Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, ‘Is it not the Lord who teaches understanding and knowledge?’ After being defeated, Eliphaz eventually agrees with this. Then, since what had been said allowed everyone to come to the conclusion that Job was not impious and that the conduct of a person could not be judged on the basis of his punishments, notice the perfidy at which he almost arrives to suppress the role of Providence.

The things that are administered by the Holy Spirit are worthy of description. Therefore, they are described, so that the reader may take advantage of the things being read. If the speeches of those three who came to Job were not useful, so that the reader might gain nothing from what was said to Job through them, to be sure the divine Providence would have not reported the speeches of those three in the book of Job. It is possible, therefore, to obtain a certain advantage from their speeches by observing carefully their doctrine.

Notice that the fault in their speeches is singular: every time they accuse Job, they believe that he is suffering his misfortunes because he had sinned. They do not see that there are many reasons why adversities happen to people. It was established that these are the things that happen, both good and bad, or whatever you want to call them.

Is it not the Lord that teaches understanding and knowledge? This statement is wise. Indeed, the true doctor of virtue cannot be a person. He that teaches man knowledge^[1] is also mentioned in the psalms and is no one else but God. And the prophet says,Teach me your ordinances,^[2] because he knows that God is the true and perfect doctor. In truth God teaches, by lighting the soul of the pupil from him and by illuminating his mind with his light, his truthful word. For this reason, the righteous men, who received the grace of teaching, teach us.

What does it matter to the Lord, if you were blameless in your works? That is, it has no importance for God.Or does he gain any profit from the righteousness of your conduct? It cannot be said that, in fact, it contributes to him any advantage, he says. Since Job in every possible manner had said that God did this and because of him I am suffering, Eliphaz wants to show that [his afflictions] do not come from God.Or, in order to make a case against you, will he accuse you and enter into judgment with you? Yes, you can be as righteous as you want, it does not matter for him, and he has no consideration for you, that is, what you do deserves little interest on the part of God. In fact, if he really wanted to judge you, he would have found your faults.

Note that from a deadened heart one may throw out words or promises, and from idle words he may in the heinousness of lying blaze out into insults. For these are the corrosions of increasing sin, that the tongue when not restrained should never lie still where it has fallen but is always descending to what is worse. . . .

In holy Scripture the term pledge [promise] may denote either the gifts of the Holy Spirit or the confession of sin. Thus pledge is taken as the gift of the Holy Spirit, such as where it is said by Paul, And given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.^[1] For we receive a pledge for this, that we may have an assurance of the promise that is made to us. And so the gift of the Holy Spirit is called a pledge, because through this [Spirit] our soul is strengthened to the assuredness of the inward hope. Again by the name of a pledge, confession of sin is also intended, as it is written in the law, If your brother owes you something, and you take away a pledge from him, restore the pledge before the setting of the sun. When any fellow creature is proven to have done anything wrong against us, our brother is made a debtor to us. Sins we call debts. Thus it is said to the servant when he sinned, I forgave you all that debt. And in the Lord’s Prayer we pray daily, Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Now we take a pledge from our debtor, when from the lips of him who is found to have sinned against us, we receive a confession of his sin, whereby we are asked to remit the sin that was committed against us. For anyone who confesses the sin that he has done and begs pardon has already, as it were, given a pledge for his debt. This pledge we are bidden to restore before the sunset, because before that, in ourselves through pain of the heart, the Sun of righteousness shall set. We are bound to render back the acknowledgment of pardon to him from whom we receive the acknowledgment of transgression, that he who remembers that he has done amiss toward us may be made aware that what he has done wrong is forgiven by us at once.

All these things are accusations, and certainly very reproachful ones. But they are not true with regard to Job and are unjustly pronounced against him. These things happen in times of hardship. Sometimes, when one has only a piece of bread, even though he does not have an entire loaf, we take it away from him by saying, You are in debt.

A criminal act not only causes harm but also denies any benefit. Therefore, notice to what point our benevolence must be extended. As there is a certain crime, when those thirsty do not drink, so we have a reward for a glass of cool water, according to the truthful voice of the Savior.^[1]

In the strength of your arm you possessed the land and obtained it in your great power. He suggests that [Job] was like a proud tyrant who did not rule the people of his kingdom according to justice and equity but submitted them to an oppressive bondage according to his cruel ways as under the power of his arm.. . . You have sent widows away empty-handed. You did not give them succor when they, being wretched and vexed by afflictions and humiliated, came. You dismissed each of them empty-handed, when they could not obtain what they expected from you. And the hands of the orphans you have crushed. If they still had some strength, through which they could support themselves, you took it away and broke their souls into despair or did not defend them from evil people. You destroyed their virtue of hope, through which they looked to you, while you allowed them to be oppressed.

Since [Eliphaz] had said that [Job] had sinned not mildly or, so to speak, with feeble strength but greatly and with much force, he now fervently invokes revenge against him, so that it may appear that the crime and the revenge are weighed for him at the same time. And a sudden terror overwhelms you. Another version of the text reads, a sudden force.

And you thought that you would have not seen the darkness. You also added this crime to your iniquities—the fact that you believed that revenge would have not followed. If you had thought about it, it would have turned you from the dangerous ways of your actions or frightened you less by being already foreseen.

Eliphaz pronounces a serious accusation of impiety and madness against Job. In fact, he says, you committed iniquities, as if [God] did not realize they were [committed] in the land of the Lord, but as if he judged in darkness. That is, as if, in judging, he did not see what happened in his land. You said, in fact, that since he is invisible and separates himself with clouds from what happens among us, and only goes around the circle of heaven, he does not deem it worthy to take care of earthly things. This is what the pagan philosophers thought, when they said that God does not take care of what is under the moon. ^[1] REPEATING THE SINS OF THE WORST. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: These words mean, You imitate the actions of the ancestors. [The author] is alluding to the Cainites, those who lived at the time of the deluge, to the Sodomites, etc.; these are those whom he calls the way of the world. ^[1]

But the plans of the wicked are repugnant to me. He places among the blasphemers holy [Job] as well, who is now detested like them. The righteous will see it and will be glad. Or, as others said, he will laugh. Here he speaks about the abasement of faithless people. The innocent will laugh them to scorn. How can this not be said about the saints too? When the faithful see that the sinners are condemned by the just judgment of God, they will see and will be glad. They like God’s justice, as well as God likes them. But Eliphaz, even though he perhaps spoke correctly here, has the wrong idea of comparing holy Job with the impious and the sinners. . . .

And what they left, the fire has consumed. What they left, that is, their most serious sins, must be punished on the day of judgment, because in this world no punishment condemns the wickedest of sinners as much as they deserve.

This is what he means, in my opinion: Confess your sins; receive from God’s mouth his support after your confession; and take his words into your heart. Certainly Eliphaz said these things, as he believed, by making himself equal to Job. . . . However, he pronounces a correct dogma here. He, in fact, thinks that Job suffers his adversities because of his sins but also so that he will be purified through the endurance of his afflictions. Once he is purified, he will be delivered from any extraneous element and freed from any involvement with iniquity. And like gold refined in a melting pot, he will appear to be tested. If you, he says, endure what has happened to you, God will make you pure, like silver purified with fire.

This means that you will be restored to your former state. And God will be your helper while before it seemed that he had completely neglected the care of your salvation, as if he had been absent.

You will abound with delicacies over the Almighty is to be entirely filled with the banquet of holy Scripture in the love of God. In those words surely we find as many delicacies for our profiting as we obtain diversities of meaning. The bare history should now be our food veiled under the text of the letter, the moral allegory should refresh us from our inmost soul, and, to the deeper things, contemplation should hold us suspended, already, in the darkness of the present life, shining in upon us from the light of eternity.. . . To lift up the face to God means to raise up the heart for searching into what is loftiest. For as by the bodily face we are known and distinguishable to people, so by the interior figure we are known to God. Yet because of the guilt of sin, we are weighed to the earth, and we are afraid to lift the face of our heart to God. When it is not buoyed up by any of the confidence of good works, the mind is too full of fear to gaze upon the highest things, because conscience of itself, it accuses itself. But when by the tears of penance sins are now washed out and lament is completed, a great confidence springs up in the mind for contemplating the joys of the recompense from above; the face of our heart is lifted up.. . .

You will pray to him, and he will hear you, for they make their prayer to God but never obtain to be listened to, who set at nothing the precepts of the Lord, when he enjoins them. Hence it is written, He that turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination. So long then as Eliphaz believed the blessed Job was not heard, he determined that that person had surely done wrong in his practice. And hence he adds further, And you will pay your vows. He that has vowed but is unable from weakness to pay the same, has it dealt to him in punishment of sin, that while willing good, having the power should be taken away from him. But when, in the sight of the interior Judge, the sin that hinders is done away, it is immediately brought to pass that one is able to attend the vow.

It goes on, You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you. This used to be the special conclusion of those going weakly, that in such proportion they esteem a person righteous as they see him obtain all that he desires; whereas, in truth, we know that earthly goods are sometimes withheld from the righteous while they are bestowed with liberal bounty on the unrighteous. When sick people are despaired of, physicians order whatever they need to be supplied. But those whom they foresee may be brought back to health when the things which they long for they refuse to have given them. Now if Eliphaz introduced these declarations with reference to spiritual gifts, it must be known that a thing is decreed and is established in a person when the virtue that is longed for in the desire, is, by God’s granting it, happily forwarded by the carrying out of it as well.

And hence it is yet further added, And the light will shine on your ways. The light that shines on the ways of the righteous shines by extraordinary deeds of virtue to scatter the tokens of their brightness. Wherever they go in the bent of the mind, from the hearts of those beholding them, they may dispel the might of sin and by the example of their own practice pour into them the light of righteousness. But, whatever justness of practice there may be, in the eye of the interior Judge it is nothing, if pride of the heart uplifts it. Hence it is added, For he that has been abased shall be in glory, and he that has bent down his eyes shall be saved. This sentence is not at variance with the mouth of Truth, when it says, For whosoever exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.^[1] Therefore, it is said by Solomon, Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honor is humility.^[2] However, it is properly said, For he that has bent down his eyes, the same shall be saved. Insofar as it is to be discovered through the ministering of the members, the first manifestation of pride is with the eyes. . . .

The innocent will be saved, but he will be saved by the cleanness of his hands. This sentence [from Eliphaz], if it is delivered in relation to the recompense of the kingdom of heaven, is supported by truth, in that it is written concerning God, He renders to every man according to his deeds. The justice of the eternal Judge saves that person in the last inquest. His mercy sets him free from impure deeds.

But if the person here purported is supposed to be saved by the cleanness of his own hands, that by his own powers he should be made innocent, then assuredly it is an error. For if grace above does not prevent him when faulty, assuredly it will never find any one faultless to recompense without fault. It is said by the truthful voice of Moses, And no man of himself is innocent in your sight. So, heavenly pity first works something in us without our help, that, our own free will follows as well, so the good which we now desire may be accomplished. Yet the good that is bestowed by grace, in the last judgment, God rewards to us as if it had come only from ourselves.