The author of the book, while distributing the chapters of the different speeches to us, connects the words that follow to the beginning. Since he had stirred the attention of the listeners by discussing the providence of God, he also asks their patience for the things that he is about to say.

God does not reject the mighty, though he himself is mighty.. . . Great is that temporal power that, from being well administered, has its special reward from God, and yet sometimes, from being preeminent over others, it swells with pride of thought. All things for its use are at its service, while its commands are speedily fulfilled according to its wish and while all its subjects praise its good deeds. If there are any who do not oppose its evil doings with any authority, then they too will commonly praise them, even that which they ought to blame. The mind, being led astray by those things that are beneath it, is raised above itself, and while it is encircled with unbounded applause outside, it is bereft of truth inside. . . . But he does not save the wicked and gives judgment to the poor. Holy Scripture is frequently prone to call the humble, poor. Hence they are mentioned in the Gospel with the addition spirit when it is said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.^[1] Riches visibly manifest the powerful; those are poor in their own sight, who are not puffed up in their minds. But he calls those wicked who are either cut off from the piety of the faith or who contradict themselves by their wicked habits, in that which they faithfully believe. . . .

He will not withdraw his eyes from the righteous but establishes kings on the throne forever, and there they are exalted. But holy people are properly termed kings, in the language of Scripture, because having been raised above all the motions of flesh, at one time they control the appetite of lust; at another they moderate the heat of avarice; at one time they bow down the boastfulness of pride; at another they crush the suggestions of envy; at another they extinguish the fire of passion. They are kings then, because they have learned not to give way to the motions of their temptations by consenting to them but to gain mastery by ruling over them. Since, therefore, they pass from this power of authority to the power of retribution, let it be rightly said, He establishes kings on the throne forever. They are wearied for a time by ruling themselves, but they are placed forever on the throne of the kingdom of eternal elevation; and there they receive the power of justly judging others, just as they are here unskilled in unjustly sparing themselves.

But after accusing those who are bound in fetters, he will deliver them from their chains through his benevolence and will bring them back to his doctrine. And when the impious think that they are at the climax of their greatness, he declares to them their works and gives their fruits to the righteous as recompense. If they turn to God and serve him, they will not only earn a punishment but also eternal life and a good reputation.

If they hear and observe him, they shall fulfill their days in good and their years in glory; but if they do not hear, they shall pass away by the sword and shall be consumed with folly. By good is designated right conduct, but by glory heavenly recompense. They, then, who study to obey the divine commands fulfill their days in good and their years in glory. Because they pass the course of this life in right deeds, they perfect their consummation by a blessed retribution. But if they do not hear, they shall pass away by the sword and shall be consumed with folly. Vengeance smites them in tribulation, and the end shuts them up in folly. For there are some whom not even torments keep back from their loose habits. Of them it is said by the prophet, You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; you have scourged them, and they have refused to receive correction.^[1] And of them it is said under the figure of Babylon, We have cured Babylon, and she is not healed.^[2] Of them it is said again, I have slain and destroyed my people, and yet they have not returned from their ways.^[3] These sometimes become worse by the scourge, because, when attacked by pain, they are either more hardened in their contumacious obstinacy or, what is worse, launch out into even the exasperation of blasphemy. It is well said then that they pass away by the sword and are consumed with folly; for through their scourges, they increase those sins that they ought, in consequence of them, to correct. And they both feel even here the punishment of the blow and do not escape there the sufferings of righteous retribution. It is the infatuation of folly that iniquity so fetters them and that not even punishment keeps them from offending.

The simulators and the cunning cause God’s wrath; they do not cry for help when he binds them. It seems that through these words holy Job is obliquely hinting at Elihu himself, because he is acting, in a sense, in a cunning and unjust way: he also pretends to be an excellent man.

They will die in the tempest of their soul, and their life among the effeminate. Since he had said above, God will not be humble before the powerful, here he has rightly said that the one who through his scorn inflames the wrath of the avenger will die among the effeminate, that is, he deserves to be deprived of all his strength by the misfortunes that will happen to him. He will take the poor away from his anguish and will reveal his ear in tribulation. Through the voices of the facts themselves he will teach them that he has not forgotten the cry of the poor.

He will also save you largely from the narrow mouth that has no foundation. Through these words Elihu describes the dwellings of hell, which have no foundation for their immense capacity. . . . And the mouth of hell is appropriately defined as narrow, because it is large in receiving and very narrow in releasing, as it keeps in itself the dead and does not suffer that they come back to life. . . . And the rest of your table will be full of fatness. By mentioning the rest he refers to the pleasantness and joy of paradise.

[Lay down your greatness without tribulation, and all the mighty in strength. Do not prolong the night, so that people should go up for them. Take heed that you do not decline to iniquity, for you have begun to follow this after misery.]. . . What is this that, while he forbids him to decline iniquity, he condemns him for it at once, as if he had already declined it? Does this suggest that arrogant people wish rather to appear as judges rather than consolers? Hence also, they sometimes smite with severe sentences those faults that they suspect have arisen in the heart. And before the fault of the offenders is certain, severe invective of words is brought forward; and a person is struck by their sentence before anything appears to be smitten. Even just people commonly oppose, by reproof, wicked and secret thoughts, but when any preceding doings make plain these thoughts, they frequently root out from the hearts of their hearers, by the hand of reproof, those sins that have not shown themselves. But then they perceive that they are already following from others that proceed. For as physicians of the body discern that some diseases have already appeared but heal others, that they may not appear, so do holy teachers sometimes restore to health the wounds they have discovered, and sometimes so deal with people’s minds that they are not wounded.

And you certainly, he says, were tested so far in the furnace of correction. But God will indeed restore you and will bring you back to your former wealth and dignity.

Remember that you do not know the works of him whom men have sung.. . . Therefore people sing to the Lord when the angelic spirits or the perfect doctors teach us his power. But they do not know his works, because they, who are now preaching, worship his judgments without understanding them. And so they know him whom they are preaching but ignore his works, because they know him through grace who created them, but [they] cannot understand his judgments, which occur through his agency even above them. . . . All people have looked on him; everyone watches him from far away. Every person, because he is endowed with reason, must infer from his own reason that God created him. To observe through reasoning his dominion undoubtedly is like seeing him already. After saying, All people looked on him, he rightly adds, everyone watches him from far away. To watch him from far away is not like seeing him directly yet, but it is like considering him by simply admiring his works.

He had said above, See, God is exalted in his power; now he repeats, See, God is great. What does see mean when speaking about God, and why does he repeat see, but for the reason that we are speaking of what we indicate in the present? And since God is present everywhere, when we say, see with regard to him we recall the fact that he is present also with those who do not see him.

And though one should understand the outspreading of the clouds or the measure of his tabernacle. If you understood the measure and uniformity and harmony of clouds, would you guess who is the Maker of the clouds? With what plane did he produce such uniformity? With what paint did he make such wonderful, harmonious and laudable pictures? Behold, he will stretch his bow against him, and he covers the bottom of the sea. He calls bow the rainbow which others call belt. Moses calls it bow, while Daniel calls it rainbow. The former says, I lay my bow on the clouds;^[1] the latter, And lo a rainbow and a saint from heaven,^[2] and the mere divinity of it can really strike the viewer. By casting the arrows of light in a certain way, it announces the wisdom of God to those who contemplate the universe, its immense dimension and the ineffable Owner of the circle of the heavenly dome. By inciting us to gratefulness toward God, it exhorts us to cry, How magnificent are your works, O Lord, you made all them in wisdom.^[3]

And he will also cover the hinges of the sea. From Elihu’s voice we hear that this will happen, but we see that through the agency of God, it has happened already. The almighty Lord, in fact, has covered the limits of the sea with glowing clouds, because, through the fulminating miracles performed by his preachers, he has led to faith even the most extreme lands of the world. . . . For by these he governs peoples; he gives food in abundance. By these words of his preachers, that is, by these drops of the clouds and by the lightning of miracles, God judges people. He calls to repentance their frightened hearts. Indeed, as soon as they hear the heavenly words, as soon as they see the wondrous works, they come back to their heart and, repenting of their past iniquities, fear the eternal chastisements. ^[1] PERFORMANCE FOLLOWS COMMAND. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: The words, He will cover the light with his hands [mean] that when he wants to make the rain fall for the sake of earth, he condenses the air as if with his hands and covers the sun with clouds. And the words he will go toward them so that they may come to meet him [mean]that in the same instant in which his command goes to his works, they promptly come to meet him, that is, the performance instantly follows the command. ^[1]