Chapter XXXV.
Therefore, Elihu spoke these words again: Does your thinking seem fair to you, that you would say, 'I am more righteous than God'? For you have spoken: 'It does not please you what is right, or what advantage is it to you if I sin?' It is possible that Elihu, when he spoke harshly to God, may have described something here, and he wanted to express the meaning of his words enviously, as if it were the sense of that.
Therefore, I will respond to your arguments and to your friends with you. Because they were unable to respond to him reasonably.
Look up to the sky and gaze upon it, and contemplate the heavens, which are higher than you. That is, to whom do you presume to equate yourself? This is what Helius said, who believed that God is contained in physical places: that God the Lord resides only in the highest and loftiest places.
So if you sin, what harm will you do to Him? And if your iniquities are multiplied, what will you do against Him? It seems to me that what you have said is true, for when you sin, no harm is done to God. And if He wishes to avenge Himself for the multitude of your sins, will you be able to resist Him?
Furthermore, if you act justly, what will you give, or what will you receive from your hand? Here David says, 'I have no need of my goods.'
Your wickedness will harm the man who is similar to you, and your righteousness will help the son of man. That is to say, your wickedness can harm a man if he imitates your evil deeds: just as your righteousness will help the son of man if he imitates your ways when you walk rightly.
Because of the multitude of slanderers, they will cry out and lament because of the violence of tyrants. In this context of their dispute, Elihu compares holy Job to such people, and judges them similar, as they slander tyrants and name wicked men, by whose slanders and power, man and the son of man groan under oppression. And now, spiritually, we understand this man and son of man to be the holy people, who, because of the unity of the whole body of the Church, are called one man, as the Apostle says, and are called the son of man according to the Psalmist, saying: Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, and upon the son of man whom you have confirmed for yourself. This can also be said of invisible enemies: those who dominate minds through hidden attacks of vices; therefore, the faithful, lamenting in prayer to God, say: Deliver me from my enemies, my God.
And he did not speak. When they were afflicting the aforementioned ones, whom they had subjugated to themselves through unjust domination, with God's permission, so that they, placed under such pressure of necessities, would wail and cry out to God, they did not pay attention, nor did they turn their minds to heaven, to understand that these things displeased their creator God. He did not, I say, say such things within himself, this multitude of unjust ones or demons.
Where is the God who made me? who gave songs in the night. This is what Elihu said. So when God allows the righteous and upright to be troubled by the above mentioned things, he nevertheless grants them consolation in the night of tribulations. For the night itself is understood to be tribulation, according to the saying of the Psalmist: You have tried my heart and visited me in the night; just as prosperity is sometimes called day, because one who is in prosperity is illuminated by a certain happiness. Where it says in the psalm: The sun shall not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. Elihu says that the righteous receive such great patience from God that even in the night of tribulation they are delighted by spiritual hymns and songs. Therefore, singing is primarily connected to the exultation of the heart. Thus, this exultation of future joy is born in the hearts of those who sing, and they do it in the manner of travelers, because they, like travelers and pilgrims, pass through this world in order to reach their destined place without labor. They console and uplift their weariness of the journey with song. And according to mystical understanding, let us understand night, a certain secret and distant silence of divine discourse, which in other ages, as the Apostle says, was not revealed to the sons of men. Let us say that this night is divided into four watches, from the beginning of the world until Christ our Lord, so that this first watch of the night is Adam himself, the first father of men, through whose condition the human soul may stay awake, believing in God the creator of all things. The second watch should be at the time of Noah, when the flood of the world happened, so that people stay awake, lest they perish. The third watch should be in the times of holy Abraham, through whom the world may know how to live by faith and please God. The fourth watch should be around the times of the prophets, who were closer to the dawn and the light of the approaching day, and who with eyes of faith anticipated the day of Christ, almost choosing it as their own night. Therefore, in this night, at various times, the aforementioned things about Christ were predicted with joy and delight, either through prophecies or through signs. And also, in comparison to the future revelation of the children of God, when they will perceive the glory of that eternal day and possess happiness in reality: this present life is night, whose fruits are hidden for the future, and therefore it is still night, because you do not yet see what you hope for. So on this night of expectation, hymns and songs of Scripture were spoken to us, until the night of faith was dispelled and we may reach the day of eternal dwelling.
He who teaches us about the beasts of the earth and the birds of the sky instructs us. He instructs us in common knowledge, and in more subtle matters: he teaches us not only through the gifts of nature, but also through the gifts of grace. According to the figurative sense, the beasts are often understood to be carnal men, who are devoted to gluttony, to the belly, and to luxury. Others, however, are compared to birds, either because of the lightness of their manners, or because of the pride by which they swell up as if to be elevated in a high place. Where the Apostle says: Do not be haughty. And the Lord in the Gospel: For what is exalted among men is an abomination before God. For in Greek, the word for proud is ὑπερηφάνης, which means appearing above, indicating an elevated and swollen mind.
There they will cry out and not be heard, because of the pride of the wicked. As he said, there they will cry out, perhaps he wanted to signify the place of punishment, where sinners are not to be heard, because of the pride of the wicked; or as others have said, from the injustices of the wicked, because the wicked do not cease to inflict injuries on the righteous.
Therefore, God will not hear in vain, and the Almighty will consider the causes of individuals. It is said that God does not hear persistent sinners in their evils, because they cry out to Him without cause, those who do not deserve to be heard.
Even when you have spoken, He does not take notice: wait for Him. Job, when you see that God does not immediately give sinners what they deserve, do not be broken in spirit, so as to burst forth into blasphemy and say that God is unjust or unfair. Rather, you must judge with Him, that is, agree with His judgments, and not presumptuously leap against Him with your own judgment to His injury.
Now, indeed, he does not unleash his fury, nor does he avenge the crime greatly. Therefore, since he has appointed a day on which to judge the world, during this time he does not universally exercise the vengeance of his justice. And he speaks all of this in reproof of the holy Job, whom, as if guilty of crimes, in this evil of punishments, by the sentence of God, he partially condemns. Hence, he writes that there remains much for him to receive afterwards.
Therefore Job opens his mouth in vain, and without knowledge multiplies words. According to this holy conviction, Job thinks he is Elihu, and concludes with a certain reasoning of words.