Chapter XII.
But Job responded and said: So you are the only men, and wisdom will die with you? My heart is the same as yours: I am not inferior to you. For who does not know these things that you know? He who is laughed at by his friend like me will call upon God, and He will answer him. Truly, the simplicity of the just is laughed at. This is to say, what do you alone say is wise, and do you think that there will be no wise man after you?
The lamp, despised among the thoughts of the rich, is ready for the appointed time. The huts of pirates abound, and they boldly challenge God, when he himself has given everything into their hands. The lamp, calling itself despised by the rich, undoubtedly denoting them as proud, because they despised him afflicted with torments and the contempt of his relatives; who, however, shone inwardly with great faith and the oil of good works. Likewise, the lamp despised by the rich, Christ despised by the Jews, who, rising from the dead, illuminated the whole world with the splendor of his grace. The Jews were called rich because they received the words of God.
Undoubtedly, ask the animals and they will teach you, and the birds of the air and they will tell you. Speak to the earth, and it will respond to you, and the fish of the sea will inform you. Who is unaware that the Lord has created all these things? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all flesh of humankind. Does not the ear discern words, and the palate of the eater taste food? In the ancients is wisdom, and in much time is prudence. With Him is wisdom, and strength, and He has counsel and understanding. That all things pertain to the providence and governance of God, even those things that are irrational and insensible, respond in a certain way to the questioning of truth. According to the mystical understanding, unrefined and irrational individuals can be understood as animals. Birds, on the other hand, are understood as demons or those who are light and arrogant, or perhaps astrologers. The earthly and carnal people who are devoted to earthly pleasures are referred to as the land. Pisces, philosophers, and others like them, who are excessive in their inquiries about the things of the world and its qualities. Otherwise: Horses are good creatures, which animals will live in the Lord's inheritance: to whom the voluntary rain of the Gospel is separated from the unbelievers. Birds, on the other hand, are those who have their hearts set on high and desire heavenly things; or those who will go to meet Christ in the air when they rise from the dead: the flesh of the saints is rightly understood, which will exult with the Lord reigning. Those fish, indeed, who swim amidst the waves and tempests of this worldly life, see for themselves safe places of eternity and tranquil. Or those fish are to be understood, who receive life through water; who immediately migrate from the fountain of baptism to Christ, or to God, as others say.
If he destroys, there is no one who can build up. It is clear that whatever he desires to scatter and destroy by the judgment of his own wisdom, no one can withstand his power. Just as he destroyed the tower and the kingdoms of many nations, and even Jerusalem, where the very legal precepts themselves were written like stones, he declared that they would be dissolved in the presence of his grace. And so, according to the prophecy of Job, the wall of enmities, the law of commandments, was indeed destroyed through Christ; so that he might create in himself one new man, making peace. God Christ destroyed and opened the prison of hell, and he who had the power of death, He dethroned the kingdom of dominion. Therefore, God Christ destroyed death, while He deemed it worthy to die in it, and while on the cross He destroyed the body of sin, he killed our old man there, who was killing us: in order to restore the way to eternity for us. Thus, He destroyed death and illuminated life: He destroyed the plans of those who persecute the Church, those who plot to dig out His name from under the heavens, namely the Jews and the Gentiles. He destroyed the dogmas and various errors of the heretics from the Church: the unbreakable building of right faith: about which Solomon said: The wise man ascended the cities of the strong and destroyed its fortifications. He also destroyed all the worship of idols.
If a man is enclosed, there is no one who can open it. God enclosed Noah in the flood: Lot in Segor: Jonah in the belly of a whale: Jeremiah and Baruch that they would not be found. He also enclosed those of whom it is said: He will send his angel around those who fear him, and he will deliver them. If a man is placed under the sentence of death through the judgment of God, who can bring him back? Pharaoh was enclosed in the midst of the waters: Dathan and Abiram were enclosed alive in hell: the people of Israel were enclosed in the desert for forty years. God includes man to be refined by trials: or certainly he surrounds the sinner to be scourged by corrections so that he may amend. Who is there who might open a way of escape as it were for someone to decline, so that he might avoid: just like Job himself, who says: God has enclosed me with the wicked, and has handed me over to the hands of the wicked. In this place, the devil can be understood: who, when he has been imprisoned in hell, did not free himself, and who abominably considers himself against God the most powerful.
If the waters continue, everything will dry up, and if they are released, they will destroy the earth. This happened during Noah's time, according to the testimony of the Scriptures, and we do not doubt it at all. However, now the waters of doctrine are contained spiritually within the Jewish people, so that the rivers of the law may become a desert for them, and the outflows of the waters may become their thirst. And may these waters destroy and demolish earthly desires and luxuries, left behind in the Church's reasonable image of a worldly person, and may they progress in converting themselves to the spiritual life.
In him is strength and wisdom. This is the Son with the Father, and the Holy Spirit.
He knows both the deceiver and the one being deceived. Balaam knew, as did Ahab, that a false prophet named Aeneas would rise up. He knew Aeneas, but through this he showed the deserved punishment of a sinful people: that by pronouncing false prophecies, he would declare their destruction, and those who do not want to listen to God and the true prophets would be deceived by the false prophecies of the pseudo-prophets. The children of Israel, as we read in the Book of Judges, were also deceived by the most just judgment of God. And when, according to the law, the Levites had gathered together against the Benjamites on account of their wife, so that the crime of adultery might be punished: first, the crime of sacrilege itself was avenged, because they should have first corrected themselves: or certainly kill those who worshipped idols to the injury of God: for the offense against their brother was greater than against God, and therefore it was first avenged in them. But the Lord knows both the deceiver and the deceived by His foreknowledge, which can also be understood concerning Abel, and Cain, and Delilah, and Samson, who mystically possessed the grace of the Holy Spirit in the seven locks of his hair. Indeed, God knew all these things before they happened, being foreknowledgeable about the future; but He allowed man, who used his free will, to disobey God's command and, moreover, believing that he could become a god, to justly endure the punishment of disobedience. All of these had the characteristics of Christ. In Samson, who held and killed the lion, and found honey in the mouth of the dead lion, it was signified that in the proud, in whose mouth there had been the stench of blasphemy, there would afterwards be the sweetness of praise and grace from God. And that same Samson, thirsty from the molar tooth of the donkey, invoked God and brought forth water to drink; so also Christ, satisfied as a refreshing people from the unclean and hard nation of the believing faithful. Also, with the jawbone of the same donkey from which abundant water had flowed, he killed a thousand men. In the jaws and teeth, the eloquence of the mouth is understood. Therefore, the teaching of those who believed from the nations is completed by a certain perfect number. But Samson indeed killed and destroyed his enemies and adversaries in three ways: some perish by not believing, while others die believing in faithfulness. This work is called the lifting up of the jawbone. For in this way the teaching and preaching of the Gospel has been magnified over all the earth, so that all nations everywhere marvel at it being elevated. Therefore, it is figuratively represented by those foxes: so that through the cunning and enemies of true faith, whose authority is in their tails, a part left behind is devastated, and a part around the fruits of Christ is laid waste by those who oppose Christ.
He brings counselors to a foolish end, and judges to astonishment. As he did against the magicians of the Egyptians, who said to Pharaoh that the king of the Chaldeans would not come to destroy Egypt, either by making Nebuchadnezzar mad, or by terrifying Belshazzar.
He undoes the belt of kings and girds their loins with a rope. In the belt, the glory of the reigning is understood; in the rope, the ignominy of the dethroned king is signified, as happened to Zedekiah and Manasseh by God's command. Thus also the people of the Jews, who were distinguished from the kingdom of Christ by their unfaithfulness. But now, even the kings who are reborn in Christ, are all called to the adoption as sons of the eternal King. Truly, they are rightly distinguished by that sublime honor, whoever have accomplished deeds worthy of repentance. As the prophet says: Gird yourself with a rope.
He leads the disgraced priests. Like the sons of Heli, or many others of the same nation.
And He supplants the nobles. God does not supplant with deceit, in whom there is no iniquity, but it is said to supplant in this way, when He removes the unjust and the wicked and substitutes a worthy man, a good and just man, in the place that someone unworthy appears to hold, as David in the place of Saul.
Changing the lying lip, and taking away the doctrine of the elderly. He pours contempt upon princes, and lifts up those who were oppressed. When, on account of their sins, the promises being taken away, he is compelled to give the flames of eternal hell to those who are adopted.
He who reveals the depths from darkness and brings the shadow of death into light. He who multiplies peoples and destroys them, and restores them completely when overthrown. He who changes the heart of the rulers of the earth, and deceives them, so that they walk in vain through impassable paths. They will grope in darkness, not in light, and he will cause them to wander like drunkards. The shadow of death itself is the devil: he who does not protect mankind, but press them into death: he is brought into light when separated from a faithful soul.