Times are not hidden from the Almighty. [Job] raises the same question he had discussed above, but now with a profession of faith. He says that he certainly knows that parts of his censorship in blotting out the merits of people follow the course of his justice, but, in the present situation, many things happen that seem to deny this judgment. With this impression in his mind he pursues the crimes of the wicked to the end of his speech. Times are not hidden, he says, from the Almighty, that is, in his knowledge dwells a full awareness of all our moments. It is as if he said, God does not ignore any time of our actions even as we change them constantly, yet we, who touch him with the devotion of our mind, ignore how many days of patience and deferment he hangs on our judgment.

Others removed the landmarks. It must be noticed, in this reproof of human vices, that they are weighed more lightly or more seriously according to their effect on the virtue of soul. Thus Job and his friends are affected in different ways by different vices; the friends only accuse the acts of inhumanity, whereas Job describes the crimes of iniquity, violence, robbery, lewdness, pride and impiety.

And they have departed, he says, like asses in the field, that is, they have scorned everybody and have mocked everyone. However, nobody commits any injustice against them and does not ill-treat them. ^[1] EXAMPLES OF INIQUITY. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: They reap in a field not their own. . . as wild asses tread underfoot the fields of others and browse on their grass, so the impious, with their impudent violence, reap in fields that are not theirs and steal them from their owners. They glean in the vineyard of the wicked. This means it is not enough for the wicked to steal from the poor, who have worked without a wage in the fields from the beginning to the end, [but also from the rich]. ^[1]

They have snatched the fatherless from the breast. They have lamentably and mercilessly taken away the child who still nursed and hanged from his mother’s breast. And they have deprived the outcast, that is, they have also deprived the outcast of his properties by taking away what he had. They have wrongfully caused others to sleep without clothing. By wrongfully stripping others, who owed them nothing, they have caused them to love rest. They have taken away the morsel of the hungry. They have reduced them to extreme poverty and starvation. They have unjustly laid ambush in narrow places. They have laid ambush in hidden places; in fact, in larger places and roads they wait in ambush for those who have no chance to escape.

And they, that is, all the impious persons, have not known the righteous way. They have been cast forth from their cities and their houses. This refers to those who wantonly sleep without clothing. They [the fatherless] have, in fact, suffered these things from these criminals, after being driven out of their city and their houses.

And the soul of the children has groaned aloud. From the bottom of their heart [they groaned], because they had no parents any longer who provided them with food.

He says this again to his friends with a bit of hesitation, If afflictions entirely derive from sins, why did he who observes all that happens on earth allow them to go without being visited by him? And they took no notice, that is, the iniquitous took no notice of the fact that they were not visited. Indeed it is believed and taught about divine visitation, The Lord reproves the one he loves, as a father checks a well-loved son.^[1]

And so it is well said, If the morning suddenly appears, it is to them even as the shadow of death. For the morning is the mind of the righteous, which, leaving behind the darkness of sin, now breaks out into the light of eternity. As it is also said of the holy church, Who is she that looks forth as the morning? Therefore, in the same measure that every righteous person shining with the light of righteousness in this present life is reared to a height with honors, so the same measure of the darkness of death comes before the eyes of the wicked, in that they who remember that they have done bad things are in fear of being corrected. They always desire to be free in their iniquities, to live free from correction and to delight from sin. Its fatal mirth is itself appropriately described in the words that are directly introduced: And they walk so in darkness, as in the light. For with an evil mind they delight in deeds of wickedness. Through their sin they are day by day being dragged to punishment and are full of assurance. Hence it is said by Solomon that there are wicked people who are as secure as if they had done the deeds of righteous.^[1] Concerning them it is written that they rejoice to do evil and delight in the most wicked doings. Thus they walk in darkness as in the light, in that they delight in the night of sin as if the light of righteousness were spread around them. . . .

He is light on the face of the water. From the plural number he returns to the singular, because most frequently one person begins what is bad, and numbers follow after by imitating him, but the fault is primarily his, whom the bad people follow after being furnished examples of wickedness; and hence the sentence frequently returns to him who was the leader in sin. Now the surface of water is carried here and there by the breath of air. Not being steadied with any stability it is put in motion everywhere. And so the mind of the wicked is lighter than the surface of water, in that every breath of temptation that touches it, draws it in without any retarding resistance. For if we imagine the unstable heart of any bad person, what do we discover but a surface of water set in the wind?

May his portion of land be cursed. Indeed he who is not on the land of the saints, which is the land of the living, will be cursed; and may his portion of land, that is, his portion in the mass of humankind, be cursed. And may he not walk in the way of the vineyard, that is, may his stay on this earth be cursed, so that the people of God and the holy souls who are like fruitful vineyards full of fruits may not imitate him and walk in the same ways. . . . May he pass from snow waters to the highest heat. It seems to me that the holy Job makes a reference to two kinds of hell, an icy and a fiery one, through which the devil, the heretics and the impious are led. . . . And may his sin [pass] to hell as well. The sin of the impious and the wicked is so great and so heavy that it makes him sink into hell like a piece of lead in water.

He has not treated the barren woman well, that is, the woman who is without help because of her lack of children. And notice again how ill treatment is considered an act of impiety. Keep away from evil, the divine psalmist says, and practice good.^[1] And he had no pity on a feeble woman, that is, on a woman who needs help because of her feeble nature. And in wrath he has overthrown the helpless. In fact he did not overthrow the feeble and the helpless for any rational cause, but because of the impulse of his wild soul, while being inflamed with his wrath; and he reduced them to extreme poverty.

Therefore when he has risen, he will not feel secure of his own life. For these reasons the impious, after rising every day not really believing that he will live, remains in fear and is frightened. As the wise Solomon stated, Fear, indeed, is nothing other than the abandonment of the supports offered by reason.^[1] When he has fallen sick, let him not hope to recover, but let him perish by disease. The diseases of the body, in fact, often occur because of sin. Let him not hope, that is, the lack of hope is due to the consciousness of his sins. Let him perish by disease, that is, by the blows of calamity. For his exaltation has hurt many.

For this reason, let him perish, because his exaltation has hurt many. But he has withered as mallows in the heat or as an ear of corn falling off of itself from the stalk. Other examples [from the Greek Bible] read like grass. In a similar way, the psalmist also says, Quick as the grass they wither, fading like the green in the field.^[2] And he rightly says, falling off of itself, indeed, for everybody sin itself becomes a punisher.

If it is not so, may his wrath make me lie, that is, if sinners do not go into that scorn that I have mentioned before, may the wrath of God prove false what I have said.