Fragments on Job 59–79

[Job 1:10] … seeking someone to devour. So he came round Job as well, wishing to do the same things to him. Later, when he had received authority, he did them. And he understood that everything was fenced around from being prevented when he wished to do what he did concerning Job; so he said: "You have fenced around the things within him and the things outside him." Everything, then, so far as it is not given to the devil, you have fenced around. … to Job: [Job 1:18–19] "While your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking at the house of their elder brother, suddenly a great wind came from the desert and struck the four corners of the house, and the house fell on your children, and they died; and I alone escaped, and came to tell you." The camels, then, he caused to fall to the horsemen, and the asses and the yokes of oxen to the raiders who took captives; but the sheep he hated, and that is why he brought fire down on them. But he also plotted against the sons and sought an occasion to destroy them. If he had found them reading, he would not have touched the house, nor would he have had any opening to kill them. If he had found them praying, he could have done nothing against them. But when he found a fitting moment, he prevailed. What, then, was the moment? There was drunkenness; there was a drinking party. As for the wind touching the corners of the house, notice that "the hypocrites stand and pray at the corners of the broad streets"; and everyone who has not set foot on the straight way keeps to corners. And a broad corner is wickedness that is great and unrestrained. [Job 2:2] Chapter 2, verse 2: "And the Lord said to the devil: Where do you come from?" God saw how the Satan, put to shame, was in distress. And when, on questioning him, he sees him obstinate, then he convicts him as an evildoer, as he convicted Cain.

… the one who had taken shape in her utters these things; for it was not possible for Job's wife to be such a woman, unless one should say that she became such when overturned by calamity. And a little after, he says: It is likely that this was not the first time this counsel was given, but that he had often heard many things harder than these from his wife. See the devil's deceit. He had Eve in mind. "This," he says, "brought down the first man; this will be able to overcome this man too." But, wretched and senseless one, you found that man weaker than his belly, and sowed your poison; this man you see living as a philosopher and overcoming nature itself. The loss of his goods did not bend him, nor the untimely death of his children, nor torment of body without consolation, nor so great a length of time. And do you expect to subdue by words the man whom events did not capture? Why do you unnerve the athlete? Why do you hold down his hands? You ought to have said, with the apostle: "Yet a little while, yet a little while." [Job 2:9] Verse 9: "But say some word against the Lord, and die." After telling the tragedy in detail, she then brings in her shameless counsel. And she did not say to him openly, "Blaspheme"; for those who give wicked counsel do not dare to bring in their counsel uncovered. What are you saying, woman? When you ought to appease him, ought to be reconciled, do you urge him instead to provoke him? For if God did these things, one must entreat him, not blaspheme him. And how is it clear that even if I do this I shall die? Yet see what the woman thought about blasphemy: she supposed it able to bring death at once. [Job 2:10] Verse 10: "If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not bear the evil?" For this blessed man, struck from every side, stood the more securely, and receiving countless arrows he did not give way. He emptied the devil's quiver, but he himself did not fall nor was he tripped. Like an excellent pilot, he was not sunk when the sea raged and the waves rose, nor did he grow careless when it was calm; in either change of circumstances he kept his skill the same. Wealth did not puff him up, nor did poverty humble him; when affairs ran with the current he did not lie back at ease, and when almost his whole household was overturned and utter ruin came he was not thrown into confusion, nor did he disgrace his own courage. Let the rich hear, let the poor hear: the account is useful to both, and the story is profitable to all people, to those in prosperity and to those in misfortune. For the champion of piety, the crowned victor of the whole world, handled both kinds of weapons and set up his trophy in both; and against every kind of the demon's warfare

… he was proclaimed victor before all. And just as a soldier … who knows how to fight by night, to fight at walls, to fight on foot and at sea, to shoot the bow and brandish the spear, and with slings and javelins and in every manner of fighting to overcome the enemy and to … everywhere, so that noble man bore every trial with great courage, including the one that came from his servants. For there was no human calamity that was not emptied out on his body. But nevertheless … he flew above the nets and rose higher than the devil's limed reeds. And what is more wonderful still is that everything came on him, and everything in excess, and everything at once. Do not say only that he suffered so many things; add that it was not little by little, nor at intervals, but at one time and together. This is no small addition to the trials. For among other people, first, no one would be found who endured everything together. If someone wrestles with poverty, he enjoys health; and if he is pierced with poverty and sickness together, he has often enjoyed a wife who consoled him in his troubles and became a harbor for him. And if he did enjoy such a wife, at least she did not give such ruinous counsel; and if she did, at least he did not lose all his children at once; and if at once, at least not by such a death; and if by such a death, at least he had friends to comfort him; and if he did not have friends to comfort him, at least they did not trample on him in this way; and if they trampled on him, at least his servants did not reproach him; and if they reproached him, at least they did not spit in his face; and if they spat in his face, at least he was not pierced with such a disease, but enjoyed a room and …, and did not sit on the dung heap; and if he did sit on the dung heap, he had those who stretched out a hand to him, but not also … [Job 2:11] Verse 11: "And they came to him, each from his own country: Eliphaz the king of the Temanites, Baldad the ruler of the Sauchaeans, Sophar the king of the Minaeans." Friendly was their coming, and friendly their exhortation. Eliphaz: "God has scattered me," or "contempt of my God." Teman: "their failing." Sophar: "watchman," or "contempt." Baldad: "aging," and "glorious." Sauchaeans: "their idle talk." [Job 2:11] "… [And the three friends] of his [heard] of all the evils that had come upon him, and they came each from his own country …" If anyone asks why the friends arrived after so long a time, let him consider, first, that they lived in different countries; and that many perhaps heard of it only after a very long time, while the strangeness of the calamity seemed incredible, that Job too was sitting on the dung heap

… and without help. And they waited to confirm the report through more witnesses, or even to send someone to see whether what was said was true. In these things, then, the time passed. Besides, when they knew the truth, being kings and about to travel abroad, they had first to settle the affairs of their household and set others over their subjects in their place. All these things kept them busy, and they were delayed. And unless they had been very loving and righteous men, they would not have left their own countries and kingdoms to come and visit, but would have met the need through others. One may also consider that the delay of their arrival was a divine dispensation. For since the whole contest ended together with the friends' discussion, when God gave his answer and restored and crowned the righteous man, it was a divine dispensation that the friends were slow to come, so that the course of the disease might be prolonged and the righteous man, having contended the more, might be proclaimed by God the more justly. [Job 2:11] Verse 11: "And they came to him together, to comfort and to visit him." Symmachus rendered it thus: "For they arranged to come together, to sympathize with him and to console him." See from this too that further time passed, until, sending messages to one another, they made their meeting and their arrival together. [Job 2:12] Verse 12: "And sprinkling earth on their [heads] …" [Job 2:13] Verse 13: "They sat beside him seven days and …" The Scripture did not say that they sat beside him seven days from early morning until evening, nor seven nights from evening until morning. It is clear, then, that after sitting beside him for the greater part of the day they withdrew to see to their necessary needs, and coming back they sat beside him far into the night, and going away again they came back to him at dawn. This is the mark of the truest and most sympathetic friends. But the Scripture, using ordinary speech, said simply: "They sat beside him seven days and seven nights." For when it says that Jacob served fourteen years and was burned by the heat of the day and the frost of the night, did he then never go under a roof? Did he get no rest in all that time? To split hairs over these things is idle talk; for, as I said, the Scripture uses ordinary speech. But since some, mocking the Scripture, tear at it as false on this point too ("For how," they say, "could they go without food and without sleep for so many days?"), we were compelled to be drawn along with them into this untimely narrowness. With this the second chapter is finished; and making a preliminary survey of the third, we say

that the righteous man is in pain, no one could deny; for virtue belongs not to those who feel nothing but to those who live wisely in their sufferings. He is in anguish: outwardly, being stung most sharply by the blow in his flesh; inwardly, as a righteous and God-loving man, seeing some scandalized at his sufferings, as though God's glory were disparaged in him if the righteous man endures these things. For when he says, "Why have you set me as your accuser?", he was not himself acting against God (far from it! for with whom did he have to plead?), but this is what he says: "Why, Master, is your name slandered because of me?" And he is troubled no less by the fear that perhaps he had been abandoned by God. For nothing punishes a God-loving soul so much as suspecting that it has been abandoned by God; it would choose death ten thousand times rather than be counted among the living with pains and such a suspicion. At the loss of his possessions and the sudden death of his children we have heard what thankful words he uttered, and how he instructed his wife when she thought something unseemly about the Master, and what he said after the trial, the contempt and the sharp suffering, and how nothing of human misfortunes troubled him. But when his friends came, righteous and sympathetic men, he thought it the right moment, seeing their patience and their love toward him, to speak and make public the pains of his soul; and according to the literal sense he speaks without danger. For the devil's one aim was to bring the righteous man to blaspheme God; but he is in no way seen to have achieved this; rather Job spoke well of God and sent up thankful words. He curses the day of his birth and longs for death for the reasons stated above. But according to the deeper meaning he speaks mysteries: he reflects on things that have already happened and gives full assurance about what is to come. For such always are the sayings of the holy prophets. Coming now to the words themselves, let us make the meaning clear, with him guiding us to the interpretation who also strengthened holy Job for his contests. [Job 3:1] Verse 1: "After this Job opened his mouth." That a righteous man opens his mouth: one should not attend to what is said casually, but seek out the benefit from the words. For such words of the saints are always full of benefit, and when a righteous man opens his mouth he brings hidden treasures into the open. Therefore the vessel of election, Paul, says in his letter: "Our mouth is opened to you, Corinthians." And of the Lord it is written that "opening his mouth he taught." In short, the one who is attested to open his mouth is the one who was first taught the measures of silence. So Job too opens his mouth

after this: that is, after the great trophy, after those sufferings. He does not speak without torment, being in great pain in his body, so that his tongue might outrun the lawful order of his mind; yet he shows by his words that he is self-controlled. The testimony that he "opened his mouth" shows both the calm of his soul and the fittingness of his words. [Job 19:2] Verse 2: "How long will you make my soul weary?" Just as heavy loads placed on animals' bodies make those that carry them weary, so there are heavy words, on hearing which one grows weary, as if pressed down by a weight. Feeling the force of the words spoken (not kindly but harshly, or in reproach) by the other two who had come with Baldad as if it were a heavy burden, Job, wearied in his soul by what they had said, says: "How long will you make my soul weary?" And a little later: You see how the ruler of the Sauchaeans was described beforehand. His words are tyrannical; and hearing them Job says: "How long will you make my soul weary?" Nothing reaches a person's soul so much as a hard word. Often one who has endured tortures applied to his body has not endured words. Yet the perfect athlete, even if he grows weary, endures harsh words; for to endure insult is the mark of a great man. That is why, among his own brave deeds, the apostle says: "Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being slandered, we entreat. We have become like the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things, until now." And a little later he says next, on "How long will you make my soul weary?": Do you see? It is Job, whose book contains nothing else so particularly as his courage and his patience; and yet he feels the weariness that the hard word of those who had come to visit him caused him. [Job 19:6] Verse 6: "Know, then, that it is the Lord who has done it." What you see in me, do not think it has come on me from anywhere but from God. Fear, then; for he who brings these things on me can bring them on you as well. [Job 19:3] Verse 3: "You speak against me, not ashamed of me,"

… is supposed: that I suffer these things because of my sins. Ought you, then, to reproach me like this? [Job 19:4] "And with me lodges error." Even if, for the sake of argument, I had done such things as I ought not, even if I were such a man, ought you not, seeing the scourges, the discharges, the worms, the loss of my goods, to have shown me respect? But you trample on me further, neither pitying me nor sympathizing with my plight. [Job 19:5] Verse 5: "Ah, but because you magnify yourselves against me and leap upon me with reproach." You reproach me not moderately but leaping on me; you reproach me as if trampling and treading me down. [Job 19:6] Verse 6: "And he has raised his stronghold against me." I am, as it were, under a wall: the stronghold of my plight. I cannot flee until God decides to pull it down. [Job 19:7] Verse 7: "Behold, I laugh at reproach, and I will not speak." This is: "Overcome evil with good." … Behold, at your reproach I am thought to laugh, not to speak. [Job 20:6] Verse 6: "If his gifts go up to heaven, and his sacrifice touches the clouds." If the gifts of the ungodly go up to heaven, if he is greatly exalted, if his sacrifice touches the clouds: when the heretic prays, when his sacrifice goes up through lofty talk, when he seems to have been established, then he will perish utterly. For his prayer will be counted to him as sin, and the prayer itself is sin. [Job 20:7] Verse 7: "For when he seems already to have been established, then he will perish utterly." Similar is: "But the enemies of the Lord, as soon as they were glorified and exalted, vanished like smoke." Verse 7: "And those who saw him will say: Where is he?" Who are those who saw him? The members of the church, who saw their errors, will say: "Where is he?" [Job 20:8] Verse 8: "Like a dream that has flown away, he will not be found." Such men, dreaming and fashioning phantoms, do not fix their mind on the truth; led astray, they become like a dream that has flown away, which will not be found. [Job 20:10] Verse 10: "May inferiors destroy his sons." The sons and disciples of the one who taught these things. Verse 10: "And may his hands kindle pains." "His hands," he says, that is, his deeds, will kindle punishment for him. "And his hands": of this ungodly and erring one, whose prayer is counted as sin, whose sacrifice, if it goes up to heaven and touches the clouds

… touches, then he perishes utterly. … his hands will kindle pains; that is, they will pass their lives in the utmost pains. He speaks of the sons of the … For he holds teachings that are not sweet but the gall of an asp, that is, wicked; or else it concerns the wine of their teaching, for "their vine is of the vine of Sodom," and so on. And a little after: The gall of an asp is in the belly of the one who holds other doctrines and is impious in teachings contrary to the truth. [Job 20:15] Verse 15: "Wealth unjustly gathered will be vomited up." For what other wealth is gathered unjustly than that which lies in their words? It is gathered unjustly. But the Good One will not allow them, fallen as they are, to keep wealth unjustly gathered within themselves for ever; he will make them vomit it up. Verse 15: "An angel will drag him out of his house." For an angel, by God's working and kindness, will drag him out of that badly built house, which is the church of evildoers; for this is his house. But an angel will drag him out of his house. [Job 20:17] Verse 17: "May he not see the milking of the herds." The one who holds other doctrines does not see the milking of the herds. The herds are certain souls pastured under the good Shepherd, who said: "I am the door; if anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out and find pasture." [Job 20:18] Verse 18: "Like a tough herb, unchewable, unswallowable." Their words and doctrines, tough and dense, have nothing sweet in them, those spoken against God. The strychnos is a herb that roughens the tongue of the one who chews it. Just as no one can swallow that herb, he says, however hard he strives to grind it with his teeth, so the one who wishes to enjoy what belongs to others will carry away no profit from his labours.

[Job 20:22] Verse 22: "May he snow pains upon him." Instead of snow, pains come upon such a man. [Job 20:24] Verse 24: "And may he not be saved from the hand of iron." By iron he does not mean this iron that we perceive by the senses, but a most cutting word. [Job 20:25] Verse 25: "And may an arrow pass through his body." These fiery arrows wound him. [Job 20:26] Verse 26: "A fire that is not kindled will devour him." We learn a mystery about the punishment that is laid up, so that we may guard against suffering it. He said that a fire not kindled devours the ungodly. This material fire among us is not an unkindled fire, for it is seen. But that fire which comes upon sinners is invisible and burns them within. It is a fire perceived by the mind, and it punishes. If you wish to take an image of that fire, think of someone with an extreme fever, burning as with fire. You will not find the fire in him by sight; yet it lies beneath and burns up his inner parts. So one who is feverish from his sins is burned up. Verse 26: "And may a stranger ruin his house." The one who made war on that people was a stranger, not a proselyte; he ruined their house, destroying what was considered the sanctuary and the city they called holy. [Job 20:27] Verse 27: "And may the heaven reveal his iniquities." That is: he will suffer terrible things both from God and from heaven. He said this because Job, after saying that he had been struck by God, also mentioned that he had been wronged by men. He argues, then, that everything came on him because of sin. Verse 27: "And may the earth rise up against him." The earth itself rises up against that people. [Job 20:29] Verse 29: "And the possession of his goods from the Overseer." Learn who is named Overseer here: God is called Overseer (episkopos), and the bishops, the good and noble ones, strive in every way to bear his image. And just as one who has copied a royal image is honoured for copying it well, and honoured too for having adorned it, so blessed is the bishop who has understood the true Overseer, and is zealous for him, and becomes like a god among men; or who has as his overseer the One who makes him truly a bishop in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and might for ever and ever. Amen. [Job 21:5] Chapter 21, verse 5: "Look at me and be astonished." You claim to be wise and to know why I suffer these things, as if God were not asleep with regard to people's sins; and you dared to say that I am a sinner and have justly come to this. [Job 21:7] Verse 7: "And they have grown old in wealth." They are not newly rich, but have been

rich for many years and always increasing their wealth. [Job 21:8] Verse 8: "Their seed is according to the soul." The seed of the righteous is according to the Spirit, for he "sows to the Spirit, and from the Spirit reaps eternal life"; but the seed of such men, since "the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit, for they are folly to him," is not according to the Spirit but according to the soul, the inferior part. Verse 8: "And their children are before their eyes." Everything they do, they do to be seen by men; for each person's works are his children. The children of those who hold other doctrines are not in the heart, in good thoughts, but in the eyes, to be seen by men. [Job 21:9] Verse 9: "Their houses prosper." When you enter a synagogue of heretics and see the crowd gathered there, see that "their houses prosper." Verse 9: "And there is no fear anywhere." They are fearless. They do not fear God; they despise the Godhead. Saying such things about God, they are not afraid that it is about God they are speaking. Verse 9: "And there is no scourge from the Lord upon them." If you see a man saying such things against God, healthy in body, with his sight and senses intact, and sometimes seeming to prosper even in worldly affairs, see that in him, ungodly as he is, this is fulfilled: "And there is no scourge from the Lord upon them." [Job 21:10] Verse 10: "Their cow has not miscarried." (Of the same.) The ox is a farming animal and works the land along with the farmer. And they too farm; but they farm Sodom and Gomorrah, they farm Egypt. "Their cow has not miscarried": it too gave birth and bore offspring, so that their wicked land may be farmed. Verse 10: "And their pregnant one was kept safe, and …" What they conceive they also carry in the womb, conceiving not from the fear of God but from wickedness. "Behold, he travailed with injustice, conceived toil, and brought forth lawlessness." [Job 21:11] Verse 11: "And they remain like everlasting sheep." What is the sense of "they remain like everlasting sheep"? Those of whom Christ says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I give them eternal life," and so on: these are the everlasting sheep. Since, then, those who hold other doctrines are imitators and wish to imitate the flock of Christ, appointing for themselves bishops, presbyters, deacons, teachers, laity and catechumens, imitating the everlasting sheep, they fulfil the words "And they remain like everlasting sheep." They are not everlasting sheep, but they remain like everlasting sheep.

[Job 21:11] Verse 11: "And their children play." [Job 21:12] Verse 12: "Taking up harp and lyre." Our people take up harp and lyre, hymning God and glorifying him. But their children, the senseless among them, play as they take up harp and lyre. Whenever they take up the words of the Old Covenant, they make sport and laugh at the oracles of the law and the prophets. Taking up the harmonious instruments, the harp of the law and the prophetic lyre, they make sport of them. Verse 12: "And they rejoice at the sound of a psalm." They too recite psalms of Valentinus and sing odes of Basilides, and utter other such things, rejoicing at the sound of a psalm. [Job 21:13] Verse 13: "And in the rest of Hades they fell asleep." They fell asleep in a rest not of heaven but of Hades. But we pray to fall asleep, not in the rest of Hades, but in the rest of God in the holy heavens with Christ our King, to whom be glory and might for ever and ever. Amen. [Job 22:2] Chapter 22, verse 2: "Is it not the Lord who teaches understanding and knowledge?" What the Holy Spirit arranges must be thought worthy of being written down; it is written down so that the reader may benefit from what is read. If, then, the words of the three who came to Job had not been useful, so that the reader could take something from what they said to Job, providence would not have caused the words of the three to be written in the book of Job as well. One may, then, benefit from their words by looking into their teachings; but one should see that their words are blameworthy on one point only, when they accuse Job, thinking that he suffers for his sins, and not seeing that there are many other causes of what happens to people, of things that are considered good or hard, or whatever one wishes to call them. And a little after: "Is it not the Lord who teaches understanding and knowledge?" The teaching is sound: a man cannot be the true teacher of virtue. For it is written in the Psalms that the one "who teaches man knowledge" is no other than God. And "Teach me your statutes," says the prophet, knowing that God is the true and perfect teacher. God teaches by shining on the soul of the one who learns from him and enlightening his mind with the light, his true Word. So righteous men too teach us, having received the grace of teaching. [Job 22:4] Verse 4: "And he will enter into judgment with you." God, taking account of the one he cares for, reproves him. "And he will enter into judgment with you." We have often said, whenever this teaching came up