Chapter IX.
And Job answered and said: Truly I know that it is so, and that a man composed of God cannot be justified. If he should wish to contend with Him, he cannot answer Him one time out of a thousand. He is wise in heart and strong in strength. Therefore, do not think of me in this way, that I may at least dare to think this, since I know that a creature cannot be compared to its Creator in any way.
Who resisted him and had peace? Who, acting against God, did not stir up war and wrath upon himself, just as Dathan and the others?
He who moved mountains, and those whom he subverted in his fury did not know. He who shakes the earth from its place. Metaphorically, mountains are understood as men, or angels: the elevation of their minds swelled so much that they were compared to lofty mountains.
And its columns are shaken. Let us understand the columns in this place as stability of the earth: which God has founded upon itself with an immovable mass.
He commands the sun, and it does not rise, and he seals up the stars as if under a seal. He stretches out the heavens alone and walks upon the waves of the sea. We see that all things are daily accomplished by the arrangement of God, governing through the vicissitudes of day and night.
He who made Arcturus, Orion, the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. In these constellations of the stars, which are better known than almost all the other stars in the sky, he says that the entire host of the stars belongs to the rule of God, which is great and wonderful and unknown to humans. Hence the Lord himself says: Do you know the order of the heavens, and do you establish its rule? Likewise, morally, he who shakes the earth from its place. God moved man from his place of former life and shattered and weakened the delightful but harmful thoughts on which he was supported as if on pillars, leaning and resting in them, in order to transform him to a life of holiness. He who commands the sun, and does not rise. Christ, the righteousness of justice, does not rise for sinners struck with blindness of heart, nor does He rise for the stars, that is, the merits of the Saints, by which some differ in brightness from others; for while these are hidden here, they are as it were shut up under a seal. He who stretches out His heavens. He scatters the Apostles and other saints, made heavens everywhere, by the preaching of the Gospel; or He opens the Scriptures to them, which are often signified by the name of heavens, revealing them to their hearts; as it is said: For I will see the heavens, the work of Your fingers. He will come out on the waves of the sea. On the people of this age, surely restless, arrogant, and turbulent: so that they may be crushed into gentleness and placidity with their swelling removed. He who makes the Bear, that is, the first ones in the resurrection of the Church: so that they may be glorious, shining like the midday sun, ignited by the warmth of God's love, and illuminated by the light of faith.
He who does great and incomprehensible things and wonders, of which there is no number. It is great what God does, that He establishes frail and mortal man through Christ in the hope of blessed resurrection. And the innermost parts of the East. Where a seven-branched candlestick, namely the seven-fold spirit of grace and shining understanding, is placed.
If he comes to me, I will not see him; if he departs, I will not understand. If suddenly he asks, who will respond to him? Or who can say, why do you do this? God, whose wrath no one can resist. It is said furthermore, that the presence of the coming God is made known when it becomes known to man, and when it is concealed, it indicates the absence of the departing.
And under whom those who carry the world are bent. How great then am I, that I may answer him, and speak my words with him? Even if I have something just, I will not respond, but I will plead with my judge. Those who carry the world, the holy ones, are rightly understood: they who are great and powerful in the sight of God by the glory of their merits. Therefore, with the humility of their hearts, they are bent in order to intervene for sinners in His presence. Thus the holy ones carry the world, sustaining it with the strength of their prayers so that it does not fall and perish. The columns of heaven tremble and fear at His command. The apostles, prophets, and all apostolic men, as well as the saints and other faithful, are to be understood: among whom are Peter, James, and John, who seemed to be pillars: or holy ones bowed before God, and prostrating themselves in worship, who carry the world, that is, their entire selves: whom the learned call the lesser world: they place it upon the perfection of the Cross, and, so that it may not be dissolved or deviate by the thoughts of worldly vanities, they rule and contain it within themselves by binding it tightly through the grace of God.
And when he hears me calling, I do not believe that he hears my voice. He allows the injuries of those who attack me, even as I strive to live blamelessly. He was heard in this, in order to deserve the blessings of God. But he does not believe himself to be heard, because he suffers evil.
For the whirlwind shall consume me, and my wounds shall multiply without cause. The whirlwind can be understood as the devil, who like a whirlwind assailed Job to devastate him.
My spirit does not allow itself to rest. It is called asthma: it is a weakness that is generated in the lungs. Certain passages of the lungs, which the Greeks call pores, become obstructed, and thus they are compressed and closed in the lungs, as the doctors say, so that the lungs, which have become narrow, cannot adequately give or receive breath. This is repeated with great pain and hurried sighing, and a cut-off breath is emitted.
And he fills me with bitterness. If strength is sought, he is the strongest. If fairness of judgment, no one dare speak for me. If I try to justify myself, my own mouth will condemn me. If I show myself innocent, it will prove me wicked. Even if I were blameless, my soul itself would not know it, and my life would be loathsome to me. There is one thing that I have spoken, and he consumes both the innocent and the wicked. Surrounded and besieged by all kinds of afflictions and infirmities, filled with bile and blasphemy, my soul is filled with bitterness. So that my mouth is forced to speak harsh and harsh words, and I am tired of my life. However, I only know this, that I am punished for the evils of my present life.
If he is whipped, let him be killed once; and let him not laugh at the punishment of the innocent. Here he has spoken harshly enough against God. In this whole book, indeed, there is no place harsher than this, and another one placed above it, where he says: Therefore my soul has chosen hanging, and my bones death: from these speeches he responds to God at the end of the book: I have spoken one thing, which I would rather not have said, and another thing to which I will add nothing more. The whole debate of Job with his friends is here, in which they pronounce him just, while they pronounce him impious.
The earth is given into the hands of the wicked. The flesh of Christ into the power of Herod or Pilate. Or Job himself into the power of the devil.
His judgment covers his face. But if it is not him, then who is it? My days have been swifter than a runner; they have fled and have not seen good. They have passed by like ships carrying fruit; like an eagle flying to its prey. This judgement of the mind in this place, which is hidden by God's righteous judgement, he calls it. The eyes of the wicked devil's servants must be blinded; those judges that he named there, to more cruelly torment the holy Job.
When I say this: 'In no way will I speak like this. In no way does he speak like this,' that is, when, compelled by torment, I speak harshly against God and say cruel things, at the same moment, I come to my senses and decide that I should not speak like this to God.
I change my face and am tormented by sorrow. I fear all my works, knowing that you will not spare the guilty. But if I am still wicked, why have I labored in vain? That is, due to the excessive pain, I contract and lament, and in the very moment of defining myself, I am so tormented and tortured by sudden and sharp stings of pain that I utter again words of bitterness and gall.
If I am washed, as if by snow, and my hands are shining as clean as can be: yet you will plunge me into filth. Therefore, in the washing of snowy waters, the brightness of the mind is revealed, and in the hand, the cleanliness of the fruits of holy works is demonstrated. And rightly can the baptism be compared to snow. In the rain, and the pouring rain, the legislator wanted to indicate the speech of doctrine. But in the dew and in the snow, the sense penetrates with the illumination of its innermost being.
And they abhorred my garments. For I will not answer a man who is like me, nor will one who is equal with me be heard in judgement with me. For so much evil has been brought upon me, that even the things that are insensible detest the filth of my wounds and rottenness, if it can be said.
There is no one who is able to argue both sides: that is, who is there that can accuse God of injustice, as if it were unfair, unless they are reckless and blaspheme? Who can, as it were, extend their hand like a judge against injustice? Indeed, Job, according to the testimony of God, by which he was praised, because he was innocent, truly said to himself that there was no one among those with whom he was arguing who could rightly accuse him: because he dares to judge another most justly, whose conscience as a defendant is not bound by those things about which he judges another.
And he should lay his hand on both of them. Let him take his rod away from me, and let his terror not frighten me. I will speak and not fear him, for I cannot respond in fear. Securely, he says, and firmly, then I will be able to respond, if he removes these two things from me: namely the magnitude of his power and the punishment of these tortures.