Since Zophar does not recognize Job’s virtue and the goal of his consistent remarks, he says to Job, Do not talk much. The word of holy Scripture teaches us to control our words. It says, When words are many, transgression is not lacking.^[1] Here Scripture calls the utterance of inappropriate things many words. But it is not the number of uttered words that make a babbler. The apostle shows this when he continued speaking until midnight.^[2] One can, however, be astonished about Zophar’s audacity toward Job. Although he answered Job, Zophar claimed that there was no one to answer him. Thereby Zophar shows one should not speak too audaciously, yet he does so himself in maintaining that Job is suffering due to his personal wickedness.

Do you think that by speaking many words you will improve your position and reduce us to silence and amazement with a long speech? Since the holy Job was not only proven innocent of any crime by using just arguments but also called God to his trial as a witness of his upright life, Zophar tries to accuse him first of verbosity and then of unrighteousness. By demonstrating Job’s biased opinion about God’s power and wisdom, Zophar tries to show what had inconsiderately erupted in the freedom of Job’s words. It would have been fitting [for Job] to remember the weakness of his nature.

Zophar means, Is there none to answer you? meaning other than we ourselves. Or it could mean: There is nobody who knows your misfortunes, apart from God, and if he had wanted to disgrace you, then you would have been already dead. Notice that, since Job does not say anywhere that he is unjustly suffering and that he has no faults, this is exactly what they resentfully bring up to him.

Previously Job had already said, If I am ungodly, why have I not died?^[1] Did he not define himself as blameless?^[2] These words do not belong to Job but to God. It is God, in fact, who designated Job as blameless in his actions and as a man who turns away from evil.^[3] Therefore you (i.e., Zophar) refuse the testimony of God himself.

The public works of the supreme wisdom are when almighty God rules those whom he creates, brings to an end the good things which he begins and aids by his inspiration those whom he illuminates with the light of his visitation. For it is plain to the eyes of all people that those whom God created of his free bounty, he provides for with lovingkindness. And when he grants spiritual gifts, he himself brings to perfection what he has himself begun in the bounty of his lovingkindness. But the secret works of supreme wisdom are when God forsakes those whom he has created. . . when he enlightens us with the brightness of his illumination and yet by permitting temptation of the flesh, strikes us with the mists of blindness. Or when he does not care to preserve the good gifts he has bestowed to us, when he at the same time prompts the desires of our soul toward himself and yet by a secret judgment presses us with the powerlessness of our weak nature. . . . For her law is manifold. What should the law of God be understood to mean here except for charity, whereby we ever read in the inward parts in what way the precepts of life should be maintained in outward action? For concerning this law the voice of Truth says, This is my commandment, that you love one another.^[1] Concerning it, Paul says, Love is the fulfilling of the law.^[2] In relation to it Paul says again, Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.^[3] For how can the law of Christ be more aptly understood than to mean the charity that we then truly fulfill when we bear the burdens of our brothers from the principle of love?

These words mean, Do you know what the Almighty will do at the end of his works? I certainly grant that we have experience of things that are otherwise evident and manifest, but they only disclose to us the loftiness of heaven and all divine things.

He means either, Can you do anything similar? or You are a humble creature in the universe, and consequently you can do nothing; and you are as far from God as ‘heaven is removed from earth.’^[1]

It very often happens that the spirit already lifts the mind on high, while nonetheless the flesh assails it with pressing temptations. When the soul is led forward to the contemplation of heavenly things, it is repelled by the images of unlawful practice presented to it. The sting of the flesh wounds him suddenly, whom holy contemplation was bearing away beyond the flesh. Therefore, heaven and hell are shut up together, when one and the same mind is simultaneously enlightened by contemplation’s uplifting and obscured by the pressure of temptation. The result is the soul strains forward to see what it should desire and yet, because it is bowed down in its thought, is subject to things that should make it blush. For light springs from heaven, but hell is held in darkness. Heaven and hell then are brought into one when the soul that already sees the light of the land above also sustains the darkness of secret temptation coming from the warfare of the flesh.. . . As if we were appending the explanation of the things premised, saying, Because he sees that by suffering them evil habits gain growth, by judging he brings to nothing his gifts. Now the right order is observed with the account that vanity is to be known, and afterwards iniquity to be considered. For all iniquity is vanity, but not all vanity, iniquity. For we do vain things as often as we give heed to what is transitory. Something is said to vanish that is suddenly withdrawn from the eyes of the beholder. Hence the psalmist says, Every living human being is altogether vanity.^[1] For in this, by living he only tends to destruction and is rightly called vanity indeed. But by no means is his living also rightly called iniquity. For though it is in punishment of sin that he comes to nothing, yet this particular circumstance is not itself sin that passes swiftly from life. Thus all things are vain that pass by. Solomon speaks the words, All is vanity.^[2] But iniquity is fitly introduced immediately after vanity. For while we are led onwards through some things transitory, we are, to our injury, tied fast to some of them. When the soul does not hold its seat of immutability, running out from itself it goes headlong into evil ways. From vanity, then, the mind sinks into iniquity. Iniquity, being familiar with things mutable, while it is ever being hurried from one sort to another, is defiled by sins springing up. It is also possible that vanity may be understood as sin, and that by the title of iniquity weightier guilt may be designated.

Zophar is right in saying, Like an ass of the desert. The ass does not stop braying. There is no difference, he says, between our words and those incomprehensible sounds that an ass produces at random and foolishly. We criticize everything, with regard to everything, and we put the blame on everything. Again they exhort Job to take care of his life. But that is useless. That is why Job had said, If I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head.^[1] What is the use of that? Job says, I am righteous, but in his judgment, I am impure.

Here times are changed, and the meaning is, If you want to obey me, open your arms in prayer to God with a pure heart, and you will never commit iniquity or transgression, and those things which Zophar mentions later will happen to you. And here it seems that Zophar is giving advice to Job, save that he himself strikes him by saying that Job is punished for his sins.

Zophar introduces himself as teacher and exhorts Job with the words, Even if you are very clean, so clean that you stretch your hands continuously in prayer and ask for God’s gifts, be still prepared to reject the evil that remains within you. Iniquity shall not reside in you. That means, Even if you somehow start to do unrighteousness, iniquity shall not stay to nest in your life. Here Zophar means the following: Moral virtue must correspond to the purity of soul [and reason]. Similar to this is, Lifting up holy hands without anger or argument.^[1] But Zophar is wrong if he deems it possible to have a pure heart and unjust deeds [at the same time]. The opposite, one could say, would be possible, namely, to have righteous deeds and an impure heart. One would thereby indicate that if someone acts mercifully with an impure heart only to be seen by the people, the deed looks the same.

For Job said, in fact, that a change was impossible: If I wash myself with snow [that will be of no use], you have deeply plunged me into the mire.^[1] That is why Zophar says, Your face will shine again like pure water. The whole of Zophar’s reflections is certainly excellent. The fact, however, that he incessantly repeats that Job’s faults have caused his misfortunes is undoubtedly wrong. It is as though Zophar wanted to exhort Job to be converted to virtue, while he was not in sin at all. To say such things demonstrates Zophar’s ignorance and the fact that he understood nothing. ^[2] JOB’S AFFLICTIONS WILL END. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: The words You will be led like passing waters mean that your tribulations will leave you at once, like the waters of rain which, when it stops raining, disappear as well. ^[1]

Whoever seeks present glory doubtless dreads contempt. He who is ever hungering for gain is ever surely in fear of loss. For that very object, which seems medicine to him, wounds him with its loss. As he is riveted under fetters to things mutable and destined to perish, so he lies groveling beneath them far away from the stronghold of security. But, on the other hand, whoever is rooted in the desire of eternity alone is neither uplifted by good fortune nor shaken by adverse fortune. For while he has nothing in the world that he desires, there is nothing that he dreads from the world. . . . But herein, it is to be known, that when bad people deliver right sentiments, it is very hard for them not to let themselves be revealed by those things that they are secretly pursuing within. Hence Zophar adds, Many will entreat your favor. For the righteous do not keep themselves on the narrow paths of innocence with the aim in view that others may implore them. Whether heretics or any others that are perverse, all of them live with an appearance of innocence among each other; they have the desire to show themselves as intercessors on behalf of others when in their speech they convey the holy truths they are longing for. They also promise them to others as something great. And while they tell of heavenly things, they soon show by their pledges what their hearts are bent on. But lest by long continuance of promising earthly things, they may be made to appear as they are, they quickly return to words of uprightness. Then it is immediately added, But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and refuge shall perish from them. By designation of eyes, the energy of the intention is presented to us. Truth testifies in the Gospel, saying, If your eye shall be single, your whole body shall be full of light.^[1] For in view of the fact that a pure intention has preceded our action, it may seem otherwise to men. Yet, to the eyes of our interior Judge, the body of the deed that follows is presented pure. Therefore the eyes of the wicked are the intentions of carnal desires in them; these fail for the reason that they are careless of their eternal interests and are ever looking for transitory interests. . . . What does the sinner hope for here in all his thoughts except to surpass others in power, to go beyond all people in the abundance of his possessions, to bow down his rivals in lording it over them, to display himself as an object of admiration to his followers, to gratify anger at will, to make himself known as kind and gracious when he is commended, whatever his appetite may long for, to acquiesce in all that pleasure dictates by the fulfilling of the thing?