Chapter III.
After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day, and he spoke: Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night in which it was said: A man-child is conceived. Let that day be changed into darkness. After this, as the writer of this story, whom the opinion holds to be Moses, says, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day, saying: Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night in which it was said: A man-child is conceived. Job, who symbolized the Savior in himself, mourned the mortality of the human race, which was inflicted upon man by the just sentence of God because of sin. Let the day perish on which I was born; let eternal life come through Christ, which Adam lost by the guilt of his transgression, and let death depart from me, which I contracted by the sin of another. And Jeremiah: Cursed be the day on which I was born. Hence, there is no doubt that all these deplore the transgression of Adam. Therefore, spiritually speaking, the day with its night can be understood as the devil and mortality: not because it is day, but because it was when it remained with God, from whom it became night by departing, or because it seems to be day for the impious and sinners who rejoice in this prosperity and happiness. Unde dicitur:
His light shall be taken away from the wicked. May God not seek him from above. This is so his memory may not be before God for good.
And let it not be illuminated by light. Recognition of God, or of repentance.
Darkness obscures him and the shadow of death. Darkness, sins are and envy.
Let darkness overtake him, and let him be enveloped in bitterness. That is, the blindness of the heart.
Let that dark whirlwind possess the night. Because it provokes God to bitterness, just like his other attendants: seized by the fury of God's wrath, he will be surrounded by all evils and enveloped. Let that dark whirlwind possess the night: that is, the devil, who took away the day of happiness from humans and brought in the troubled night of life.
It should not be calculated in the days of the year. The year is understood as Christ, who encompasses and contains everything in himself. Therefore, in these days of the year, the devil should not be calculated: that is, he should not be joined in the number of the saints.
And they are not counted among the months. By the months in this place, we rightly understand the holy apostles, who, like the trees of paradise, bring forth spiritual fruits for the Church.
That night was lonely and not worthy of praise. It was the preaching of the Apostles, where the day of salvation is recognized, which Abraham saw and rejoiced in.
Cursed are those who curse the day; who are prepared to awaken Leviathan. The holy ones of the day of their transgression curse with detestation: those who, by not serving vice, provoke against themselves the dragon, the most powerful enemy.
The stars were obscured by its darkness. Indeed, sinners who in the night, think they shine with the riches and honor of the world, are obscured by the darkness of blindness, and because of their own merit, they do not see the light of the Gospel.
Let him expect the light and not see it. Neither can the night of deceit and death, in which the devil holds his kingdom, know the light of the Redeemer Christ; nor those who are born in it, unless they have destroyed it by being reborn through baptism.
And the rising of the dawn. It signifies the resurrection of Christ: hence, in the psalm, it is said 'morning watch'.
Because he did not close the gates of the womb that carried me, nor did he take away the evils from his eyes. Why did I not die in the womb? Why did I not perish immediately after coming forth from the womb? Why was I received on knees? Why was I nursed at breasts? Under his mask, he weeps for the miseries of the human race: why will he die again and suffer the ills of this life? Why did not death itself extinguish mortal in the womb?
Now if I were sleeping, I would be silent, and I would rest in my sleep with the kings and consuls of the earth, who build themselves solitudes: or with the princes who possess gold, and fill their houses with silver. Princes, and kings, and consuls, even if they suffer the foulness of Tartarean torments in hell: now, however, they do not feel torment in their bodies. I would have wished for the death of these on this condition to come to me.
But just as an aborted fetus does not subsist, or those who were conceived do not see the light. In various ways and examples, he says that he should not have suffered those punishments in which he was. Why was I not dead in the womb? And further he says: But now, sleeping, I would be silent, and in my sleep I would rest with kings and consuls. Perhaps there is an example against those who say that they will not rise again unless they have been born in proper order. For if the conceived ones die in the womb, it is necessary that they were alive: and whatever dies, doubtless it will rise again. So what was lost and lived in the members, and what nature had given less: this will be restored to fullness by resurrection: for thus the restoration of the human race will make the whole better, which nature had defrauded. He also says that abortion, which has degenerated in human nature, is exempt from punishments, for they build solitude for themselves rather than homes. For the devil dwells in desolate cities and deserted houses. Those who do not have God as their guest possess gold, the philosophers and other wise men of this world use the brilliance of good intellect and the splendor of eloquence.
There the wicked ceased from their tumult. Without a doubt in hell. And as the Septuagint translated, there the wicked laid down their fury, that is, typhus and pride, with the cruelty of those boasting in this world, were humbled in hell.
And there they rested, weary in body. As another translation has it: And there they rested, weary in body, freed from oppression and misery, and also from the toil of this world.
And once equally bound without suffering. He says that both the conquerors and the conquered in hell dwell together, without injury or annoyance to the bound: not like in that place where, besides punishment, men are also compelled by captivity or servitude to different other calamities, through the dominion and injustice of the wicked.
They did not heed the voice of the exactor. They do not fear the commands of the rulers or the unjust demands.
There are small and large there, both the servant and the free from their master. Why has light been given to the miserable, and life to those whose souls are in bitterness? They wait for death, and it does not come, like those who dig for treasure: and they rejoice greatly when they find the grave. Since, as I see, there is equality of persons in hell, and no one fears the domination of another: why has this light been given to me, miserable as I am, and a life similar to those who are in the bitterness of their soul, when the prisons of the underworld are better than this miserable life of the world, full of tortures: where men seek death because of their hardships, and eagerly await its coming. He gave an excellent example, saying: Like those who dig up a treasure, for surely they rejoice when they find the desired burial.
The man whose life is hidden; and God has surrounded him with darkness. He says about himself: So I was walking in God's commandments, believing that the fruit of my righteousness would respond to me; but the merit of my life is hidden, and for this I am surrounded by the darkness of punishment: so that the good is taken away from me, and the evil is added. But listen to what follows about the name of the punishments of darkness:
Before I eat, I sigh, and my groaning is like overflowing waters. Among other torments, the devil had inflicted this ailment upon me, which ailment the doctors call 'bolimiodes,' and it is said that this ailment has such a punishment, that the sick person is twisted before food, and after food, the pains are relentless. Hence, it is said: 'My groaning is like overflowing waters.'
Because the fear I feared came upon me. For I was afraid to offend God by sinning, and he, being offended, may exercise his wrath upon me in his justice. But what good did it do to avoid sins when, in fact, I am tormented as the guilty of all sins? It follows:
And what I feared happened. In other words, he repeats what he said earlier. Such repetitions are often made in the Scriptures to confirm a statement. He does not say these things arrogantly, to do harm to God, but he speaks freely with a rightly informed conscience.
Did I not conceal? Not by returning do I repay evil to those who repay me with evil.
Did I not keep silent? In order to not err with my tongue, I set a guard at my mouth.
Did I not rest? Knowing that when God rises to judge, He will save all the meek of the earth.
And indignation came upon me. Indignation in this place refers to the weight of the blows, which he says have fallen upon him, and by their weight and pains he groans, being overwhelmed. Although he himself was, as he said before, chastised by diseases; which punishments can be called arrows in the following passages, as he says: The arrows of the Lord are in me: the indignation of which will consume my spirit; or, as the other translation has it, will consume my blood. And properly the arrows can be understood as worms, because he was stung by them with incessant stings: as Job himself says: And they that eat me, do not sleep. The demons made themselves even more fierce to eat him, and they dug into his flesh with bites as if indignant and angered, so that their arrows would penetrate the internal organs. It concludes where Job cursed the day of his birth.