Chapter XXIX.
Job also added, taking up his parable, and said: According to the higher rule, we also draw a line of understanding here, so that when it is not appropriate to refer what follows to the Savior, we may attempt to twist the meaning of the exposition in terms of the composition of its members. And rightly this can be done, so that what the Lord himself, the head of his Church, cannot receive in himself, may be felt from his body, which is the Church.
Who will grant me to be like the months of old, like the days when God watched over me? Therefore, the holy Job wishes and desires to be freed from that sorrow and torment, and to return to that glory of former happiness in which he once lived, with the Lord's blessing.
When his lamp shone above my head. In many ways in divine Scriptures it is called a lamp. However, here Job could have said it for temporal glory, which he had received from God, and which he possessed in power and riches.
And I walked towards its light in the darkness. Among sins, surely, and those things which I did not know, as if I were walking amidst the rough and obscure aspects of this life, towards the light of virtues, or its consolation.
As I was in the days of my youth, and when God was secretly in my tabernacle. His secret, his mind wanted to say, because there the noisy crowd of vices did not make much noise.
When the Almighty was with me, and my children were around me. When Job had God in his tabernacle, the virtues were said to stand before him like children, and they are called masculine because of their strength to resist vices. Job the blessed was surrounded by such ministers.
When I washed my feet with butter. The word 'feet' in divine Scriptures is often understood as a certain mode of human behavior. I washed, he said, my actions from every stain of sin, and I conducted myself with innocence and simplicity.
And the rock poured for me streams of oil. Concerning this meaning, Moses said: 'They sucked honey from the rock and oil from the hardest rock; it tasted according to the pleasure of those who wished.' And when that rock prefigured Christ according to the Apostle, Job, however, wanted to abundantly demonstrate with that oil the gifts of the Holy Spirit poured out upon himself. Therefore, this is the living and true oil, which is the Holy Spirit, consubstantial with the Father and the Son. Therefore, holy Job abounded with this oil, with which he was also filled with the richness of charity.
When I was going to the city gate, I set up a chair for myself in the square. It is clear that the Jewish judges were sitting in the gates to judge the people.
The young men saw me and hid themselves, and the aged rose up and stood. The princes ceased to speak and placed their finger upon their mouths. The leaders restrained their voices and their tongues clung to their throats. With these verses, he demonstrated the reverence of the pious and the holy fear which not only every age but also all authorities rightly gave to him.
The ear that heard blessed me, and the eye that saw testified to me, because I had delivered the poor that cried out, and the fatherless who had no helper. Her present conversation, as well as reputation, was so holy, as she said.
The blessing of those about to perish came upon me, and I comforted the heart of the widow. The orphan, the poor, and the widow represent every kind of humble and afflicted person, of whom the holy Job did not ignore or despise any.
I am clothed with justice, and it has clothed me like a garment, and with my judgment as a diadem. Justice, right judgment, mercy, these were the garments of her soul.
I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame. His affection of pity and mercy is shown in these words, whether I provided the light of truth in the darkness of ignorance, and correctly showed the way to the one limping on the paths of the Lord.
I was the father of the poor, and I diligently investigated the cause which I did not know. By undertaking the affairs and causes of the poor against the powerful, I became their defender and judge. And therefore, in order that they may not be oppressed by any opposing party, he used to say that I should expose their frauds and investigate them.
I crushed the unjust wheels, and I took away its prey with my teeth. Here he describes it as a rapacious beast and an unjust violent man: from whose mouth he forcibly took the substance of the poor.
I used to say: 'I will die in my nest, and like a palm tree I will multiply my days.' His nest is to be understood as his outer man, which had been composed of the hay of his flesh by God and bound together. For all flesh is hay. Therefore, in this nest, he always said that he would die under the testimony, while not living according to the vices of the world and its desires. And for this reason, in the resurrection, he will have multiple and eternal days, like a palm tree.
My root is open beside the waters, and the dew will delay in my harvest. My hope, and the faith which are from this expectation of mine, are open to divine words, by the consolation of which, lest the vigor of my mind wither in unbelief, it is poured in.
My glory will always be renewed, and my bow will be restored in my hand. Those who listened to me waited for my judgment, and they silently awaited my counsel. My glory and the rest can be understood as the fruits of a growing good conscience and always new progress in virtues. But in the bow I believe the strength of one who resists and opposes is signified, one who prepares in the hands of holy work against every obvious and hostile onslaught of vices. As David says in the psalm: And you have made my arms like a bronze bow, and have given me the strength to accomplish my good works without exhaustion.
They dared not add to my words, and my speech flowed over them. Because the authority of wisdom had already been widely spread: no one presumed to add anything to his words, as if rejecting them, rather his speech flowed over them: that is, the inner sense penetrated their innermost being, so that, having been infused into their hearts, they were returned as perfected and excellent disciples by such a master.
They waited for me like rain, and opened their mouths as if to a late shower. The name of rain signifies the abundant knowledge of their own science, and they praise their listeners for eagerly awaiting him to speak when he was debating.
If ever I laughed at them, they did not believe it. They said that I was esteemed with so great reverence and honor by the things I had spoken earlier, which could not be reconciled with the indulgence and forgiveness that were more in line with my character. And therefore I myself was driven by a desire for piety, so that the emotions of love and affection would make progress because of my admiration for them.
And the light of my face did not fall to the ground. The grace of reverence, which shone in his face, was not considered insignificant by those mentioned. For they did not think that anything was done in vain by his commands, and therefore they regarded whatever they contemplated in the serenity of his face as great and extraordinary in itself.
If I had wanted to go to them, I would have sat first. And while I was sitting, like a king surrounded by his army, I was nevertheless a consoler of the mourners. He demonstrates his own dignity and holy humbleness in these words, by which he went to his inferiors as if to friends and equals, and presented himself in the power of the kingdom to the wretched and mournful.