Job 3 · The Lantern

After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.

The wise man is no babbler, nor does he utter through his mouth anything that cannot happen. Thus he does not curse the day as a period of time but those things that occurred on that day.

Human beings are apt to curse and grumble against the misfortunes that befall them. God, in fact, does not expect insensitivity on our part. But when we are in tribulations and suffer those afflictions that strike us, God expects that we not abandon ourselves to blasphemous words but use those that demonstrate our grief and express the seriousness of our misery.

In Chapter II I explained that there were two opinions held by ancient philosophers about the passions. The Stoics said that there was no place in the wise man for sorrow. The Peripatetics said that the wise man is indeed sad, but in sad things he conducts himself with a moderation in accord with reason. This opinion accords with the truth.

And Job spoke, and said:

Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night wherein it was said: 'A man-child is brought forth.'

Let that day be darkness; let not G-d inquire after it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own; let a cloud dwell upon it; let all that maketh black the day terrify it.

As for that night, let thick darkness seize upon it; let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.

Lo, let that night be desolate; let no joyful voice come therein.

Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

May this night or day of detestation become what the horrible and cruel dragon that is led from the sea to the earth deserves.

MORAL INTERPRETATION. Let them curse it that curse the day. As if he said in plain words; 'Let them strike the darkness of this night by truly repenting, who henceforth despise and tread upon the light of worldly prosperity.' For if we take 'the day,' for the gladness of delight, of this 'night' it is rightly said, Let them curse it that curse the day.

From this he only intends to show that his conception was not something great nor ordered to something good, but rather to the evil of adversity which he was feeling. So he says, "Let those curse it who curse the day, those who are capable of rousing up Leviathan." According to the literal sense, this can be understood in two ways.

Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it behold the eyelids of the morning;

Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid trouble from mine eyes.

Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not perish at birth?

Why did the knees receive me? And wherefore the breasts, that I should suck?

For now should I have lain still and been quiet; I should have slept; then had I been at rest--

To enjoy the beauty of God's creation is desirable. It is a good thing to become a human being and to receive the image of God. It is not good to linger in an impure life. Many people are fascinated by an impure life, but not the righteous. Therefore, the departure from this world is no reason for sadness, for death is rest and deliverance from pain. Death is sleep.

MORAL INTERPRETATION. For now should I have lain still and been quiet; I should have slept, then had I been at rest. For this was man set in Paradise, that, had he attached himself by the chains of love to an obedient following of his Creator, he might one day be transported to the heavenly country of the Angels, and that, without the death of the flesh.

But since when someone asks, "Why did this happen?", he means that this happened uselessly, Job shows next as a consequence not only the futility of preserving his life, but even more the harm.

With kings and counsellors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;

It seems to me that Job attempts to humble these noble characters and to persuade them not to attach a great importance to human affairs, because he has not introduced the kings into this passage without purpose or at random. Job speaks of "those who gloried in their swords." Notice again how amid his afflictions Job possesses words full of wisdom.

MORAL INTERPRETATION. With the kings and counsellors of the earth. From things without sense we learn what to think of beings endowed with sense and understanding. Now the earth is rendered fruitful by the air, while the air is governed by the quality of the heaven. In like manner man is over the beasts, the Angels over man, and the Archangels are set over the Angels.

Second, he says it respecting the goods which he formerly possessed, for someone might say to him, "If you had not been preserved in this life, you would not have had the goods which you enjoyed in time past." As if to answer this he shows that the preservation of his life should not be desired for the sake of those goods, for even those who have enjoyed an abundance of these g…

Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver;

Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants that never saw light.

There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary are at rest.

There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

The small and great are there alike; and the servant is free from his master.

Wherewith is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul--

"Why is light given," Job asks, "to those whose soul dwells in bitterness, and life to those souls who are in pain?" Again this is not the language—God forbid!—of someone who makes rebukes, but of someone who searches and suffers. In fact, when words are spoken with a different spirit, they must not be interpreted in the same manner.

Wherefore is light given to one that is in misery? In holy Scripture prosperity is sometimes represented by the title of light, and this world's adversity by the name of night. Hence it is well said by the Psalmist, As is its darkness, so also is its light.

After Job has detested his own life in many ways, he now detests the life of the whole human race taken collectively, both of those in prosperity and those in adversity. He begins to treat first of those who are more renowned. Note that there are two things which belong especially to living beings: to live and to know.

Who long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;

In this way Job speaks of "those who long for death," but, he says, "it does not come." That is why the Preacher in Ecclesiastes says, "For everything there is a season" and, in another passage, "O death, how your memory is sweet." When you hear Job's wife suggesting to him, "Curse God, and die," you should not suppose that he did not answer because of his love of life but beca…

Which long for death, but it cometh not. For they desire to mortify themselves wholly, and to be entirely extinct of the life of temporal glory, but by the secret appointments of God they are often forced either to take the lead in command, or to busy themselves with dignities imposed on them, and in these circumstances they unceasingly look for a perfect mortification, but thi…

He shows that life is given to them uselessly because unhappy men desire its contrary. So he says, "Who," living in bitterness, "long for death, which does not come," that is as quickly as they would like.

Who rejoice unto exultation, and are glad, when they can find the grave?--

Which rejoice exceedingly and are glad, when they can find the grave. For as the grave is that place wherein the body is buried, so heavenly contemplation is a kind of spiritual grave wherein the soul is buried. For in a certain sense we still live to this world, when in spirit we roam abroad therein.

A person's actions are veiled and hidden by his death. God covers his way. The word covers means that God spares some afflictions through death, because the action of covering on God's part is an aid.

Because desire, when it is fulfilled causes joy, he adds, "and are glad powerfully when they find the grave," i.e. when they see they have arrived at death which procures a grave for them. Some think this passage refers to the fact that those who dig for treasure rejoice in finding a grave because they often found treasures in ancient tombs. But the first explanation is better.

To a man whose way is hid, and whom G-d hath hedged in?

"Death is rest for man." This is what Job declares. Now if death brings rest, why don't the majority of people rush to it? Because God has made life desirable in order to prevent us from running to death. "Its way is hidden." In my opinion Job is speaking about death, but by pretending that his words are about the way of humankind.

Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath encompassed with darkness? For 'man's way is hid to him,' in that though he already takes cognizance of the kind of life that he is leading, he does not yet know to what issue it tends.

Someone could object that although life is useless if given to miserable men, yet it is useful if given to those who enjoy prosperity. He removes this possibility saying, "Why are they (i.e. light and life) given to man whose way is hidden?" The way of a man is hidden because he does not know how the state of his present prosperity will end.

For my sighing cometh instead of my food, and my roarings are poured out like water.

And besides this righteous king, listen also unto the words of the spiritual athlete Job, whom the healing of the spirit taught what manner of thing he should set upon his table before his food, "For my sighing entereth in before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like water;" these are the fruits which he took before his food, groanings and weeping, and then he drew nigh to…

For my sighing cometh before I eat. For the soul's 'eating' is its being fed with the contemplations of the light above, and thus it sighs before it eats, in that it first travails with the groanings of sorrow, and afterwards is replenished with the cheer of contemplation.

After he shows that the life of man is difficult because of the unhappiness and bitterness of men, he applies to himself what he said about men in general. In this he expresses his own bitterness when he says, "Before I eat, I sigh," for as laughter is a sign of joy, so sighing is a sign of bitterness of soul.

For the thing which I did fear is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of hath overtaken me.

I did not ignorantly run into the things that I suffer. In fact, when I saw in others poverty's afflictions and the different diseases of the body, my communion with nature and my body warned me to fear lest anything of the same kind should happen to me. Therefore, I am also forced to fear an increase in the misfortunes I bear.

For the thing that I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I am afraid of is come unto me. The righteous therefore lament and fear, and torment themselves with bitter lamentations, because they dread to be given over, and though they rejoice in their own correction, the correction itself disturbs their fearful spirits, lest the evil, which they are undergoing should no…

Because bitterness of soul arises from unhappiness, after he speaks of the bitterness of his soul, he next speaks about his unhappiness saying, "For the thing that I fear comes upon me." Note here that the unhappiness of man which provokes bitterness seems to consist in two things. First, in the damage to his things or his person and in dishonor.

I was not at ease, neither was I quiet, neither had I rest; but trouble came.

From this, Job's preparation against the adversary emerges. Even Paul, who possessed the hope and grace of the Spirit, was vigilant and fought the adversary, since he knew that for the holy the struggle "was not against enemies of blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of…

Did I not dissemble it? Did I not hold my peace? Did I not rest quiet? Yet wrath came upon me. Though in every situation of life, we sin in thought, word, and deed, the mind is then hurried along in all these three ways with the greater freedom from control, when it is lifted up with this world's good fortune.

A man often suffers unhappiness and bitterness through his own fault. But this is not the case here, for Job says, "Have I not dissembled?" Understand here that someone sins and so merits punishment from God in two ways.

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