Through these words Eliphaz shows the excellence of God. Since it was natural for Job to examine his own situation on the ground of his personal reflections, observe what Eliphaz says: Do not speak so. God is great. He does many things that we don’t understand. Our lowliness is profound. . . . Whatever God might do, he does well.

But the wise person examines all with care, whereas the fool sees nothing. This certainly means that it is God who causes the foolish to be destroyed by his wrath, while ardor makes him who has gone astray, perish. This refers to the ardor of God. His wrath causes the foolish to disappear means, in my opinion, that God’s wrath causes the sinners to disappear. Wrath destroys the foolish one, Eliphaz says, and therefore it does not destroy the sensible. Wrath, in fact, has no place among the sensible.

Notice how Eliphaz anticipates possible objections. Do not say to me, ‘Often they also had children.’ Yes, but never for a long time. Since it made good sense to ask, If Job was a sinner, how had he come to possess such great wealth? Eliphaz responds, I have seen fools taking root. You see that by fool he means the sinner. It is typical of the divine economy not to destroy sinners immediately. Rather, God grants them a delay so that they may repent, or so that others not be forced to act in a righteous manner.

All who are given birth through the preaching of unbelief are the children of this foolish man. These are far from safety, for though they enjoy the temporal life without trouble, they are struck more severely with eternal vengeance. As the Lord says concerning these same sons of such a person, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel over land and sea to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a child of hell as you are.^[1] The text continues, And they are crushed, neither shall there be any to deliver them. Who else is to be understood by the name of gate but the Mediator between God and man, who says, I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.^[2] The sons, then, of this foolish man do not advance through the gate. ^[3] SYMBOLISM OF THE EARTH AND THE BIRD. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: The author signifies all the silent and inanimate beings, and all those who are mute and without speech, through the two figures of the earth and the bird.^[1] His point is that neither the earth nor a bird can commit any act of iniquity. Because they cannot sin they are beyond afflictions and punishment. But the human being, since he is endowed with reason and sins by using his freedom, is born and grows up among pains and tribulation to match his nature. ^[2]

And the young birds will raise their feathers over him.^[1] This text indicates that sin is the cause of the calamities humans suffer. In a different sense we may understand the text to speak of angels as sons of the winged ones, sent by God either for our correction and punishment when we transgress or for our protection and salvation after we have repented.

The text demonstrates that the curses with which Eliphaz cursed the evildoers. . . were said for a reason. Afflictions are fitting for human beings but not for animals. The words may be meant as a comfort. As many people used to say, What you have suffered is not beyond human nature. For our life consists of hardship. Even our birth occurs with hardship and suffering, since those who give birth must endure a thousand things. In addition, the life of a new born is cumbersome. One can aptly compare this text to the story in the Bible of the man born blind.^[1] For it was regarding him that Jesus’ disciples asked, Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?^[2] Young vultures fly upwards means Punishment does not tame animals. The young vultures, he says, fly upward, meaning, They are untroubled—they do not live in wickedness after all. His meaning is this: Lifeless things and animals—by the vulture’s young he seems to refer to animals—do not experience vengeance themselves, whereas human beings harvest the fruits of their sins.

Eliphaz says, You did not devote yourself to prayer. As for me, I would commit my cause to God. You have reassured yourself and ceased from invoking ‘the Lord of all things.’ This is why the present afflictions befell you. After speaking, Eliphaz glorified God and aroused Job’s anger.

Eliphaz acknowledges that God is the ruler and creator of all things. It is likely that he has these convictions. He is a man who possesses wisdom in human things. Eliphaz also has an understanding of the invisible and visible, since he speaks of the inexplorable, the great, the honorable, and of water and rain. If he distinguishes that water from rain, he must have in mind water from wells, from creeks and from cracks in stone. One can find very wise thoughts of this kind in many places in Scripture, not least of all in Paul, who writes, In him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible.^[1] One has to imagine that Eliphaz became afraid in a human way because of the things that had happened to holy Job. He therefore admired the works of providence. Regarding the things without number, one has to think that Eliphaz speaks from a human perspective. For God knows everything. That is no miracle. Doesn’t Solomon say, For it is he who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists, to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements; the beginning and end and middle of times; the alternations of the solstices and so on? For even what can’t be counted due to its character is not uncountable for God, of whom it is said, He determines the number of the stars,^[2] and even the hairs of your head are all counted.^[3] That knowledge is also given to those who are worthy of this benefit, as it is said about Solomon.

He does great and unsearchable things. Eliphaz enumerates the riches of divine providence that God properly bestows on each and every human being in common through each generation. He gives rain on the earth. From the greatness of his power and the effusion of his liberality God gathers what is safe for humans. The defendant must place his hope of salvation not in his own merits but in the Lord’s clemency.

Those below are set on high, in that they, who are now despised for the love of God, shall return as judges along with God. The Truth pledges this which we have just named to the same humble ones, saying, You who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.^[1] Then those that mourn the Lord safely exalt, because the desire for him is inflaming them; they flee prosperity, endure crosses, undergo tortures at the hands of persecutors, chasten their own selves with grieving. They are then promised a safety so much the more exalted that they now, from devout affection, consider themselves dead to all the joys of the world. Hence it is said by Solomon, The heart knows his own soul’s bitterness, and a stranger does not meddle impertinently with his joy.^[2] For the human mind knows its own soul’s bitterness. When inflamed with aspirations after the eternal land, it learns by weeping its pilgrimage’s sorrow. But the stranger does not meddle impertinently with his joy in that he, who is now a stranger to the grief of compunction, is not then a partaker in the joy of consolation.

What do these words mean? Eliphaz insults Job, who should be a crafty man. He has a desire for justice, without doing anything for which he boasts with real justice. However, God does not stand still without penetrating such schemes, and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.

Look! This is what God does, so the weak may hope for happiness and the powerful may not become proud. In fact, he said above, Call for help in order to see whether you will be listened to, so that you may not think that there are things that escape providence. . . . Eliphaz dedicates the beginning of his speech to the defeat of Job. Indeed, God is accustomed to exalt the weak, to bring the powerful down and to confound the cunning. Now draw your own conclusions.

Since holy Job was dejected because of the misfortunes that befell him against his hope, Eliphaz now says that after his calamity Job must not despair about God being propitious again. Indeed, the restraint of sin’s dissoluteness through scourging testifies to the divine love. How happy is the one whom God reproves. Because he had enumerated different kinds of miseries that beset sinners, they did not want to appear to be guilty in anything or obtain forgiveness through the confession of their iniquity. He says that a person, when he is led through severity and the scourge to his correction and admission of guilt, must not consider himself as a man who is in misery.

If God brings evils to an end and transforms them into their opposite, causing mortals to enjoy a profound peace, it is the same thought, not a different one, that guides God in his present attitude. ^[1] NO LIMITATIONS TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: We must not think that the author intends to limit divine providence by fixing a precise number of troubles. He means that God will completely save you from the afflictions that surround you. ^[1]

Without doubt Job possesses happiness. You see that, by necessity or willingly, while Job starves and keeps away from all the tables of this world, he cries, Sighing is my nourishment.^[1] Yet Job does not die and confirms with force this word of God, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out from the mouth of God.^[2]

Again Eliphaz says this about the one who has been rebuked by the Lord, whereby he follows his own principle. Not even what Eliphaz says is stringent. Too often many righteous people have been vilified. Among them are Joseph, whom the Egyptian woman charged with excess in spite of his modesty, and Susanna, who suffered as a hostage the humiliations from the lawless elders. Consequently, if he understands by hidden from the scourge of the tongue that one is neither humiliated nor vilified, this word is unfounded. It is more accurate to say that the one who lives after the will of God cannot be harmed by humiliation or vilification, called scourge of the tongue. Virtue protects him from being found guilty of the false allegations. Nor does such a person fear expected destruction, since he says with Saint Paul, Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword?^[1] Over all this he prevails through virtue’s abundance. Likewise, he is protected from the intrigues of false wisdom, since God takes the wise in their own craftiness.^[2]. . . The same meaning as you shall not fear destruction when it comes has the following word from the prophet: The calamity will come from far away.^[3] This must be understood like this: The good comes from us. For it is said, The kingdom of God is within you.^[4] Thus we have an inclination toward virtue that Christ called kingdom. But the punishment and damage and dishonor of sin come from the outside. For the human, who is created after God’s image,^[5] carries the seed of the good within. But if he deviates from the right path, he encounters evil, without having received such an inclination from God.

He will hide you from the evil tongue, which knows how to persecute unjustly. In fact, they call scourge the malice and slander of the tongue. Moreover, you will end up in complete safety.

In holy Scripture complete peace is described in one way and initial peace in another. For Truth gave to his disciples peace from the beginning, when he said, Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you.^[1] And Simeon desired to have perfect peace. He sought it saying, Now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word.^[2] Our peace begins in longing for the Creator, but it is perfected by clarity of vision. Our peace will be perfect when our mind is neither blinded by ignorance nor moved by the assaults of the body. Forasmuch as we touch upon its first beginnings, when we either subject the soul to God or the flesh to the soul, the tabernacle of the righteous person is said to have peace. The body he inhabits through his mind is restrained from the evil motions of its desires under the controlling hand of righteousness. But what advantage is it to restrain the flesh by continence if the mind has not been taught to expand itself through compassion in the love of our neighbor? For the body’s chasteness is worth nothing if not recommended by sweetness of spirit.

Notice how Eliphaz. . . has inflicted a severe blow. How and in what manner? By showing that Job is not among those who receive a warning or among those who keep faith. Indeed, Eliphaz has applied his words to the person of Job, but his speech has a general meaning. For he says: Here is what we have seen and understood; but if this did not occur in your case, and if you remain in your misfortunes, it is up to you to recognize your own perversity.