The wise man is no babbler, nor does he utter through his mouth anything that cannot happen. Thus he does not curse the day as a period of time but those things that occurred on that day. For it is Scripture’s custom to call occurrences a day. This the psalmist teaches us, when he says, The Lord delivers them in the day of trouble.^[1] Thereby he does not refer to day of trouble as a period of time but to the trouble that happened on that day. Paul’s statement, because the days are evil,^[2] also has the same meaning. One can say that the day’s events are good for some and bad for others. Thus, for the people of Israel who crossed the Red Sea against their expectations, the day was good. For the Egyptians, however, the day was bad, for they sank like lead in the mighty waters.^[3]

Let the day perish in which I was born, not the day in which I was formed but that in which I was born.. . . God, in fact, forms me into goodness, but Eve, who transgressed, conceives me into sadness. And David himself did not ignore that, but after learning it from the Spirit, he introduces the concept into a prophetic psalm with these terms: For, behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother conceive me.^[1] How? To be sure, Eve began to conceive and give birth after the fall in paradise and after the transgression due to the miserable nourishment of the tree.

Learn here the reason which led the Emmanuel to a new birth in the flesh. Certainly the sin of the world was the reason for the advent of Christ.

According to Job’s words, he desires that the moon or the stars might not illuminate his night but that it may be obscured by thick darkness, which Job calls the shadow of death. If one carefully examines the text’s meaning, Job demands through his prayers that sin may appear as it actually is in its great depravity, so that sin may not simulate virtue. Rather, after sin has been recognized as dark and deadly, it may be avoided and rejected.

The year of our illumination will be accomplished at the appearing of the eternal Judge of the holy church when the life of its pilgrimage is completed. [The church] then receives the recompense of its labors when, having finished this season of warfare, [it] returns to its native country. Hence, the prophet says, You shall bless the crown of the year with your goodness.^[1] For the crown of the year is, as it were, blessed as the reward of virtues is bestowed when the season of toil comes to an end. But the days of this year are the several virtues, and its months the many deeds of those virtues. Moreover, note that when the mind is erected in confidence, it has a good hope that when the Judge comes it will receive the reward of the mind’s virtues. All the evil things [the church] has done are also remembered. It greatly fears lest the strict Judge, who comes to reward virtues, should also examine and weigh exactly those things that have been unlawfully committed. Thus, when the year is completed, the night is also reckoned. . . . There are some people that not only have no remorse for what they do but unceasingly uphold and applaud their actions. Truly, a sin that is upheld is doubled. One writer correctly condemns this attitude by saying, My son, have you sinned? Don’t add on to what you have done.^[2] For a person adds sin to sin who, over and above what he has done, justifies his error. He does not leave the night alone who also adds vindication’s support to the darkness of his fault. Thus, the first man Adam, when questioned concerning the night of his error, would not allow his night to remain alone. God’s questioning called Adam to repentance, but Adam responded by justifying himself, saying, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I did eat.^[3] Adam covertly blames his Maker for the fault of Adam’s transgression. It was as if Adam said, You provided me with an occasion for sin, because you gave me the woman. Therefore, the branch of this sin remains manifest in the human race up to the present time. We continue to justify our misdeeds.

May this night or day of detestation become what the horrible and cruel dragon that is led from the sea to the earth deserves. Indeed the Hebrew and Syrian tradition interpret Leviathan to be the one about which David says, There is that dragon that you have made to delude him.^[1] Even though the dragon seems to represent, above all, a figure of spiritual iniquity, it nonetheless, after getting out and being cast onto earth, is said to possess the ability to cause many massacres of people and animals. Thus, with good reason, the curses of all must be gathered against it.

Let the stars of its dawn be dark, that is, may the obscurity of blindness darken sinners who pretend to shine in the night with the riches and the honors of the world. May they not perceive, because of their fault, the gospel’s light. Let it hope for light but have none. This is the night of prevarication and death where the devil has his kingdom. He cannot know the light of Christ the Redeemer. Neither can those born on that night if, after being regenerated through baptism, they do not destroy it.

Do not be amazed when I tell you that Job did not speak these words. I mistake him for another. These are words that I lend to Job and are contrary to his benevolence and profound goodness. In fact, Job had no desire to say anything of the sort. He suffered righteously what he was suffering, so that he reasonably and wisely said that he was not born. This is exactly what Christ himself said about Judas: It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.^[1] And Job says much the same thing: Why was I born? It would have been better if I had not been born.

To enjoy the beauty of God’s creation is desirable. It is a good thing to become a human being and to receive the image of God. It is not good to linger in an impure life. Many people are fascinated by an impure life, but not the righteous. Therefore, the departure from this world is no reason for sadness, for death is rest and deliverance from pain. Death is sleep. To depart from one’s body is rest.

It seems to me that Job attempts to humble these noble characters and to persuade them not to attach a great importance to human affairs, because he has not introduced the kings into this passage without purpose or at random. Job speaks of those who gloried in their swords. Notice again how amid his afflictions Job possesses words full of wisdom. Their wealth, in fact, has granted the kings no protection; their power has been of no use; death has come at the end for everyone. Or like a stillborn child that never sees the light, he says. Notice how, in order that he may not appear to be arrogant, he even compares himself with a stillborn child, so absolutely wretched and pitiful is he.

Those who are endued with might in the love of their Maker are those who are strengthened in the love of God as the object of their desire. Yet they become in the same degree powerless in their own strength. The more strongly they long for the things of eternity, the more they are disenchanted with earthly objects. The failure of their self-assertive strength is wholesome. Hence the psalmist, wearied by the strength of his love, said, My soul has fainted in your salvation.^[1] For his soul did faint while making way in God’s salvation, in that he panted with desire for the light of eternity, broken of all confidence in the flesh. Hence he says again, My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord.^[2] Now when he said longs, he added correctly, and faints, since that longing for the divine Being is small indeed if not similarly followed by a fainting in one’s self. For it is fitting that one who is inflamed to seek the courts of eternity should be weakened in his love of his temporal state. He should become cold to the pursuits of this world in proportion as he rises with a soul more inflamed to the love of God. . . . Who else is to be understood by the title of the taskmaster other than that insatiate prompter who for once bestowed the coin of deceit upon humanity and from that time has not ceased daily to claim the debt of death? Who lent the man in paradise the money of sin, and by the multiplying of wickedness is daily exacting it with usury? Concerning this taskmaster, the truth is spoken in the Gospel, And the Judge deliver you to the officer.^[3] Therefore, when we hear the voice of this accuser, we are struck with this temptation. But the temptation does not have effect if we resist the one who accuses us. . . . And it is well added that the slave is free from his master. For it is written, Everyone that sins is the slave of sin.^[4] For whoever yields himself up to evil desire bends the neck of his mind that previously was free to the dominion of wickedness. When we struggle against the evil by which we had been taken captive, when we forcibly resist the bad habit, when we tread under all such desires, we withstand this taskmaster. When we strike our sin with penitence and cleanse the pollution with our tears, we uphold the right of our inborn liberty against this slavery.

Why is light given, Job asks, to those whose soul dwells in bitterness, and life to those souls who are in pain? Again this is not the language—God forbid!—of someone who makes rebukes, but of someone who searches and suffers. In fact, when words are spoken with a different spirit, they must not be interpreted in the same manner. Therefore, when a philosopher asserts, Why does a senseless person have riches at his disposal?^[1] he only shows that he is unworthy of riches. From this we learn that not only life but also death is useful, when it is more desired than evil. In this way Job speaks of those who long for death, but, he says, it does not come. That is why the Preacher in Ecclesiastes says, For everything there is a season^[2] and, in another passage, O death, how your memory is sweet.^[3] When you hear Job’s wife suggesting to him, Curse God, and die,^[4] you should not suppose that he did not answer because of his love of life but because of his piety. Indeed he who considered death to be very desirable and saw it as a real goodness when he was allowed to obtain it did not dare speak against God. Death is rest for man. This is what Job declares. Now if death brings rest, why don’t the majority of people rush to it? Because God has made life desirable in order to prevent us from running to death. Its way is hidden. In my opinion Job is speaking about death, but by pretending that his words are about the way of humankind. This indicates that Job’s words concerning death are what has been said before, especially in the expression, they dig for it more than for hidden treasures, things that are evidently hidden. Our future is unknown, Job says. We do not uncover it. Please do not speak to me about those who hang themselves, because Job speaks about what conforms to nature and the commandments of God. God has surrounded it, he says, with a wall. As the gospel states, The day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night.^[5] To avoid the response, Why do you not choose death? Job answers, The Lord has surrounded it with a wall. Its doors are closed. ^[6] THE PROTECTION OF DEATH. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: A person’s actions are veiled and hidden by his death. God covers his way. The word covers means that God spares some afflictions through death, because the action of covering on God’s part is an aid. ^[1]

I did not ignorantly run into the things that I suffer. In fact, when I saw in others poverty’s afflictions and the different diseases of the body, my communion with nature and my body warned me to fear lest anything of the same kind should happen to me. Therefore, I am also forced to fear an increase in the misfortunes I bear. This anticipation makes death look better than life. Job then adds, Was I not quiet? The Greek reads, I was not quiet. That is to say, I did not continue in the fruition and prosperity of my goods. He says he feared he might encounter against his intention the evil necessity to reveal part of his vexations with wailing accents. Therefore Job says, Was I not quiet? This means that while the harshness of my pain struck me, I wanted to hide in silence what I suffered, but such an abundance of raging misfortunes befell me that I am forced to reveal my tribulations with a feeble voice.

From this, Job’s preparation against the adversary emerges. Even Paul, who possessed the hope and grace of the Spirit, was vigilant and fought the adversary, since he knew that for the holy the struggle was not against enemies of blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil.^[1] Our struggle is also against the archvillain himself, the devil, who prowls around like a roaring lion. . . looking for someone to devour.^[2] Even though Job was vigilant, the devil did not refrain from asking for permission to test him and to impose on him the burden he proceeds to place on him. Job’s difficult experience seems like God’s wrath, yet he knows that his sufferings are not the result of his sinfulness. For Job states, I know that I shall be vindicated.^[3] Even in other passages Scripture describes hardship as wrath. It is said, You sent out your fury; it consumed them like stubble.^[4] When we hear about God’s wrath, we do not consider it a condition of the soul similar to human emotions. Such an emotion cannot be sent, since it lives in the soul. The wrath of God, however, is sent, for you sent out your fury, that is, hardship. Hardship is imposed. Job calls that which has affected him as wrath.