In my opinion, he has placed at this stage a cloud over this righteous man in order to raise his thoughts and to persuade him that that voice came from above, as [in the case] of the mercy seat placed upon the ark of alliance.^[1] Since the cloud is a symbol of heaven, it is as if God wanted to place heaven itself over Job, as if he had moved his throne near him. This is what also happened, it seems to me, on the mountain, when the cloud^[2] settled on it, so that we might learn that the voice came from above. Let us listen carefully, because it is the common Master of the universe who speaks. Let us see how he exhorts Job. Does he do it with the same vehemence of humankind? Not at all. Now we find a very clear solution to all the previous, disquieting questions, dear friends, which Job asked and to which we have tried to find a solution.

As often happens with one who incorrectly says right words and correctly bad words, so Elihu, in his arrogance, does not speak right words correctly, because in his defense of God he speaks humble sentences with an arrogant tone. So he is the perfect example of those who, in the universal church, look for vainglory. While they believe themselves to be more expert than anybody else, they are accused of being ignorant by the judgment of God, because, as the apostle says, If one believes to know something, he still has to learn how to know.^[1]

Since Job was overwhelmed by his dejection, God encourages him with his words, so that he may pay attention to what is said now, and he introduces his speech in the form of questions, which is the best means to convince. Above all, he shows that he does everything with wisdom and intelligence, and therefore it would have been inconsistent with God, who did so many things with wisdom and intelligence, to neglect the human beings for whom he has created everything, even when they are wretched, as in this case. What do you say? God asks.

In the holy Scriptures the foundations represent the preachers. The Lord first put them in the church, and on them the structure of the building was developed. That is the reason why the priest, by entering the tabernacle, had to wear twelve stones on his breast, because our high priest, who offers himself for us, giving us from the beginning firm preachers, wore twelve stones under his head in the upper part of his body. And so the holy apostles are the stones that constitute the main ornament of the breast and are the foundations that make the building firm on the ground. . . . When holy Scripture does not speak of different foundations but of a single foundation, it refers to the Lord himself, who supports our weak and fickle hearts with the power of his divinity.

And who created at the same time the morning stars? that is, those stars that also rise and appear in the evening. But in a different sense [we may intend], when we refer to these stars to the substances that are separated from our senses, their generation does not agree with the nature of angels. Therefore, we say that Christ is signified through the term morning and the apostles through stars; and the teachers, sons of the angels, are defined as participants in the angelic nature. ^[1] CREATION OF THE SEA. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: The sea is like a baby who gets out after being fashioned in the womb and is wrapped in clothes of wool. After bringing it into existence from nothing, God gathers the sea together from the place where it was and delimits, shuts and encircles it in the womb of the earth. ^[1]

He keeps [the sea] firmly within a sort of barrier, and in some perfect prescriptions of docility, as if he had given it precise commands. I have spoken, he says, and it did not reply, because that happens not only when no constraint forces it but also if the violence of an unchained power whips it quite hard. God has not allowed the sea to stand still and calm, in order that it may proclaim his power, because its nature fights against his commandments, and his commandment rules it everywhere. If water stood still, many people would have attributed its tranquility to the nature of the water; but since, in reality, it is restless and rises from inside, but without the strength to exceed its limits, its restlessness proclaims the power of God.

This morning is our Savior, who is also called Sun of justice.^[1] He illuminates the church, that is, the rational world, with the heat of faith and the splendor of his grace. . . . Did you take hold of and did you shake the extremities of the earth, and did you remove the wicked from it? This earth can be interpreted as the church, about whose foundations the Lord has spoken above. In the extremities of the earth, that is, at the end of the world, sinners are destined to be removed from it.

The seal shall be restored as clay and shall stand as a garment. The Lord made humankind, whom he fashioned after his own likeness, as a kind of seal of his power. But it shall be restored as clay, because, though he may by conversion escape eternal sufferings, yet he is condemned by the death of the flesh in punishment for the pride he has committed. Humankind, who has been formed from clay and adorned with the likeness of the divine image, having received the gift of reason, forgets, when swelling with pride of heart, that it was formed of the basest materials. Hence it has been ordered by the marvelous justice of the Creator that because he [humanity] became proud in consequence of that reasonable sense which he received, he should again by death become earth which he was unwilling humbly to regard himself. And when the spirit is summoned from the body, it is stripped, as it were, of its kind of covering of flesh; it is fitly subjoined of the same clay. The seal shall be restored as clay.. . . He subjoins what is the special punishment of the proud by saying, The light shall be taken away from the wicked, and their high arm shall be broken, for the death of the flesh that restores the elect to their light takes away their light from the reprobate. The light of the proud is the glory of this present life, and that light is then withdrawn from it when it is called by the death of the flesh to the darkness of it own retributions. Then the high arm is there broken, because of the loftiness of the heart that has been violently seized upon beyond the order of nature, and it is scattered by the weight of divine justice, which overwhelms it.

Have you entered into the depth of the sea? The sea is the mind of humankind, and God enters its depths when it is roused from its inmost thoughts to lamentations of penitence through its knowledge of itself, and when he calls to its memory the wickedness of its former life and rouses the mind, which is agitated by its own confusion. God penetrates the depth of the sea when he changes hearts that are in despair. For he goes into the sea when he humbles a worldly heart. He enters the depth of the sea when he does not disdain to visit minds that are even overwhelmed with sins. Hence it is rightly added in a question, And have you walked in the recesses of the deep? What deep is there but the human mind, which while unable to comprehend itself is like an obscure deep, hid from itself, in everything that it is. . . . Have the gates of death been opened to you? From the gates of death are wicked thoughts that we open to God when we confess them with weeping in penitence. He beholds them even when not confessed, but he enters into them when confessed. He then in truth opens a way for himself in the gates of death when we have put aside evil thoughts, and he comes to us after confession. They are called the gates of death for this reason, because the way to death is always opened through evil thoughts. Which is again repeated when it is subjoined, And have you seen the gloomy doors? For the gloomy doors are the lurking evils of the mind that can exist within and yet not be observed by another; the Lord beholds when he destroys them by the secret look of grace.

Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness? He says what he had said before but more clearly, that is, that the course of human life is regulated by the alternation of times, so that at one time people dedicate themselves to work; in another time, the vigor of the body, which exhaustion had taken away, is returned to them.

Did you know then that you would be born?^[1] These words are not said without purpose but to demonstrate that God’s benevolence is the reason for everything. If you owe the fact that you exist to my benevolence, since you did not exist before, he says, how can you think that [benevolence] is denied to you, now that you live and are able to function?

Obviously this does not mean that there exist such storehouses, but he simply shows that these elements are at his complete disposal when he wants, as if he took them from his own reserves. And is there a store of them for you against the time of your enemies, for the day of wars and battles? You certainly understand that he wants to emphasize their opportunity, the fact that they come at the right moment and never at random. Then he equally speaks about all the rest, that is, about rain, hail and, on the other hand, about the Notus.^[1]

But these things that have been stated generally of the Gentile world, we see taking place, if we carefully examine them, in individuals within the bosom of holy church. For there are many, grievously insensible to the words of God, who are counted under the name of faith, who hear the words of life with their ears but do not permit them to pass through to the inward places of their heart. What else are these than desert land? And that land in truth has no human vitality, because their mind is void of the sense of reason. And no mortal dwells in this land, because if thoughts of reasonable meanings ever spring up in their conscience, they do not remain there. For evil desires find a resting place in their hearts, but if good desires have ever come there, they pass away, as if urged on. But when the merciful God deigns to give a course to his shower and a way to the sounding thunder, being stung with grace within, they open the ears of their heart to the words of life. And the pathless land is filled, for while it grants a hearing to the world, it is overwhelmed with mystery. And it brings forth green herbs, because when watered by the grace of compunction, it not only willingly receives the words of preaching but also returns them with abundant increase; so that it is now eager to speak what it could not hear, and that which had become dry, even within, through not listening, feeds with its verdure as many as are hungry.

God does not want to say that it comes out from his womb, God forbid! But then what do the words about begetting and womb mean in this context? As when the author said about the sea, When its mother begot it,^[1] he did not mean that it has a mother; so here he does not mean that [ice] came forth [literally] from God’s womb, but he wants to speak about its formation and origin. . . . Why then did he constantly use here the words about begetting? In my opinion he wants to allude to the One who is the first and only cause of everything and to the fact that creatures were shaped even before being completely perfected.

Since in ordering the complexity of the world, Providence did not lack the collaboration of [divine] power, Job now enumerates those things that evidently are an integral part of the power of the Creator. Another interpretation: even though the amount of space between them [i.e., the stars of Pleiades] might be small, your strength will never be able to accomplish this, that is, to force them together into a single place and location, after removing whatever it is that makes them distinct. Neither will you be able to change the turning about of Arctuaus (i.e., Ursa Minor) and move it to a location or region different from the one that I have set.

Do you know the course of heaven, and will you set down its reason on the earth? To know the course of heaven is to see the secret predestinations of the heavenly disposals. But to set down its reason on the earth is to lay open before the hearts of people the causes of such secrets. To set down, namely, the reason of heaven on the earth is either to examine the mysteries of the heavenly judgments, by consideration, or to make them manifest in words. And this certainly no one can do who is located in this [finite] life. To pass from little to greater things, who can understand what is the secret reason that a just person frequently returns from a trial not only without being revenged but even punished besides, and that his wicked adversary escapes not only without punishment but even victorious?

Up to this point God divides the heavenly realities in terms of those through which he punishes us, as distinguished from those through which he benefits us. Notice how the lightnings answer. They do not really mean, What do you want? The text wants to signify that all creatures, as though they were living creatures, bend their ear to God. Every time he wants to show the difference in their formation, God talks about begetting and maternal womb. Every time, on the other hand, he wants to show their docility and perfection, he depicts them as if they bent their ear to his call. Why did he present himself not only as a craftsman but as a father as well? This is because the art that presides over nature is quite superior to any manual art, for it is, so to speak, divine. ^[1] WISDOM COMES FROM GOD. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: The words Who has put wisdom in the inwards parts? means who else [but God] has secretly put the wisdom of reason in the souls of mortals? ^[1]

Who can describe the reason of heaven? It is certain that nobody can describe with words or conceive in his mind the reason of heaven or the course of stars. . . . Who can make the concert of heaven sleep? We can interpret the concert of heaven as the holy angels. They are called heaven because of their heavenly residency by the prophet. Heaven of heaven for the Lord.^[1] Who will make this concert of heaven sleep? the Lord says. That is, who will be able to stop and to prevent them, as if they were sleeping, from their constant praises and from singing and blessing [the Lord]?

And will you hunt a prey for the lions and satisfy the desires of the dragons? For they fear in their lairs, even as they lie in wait, couch in the woods. I do not only provide people with food, and those animals who deserve help with fodder, but I also give meat to the carnivorous and nourishment to the reptiles. I certainly do not hesitate in doing these things, nor do I consider anything unworthy of my attention. And I have placed fear in them as well, so that they may not harm other living creatures.