But he also said above, God would not hearken to him, so that he should answer to one of his charges or of a thousand.^[1] How can Job speak so here? In the bitterness of my soul, he says. Therefore it is not him who speaks but his bitterness, insofar as the reflections of Job allow us to express what he means. Would that one were present who should hear the cause between both^[2] not in order to examine his life in detail and to show that he is unjustly suffering. He does not say that actually, as in the previous passages. He has often said that it is because of his iniquity.^[3] He wants to demonstrate that the persisting oppression overwhelms him. And this is what Isaiah says, You became angry, and we, we are distraught,^[4] and in another passage, Why did you lead us astray from your path?^[5] I fear, [Job] says, lest I fall or capsize; I am afraid to be forced, one day, to blaspheme or to commit suicide.

Therefore it often happens that the mind of the righteous man, in order to be made more secure, is the more penetrated with fear, and when he is beset with scourges, he is troubled with misgivings about the judgment of the Most High. He fears lest all that he suffers should be the forerunner of an ensuing doom. In his heart, he questions the Judge with the result that under his visitation he is full of doubts about the merit of his life. However, when the goodness of his life is brought before the eyes of the mind, it is as if the Judge gave comfort in the answer whereby he never strikes to destroy but strikes to sustain the innocency of life and conduct. Therefore, it is justly said here, Show me why you judge me so. As if it were expressed in plain words, Whereas you exercise judgment upon me by scourging me, show me that by these scourges you are making me secure against judgment.. . . This same thing is also said by way of a negating interrogation, as though it were said in plain terms: You who are supremely good, I know do not hold it good to oppress the poor man by calumny. Therefore, I know that it is not unjust that I am suffering, and I am the more grieved that I cannot tell the causes of its justness.

Do you judge things according to human views? May anything hide from your careful examination, as it is hidden from human beings? Are your years few, and do you ignore what was previous to your age? Do you need to make an enquiry and an investigation about what happened to me, in order to understand that I am not impious? He says these words by bringing forward God as the witness of his righteousness and by demanding the benefit of his infinite benevolence. People, in fact, ask for similar things, and God, in his benevolence, reveals few of them to the many. But if I have not committed iniquity, he says, I know, in my heart, that it is not possible to escape from your will; and if I did not know this by myself, your will which knows human things better than us, would have mastered me. The blessed Job pronounces all these words by teaching us that in temptation we can only take refuge in God and supplicate that his mercy may spare his creature.

For he, who declares himself both made and fashioned altogether round about by God, leaves to the people of darkness no part either in his spirit or in his flesh. For he described himself as molded in virtue of the interior image, but he spoke of being fashioned altogether round about insofar as he consists of a covering of flesh. Yet, it is to be observed that he declares himself made by the hands of God. He is setting before the divine mercy the dignity of his creation. For though all things were created by the Word which is coeternal with the Father, yet in the very account of the creation it is shown how greatly humankind is preferred above all animals; how much greater than celestial things that are without sense.

Here [Job] foreshadows the incarnation of the divine Word through the assumption of human nature. These words, in fact, appear to be addressed to the Father, as if they were said by the person [the Son] of the Lord.

The seed from which life emerges he calls milked milk, for as milk curdles and becomes cheese, so the seed becomes nature when it curdles. This is a condition before the embryo. For the seed that sinks into the channels of the vagina becomes nature when it curdles like cheese. This formation is further developed or, as Scripture says, formed out of an image and takes on shapes. . . when the limbs are formed and every part emerges and finally moves. Just as the hand or foot of a living being, the delivery of the embryo brings the creature to the light of day. It is clear that skin and flesh here signify the body, for he adds in what follows with what holds it together and says, knit me together with bones and sinews. The whole procedure and the harmony of the formation of the body he proclaims in the previous [section] and in what is quoted here. It is remarkable that these seem to be words from his soul; for it is [the soul] that is clothed with skin and flesh and knit together with bones and sinews. That makes it clear that [the soul] is before the clothing and dressing, for it is clothed (already) as that which is the basis. Since skin and flesh, bones and sinews do not live by themselves but move due to the presence of the soul—if it leaves, they do not have life anymore—he says, You have not only formed me, made flesh, skin, bones and sinews for me and clothed me with them, but you have also given me life and love.

Do you see that the possibility to know God is manifest in creatures,^[1] that our creation was already sufficient to show me the nature of God and his power, without any help from heaven? Indeed the fact that we are so created from a germ, are supported, are not left in perils, is sufficient to show the strength of God and his power, as well as the fact that a sinner is preserved and not punished, whereas a righteous person is punished and chastised.

Therefore let the holy person take note of the wretchedness of the human mind, how often it defiles itself with unhallowed thoughts. After the Judge’s remission of the guilt of our actions, even while Job bewails his own case, let him show to us our sin, for us to bewail, If I have sinned, and you spare me at the hour, why do you not allow me to be clean from my iniquity? It is as if Job said in plain words, If your forgiveness has taken away my sin, why does it not sweep it from my memory also? Often the mind is so shaken from its center at the recollection of sin that it is prompted to the commission of far worse things than it had been before being subjected to the memory of prior sins. And when entangled the mind is filled with fears, and being driven with different impulses, throws itself into disorder. It dreads lest it should be overcome by temptations, and in resisting, it shudders at this very fact that it is harassed with the long toils of conflict. Hence it is fitly added, If I am wicked, woe to me! If I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look upon my affliction. Certainly the wicked person has woe and the righteous person affliction, in that everlasting damnation follows the lost sinner and the pains of temporary affliction purify each of the elect. The wicked person lifts up his head, yet when so lifted up he cannot escape the woe that pursues him. The righteous person, faring ill with the toils of his conflict, is not allowed to lift up his head, but while hard pressed, he is freed from everlasting affliction. The one who sets himself up in pleasure is plunging himself to the earth in sorrow and hides himself from the weight of eternal visitation.

A human being is called lion with good reason, because he is a royal animal, and even more so the righteous, because, by preserving the honor of God’s form, he is dreadful to his enemies. That is why he has been properly called so in Proverbs, the righteous is as bold as a lion.^[1] Yet if he stoops down to the lustful temptations presented by his enemies, he is caught in the hunt like a lion for slaughter and becomes an object of mockery for his hunters, like a lion, who, after being deluded by them, has been caught in the hunt.

In order to avoid scandalizing many who see his life end in affliction and sadness, it is not without reason that the righteous man asks for the termination of his ordeals. That is why [Job] said, Before I go, never to return, evidently, to his human life, as if to say In fact, if I return down here and receive here the reward of my toils, I will not be worn out and will not renounce the fight to the death in my ordeals. Those who are here, knowing my justice, will see that I receive my reward by coming back here. But if they see me die now in my ordeals, they will either think that Job is wicked or will believe that nothing useful comes from justice.

Someone could think that Job’s statement comes from desperation, but that is proven wrong by what God has said: Do you believe I treated you like this for any other reason than to reveal your righteousness?^[1] Job, who previously had said, If I am wicked, woe to me,^[2] does not contradict this assumption but reveals the bitterness of life. An evil person would not do that, for he rejoices in this [life]. Above all, Job wants to reveal to his friends the reason why he did not die at the moment of his birth, namely, because he was to be an example of energy and strength. According to a different interpretation, even the life in the flesh is indicated, about which Paul writes, If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.^[3] Job experiences the pleasant as well as the bitter sides of life; no one who has rid himself of the flesh rejoices in wealth or excess, nor is he plagued by hardship. Job has tasted this life and its pleasures, for he was blessed with many good children and was rich and healthy. But since his situation turned into its opposite, he also experienced the reverse of his previous life and acknowledged in real life the vanity of these things. This is why Job teaches us not to long for them by saying, Why did you bring me forth from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me, and were as though I had not been.

Job expresses this in the form of a prayer, for his burdens were not light and he endured the pains not without feeling them. For it would not have been manful had he not felt his sufferings. But he teaches that he endured the pain with the help of God’s power, by praying in gratefulness. Paul also expresses this: It was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.^[4]

Job wants to find relief before he has to go from where he cannot return. Therefore, he does not pray for himself, but to teach the friends who think that those who suffer hardship are evil but those who are free from hardship are righteous. He desired that they should gain certainty regarding the divine resolutions about him. One should not assume that Job denies the resurrection of the dead. Rather, Job says, From where I will not return to lead a mortal life. Job knows that he will rise as immortal.

Although the brave one was in pain, he talked about the coming age. So he says—not to deny the resurrection—Before I go from where I will not return. Job calls the land a land of gloom and deep darkness, where light is like darkness, since the holy one ascribes only little to himself. For it would not have been suitable to say, Before I am in the kingdom of the heavens and in the land of our promises, my God. Job wants his listener to be instructed about the divine judgment. There has not yet been restitution for deeds done.