Chapter XXII.
But Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: Can mortal man be compared with God, even though he may have perfect knowledge? Therefore, these things are said in rebuke to Job: that he arrogantly claims to speak with the wisdom of his own heart.
What does it profit God if you are righteous, or what do you give Him if your life is blameless? No one with his righteousness and holiness has made God better, because He is the source and origin of all goodness and does not need the goodness of anyone, as the prophet says: 'For I have no need of your good works.'
Will the one fearing argue against you, and come with you to judgment? Is this the cause of the fear of God, that God should fear you? Perhaps you could become powerful someday, and being made equal to him, you could resist him? These things are said rather mockingly and with a mocking sense.
And not because of your great wickedness and countless iniquities? He says, 'Not fearing this severe punishment accuses you, but because of all your evils, to which you willingly adhered. Therefore, because Job has the primary evil, that is, great wickedness, from which all the other evils depend, he adds and narrates them as if they were individual instances, thus speaking.'
You have indeed taken the pledge of your brothers without cause. This means that you have forcefully and in an enemy-like manner stolen other people's belongings, or unjustly extorted pledges, or by pretending to be just, have wrongly deprived others, and the crime is aggravated when it is said that you did not spare your own blood.
And you stripped them of their clothes. What you have done to the clothes is evident here: among whom not even the naked person has been found immune from your plunder.
You did not give water to the tired person. It is obvious.
And you have withheld bread from the hungry. It is serious to not give, but even more serious to take away. Therefore, it is a great sin to not show hospitality to those in need. However, we clearly know that Eliphaz has lied, as we read later about all the good that Job has done.
By the strength of your arm, you possessed the land, and by your great power, you held onto it. However, it accused him as proud and a tyrant, who did not rule his people with justice and fairness in his kingdom, but rather, with cruel manners, he subjugated them with the burden of slavery, as if it were a virtue of his arm, and no one could live except as a subject to his most harsh rule.
You have dismissed widows as empty. You did not want to hear to come to the aid of those who were abandoned, afflicted with troubles and humiliated: you dismissed each one of them as empty, when she could not obtain what she was asking from you.
And you broke the arms of orphans. If they had any strength to rely on, you took it away, and you crushed their souls with a despair of life, either by not defending them from evil men; you shattered the virtue of their hope, which they looked to you for, while you allowed them to be oppressed.
Therefore you are surrounded by snares, and sudden fear disturbs you. Eliphaz said this, that blessed Job himself was troubled by the fear of a guilty conscience, and with the same fear coming upon him suddenly, he completely lost the counsel of patience against adversity.
You thought that you would not see darkness, and that you would not be overwhelmed by the rushing waters. In such security, you acted as a powerful one, with the unjust acts, so that you did not believe that these evils of your own merits would come back to you. By these dark miseries indeed, and calamities, suddenly depressed like the rush of overflowing waters, so that with your heart obscured, you do not see what patience teaches to be right. In many ways in the divine Scriptures, darkness is called sins, ignorance, or tribulation, or even the obscurity of divine volumes is placed under the name of darkness.
Do you think that God is higher than the heavens, and is exalted above the pinnacle of the stars? And you say, 'What does God know?' And he judges as if through darkness. Therefore, first Eliphaz accuses holy Job, because he asserts that God falls into ignorance, and there are many things in his creatures that he does not know. Then he affirms that his judgment is uncertain and doubtful. And therefore he judges as if through darkness, that is, as if probable.
His cloud covers him, so that he does not see; and he walks around the circuit of heaven.' These things therefore, as though from the senses, he imagines to be true of blessed Job, so as to not only accuse him of blasphemy, but also declare that he is ignorant of God and imprisoned by the place where he is. And surely, it is a great sacrilege to think this of God.
Do you want to keep the path of the ages, which wicked men have trodden? To keep, he said in place of observe: this is, do you desire to follow their actions and attain a wasted life, those who perished in the flood, and in Sodom, and in the wilderness, or those who do not believe that God cares for human beings.
Those who were taken before their time. Like Dathan and Abiram: or those who perished by sudden death.
And the river overturned their foundation. With the anger of God looming over them, like the force of a river, the stability of their present life was overturned: as if a river, with pressure coming upon it, their bodily foundation was demolished, so that the walls of their lives would collapse.
Those who said to God, 'Depart from us.' Therefore, they are condemned because of their apostasy. But Job is not like this, who says, 'Even if He kills me, I will hope in Him.'
And they thought that the omnipotent one could do almost nothing, when he filled their houses with good things. Therefore, the impious did not fear that they would incur the vengeance of punishments due to their sin and the good things that God had bestowed upon them.
Whose opinion is far from me. And he counts holy blasphemers among their number, whom he detests in the same way.
The righteous shall see and be glad. Or, as others have said, they shall laugh: he speaks of the abjection of the unfaithful people.
And the innocent will mock them. How can this not be said of his saints? When sinners see God's righteous judgment condemning the just: they will see and rejoice. For the justice of God is pleasing to them, just as they are pleasing to God. But Eliphaz, although he may have spoken correctly here, wrongly assumes that Job is equivalent to the wicked and sinners.
Was not their pride and arrogance cut down? Indeed, their pride and arrogance were cut down by the aforementioned examples of punishment, and they were handed over to perpetual destruction.
And did fire devour their remains? He also spoke of the remaining sins that will be punished on the day of judgment, for in this world, no punishment is sufficient for the most wicked sinners. Whether we understand the remains as the future generations of evil people, who are called their remains because they imitate their fathers, or whether they are seen in a positive light, according to the saying: 'For the thought of man shall confess to you, and the remains of thoughts shall keep a feast to you,' so that the thought of man leads to the confession of sins, and the remains are the eternal reward of this confession, through which, having been forgiven of their sins, they may rejoice in spiritual joy as on a feast day. The remnants and the last things can be understood, according to that saying, The remnants of the wicked will perish.
Therefore, acquiesce to him and have peace, and through this you will have the best fruits. The holy Job exhorts to consider himself and gives advice to the one who is not seeking, that through patience he may be converted to God. And so, after the war of the approaching horrible calamities, he could have the peace of safety.
Receive the law from his mouth, and place his words in your heart. That is to say, listen to what he has commanded, and keep it.
If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up. If you repent of your actions, you will be built up: that is, you will be fortified daily by divine protection. To those who are negligent in repenting, this excellent example should be proposed: for this exhortation is necessary in order for sinners to restore lost glory.
And you will banish iniquity far from your tabernacle. If you wish to improve and correct yourself, God will credit to you that you banish far from yourself your own iniquity: when you yourself remove it from yourself. Whether the devil himself is called iniquity: that is, the one who takes you into his power, will be banished.
He will give for the earth a flint, and for the flint golden streams. This is what he says: that if the propitiation of God establishes him in His most firm commandments, he will not give his attention to earthly things and the pleasures of the flesh, but rather he will strive for the strength of virtues, through which he can attain the abundant riches of heaven. This is what Eliphaz metaphorically says to the holy Job: that if you are placed on the rock of good conscience, the sense of divine wisdom will flow to you like a golden stream.
And the Almighty will be against your enemies. 'When you have done his will,' he says, 'you will have him as a defender.'
And silver will be gathered for you. We said that gold should be understood as meaning, and silver as meaning the language of justification. Therefore, the commandments and judgments of God themselves are divine languages. So, when you turn back and dwell in constant meditation on these things, by discussing the various meanings, a manifold and copious abundance of language will be gathered for you.
Then you will abound in delights upon the Almighty. You will be filled with the aforementioned spiritual delights, and you will see Him with the grace of the Holy Spirit the desires of your heart, and you will feel them fulfilled in the joy of your mind.
And you will lift up your face to God. You will raise your free forehead to pray to God: whether now not guilty, nor bent down with a bad conscience, you will raise your soul to God.
You will ask him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows. A sinner cannot hear you unless you have first prayed for your sins.
You decide on the thing, and it will come to you. Only obtain the thing that is just, holy, and honorable, which you have asked for from God.
And in the paths, the light will shine. Your ways and actions will be good, and the knowledge of God will be a light to you, as well as His visitation and protection, so that the correct actions of your paths may be illuminated: lest by chance, through the error of ignorance, you stumble into dark mountains.
For whoever humbles himself will be exalted, and whoever lowers his gaze, he himself will be saved. And the Lord in the Gospel said: Whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
The innocent will be saved, and indeed cleanliness of one's hands will be saved. That is, by the grace of good works, or by splendor. The ancients said this: Rescue the innocent, and you will be saved by the purity of your hands: where retribution seems to sound, by saying, rescue the innocent: so that you may be saved by the innocence of your hands.