My spirit is broken in bitterness and pain, because my ulcers torture me, or, on the other hand, because of my friends, who are ready to burst out against their friend.

Set me free and put me beside you, and let the hand of anyone fight against me, for Christ did not sin, either in thought or deed. He was made to abide in bitterness by his passion. He was set free by resurrection. He was put beside the Father by his ascension, in that having gone up into heaven he sits on the right hand of God. And because, after the glory of his ascension, Judea was stirred up in persecuting his disciples, it is rightly said here, Let the hand of anyone fight against me. For the madness of the persecutors did then rage on Christ’s members, and the flame of cruelty blazed out against the life of the faithful. But where should the wicked go, or what should they do, while he whom they persecuted on earth is now seated in heaven? Concerning whom it is yet further added, You have removed their heart far from discipline. Therefore they shall not be exalted. If they had been acquainted with the keeping of discipline, and had not ever despised the precepts of our Redeemer, the mere mortal condition of their flesh by itself would have excited them to the love of immortal life. For this reason even the fact that we are subject to corruption in this life is due to our need for learning discipline. . . . Therefore, insofar as the heart is under discipline, it seeks after the things above; it is not enthralled with transitory good things. But of those whose heart is not under discipline, it is rightly said, Therefore they shall not be exalted, for even while they are freed to pursue the lowest enjoyments, they are ever longing for the good things of the earth. ^[1] HEARING OF HORROR PROMPTS VEILING THE EYES. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: I will rise in authority among peoples, because of the stupefaction for all that has happened to me. And the words, I will be a veil on their faces,^[1] that is, whoever hears about my horrible misfortunes will veil his face. This is said as an analogy of the fact that when one hears a horrible thing, he brings his hand to his forehead and veils his eyes. ^[2]

I cannot say, in fact, that I receive mercy, which is the only privilege common to those who suffer. On the contrary, I am a laughingstock for the senseless; the righteous are frightened because of me. How can the faithful continue on his way?. . . Let the faithful remain on his own way, Job says, and let him who is pure of heart take courage. But how will a pure person keep his courage after these events happened in this manner against all hopes? Let us disregard what concerns me. How will others stand in the way of righteousness? Therefore I call you to a new judgment.

It is to the elect that Job frames these words, whom he calls to the eternal world. They are exhorted in two ways, namely, that they should turn and that they should come (meaning turn by faith and come by practice), that is, turn by abandoning evil deeds and come by doing good. As it is written, Depart from evil, and do good.^[1] But Job amazingly adds, I shall not find a sensible person among you. What does it mean that Job bids them to wisdom and yet wishes that he may not find them wise? Concerning them it is written, Woe to you that are wise in your own eyes and prudent in your own sight;^[2] and to whom it is said again, Be not wise with your own selves.^[3] Hence that same great preacher desired that those whom he found carnally wise, in order that they might attain true wisdom, should first become foolish, saying, If anyone among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.^[4] And the living Truth said elsewhere, I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.^[5] And so because they that are wise in themselves cannot come to true wisdom, blessed Job, being anxious for the conversion of his hearers, rightly desires that he may not find any wise man among them. It is as if Job said to them in plain speech, Learn to be foolish in your own selves, that you may be truly wise in God.. . . The holy church of the elect perceives that the spaces of its life pass in periods of day and night. This suggests that the church in adversity is experiencing a night to be followed by a day of prosperity. For there rises, as it were, light on it from the tranquility of peace and night from the grief of persecution. Now after each pause of rest [the church] returns to the labor of persecution, growing to a head against it. [The church] testifies that its days have past. In these days, however, it is accustomed to be weighed down proportionally with so many heavier cares. As [the church] things of the true tranquility of rest, a more exact reckoning is required of it by the Judge. . . . Hence blessed Job, whether in his own voice or the voice of the universal church, after testifying that his days were past, thereupon added, My thoughts are scattered, racking my heart.

If I look for hell as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness. Bodily pains and the torment of his thoughts incessantly vexed [Job]. Therefore, he declared he was suffering already the punishment of hell. Or perhaps, in this passage, the separation from human society that he had undergone, so that he sat outside the town in a dung pit called darkness, because it did not have the light of human comfort. If I say to putrefaction, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worms, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister.’ I am putrefying, Job says, for such a long time that I can certainly call putrefaction itself and the worms generated in its pus parents.. . . And appropriately he called father Adam, the firstborn of the human race, who was made corruptible by corruption. And he called mother human nature, which is infected by corruption. And finally he called sister Adam’s entire posterity, which was born from the corruption of mortality as from the pus of corruption.

Why do we build palaces? Why do we care for the drapery of beds and for the different garments? Why do we add estate to estate, strangle the poor and strike the needy? Why do we want to increase those riches that will not come together with us? And why do we not bend our ears to the truthful oracles? Why do we not believe in the commandment of the Judge and do not obey what he said, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal?^[1] For our angels protect our treasures, and, above all, the Lord of the angels.