Before the first verse « But they that shall be left. » That is, the despised of the world, whom the age has left as unworthy: as the Egyptian boy, that is, the lover of the age, black with sins, is often left despised by the age, that he may not run with it, but, broken by adversities, may lie torpid. But him David, that is, Christ, finds, and turns to his own love, and feeds with the food of the word, and makes the guide of his journey, that is, his preacher: by which guide he destroys them that feast together, that is, the gladness of the world, which scorned to have him for a companion. « They shall be taken away from them. » Because God has chosen them for himself. « They shall die, and not in wisdom. » Having set the lot of the just between, he returns to the destruction of them that understand not. The reprobate despise the just, because through their own death they seek things invisible, or through death they seek the invisible life. But they themselves, who flee alike from death and from wisdom, do indeed utterly forsake wisdom, being unwilling to die for the truth, and yet they do not escape death.
1 Then Eliphaz, the Themanite, answered, and said:
2 If we begin to speak to thee, perhaps thou wilt take it ill; but who can withhold the words he hath conceived?
v.2
VERS. 2.-- « If we begin to speak to thee. » They begin softly, but they break out into harsh things. So heretics set forth smooth words, that they be not guarded against, but bring in harsh ones after. « But that which is conceived. » The perfect do not even in their heart conceive perverse things, which they check by silence. Others conceive depraved things, but bind them fast by the great strength of silence: others both conceive them and straightway bring them forth. Light in understanding, headlong in tongue. Of these is Eliphaz, who out of his own experience judges the same of all men. « Who shall be able to hold it. » As though he would fain hold it back: wherein he hints that he will give offense in speaking.
3 Behold thou hast taught many, and thou hast strengthened the weary hands:
v.3
VERS. 3.-- « Behold, thou hast taught very many. » There are certain good things which even he confesses who wishes to lay a charge against a man. How great was he before, who, though busied with the ordering of so many things of his own, yet freely taught others also, showing right things by deed and by word? But because the accuser speaks good things of the same man, he bent them to a charge, saying:
4 Thy words have confirmed them that were staggering, and thou hast strengthened the trembling knees:
5 But now the scourge is come upon thee, and thou faintest: It hath touched thee, and thou art troubled.
v.5
VERS. 5.-- « But now it is come, etc., as though thou hast not kept the right things which thou didst say. » But note that there are wicked men who speak the good things of the just which, being known, they cannot deny, lest they seem depraved: and that they may thereby be the more believed in the evils which they bring in, they turn these very good things also to the heaping up of guilt. Here therefore, as though by his own testimony, he is reproved as an evil man for having spoken right things, but not kept them: below he is noted for speaking ill, that he may hold his peace. And these are the two ways in which evil men assail the good, saying that they either speak depraved things, or do not hold the good things which they speak. « Thou hast fainted, etc. Where is thy fear? » As though he marveled at virtues that were lost, which he sets down in a fitting order. As in the way of the world boldness begets strength and fear begets weakness, so also in the way of God boldness begets weakness, and the fear of God strength: because he who is joined to God is raised by a certain power above all things; strength is not shown save in adversities, whence patience is added, because he as it were makes progress in strength who bears others' evils unmoved. Of patience is perfection born, whence a man is said to possess his soul in patience, that is, to live rightly in all things, to have dominion out of virtue over all the motions of the mind: for he who conquers himself is strong against all things. But since he took him to task by inveighing against him, now he adds as it were by exhorting:
6 Where is thy fear, thy fortitude, thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways?
7 Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? or when were the just destroyed?
v.7
VERS. 7.-- « Remember, I beseech thee. » But this too he does blameworthily. For the innocent and the upright are often here utterly blotted out, even though they are kept for things eternal: but they who serve God not for an eternal but for an earthly wage feign for themselves the thing they seek, and, presuming to teach, when they preach earthly security, show by all their labors what they love.
8 On the contrary, I have seen those who work iniquity, and sow sorrows, and reap them,
v.8
VERS. 8.-- « Nay rather I have seen them. » He sows sorrows who speaks. He reaps deceitful things who prevails by speaking. Or, he sows sorrows who does perverse things. He reaps, who prospers in them. These do not (as he says) perish, but live here more happily than the just. For God suffers certain men to prevail here, that the life of the just may be purged the more cleanly. He punishes others straightway, lest he be thought to neglect human things, and to pass over many evils, that he may strengthen the hearts of the innocent who are faint-hearted: but he would speak more truly of all men at the end; it could be said generally that the innocent and the upright man does not perish, because though he be worn down here, with God he is restored in true salvation. And the evil perish, because though they grow higher here, at the end they shall be smitten more hardly. But since he says, *remember,* it is plain that past things are brought back to mind, not that things to come are declared.
9 Perishing by the blast of God, and consumed by the spirit of his wrath.
v.9
VERS. 9.-- « That they perished at the blowing of God. » We blow air, while from without we draw it within, and from within we render it without. God therefore is said to blow in retribution, because from outward causes he conceives within the counsel of judgment, and from that inward counsel he sends forth the sentence outwardly, that is, from our evils which he sees without, he disposes judgment within, and from the inward conception he makes damnation without. Or God is said to blow, that is, to be angry, by a likeness, because we, when we are angry, are inflamed with the blast of fury. God therefore blows in being angry, purposing vengeance, when, after long patience, he who in himself is tranquil seems turbulent to the guilty, since they before him are troubled by their own guilt. After he had admonished him kindly, he openly rebukes him. « The roaring of the lion, » that is, the severity and terror of Job himself: « the voice of the lioness, » the talkativeness of his wife, « the teeth of the whelps, » the greediness of his sons, has been destroyed. The stiff man exults, as though they had been condemned by right. He compares Job also to a tiger, because of the spots of dissembling. For the hypocrite, who seems upright, has hidden vices, which sometimes, breaking out, change his color. The glory of the just is a prey which he snatches to himself: this man therefore, thinking that holy Job had held by hypocrisy the good things which he knew in him, says:
10 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of the whelps of lions, are broken:
11 The tiger hath perished for want of prey, and the young lions are scattered abroad.
v.11
VERS. 11.-- « The tiger hath perished. » That is, the variety of thy dissembling is put out, etc., *as far as* such men as these think that they surpass all men in wisdom.
12 Now there was a word spoken to me in private, and my ears by stealth, as it were, received the veins of its whisper.
v.12
VERS. 12.-- « Moreover a hidden word was spoken to me. » Heretics feign that they hear hidden things, whence they also preach secretly, that their preaching may be held holier, and not equal to that of others. « By stealth, etc. » Because they do not enter with the rest by the door, but seek the chinks of a depraved understanding; and because a thief fears the light, he adds:
13 In the horror of a vision by night, when deep sleep is wont to hold men,
v.13
VERS. 13.-- « In the horror of a nightly vision. » In the dread of a nightly vision they say that they have perceived the veins of the divine whisper, because, that they may boast of lofty things, they say that they can scarcely take them in. But while they thus mark lofty things, they are witnesses against themselves of their wickedness. For in a nightly vision a thing is seen doubtfully. « When deep sleep is wont to seize. » That is, while all below sleep in torpor, we watch for the perceiving of high and heavenly things. And when at times they see this despised, they feign to fear themselves the things they say, whence he adds:
14 Fear seized upon me, and trembling, and all my bones were affrighted:
v.14
VERS. 14.-- « Dread held me. » That they may seem wonderful in high things, they are as it were greatly afraid of what they feign: and yet they are bold to bring forth the things which they assert they could scarcely hear. « A word was spoken to me. » The Son of God is said, etc., *as far as* so much the more, being checked, does it dread his uprightness: whence he adds: « In the horror of a nightly vision, etc. » That is, in the dread of hidden contemplation, in which nothing is seen manifestly, but as it were in an image. But to this no man attains, unless the desires of the flesh be checked, whence: « When deep sleep is wont to seize men. » He watches who is intent upon the cares of the world: he sleeps in quiet who flees them. This is Jacob, who sleeps on the way and sees angels, that is, in the course of this life he closes his eyes to worldly things, which fault opened to our first parents for coveting. And no man is brought to the seeing of inward things unless he be withdrawn from those things which entangle him without; whence: « Be still and see: for I am God. » But the more the mind, lifted up in contemplation, beholds things higher than itself, the more terribly does it tremble in itself, whence: « Dread held me and trembling and all the bones. » That is, the stronger deeds, etc., *as far as* he feels the sting of the flesh, he adds:
15 And when a spirit passed before me, the hair of my flesh stood up.
16 There stood one whose countenance I knew not, an image before my eyes, and I heard the voice, as it were, of a gentle wind.
v.16
VERS. 16.-- « There stood one. That they may judge that they have known incomprehensible things, etc., *as far as* because he arrogated to himself specially a good that is common. « The hairs of my flesh stood up. » The hairs are all the superfluous thoughts of human corruption, of the old life: which if we shut out from the mind, we cut the hairs from the flesh, that we be not wearied with pain. Whence Moses: « Let the Levites shave all the hairs of their flesh. » But these things we behold more subtly in ourselves when we pierce into high things, whence rightly it is now said: « When a spirit passed by. » For when the mind sees true things, it torments itself the more hardly concerning superfluous things. When therefore the spirit passes, the hairs are greatly afraid, because before the force of compunction superfluous thoughts flee away, because the inward vision inflames the soul against itself; and while it cuts away unlawful things strictly, the mind cleaves more widely to contemplation, and it well fixes the spirit which was passing; nor yet does this very staying of contemplation fully open the force of loving-kindness, whence he adds: « There stood one whose countenance I knew not. » He is not said to be a certain one, etc., *as far as* he beholds through his co-eternal likeness, he adds: « An image before the eyes me. » The Image of the Father is the Son, who says: No man comes to the Father but by me. « And I heard a voice as of a gentle breeze. » The voice of the breeze is knowledge, etc., *as far as* who from this hearing learned.
17 Shall man be justified in comparison of God, or shall a man be more pure than his maker?
v.17
VERS. 17.-- « Shall a man be justified in comparison of God? » This he knew in contemplation, that human justice compared with the divine is injustice, as the lamp which shines in the darkness grows dim in the sun: which he could do, because he who sees the light knows what to reckon of the darkness. « Or purer than his maker? » This he reckons who murmurs against him that scourges him. But he ought to know that he does not scourge impiously who made wonders out of nothing, and that the founder of nature is not an unjust judge of fault. And though this man unjustly reproves Job, yet he rightly describes the measure of the creature in comparison with the Creator. A man therefore reckons himself purer than his maker if he prepares a complaint against the scourge, and without doubt sets him after himself, when he reproves his judgment concerning his own affliction « Behold, they that serve him. » An angel, although he remains unchangeable in his estate, yet in this, that he is a creature, has the vicissitude of changeableness, and so is not stable. For if this nature were not changeable, since it was well founded, it would have fallen in nothing. But of free choice it had it to fall or to stand, and in those that stood the merit was that they fixed the motion of their own changeableness by the earnestness of the will. This is the proof of changeableness which he adds concerning the apostate: « And in his angels he found wickedness. » From the comparison of these the infirmity of man is gathered. « How much more they that dwell in houses of clay. » That is, earthly bodies, etc., *as far as* they behold, being taken up with the cares of the world; whence he adds:
18 Behold, they that serve him are not steadfast, and in his angels he found wickedness:
19 How much more shall they that dwell in houses of clay, who have an earthly foundation, be consumed as with the moth?
20 From morning till evening they shall be cut down: and because no one understandeth, they shall perish for ever.
v.20
VERS. 20.--From morning until evening. » That is, from the beginning of their life until its end they are wounded by the committing of iniquity, and being cut down by it they fall into the deep. Or morning is prosperity; evening, adversity; but by both they perish, because through prosperity they are wanton, through adversity impatient, and rise up to madness. And because none of them, namely, « who from morning until evening shall be cut down » understands what is kept here for the afflicted good, what is to come for himself who here thinks them good things. But because not all are so forsaken, he adds:
21 And they that shall be left, shall be taken away from them: they shall die, and not in wisdom.