected regarding himself as well. For if such evils have found the righteous, they said, what shall we expect or what shall we endure, we who are far from his justifications? Remembering these things, their descendants said: *If the righteous man will scarcely be saved, where shall the wicked and the sinner appear?* Therefore, immense sadness and pain of heart did not permit them to remember either food or drink, nor could they remember anything human. Therefore, they sat with him for seven days and seven nights without food, without drink, and without speech. How could they have remembered anything at all, when they saw the affliction of this righteous man to be so savage and terrible? How, indeed, could they have consoled him, or what could they have said to him? Would it be this: If you have lost your family inheritance, your children will restore it to you? Or that? A If children have been taken from you, you will move on from the matter. But they could not say these things. For all things had perished suddenly at one time. Should they have said this? The health of the body and the strength of the limbs, and the virtue of the arms, will replace everything for you and restore it. But this, they say, we especially cannot say. For we ourselves see the body consumed by fluid, and all the limbs eaten by a multitude of worms. For all these things, therefore, how, they say, can we console you, or how shall we open our mouths, or what shall we say? We find none. Shall we offer ancient histories? But such things have not happened from the ages, nor did such things occur from the beginning. Shall we console him by bringing up and reminding him of the pains and sufferings of the ancients? Since there was nothing, therefore, neither in deeds nor in words by which they could console him, for that reason they sat with their silence testifying to the intensity of his pains. For they could not depart, and being present, they did not dare to speak. Therefore, they sat for seven days and seven nights, with their faces inclined downward toward the ground. Sometimes, however, looking at him and being struck with the vision of his affliction, they would continuously lower their faces again. Sometimes resting on their knees, sometimes reclining on their hands, not resting in beds, nor on cots, nor on covers, but undoubtedly sitting in ash and sackcloth, on the earth, and looking at Job—when he sat, they sat, if indeed he was at all able to lie down because of the pains. For thus, spending those seven days in groans and sighs, they sat, not opening their mouths, nor speaking a word, except only sighing heavily and groaning. B However, let us not be silent about this, who these men were, or what kind they were, or whence. They were not some insignificant or contemptible people, but were noble, and were lords of their regions and provinces, and leaders of their own nation. And though they were so great and powerful, they humbled and afflicted themselves so much that they sat in ash and sackcloth for seven days because of the sincerity and affection which they had toward him—which no one does now, neither friend, nor brother, nor son, that he might sit fasting or without drink for one day, not to say for seven days and seven nights. C But what were the names of these men? Eliphaz, leader of the Themanians; Baldad, tyrant of the Suites; Sophar, king of the Nomads. And what were the nations over which they reigned and held dominion? They were of the race of Esau, the son of Isaac, the brother of Jacob; of the race, tribe, progeny, provinces, regions. For just as Jacob begot a multitude of the nation of Israelites and Judeans, so Esau begot a multitude of the nations that were called Idumeans. But in Israel there was either one judge who judged all Israel, or there was one king who ruled over the entire nation of Israel, as long as they were...
walking according to the counsel of God. In Idumea, however (which is the race of Esau), according to the custom of all nations, there were kings throughout individual cities and regions, and A dukes of the provinces, and each reigned and ruled in his own region. Therefore, because the memory of those just men, Abraham and Isaac, was still close at hand, and because Esau himself was a worshiper of God—for although he transgressed in some things, he nonetheless handed down that same worship of God to his children—it is deservedly so that many of the Idumeans were worshipers of God, and some were very religious, like Job or his friends who came to him. For some regions of the Idumeans were even called Arabia, in the borders of which Arabia Job dwelt. For he also took a wife from Arabia, seeing that the Arabians were of the same race. For if they had not been of one race, B he would never have allowed Job to take a wife from a foreign people. Now, certainly, the name and language of the Idumeans have perished, and all are called Arabians and all speak Syriac. But because Job was of the race of Esau and of the sons of Esau, and likewise his friends who came to him were religious worshipers of God, yet all were of the race of Esau, of the same race and language as Job, for this reason they were unanimous and in harmony. Similarly, even those provinces and regions over which they themselves reigned and ruled were all also of the race of Esau, and they reigned and ruled over their fellow tribesmen. For whether they were the Themanites, over whom Heliphaz reigned, or the Suitæ, over whom Baldath held the primacy, or the Nomade, over whom Sophar ruled, all were of the race of Esau and his tribes. This is surely shown by the book of Paralipomenon, where it says: "And there came with them also the Nomade, the race of Esau." Since those men were therefore glorious kings, and princes, and dukes of provinces, they sat for seven days and seven nights. But they sat as religious worshipers of God, not seeking either evil deeds, or omens, or divinations, or phylacteries, or amulets, or damnable incantations. For religious men ought to know that all these things are seductions of the devil, mockeries of the demons, the dregs of idolatry, an infatuation of souls, and a scandal of hearts: things which many, not understanding in this present time, as soon as any trouble affects them, immediately seek incantations and enchanters, D immediately bind on phylacteries, instantly resort to evil deeds, either writing on paper, or on tin or lead, and bind it to him who has suffered pain. But others chant serpent-charming incantations, the persuasions of demons, and blasphemies of God. Likewise, others are said to fascinate, whether they fascinate or are fascinated, and these are inventions of the demon. For when they have eaten or drunk without restraint, when their very vitals, being unable to bear it, have become perturbed, and they have fallen into pain and illness, as it is said: "In food there is infirmity,"—then surely they say foolishly that one has been bewitched. When we fast, O men, we restrain ourselves so that we do not taste meat, nor wine, nor superfluous foods; why then are we not bewitched? But as soon as we begin to eat and drink again, a commotion of the belly and perturbation of the guts occurs immediately, unless he alone escapes who has taken great heed to himself not to taste anything superfluous. Thus, therefore, fascinations prevail not at all, but rather the incontinence of men. And this is evident, for when we eat or drink, if we are mindful of the faith, if we have invoked His terrible name, if we have signified ourselves or our food and drink with the sign of the venerable cross B of Christ, if, lifting our eyes to heaven, we say: "Who gives food to all flesh," even if we say that we receive this food with a blessing, if we have said with sincerity to our Lord: "Thou hast said, Lord, that if we have drunk any deadly thing, invoking Thy name, it will not be harmful to us": O Lord of virtue and glory, therefore, avert the poisonous and wicked operation from us and from all our foods. For if Thy mercy does not preserve us, how can we escape such great dangers of food and drink, which frequently crawl and creep more than malignant and poisonous beasts? But some still observe by sneezing, and by invocations and revocations, and by meetings and voices of birds, not understanding, miserable and empty of hope, that a man's steps are directed by the Lord, and not being able to say to God with the saints: "Direct my steps according to Thy word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me." For he who with faith has said these things to the Lord has fulfilled that which is to be said: "The Lord will be in all thy ways, and He will guide thy steps in peace." But they who have intended to follow vain omens and sorceries, and also divinations and phylacteries and incantations, the steps of these shall be disturbed, the works of these are hindered, from these the visitation of God departs, these the holy angels abandon, with these the devil remains, infatuating their minds, dulling their hearts, abstracting their senses from God. Of such as these it is worthily said: O unhappy counsels of men, O vain and superfluous thoughts of earthly things, who, abstracted from God and perverse, expect salvation from the dead, seek counsel from inanimate things, and, while they seem to decline idolatry, are known to adore the dregs and relics of idols, omens and divinations, incantations also and evil deeds and phylacteries: and avert their hope from the mercy of the almighty and living God, and hope in dead and inanimate things, in phylacteries and the other things recited above. Cast them into the fire, if they can help themselves, if they can help themselves...
but since they cannot help themselves, O man, how shall they rescue you from infirmity? Tell me, O man, what medicine is better than the bread which gladdens the heart of man? But if you hang that bread about your neck and do not bite or chew it, it profits you nothing, it brings you no aid. If, therefore, A bread, which is the life of the body, profits nothing when hung around the neck, how shall phylacteries or inanimate metal plates, which are devoid of all life, bring aid? Or how shall incantations and auguries, and likewise divinations and sorceries, omens no less, and invocations and revocations—which are nothing but the services of demons, the illusions of demons, and communion with idolatry—bring aid? For unhappy is he who hopes in an inanimate statue, but still more unhappy is he who hopes in dead phylacteries. For just as he who has served idols is commanded by the Law of God to be put to death, so likewise is every enchanter, and augur, and diviner, and ventriloquist, and observer of the calls of birds, along with all other sorcerers, commanded to perish and be put to death. After all these things, the wrath of the netherworld and the torment of Gehenna, the punishments of the eternal judgment, and the flames of unquenchable fire await all such people at the time of the resurrection. But in the meantime, it is good to ask those who observe auguries and who concern themselves with omens or invocations or revocations, what limit of augury did Pharaoh encounter when he pursued the sons of Israel and was drowned in the Red Sea, in such a way that not even a messenger of the countless army of the Egyptians survived? Who called Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, or what bird sang to him, when, having departed from Judaea, he lost 185,000 of his army in a single night, and returned in confusion to his own land, and fell by the sword in the house of his god, and neither his idols, nor his incantations, nor his sorceries, nor his auguries could B help him? Likewise, the multitude of idols and the sorceries of all men and the many incantations that were in Egypt, above all other nations, could not defend Pharaoh either, just as it is said in a certain place: "The enchanters of the Egyptians did likewise with their sorceries." But the Red Sea did not fear their incantations and sorceries, and, receiving the command of God, it suddenly plunged them all into the deep. What did it profit Saul that, about to go to his first battle, he departed from God and fled to diviners, seeking a woman who spoke of the outcome, and while he was still turning his hope toward her and waiting, he perished shortly after with many others? And countless others likewise, hoping in incantations and auguries and sorceries, have become wretched upon the earth and devoid of hope, and, punished eternally in the netherworld, they shall remain more miserable forever. Wherefore let us turn away from all these things, O friends; let us flee from them as from the flame of fire, let us leave them behind as the punishment of Gehenna; let us consider them to be a fellowship of demons. C But let us commend all our causes—whether of pains, or of diseases, or of punishments, or of tribulations, or of journeys, or of travels, or of arrivals, or of departures—let us commend all things to God, let us entrust all things to God, that the Lord may guard all our comings and our goings, that the Lord may become our cooperator, our companion, and our advocate at all times and in every place, that He may command His angels concerning us that they may guard us in all our ways, so that, being numbered with the saints, we may consequently say even with them: "Whether we live, or die, we are the Lord's." We are not of idols, nor of incantations, nor of auguries, nor of divinations, nor of sorceries, nor of phylacteries, nor of any of these things which are the servitude of demons and the seductions of the devil: but we are the Lord's, who rules over life and death, who has the power of flesh and spirit, in whose hands is the breath of the living. For thus also those blessed men who came to Job, that is, his friends, being religious worshippers of God, declining all execrable seductions of demons, sat with him for seven days and seven nights. They did not seek sorceries and divinations; rather, they lifted their souls to God alone, and they groaned and sighed for the pains of Job. They sat with him, doing this which is delivered in Scripture, fulfilling it before the Scripture: "Do not deny yourself in consolation to those who weep"; and: "Weep with those who weep"; D and: "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting." They sat with him in silence over his immense patience and endurance and constancy. For when he saw his flesh being devoured by worms, he endured it rejoicing within himself, thinking and saying: If my flesh is quickly consumed, my spirit will be quickly taken up into incorruption, my soul will hasten to God as quickly as possible, leaving earth to earth, and handing over this body as food for worms before the tomb. Whether before death or after death, this body will be left for the eating of worms, as it says after this: "When a man is dead, he will inherit beasts and reptiles and worms." When the blessed Job said many such things to himself, he endured for seven days. Thinking of the same things, his friends who came to him also remained silent, as if brought to a state of stupor, unable to open their mouths, nor finding a beginning for speaking. But that most constant Job did not endure that silence any longer, but began to speak first, as the one who was foremost in the passion itself, as the one who alone was enduring the wounds and pains himself. He says: "After this he opened his mouth." After this. After he had passed through that primary suffering, after he had endured the most vehement pain, after he had not [faltered] in the strong inundations of the most wicked one...
A succumbed to wounds and yielded to sorrows, lest they think I had been overcome or had failed or had been weakened, but that they might know that I stand manfully against their wickedness, and speaking with confidence, I despise their malice and their snares. But further, he says, it is for this reason: that I might open my mouth to my friends who are arriving, and show them the time for speaking. For unless I had begun to speak, they would never have dared to open their mouths, terrified by more vehement pains. For all these things, then, and for the culmination of all these things, he opened his mouth and cursed his day. Hearing these things, certain of the fickle, and the foolish, and the unskilled, dared to accuse and rebuke that just man Job, as if he had blasphemed God and cursed his day. To these, God himself resisted harshly at the end of this Scripture, when, declaring Job to be truthful, He says to Eliphaz: "You have sinned, you who accused Job of sin, but Job has not sinned: You B have sinned, and your two friends. For what reason? For this," He says, "because you have not spoken anything of truth in my sight, as my servant Job has." Whom, therefore, God himself has confessed to be irreprehensible, calling him his servant—and this at the end of his whole endurance—who in his right mind would dare to criminate? Who that is wise would set out to rebuke? For who shall accuse the chosen of God? Especially the just man whom He so greatly chose and testified worthy, so that He even appointed him priest for his offending friends, and through him promised to remit their sins C to them. Who, therefore, would dare to rebuke or accuse the just man who is purged by God, as if he illicitly cursed his day? Above all these things, O men, if Job is rebuked or accused because he cursed his day, then with him let the most holy prophet Jeremiah be equally rebuked or accused. For just as Job cursed the day of his birth, so also did Jeremiah devote the day of his birth, and everything consequently in the same way that Job spoke about the day of birth, and about all the other things. If, therefore, anyone rebukes or accuses, he ought to rebuke or accuse both, both Job and Jeremiah, and if he accuses of blasphemy, he ought to accuse both, both Job and Jeremiah. For both, both Job and Jeremiah, said similar things, spoke similar things, D cursed and devoted the same day of their birth. But even so, Job is blessed in the sight of the Lord, and Jeremiah is glorious with the saints. But woe to those who have blasphemed the saints, who have accused the friends of God, especially those whom God has honored in remembrance even after death, just as of Job, of whom He says: "If Job and Noah and Daniel were to stand in my sight"—or as Jeremiah, whom, magnifying him above all in his life, He says: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you went forth from the womb I sanctified you, and I set you a prophet among the nations." After, however, we have shown that the saints were irreprehensible—not by us, but by God himself—blessed Job
A is spoken of by the holy one, though his words were wrongly turned into blasphemy by the impious: "He opened," it says, "Job his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth." Let us first observe this, O learned men, what is said: Job cursed his own day, not the day of God, not the day of God’s condition or creation, but his own day. Which day of his own? That which was not, which he did not have, which he did not possess. Whom, therefore, he did not have, nor possess, nor see, nor was in his power, when he cursed this, he cursed nothing. He cursed what was not, what he did not have, what he did not see. It is said, furthermore, that he cursed his own day. Whether he cursed his own day or another’s, he cursed nothing; he cursed that which did not exist. For a day is not in nature, it is not in substance, nor is it in one's own power. Light is seen, B but substance is not seen; nature is not held, nor is it apprehended, because a day has no nature nor substance. It has a name, but it has no nature. Just as an hour has a name, but does not have substance, so too a day has a name, but does not have substance or nature. What then is a day? A time of light, the passage of light and the rising of the sun, a progression from east unto west. Therefore, the light of the sun is called a day: the passage of the sun is deemed a day. For it is truly so. For the progression of the sun measures the time of the day, it sets the limit of the day, whether for shortening the day or for lengthening it. That it is so, Scripture also demonstrates, saying: "All the light of the day is from the sun." As if to say: All time is from the sun. For just as anyone passing somewhere in darkness with a lamp, so long as the lamp is present, even unto there is light, having neither substance nor nature, but only splendor: if, therefore, anyone were to curse the splendor of the lamp, he curses nothing except the empty passage and the progression that does not remain: so also Job, when he cursed the passage of light and splendor, cursed that which did not exist. For the day, passing with the progression of the sun, passed by, and that selfsame day will not return. When the sun has risen again, another day will arise, of the same name as that one, but it is not the same as that one. That day, therefore, passing, has passed by, and will not come again, because it is no longer. For just as a man who has died has passed by and will not come again, nor does he return anymore, but another is born and is called by the same name, and is spoken of by the same name as that one, D but it is not the same individual, but another: so too a day of the same name will come, but the very same one will not come. For just as the spirit, departing, does not return again, and the taken soul is not called back, in like manner the passing day does not return again, nor is it called back in this present age. For just as there is ordained for every man a time and a measured span of each one's life: in like manner there is ordained for individual days a time and a measured progression of the sun, during which passing it is no longer that day that has passed by. And furthermore, just as for all men from the age and unto the age a number is calculated before God: so also the number and calculation of all days from the age and unto the age is reckoned in the sight of the foreknowledge of God, and all souls of men through individual nations and tongues, through generations and through all the tribes of the earth, each soul of the age of the whole of its life is about to render an account in judgment. But also, what it has done, or said, or thought through each day, all things will be proposed in judgment, all things will be led into inquisition, with the days not resurrecting, which have neither nature nor substance, but with the acts of all men demonstrated in the nature of souls and bodies resurrecting into corruption. Therefore, there will be required on the day of resurrection and judgment from every Christian soul C all the service of all the days of its life which it was to have exhibited to God, and every work of holiness, which throughout individual days it was to have perfected, whether in acts of thanksgiving and confessions, or in morning and evening prayers and supplications, or in all good works which are perfected in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. This, to be sure, most of the foolish and irreligious are ignorant of, who are warned to hasten to the temple of God, who are called to hasten to the Church of God, and to adore the terrible glory of God, and either account it as neglect, or lead it into emptiness, or find other excuses saying: "I ate yesterday, let me eat tomorrow"; but they strive daily and at all times indifferently to find and to exhibit to the body all things that are of custom. But to God, or to their own soul, they set and measure times and calculate days, unaware that they are mocking themselves and their own souls. For as we said above, they are about to render an account of all the days of their life for the works of holiness through the individual days of their age, whether here upon earth, or in judgment. For the pagans and all the unfaithful will not come into judgment, but are already condemned from this, and on account of infidelity are inexcusable and will be cast out into the punishments of the underworld: but those who appear to be in the faith, and are termed by the name of the wicked—these, I say—will all render an account in that terrible inquisition of judgment of all the days of their life, of each individual day, how they fulfilled the service of God and the work of holiness throughout each day. These things, clearly, wandering outside, this discourse has admonished us to say here, on the occasion of the mentioned day, well and necessarily, as it were, for the commemoration of good things for those who desire to be saved. But let us again return to the subject. "He cursed," it says, "Job his day"; he did not curse God, he did not reprehend, he did not blaspheme, he did not accuse, he did not murmur about God, he did not exist ungrateful to God, but he cursed the day which did not exist. For he gave thanks to God, he confessed, he invoked, he blessed. "May," he said, "the name of the Lord be blessed unto the ages." Thus, therefore, by blessing and giving thanks to God, the day
A which has neither vision, nor nature, nor substance, he cursed—or rather, he cursed him who was not, as was shown before, and this only so that he might speak. But perhaps someone says, why does he say this at all, or why did he speak this way? Listen, O man. He says these things because more violent pains grasped him than you can now imagine, because he was enduring more lamentable miseries than you are able to conceive. For if you were to see now what he was enduring, you would not be able to bear the sight of it at all. And how could you endure or bear to see a man with pierced bones and melting flesh, his nerves consumed? All these things he was enduring while giving thanks to God; all these things he was bearing while blessing God. Yet he spoke with his mouth things which did not proceed to any insult against God, nor his holy angels, nor heaven, nor to men on earth, nor to the sea, nor to the air, nor to anything that exists in nature. He was speaking, to be sure, as if airing his misery, as if beating the air, as if carrying his pain, as if exasperated and having suffered vexation, and anxious because of more vehement passions and stronger B pains. He spoke as anyone placed in pain, seeking a remedy. Just as someone in pain from his teeth, or his eyes, or his ears, frequently claws at the walls, and frequently even lacerates himself with his nails from the excess of the pain which he endures, with his bones and eyelids and ears worn away, so too did blessed Job, when his bones were pierced and his flesh was melting away, speak while cursing the day that was not. For thus also the holy Jeremiah, after he was shamed by the injustice and impiety of the Jews even unto death, likewise cursed and execrated the day of his birth. And Jeremiah said even greater things than these. For he said of his name: "I will not speak his name anymore, and I will not speak any longer to any of the men in his name." For what reason, blessed Jeremiah? Because of their disobedience and their contumacy, because the word of the Lord was made a derision unto them, and they do not want it, and I have been mocked by them all the day long. Therefore, filled with sorrow of soul, he both cursed the day of his birth and spoke other things. So too did Job, preceding him, having been anticipated by the excess of his pains, curse the day of his birth, and answer saying: "Cursed be that day in which I was born." Above all things which were mentioned above, this too is the chief point: that Job cursed the day of his birth. For if Job had not bitterly bewailed the penalties themselves and the pains, a man would surely neither estimate nor believe that the punishments and torments were as harsh and bitter for him as they were. Now, however, the blessed Job, wishing to show to everyone the enormity of the most bitter punishments and pains which the devil had cast upon him, weeps, complains, and so bitterly and miserably and lamentably, that he cursed the day of his birth, saying: "Cursed be the day in which I was born." Let not, he says, the day of my death be cursed, nor the day of the end of this age. For indeed it is the consummation and rest, and the passing and laying aside of all pains. The day of birth is the beginning and entrance of all tribulations and anguishes, of pains also and miseries, and nonetheless the beginning and entrance of all sins and impieties, through which impious and irreligious souls perish; therefore, the day of corruptible birth is the beginning and entrance of all these things C which have been mentioned. Meritously cursed is the day in which I was born, because "better is the day of death than of birth," as Ecclesiastes says, and therefore "cursed be the day in which I was born." Why? Because through this, he says, I have arrived at all these unspeakable pains, because through this I have arrived at all these most bitter punishments, because through this, coming to this earthly age, I endure the zeal of a most wicked adversary, and I support the punishment of the most malignant devil. For all these things, therefore, "cursed be the day in which I was born." Many men, he says, under heaven, delighting only in this carnal life, and looking only to earthly things which are in corruption, desire to celebrate the day of their birth enjoyably, rejoicing splendidly in the day of their birth. For they think this is their portion and inheritance, and through these things they hope to live longer in the body, and that their years and the day of their birth will be increased for them. This they do, evidently, not because they hope for eternal things, or await that incorruption which is not seen: for those who do not believe that eternal life exists with God in the heavens, D meritously, delighting only in this earthly and carnal life, celebrate the day of their birth; but the day of death they do not even suffer to be named. I, he says, O men, have so much hatred for this carnal life that, instead of celebrating the day of my birth, I curse and renounce it, saying: "Cursed be the day in which I was born." O how profound is this discourse for those able to inquire! For while making our first main disputation, we will even now necessarily make mention of this meaning in a few words. Cursed, he says, is the day of birth, because it is the beginning of sins and offenses. Nevertheless, blessed are those who on the day of their birth, that is, at the beginning of their life, are blessed, that is, bring to completion those things which are worthy of blessing. Also blessed are those who in the time of their birth, that is, at the beginning of their age and the ignorance of their youth, even if they are cursed because of the sins and ignorance of their youth, will be blessed again on the day of their death and at the end of their age, and will merit blessing through sincere repentance and fruits worthy of repentance. But woe to those, and to their souls, who both at their beginning and in their youth are cursed while sinning, and at the end of their age are not absolved while repenting, nor blessed by fleeing to God through fruits worthy of repentance: whose cursing and eternal condemnation remains among the infernal ones, just as those who have performed true repentance are eternally…
A rest will be theirs in the resurrection! Although we could say very many other things about this discourse, let us cease and commemorate that which follows. "Let the day perish," he says, "in which I was born" (Job 3:3). The blessed Job undoubtedly says this to show everyone what kind of pains he was enduring, or what kind of tortures he was bearing. Just so, the blessed and most holy Jeremiah, having fallen into dejection of soul, spoke things similar to Job, in accordance with all that has been truthfully mentioned above. Beyond all this, we must also note that there was no lack of pains and tribulations for the saints, as well as hardships and passions, not so much for themselves as for us: that we might know and be informed that through tribulations and labors, through passions and miseries, through pains as well as groanings, all the saints pleased God, and all the righteous entered into the kingdom of God, and became heirs of eternal refreshment in the presence of God; they did not exult in corruption, nor were they delighted in the flesh, nor were they secure on earth, but by bearing every misery for the sake of piety, they were made worthy of eternal incorruption in glory. Thus also Paul boasts in his persecutions and passions. Thus also Jeremiah boasts that he sat alone, because he was filled with bitterness, and because he did not go into the council of those playing who are impious.
Why, then, should we wonder that Job, enduring such huge pains, should have complained, or other B saints, when they were human beings truly fashioned from body and soul, when even he who is the ruler of all the saints, and the creator of heaven and earth, and the mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ the Son of the living God, when he clothed himself with a human body and wrapped himself in a corruptible form, when he went to his passion and to the cross, complained, saying: "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me" (Matt. 26:39)—that is, this passion—and began to tremble and be sad? It is not because his divinity trembled, but because he showed the infirmity of the flesh. Therefore, just as that Lord, in order to show that he was not a phantom but possessed a truly corruptible body, showed that he feared the pain and passion of the cross, so also Job, Jeremiah, and the other saints, in order to show that, being carnal, they endured and carried their sufferings and punishments with pain when these happened to them.
Therefore, Job rightly says: "Let the day perish in which I was born," in accordance with all that is shown and recorded above, "and that night in which it was said: Behold a male" (Job 3:3). But when were you born, O blessed C Job? By day, or by night? If you were born by day, why do you rage against the night? But if you were born by night, why do you curse the day? But just as summer and winter are the same, so also night and day; for what is done during the summer is nonetheless consumed by winter, and what is left over in winter is, without a doubt, sown in summer; work is done in the summer, just as one rests in the day; one rests in the winter, just as one rests in the night. And further, just as the body and the soul are one, without distinction and inseparably, and now on earth, and in the resurrection in heaven, whatever a body has sown on earth, the soul covers in the resurrection—whatever a body works in corruption—for this that it sows, it will also reap. As therefore these are the same, so also day and night are the same. What is done in the day is reckoned to the night, and what is done in the night is assigned to the day. For thus all things that the body has done, whether good or evil, are reckoned to the soul, and all things are imputed to the body in judgment and inquiry. For the one is imputed to each, and in each, the one is required and avenged. For both body and soul, when they are together and live together, are judged together for punishment, or together will be received into rest. Therefore, because these things are so, he says, I have neither been silent about the night, nor have I left behind the day. But "let," he said, "that day perish in which I was born, and the night in which it was said: Behold a male." By whom was it said? By those, he says, who announced to my father, Zareb. For very many announced to him that a son was born, one eager to anticipate the other, so that through the fact that they celebrated it honestly, receiving gifts from him every year, they said: "Behold, a male is born to you." But I also think that the midwives themselves announced to Job's mother, Posor (for so they used to call her), that she had brought forth a male. For this demonstrates it by saying: "And that night in which it was said: Behold a male." Where there is day, there is also night. And what is fitting for the day, this is also fitting for the night. Therefore, because day and night are one, when he cursed the day, he did not spare the night. "Let the day perish," he says, "in which I was born, and that night in which it was said: Behold a male." That night which passed by, which went, which failed, which is not. That night, just as that day, remaining in darkness, that which is not seen, which will not be found, which is not called back, which is not. As therefore that night, so also that day let them perish as things that are not, let them fail as things that are not seen nor proven. Since, therefore, Job cursed those things that are not, and wished for those things that are not to perish, he remained completely irreproachable in all things. For he lamented the vehement pain he was enduring without its trouble. I think that perhaps long ago, in the beginning of his youth, rejecting it—because the day of carnal birth is not to be celebrated, but to be lamented and mourned, as the entry of such great temptations and pains—not only did he not celebrate it further, but he cursed and wished it to perish, saying: "Let the day perish in which I was born." Which day? That, he says, which long ago was honest and cheerful, festive and joyful and splendid. Therefore, let that day perish. From where should it perish? From celebration, from joy, from splendor; from these let it perish, and never be found in them. With this day, however, let that night also perish in which it was said: "Behold a male." Hearing these things, O men, let us not rejoice
in this earthly nativity, but let us fear the many temptations of this world, and let us tremble at the terrible entry into that incorruptible age, where there will be a revelation and examination of all our works and words. Let us consider, O men, what change has been wrought in humanity. For those of old celebrated the day of their birth, loving this life alone and hoping for no other after this one. Now, however, we do not celebrate the day of birth, since it is an entry into pains and temptations, but we celebrate the day of death, as being the laying aside of all pains and the escape from all temptations. We celebrate the day of A death, because those who seem to die do not die; therefore, we make memorials of the saints, and we devoutly perform the memorial of our parents or friends who die in the faith, rejoicing in their refreshment as well as desiring for ourselves a pious end in the faith. Thus, therefore, we do not celebrate the day of birth, because those who die live forever. We celebrate it by summoning the religious with the priests, the faithful together with the clergy, inviting also the needy and the poor, feeding the orphans and widows, so that our festival may be made in memory of rest for the defunct souls, whose memorial we celebrate, and for us it may become an odor of sweetness in the sight of the eternal God. We have said these things, precisely because Job cursed the day of birth on account of those who are without hope, saying: *Let that day perish in which I was born, and that night in which it was said: Behold a male.* A little later, continuing, he says: *And let that night be in pain.* He shows, however, that he cursed no one by the fact that he says, "and let that night be in pain." For what pain will there be for the night? None. For night, in itself and by itself, can exist neither with pain nor without pain. For just as it has neither nature nor substance, so it has neither pain, nor wound, nor passion in itself, neither day nor night. Knowing this, therefore, the blessed Job, airing his misery and bewailing his pain, cursed the things that do not exist and desired pain, saying: *Let that day perish in which I was born, and that night in which it was said: Behold a male.* Why? Because it became the beginning of dark pains for me, because it was the entry into my most obscure torments, because along with property and the loss of children it converted even friends into enemies, and consumed my body with worms, and melted the nerves of my limbs with the moisture of the wound. For all these things, therefore, let that day be in darkness, and let it go about in darkness like a wanderer, and may it not find access to me again, nor be able to approach, nor renew my wounds again and again, nor supply me anew with the envy of the wicked devil. For this reason, therefore, let that day be in darkness, that day which deceives many, which seduces many, which procures eternal darkness for many. For all those who have sought carnal life, but are not mindful of the spiritual; B for all those who deem carnal delights a pleasure, for all those who serve pleasure and the belly upon earth; for all these let it be made obscure, because they will come forth into darkness, because they will go into darkness, because darkness will cover their name. *Let that day be in darkness.* The day in which the malicious and dark devil accomplished his will. For in truth, unless the devil first obscures the hearts of men, unless he first darkens their souls, unless he first gives them oblivion of the fear of God and of His terrible judgments, he will never be able to sow the seed of sins in their hearts. But after he has obscured the soul and turned it away from God, then, naturally, he easily converts them to all evils, to licentiousness, to infidelity, and to all the desires of the flesh, as being those who are in darkness. Therefore, for such as these, that day—that is, the day of birth—is made a day of darkness. And not only is the day of birth made darkness for them, but furthermore, the day of death is also made for them an entry into eternal darkness. For a dark day will surround such as these. For meaning all this, he says: *Let that day be in darkness.* The day of the impious, the day of the infidels, the day of the lascivious, of the impudent, of those who keep no piety either on the day of birth or show repentance on the day of death. For such as these, therefore, let that day be in darkness, because they walk in their entire life as if in darkness, who grope like the blind along a wall. But for the just, there is always light on the day of birth, as for Jeremiah and for all the saints. And on the day of death, as for Lazarus, who was carried by the angels into the bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for ever and ever. Amen. *Let that day be in darkness, and let not the Lord seek it from above.* Again he turns to the former things: let not the Lord seek it, so that, if sought, it may not come to me again, so that, if found, it may not find me again. Let not the Lord seek it from above, let Him not remember it, let Him not reckon it. For it is not worthy, neither the day itself, nor the one who in that day inflicted bitter torments upon me. He remembers the day of birth, and signifies the day of lamentable torments, nay rather, the torments themselves, or better, the devil who inflicted them, whom the Lord will never seek as he falls from the heights. Let not the Lord seek him from above. What are you saying, O blessed Job? Will He therefore seek other days, so that you speak as if threatening of this one alone: *Let not the Lord seek it from above?* Certainly, he says, all the days of the age will be sought, all times, and moments, and ages will be sought and brought forth: not, truly, the days of the age which have neither nature nor substance, but the words and deeds which were done or said in those days, but the thoughts and counsels and discourses which were tracked and thought at every time or moment of this age. All these, therefore, are manifested in all nations, and in every tongue, when they are sought out in the judgment in the time of the inquisition. For He does not lie who
A saith: I am mindful to recount the things that are from the age, not only times and moments, and days, and years, but rather the hidden things of the hearts of all men, according to that which is said: Who fashioneth their hearts one by one; who understandeth all their works. And again elsewhere: But He Himself knoweth the secrets of the heart. The Apostle indeed says in consonance with these things: In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men. For that day shall manifest all things, revealing everything in fire. Knowing therefore, O men, that we have an adversary so terrible as Judge, let us strive to conduct ourselves holily both in deeds and in words, so that we may not be examined unto condemnation in the judgment, but unto rest and eternal glory.
Then [it says], Let it not be in the days of the year, neither let it be numbered in the days of the months. Who? That cursed and lost day. Let not this be in the days of the year, neither let it be numbered in the days of the months. Now you have shown evidently, O blessed Job, that you did not curse the day of [God's] creation, that you did not doom the day of the year or of the months, but him who is not in substance, nor in number, nor in count. For all days are encompassed or counted by the year and by the months. But outside the year and the months there is no day. Therefore, if the day that is here cursed and lost is not in the year, and you say: Let it not be in the days of the year; [and if] it is not in the months, and you say: Let it not be numbered in the days of the months, it is nothing, it is nowhere; this that is not, you do not curse, for you do not wish for him to perish who is not. And deservedly, you remain irreprehensible in all things, O most blessed friend of God, Job. C Or, let us understand in another way this cursed and lost day of which he says: Let that day be in darkness, and let not God inquire after it from above. Figuratively, he signifies by these things that unhappy Judas; through this he shows him from afar, he who ought to have been a serene day, and splendid and clear, and luminous to himself and radiant to others, [but] became dark and obscure of his own accord. Therefore, signifying him, he says: Let that day be in darkness, who forsook the light, who departed from the light, who betrayed the Light unto death, and let not God inquire after it from above, when He shall have inquired after Peter and the rest of the apostles, rising from the dead. Let it not be in the days of the year, in the festivals and sanctifications of the Church; let it not be in the unity of the Church; let it not be numbered among the days of the months, in the number of the twelve apostles, as [in] the twelve months, but let it be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the just.
Consonantly with these things, lower down, designating and rebuking the whole people of the Jews, and calling them night, he says: D Let the stars of the night thereof be darkened. Of whose night? Of that of which the Apostle says: The night is far spent. Which stars are to be darkened? The priests, and scribes, and Pharisees: for these who ought to have shone and gleamed in the law like stars in the night, have all become darkened and obscure. Let, he says, that night—the dark people of the Jews—await the resurr A ‑ection of the Lord, but let not His countenance come into the light, nor let it see the Morning Star, the Holy Spirit the Paraclet, sent from on high to the apostles. And very many other things are demonstrated from the very sermons of blessed Job, which in the resurrection and judgment will anticipate the impious and unjust like an untimely birth coming forth from its mother’s womb. There, he says, the impious have ceased from the rage of indignation, there the weary in body have rested. There, he says, in the resurrection, in the inquisition, in the judgment. For there the indignation and fury of the impious comes to rest, when the condemnation and torment worthy of them has been inflicted: then they shall be as an untimely birth coming forth from its mother’s womb, like infants who have not seen the light. For as untimely births going forth from their mother’s womb have not seen the light, but go from darkness into darkness, from the darkness and anguish of the maternal womb into the darkness and anguishes of the earth and the sepulchre: B so the impious go from darkness into darkness, from anguish shall they be expelled into anguish, from the body into the sepulchre, from the sepulchre they shall be expelled into anguish and the condemnation of judgment, and into the outer darkness, where there is no light, nor shall men see life. Little and great, he says, are there. For the king of this kingdom is no acceptor of persons. Deservedly he grants equally to all, both to little and great, and to the humble and the exalted, the entrance of this kingdom: to those, indeed, who fear Him equally, who love Him equally. Little and great. There is Lazarus the little with Abraham the great. And the servant not fearing his master. For in corruption there is no master [who is] corruptible, nor carnal, but when the face of the celestial Lord and Judge shall have appeared, then corruptible and carnal masters shall nowhere appear. Deservedly, there is the servant not fearing his master. For the mentioned fear of judgment, the terror and dread of future things, brings every corruptible and carnal fear into oblivion and casts it forth. For neither do servants remember the fear of their masters, nor do masters occur to servants to be obeyed. For one fear of inquisition and judgment shall seize all. Deservedly, there is the servant there not fearing his master. There is Obadiah not fearing Ahab his master. There is Onesimus not fearing Philemon his master. And others numberless are found both in the Law, and in the Gospel, like to these, who, serving the celestial Lord and God of all, did not fear carnal masters upon the earth to the end of obeying them in evil deeds, nor do they fear them in the heavens as they come into the sight of the true Lord. For when they had rendered carnal servitude to them purely and devotedly, they did not depart from the servitude of the Creator. For this it behooves servants to render to their carnal masters, that they do not defraud, that they do not circumvent, that they do not lay snares for their masters, that they do not serve to the eye, that they do not feign to the face, but when away from the eyes, but when away from...