Chapter IV.
Asserting that friends always suffer misfortunes for the sake of their sins, Job refutes them by asking why the wicked in this life are prosperous. However, these apparent misfortunes are shown to be true blessings. Likewise, he asks who should truly be considered happy, who sows well or poorly, and what will be the fate of the unjust in the future. He also questions why some are immune to these punishments while the righteous are considered subject to them. Finally, it is demonstrated that the wicked do not obtain eternity, but rather only a false image of it.
But tell me this: If I suffer because of my sin, as you argue, why do the wicked live? Not only do they live, but they are also filled with wealth, and their crops multiply. They even have children and their houses abound. These things may appear good on the surface, but in a deeper mystery you will find that what is thought to be good is not truly good, and what is thought to be evil is considered even more desirable than them.
12. 'They have become old,' he says, 'in riches' (Ibid. 7); 'they have grown old,' he said; so that the possession of wealth does not seem as long-lasting as the trouble caused by accumulated resources; as Ecclesiastes saw that wealth is kept to the detriment of those who possess them, which perish in extreme distress and worry (Eccle. V, 12). For what they leave behind here perishes, and it cannot benefit the dead. Therefore, the deceased had anxiety from them, and could not find rest, who left behind something to be ashamed of, and did not take with him what he held, much different from him of whom it is written: 'Blessed is the man who fills his desire from these things; he will not be put to shame when he speaks to his enemies at the gate' (Psal. CXXVI, 5). To whom the inheritance belongs, and the reward from the birth of the Virgin Mary: here at the end of wisdom, he is praised with praises, because he had nothing to be ashamed of, who desired nothing of those things which are of the world: but the adversary, having cast off the rags of the old man, wounded by the spear of self-control; so that he could not hinder him at the end of this life, being lame from the wound and confused by the admiration of virtues. Therefore, you have someone who is not praiseworthy, who is hardened in the desire for wealth, not renewed in the perception of grace.
13. Let us consider something else: Their seed, he says, is the second soul (Job 21:8), that is, they are not considered among the righteous. For the righteous sow in the spirit, and from the spirit they will reap eternal life. But those who sow in accordance with the flesh cannot reap spiritual things; for the natural man does not perceive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned. sed judicatur.
14. Their children in their eyes (Ibid.) that is, they do what they do so that they may be seen by men, not because they seek good in order to choose what will be approved in the future judgment. Therefore, Scripture frequently declares children on account of their works, because our posterity is more abundant in good deeds than in children. Hence, even Hezekiah, freed from serious sickness, says: From this day, I will beget children who will declare your justice, O Lord, the God of my salvation, and I will not cease blessing you with the psaltery all the days of my life (Isaiah 38:19-20). For indeed, the future generations of devotion and faith, which did not know how to submit to captivity, suffered as the sons of Hezekiah did.
And he added, saying: Because they have no fear, there is no punishment from the Lord (Job XXI, 9). But the just man says: For I am scourged all day long (Ps. LXXII, 14); and he desires to be scourged, so that he may be received by the Lord; and he wants to fear the Lord; for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And he does not consider it a blessing if his heifer does not abort (Job XXI, 10). Like fools think. For what does the ox signify, if not the rural cultivation of the heart, which always returns in a circle, and never ceases, but when it seems to be filled up, it is called back to the beginning? These are the ones who worship Sodom and Gomorrah. Therefore, those who worship Egypt and plow the land with a solid mind turn labor upon themselves, and reap sorrows. Therefore, their cattle do not miscarry but give birth, so that their work may increase and they may generate everything they have conceived without fear of God. The righteous, on the other hand, boast in a different way. For they do not boast in the abundance of riches or in the birth of livestock, but they boast in the Lord saying: In your fear we have conceived in the womb and given birth to the spirit of salvation (Isaiah 26:18). Therefore, it is said of the just, because they have begotten the spirit of salvation, which they received from the fear of God, not from the malice of this world, of which we read: Behold, he travailed with injustice, he hath conceived sorrow, and hath brought forth iniquity (Ps. VII, 15). Therefore, the abortion is better than the birth of secular things. Lastly, the Preacher declared about the man who comes into this world and endures the vanity of this world and the darkness for a long time, that the abortion is better than him (Eccl. VI, 3). For to this one there is more rest than to that one; because he has not experienced the variety of the world, in which even if someone were to live for a thousand years, he could not see what is good. Therefore, it is more a matter of gratitude to have escaped these things than to have undergone them.
But perhaps that which he added may stir us: Because they abide forever like sheep; but their children play, receiving the psaltery and the harp, and delight in the voice of the psalm. Yet they have completed their life in prosperity, and in the rest of the underworld they have slept (Job 21:11 et seq.). Distinguish these things, and since you are spiritual, judge. The wicked are like eternal, but not eternal, for they cannot receive eternity from him who is not eternal. Therefore, he cannot give what he does not have, nor can he illuminate who does not possess light: but he transforms himself into an angel of light, in order to deceive the unbelievers. However, he transforms himself by the simulation of false light, not by the brightness of perpetual clarity. Hence, the Savior says: I saw Satan as a lightning fall from heaven (Luke 10:18). He is not lightning, but like lightning. Consider someone heretical who is focused on bodily abstinence and the knowledge of celestial sacraments, as he is believed to be eternal, he does not have the reward of eternal life; for he has a false imitation, who does not have the truth of faith. These little children play, just like she who, when she has grown up, wants to marry. She has grown up in the psaltery and lyre, that is, in the sound of her voice, not in the depth of the sacraments; to make it resound with her lips, not to impart it to her heart.