Chapter XI.
But in response, Sophar the Naamathite said: Does one who speaks a lot not listen? Or will a verbose man be justified? It is as if he were to say: Can a verbose man be admired or praised for his words when he is disliked due to excessive verbosity? Rather, he should listen to what he deserves, so that he does not consider himself wise solely out of vanity.
Will only you keep silent, and when you mock others, will no one refute you? These are not the consolations of friends, but the weapons of enemies. So now let us say this about you: The teeth of men are their weapons and arrows.
For He said, 'My word is pure, and I am clean in Your sight.' He did not say this to mean that His word is pure and He is clean, that is, that He existed before God in thought and word, immaculate; but He said, 'I have not done anything wicked.'
And I wish that God would speak with you, and open His lips to you. He said by what judgment Job should be condemned. For in speaking the voice of God, whose sound the ears receive, He wanted, as I believe, to indicate. But in opening the lips, He showed the understanding of the voice.
In order to show you the secrets of wisdom, and how manifold its law is. That you may understand the hidden and remote judgments of his heart, in which there is manifold and inscrutable knowledge.
And you would understand that you are much less important to him than your wickedness deserves. That is, you should suffer more torments than you declare yourself able to endure.
Perhaps you will grasp traces of God, and you will find Him to be perfect and omnipotent. Those traces of God are when He becomes known to humans by His own grace. And so, we track Him when He deigns to manifest Himself to us in some way. Therefore, these are the traces of God, when you understand and believe Him to be incomprehensible.
The sky is higher, and what will you do? Deeper than hell, and where will you understand? Longer than the length of the earth and wider than the sea. If He overturns everything, or compresses it into one: who will contradict Him? or who can say to Him: Why do you do this? We believe that God is everywhere, and within Him are contained all things that have been created by Him.
For he knows the vanity of mankind, and does he not consider the injustice? For he knows the deeds of the wicked, and does he not ignore the unfair? For he punishes the wicked and the ungodly.
A worthless man is lifted up in pride and thinks himself born free like a wild donkey's colt. He says that Job is similar to a wild donkey's colt, a creature without bridle and wandering aimlessly, because he thinks this is how Job sees himself, someone who does not belong to anyone.
But you have strengthened your heart and stretched out your hands to him. You have strengthened your heart, saying: not to satisfy God through repentance, to remove this worst wound raging in your flesh. You stretched out your hands to him: that is, you have inflated false merits of works with empty words: because in many places, actions are designated by the name of hands.
If you remove the iniquity that is in your hand and injustice does not remain in your tent. Job reproves with accusation, saying: If the iniquity that is in the work of your hands and the injustice in the tent of your heart does not remain.
Then you will be able to lift up your face without blemish, and you will be steadfast and not fear. Holding a holy conscience, and raising your face freely to pray to God. For Cain, the fratricide, lived in the land of Nod, that is, he became unstable. Therefore, so that Job would not incur a similar punishment and eternal fear of death, Zophar exhorts him, saying: If you do these things that we have mentioned, you will be steadfast. It must be understood that there is a disturbance in which a sinner, remaining in his sins, does not stand before your face. Your face is like pure water, and you will be stripped of filth and not be afraid. The one with a sincere and purified mind, and clean from all filth, fears vices: having been stripped of them like rags, he will shine forth as if brought out of darkness. The man who presents the bright face of his mind signifies the radiant people of the Jews, who in a certain way killed Christ their Father.
Moreover, you will forget your miseries, and you will not remember the waters that have passed. Therefore, in the passing of waters, Zophar understands this: that the pains can depart from him so quickly, if Job, however, is willing to amend himself, just as waters flow away within a moment to other places, and in this way the wretchedness of this affliction can be completely wiped away from him, so that he remembers his misfortune with a very faint memory, as though it had not occurred.
And as if a midday radiance, a light will rise for you towards evening. And when you think you are consumed, you will rise like Lucifer. This can be understood spiritually: a light will rise for you towards evening, that is, in the completion of the labors of your evils, the consolation of the sun of justice, Christ, will come to you; or after death, rising again in glory. Likewise, in this very decay of yours, in which you daily waste away with such great corruption, and melt away, as if you entirely think yourself consumed: if you do what I have already said, being completely and utterly consumed, you will suddenly rise like Lucifer; who, traveling through the hidden paths of his course, is said to appear after two years in the brilliance of his dawn. So therefore, for you too after the night, and for the darker shadows of that prolonged temptation: if you recognize your faults, it may come to pass.
And you will have confidence, having a set hope, and buried you will sleep soundly. You will rest, and there will be no one to frighten you. And many will implore your face. You will have this confidence, that buried in death and certain of resurrection, you will sleep soundly, rest in the underworld, established in the hope of certain hope, and there will be no torture, adversary, or enemy there to frighten you and inflict infernal punishments upon you, but rather whoever they are, they will pour out supplicating prayers to you, so that by your prayers the Tartarean torments may be tempered for them.
But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and their refuge shall perish from them: and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost. That is, the expectation of the wicked shall be ended with this conclusion: that in a time of another's glory, they shall be found not worthy of absolution, but of abomination.