Chapter XX.
But in response, Sophar the Naamathite said: Therefore my various thoughts succeed one another, and my mind is carried away in different directions. Therefore, he says, I am excited and troubled in thought: because you say that you endure these evils without cause from God the Judge, when one should not suspect anything evil from God.
I will listen to the doctrine by which you accuse me, and the spirit of understanding will answer me. I will indeed hear you reproaching and rebuking me, because perhaps I should not be reproached for being in pain. It is appropriate for me to respond to you about God, who is most just, because you could not punish me in such a way unless you were conscious of evil and guilty of many crimes.
I know this from the beginning, since when man was placed upon the earth: that the praise of the wicked is short-lived, and the joy of the hypocrite is like a moment. Now he has begun to hurl curses at the holy Job: he openly declares him wicked and a hypocrite, because he pretended to be righteous and has now become rebellious against God.
If his pride ascends to the heavens and his head touches the clouds. A clear and certain hyperbole, saying that the man is excessively arrogant and swollen.
Like a dungheap at the end it will be destroyed, and those who had seen it will say, 'Where is it?' To whom have you been compared in all things to a dungheap, and you yourself now see yourself rotting. And those who had once seen you reigning in glory now say with mocking voice: 'Where is that wisest of men, and mightiest of kings?'
Like a flying dream, it will not be found; it passes like a nocturnal vision. It is clear, as it says: it disappears like a rising dream.
The eye that has seen him, will not see him: nor will his place behold him any longer. That is, the honor of the wicked cannot be restored.
Her sons will be crushed by poverty. Whether they are her biological sons, or the works that are sometimes referred to by the name of sons, or those who have imitated him as a father, they will be reduced to nothing by God's judgement, which you can see has already been fulfilled in your sons, even in your carnal works.
And his hand shall give him his pain. For by God's righteousness, he deserved to receive the evil of vengeance, for this is the work that God has done.
His bones will be filled with the vices of his youth. This is said because from his youth, from which he began to commit more serious sins, he will persist in the same sins until old age, for which he will never want to repent. And therefore, it follows.
And with him sleeping in the dust. That is, after the death of vices that are in the soul: either until death, which occurs through the dissolution of this body. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to understand old age in this place itself: in which old age and the hardness of aging are prematurely indicated. Or his bones will be filled with the vices of youth, etc. So, if there are any natural virtues of the soul in an impious person, they grow in him with his vices from his youth, and they are dissolved or flow away, so that nothing solid and powerful remains in them: because now they are covered and concealed by the same vices, like flowing flesh; whereas they should rather restrain, contain, and govern vices like solid and firm bones, and therefore sleep in the dust of his flesh: because, by the vices resisting and overpowering, they will lose the strength of their good nature.
For when evil was sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue. Sweet evils are impious, blasphemy, and other sins of the mouth. He will hide it under his tongue, saying: where is for him labor and pain, and he will defend and conceal, as Scripture says: Whoever covers his iniquity, will not succeed.
He will spare it and will not abandon it. That is, he caresses, nourishes, and feeds his evil, and, delighting in it, he never regrets to leave it.
And he will hide it in his throat. It seems to me that he is always ready to blaspheme and does not think at least for a moment about what he is going to say: because he already has blasphemy ready, which he pours out with a curse from his heart.
His bread in his belly will be turned into the gall of asps within him. This is to say, that the bread of this kind of man's entire life is the delight of sins, the sweetness of allurements, which will afterwards be bitter and deadly to him. What he said in his belly, he says this in his heart as well, that he may suffer bitter pains, keen and excessive, with conscience tormenting him for his iniquities.
The wealth that he devoured he will vomit out, and God will extract it from his belly. The serpent's head will rise and the venomous tongue will strike him down. What he unjustly and violently seized and invaded, God in his justice has punished him for, and thus will be extorted from the wicked one what he unjustly took. But that angel who killed one hundred and eighty-five thousand appears to have been a good angel, for angels are reapers: the tares are to be burned with eternal fire.
Let us know that the beauty or delights of paradise, and its abundance, are also signified by these names: and these kings, who were not adversaries to the truth, are rightly understood to be those impulses of the river, which gladden the city, flowing from the source, or from the river of the Scriptures: or we rightly understand these same apostles as those impulses, going forth from the source of the Gospel to water the barren lands of the peoples: which impulses also we ought to understand as torrents, on account of the swiftly poured out doctrine of them, which divine doctrine is compared to honey on account of the sweetness of God's words, and to butter on account of the simple and innocent food of the same doctrine: which in the psalm it is said that the wicked shall not possess.
You shall read what He has made all things; yet it will not be consumed. It is a deception, because Gehenna is a certain everlasting incorruption, and eternal perseverance of torments.
According to the multitude of their inventions, so also will he suffer: because he hath broken in needy men's houses, he hath taken away, and hath not built up. According to that which the prophet saith to God: for thou wilt render to every man according to his works.
And his stomach is not satisfied. I think this stomach is called a certain receptacle of the soul, where his thoughts, like hidden food, are contained, which he calls inexplicable.
And when he has obtained what he desired, he will not be able to possess it. Just like you yourself, who have lost all your inheritance by the just judgment of God.
He did not leave any of his food, and therefore nothing will remain of his possessions. He incurs the mark of inhumanity because he did not offer refreshment to any stranger or guest from the abundance of his table. But Zophar is mistaken: because the holy Job says: 'If I eat my morsel alone.' None of his food will remain, because his possessions will not flourish.
When he has been satisfied, he will be tormented, he will be consumed by heat, and all pain will rush upon him. When of course he has been filled with riches and the abundance of all things, a sudden death will come upon him: confined by misfortune rushing in and enclosed, he will be tormented by the disasters of calamities.
May his belly be filled, that he may release the fury of his anger upon him. We have understood a certain capacity, or ample bosom of the soul in the upper belly. Therefore, he says this, because he is already full of most wicked thoughts, and blasphemy accumulates up to the highest part of his mouth: whether we sensibly perceive the anger of his fury of the devil in his soul, through which the saints are tested.
And let it rain upon his war. A war, due to its multitude, can be understood as opposing powers. Therefore, these powers wage war against God when they attack his saints. And what he says, 'Let it rain abundantly upon him,' he prays for the pouring out of calamity upon him: whether it be the impious person who wages war of blasphemy against God, he will receive his due.
He will flee from the iron weapons, and rush into the bronze bow. As if to say: When he thinks he can escape lesser misfortunes, he will fall into worse ones. Or in other words: If he flees from the allies and ministers of the devil, he will fall into the prince of darkness himself, and although they are rebels in malice, strong, and hard-hearted like iron weapons, he will nevertheless collide with the worse author of all evil, as if into a bronze bow: which I believe is named thus in this place because it does not cease to kill unsuspecting people in ambush and deception. Usually, arrows are thrown unexpectedly. And he will not be freed from the hand of the sword. This is what it means: because the devil will not escape eternal death.
The drawn sword, and going forth from its sheath, and flashing in its bitterness. For we have said that the bow, with its name transferred, can be understood as the devil: who, while disobeying, transgresses boundaries, and in pride, lifted up, surpasses the limits of holy humility: as if he is drawn forth from the sheath of blessed habitation by the just judgment of God and expelled. Or if we come to know that the drawn sword, always ready to destroy those who flee, has been intended. He will be wounded by a bronze arrow. Bronze is long-lasting: the devil is compared to this metal because it never fails to destroy, nor is it consumed by any age, which also flashes, that is, it transforms itself into an angel of light.
They will come, and horrible things will come upon him. That is, his companions.
All darkness is hidden in his eyes. The darkness in this place is to be understood as sins, whether those which have been committed by the wicked, or those which are to be committed in his heart, and in his affection, and in his thoughts: which are therefore said to be hidden in the secret places of his mind, because he favors them, and takes great pleasure in them.
The fire that is not kindled will consume him. We understand this fire, which does not live on certain materials and fuel in order to burn, not absurdly but as hell itself. It will not burn by external means, but as it is created, it will burn on its own, consuming everything that is thrown into it. Therefore, this fire will devour the wicked, rational as he is, in such a way that he will be swallowed and absorbed, and he will be tormented in eternal tortures.
He will be afflicted, abandoned in his own tent. Indeed, because of his impiety, the wicked will be forsaken by God, so that he may be tormented with everlasting punishments in the tent of his body.
The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him. Surely the angels and holy men will serve as witnesses, so that they may know that he is suffering punishment most justly.
The seed of his house will be exposed. In the judgement of God, when the wicked are to be condemned, not only all the thoughts of his heart, but also the origins of his deceptive thoughts, must be revealed to God and made clear with brighter light.
He will be cast out in the day of God's fury. On the day of judgment, he will be sent into outer darkness. The impious day could also have been for Job when he was struck with a plague and he ended his speech, saying:
Is this a portion of the impious man from God? Here he suddenly shows that he said all of this to holy Job. But what follows:
And the inheritance of his words is from the Lord. That is, the retribution of deeds: others have translated it thus, And the inheritance of his words is from the bishop, because just as the Lord is known for his dominion over all things, so the bishop is truly said to oversee all creation. For God, being unchangeable, is not roused to punishment by a disturbed or emotive mind, since, as he says to Moses, I am who I am, not only everlasting, but also eternally gentle. Then let us understand these things to be said about God anthropomorphically, not properly according to his unchangeable substance, but by transferring the names of a passible creature to an uncreated and unconditioned creature, rather as the creatress of all things.