Job 29 · The Lantern

Job’s Former Blessings

And Job again took up his discourse and said:

What do the words "he adds at the beginning of his speech" mean? It is not that he completes his speeches, but he comes back to his starting point, without allowing his adversaries to interrupt him or to begin new arguments. What does he say?

Moreover Job continued his parable, and said. [ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION] For because a parable is a name for a likeness, it plainly appears that through a form of exterior words he speaks mysteries, who with reference to speaking is recorded to have 'taken up a parable.' For when he relates his own circumstances, he is telling all the things that are to come to Holy Church, a…

Since in what preceded Job had shown in the universal why it is evident that it is not against divine justice that the evil prosper and the good to whom greater spiritual things are given sometimes suffer want of temporal prosperity in this world, and he shows this now more clearly in his own case using himself as an example.

Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;

when his lamp shone above my head, and by his light I walked through darkness;

as I was in the days of my prime, when the counsel of God was over my tent;

when the Almighty was still with me, my young men around me;

when my steps were washed in curds, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil.

When I went out to the gate above the town, when I set up my seat in the open square,

the young men saw me and hid themselves, and the aged rose and stood.

Officials held back their words, and laid a hand on their mouth.

The voice of leaders was hidden away, and their tongue clung to their palate.

For an ear heard, and called me happy; and an eye saw, and testified for me —

In order to explain why they proclaimed him to be blessed, he mentions his good works. "I have saved," he says, "the poor from the hand of the powerful," but it is after attributing to God the merit of protecting and watching him that "he is glorified in the Lord."

The ear hearing me, blessed me; and the eye seeing, gave witness to me. [HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION] Whereas blessed Job avouches himself to be 'blessed by those that heard him,' and to 'have witness given to him by those that saw him,' what he was in speech and what in practice, we have shewn us.

Since men of such stern authority are usually feared rather than loved by the people, he shows that the people loved him. Since the mark of the magnanimous man is that he can guard his authority toward the great and yet stoop to the lesser men, he then says, "The ear which heard," from others when my glory and my judgment were proclaimed, did not hate or envy me, but "blessed m…

because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the orphan who had no helper.

The blessing of one perishing came upon me, and I made the widow’s heart sing.

I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my judgment was like a robe and a turban.

"I put on righteousness," he says. There are people who occupy higher positions than others but who often commit injustice. But this is not the case with Job, because he constantly lived in the greatest righteousness. So, when with regard to God you hear that "he is clothed with righteousness," do not believe that real garments clothe incorporeal beings.

With righteousness was I clothed, and arrayed myself as with raiment. And my judgment a diadem. [HISTORICAL / MORAL INTERPRETATION] Surely, when we are clothed with a garment, we are surrounded on every side, and so he is 'clothed with righteousness as with a garment,' who defends himself on every side with good practice, and leaves no part of his conduct naked to sin; for he t…

But he did not have mercy in judgment in such wise as to forsake justice, and so he adds, "I have been clothed in justice," i.e. justice was apparent everywhere in my trials: For a piece of clothing surrounds a man on all sides.

I was eyes to the blind, and I was feet to the lame.

See how these miracles are worthy of the apostles. Job was not able to give sight back to them, because that charisma did not yet exist, but he provided them with light, even though they remained blind, whereas now we even make blind those who are able to see.

I was an eye to the blind, and a foot was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not I searched out. [HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION] Herein the mind of the reader might perchance put the question, wherefore it is that blessed Job reckons up his own virtue with so much particularity.

To show how he could preserve mercy together with justice he says, "I was an eye for the blind," for I instructed simple men how to proceed in their business and not suffer detriment due to ignorance.

I was a father to the needy, and the case of one I did not know I searched out.

And I broke the fangs of the unjust, and cast the prey from his teeth.

And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth. [ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION] Oh what a spoil did he take from the mouth of the devil, when by converting she carried off Saul himself the spoiler; when still breathing threats he was on his way to Damascus, having received letters, and whereas by persecuting the faithful he was gathering prey for the de…

Some oppress the poor by violence, and devour them so to speak by robbing from them. Job destroyed the violence of men like this with his power, and so he continues, "I broke the jaws of the impious," because I destroyed the greed of violence so they could not rob again, "and I tore his prey from his teeth," because he compelled them to restore what they had already taken in th…

And I said, “I shall expire with my nest, and multiply my days like the sand.

Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as a palm. What else is set forth in this place by the title of a 'nest,' but the tranquil rest of the faith whereby every infirm soul is nourished?

The words "I shall be perfected like the reeds," that is, I will end my days [by becoming full] of riches, by germinating and growing like the palm tree and the reeds and the [vegetables] planted along the edge of water. Henana says, "As the reeds spring up and reach a great height in a short time, so I shall be completed and perfected."

Because of all these good works, he was confident that his prosperity would endure. He describes the continuity of his prosperity first in his own person, and so he says, "And I said, 'I will die in my little nest,'" because I hoped from my past merits that I would quietly die in my house, not exiled from my house, nor even in a troubled house.

My root is opened out to the waters, and the dew lodges on my branch.

My glory is fresh with me, and my bow renews itself in my hand.”

To me they listened, and waited, and kept silent for my counsel.

After my word they did not speak again, and my speech dropped upon them.

And they waited for me as for rain, and opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain.

I smiled on them when they had no confidence, and the light of my face they did not cast down.

I chose their way and sat as head, and dwelt like a king among his troops — like one who comforts mourners.

Job29

Job’s Former Blessings