Job 30 · The Lantern

Job’s Honor Turned to Contempt

But now they laugh at me — men younger than I in days, whose fathers I would have refused to set with the dogs of my flock.

"But now they make sport of me, those who are younger than I." These words testify to the authority, power and grace that, as he has asserted, he used to own in his previous days.

But now they that are younger than I have me in derision. Whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. All heretics when compared to the age of the Church Universal are fitly called 'younger' in time, because they went forth out of her, not she out of them.

After he had listed the many prosperous things which he had enjoyed in times past, he here lists the adversities which he was then suffering. First, in contrast to his former glory and reverence, he shows that he is held in contempt now. Contempt is more difficult for a person to bear in proportion to the lack of worth of the character of the one who holds another in contempt.

Even the strength of their hands — what was it to me? Their vigor had perished.

In want and in hunger they are barren, gnawing the dry ground, yesterday waste and desolation;

who pluck saltwort among the bushes, and the root of the broom tree is their bread.

They are driven out from the community; they shout after them as after a thief.

They live in the gullies of the wadis, in holes of the dust and rocks.

They shall dwell in the desert places of the torrents, and in the caves of the earth, or upon the ground. We give the name of 'torrents' to the brooks, that are gathered by the winter rains, which likewise at certain seasons are dried up.

The words "under the rocks and the thorny bushes," that is, those, who are on the prowl in the mountains and the deserts, live on the fruits of thorny bushes because of their destitution.

Seventh, he shows the vile character of their dwellings, because they do not have houses to live in saying, "they live in desert stream beds," which are the dry stream beds caused by storms where they protected themselves from the heat, "and in the caverns of the earth," because of the shade, "or in gravel," because of the cool of the nearby water or because of the softness of…

Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together.

Sons of a fool, and sons without a name, they were whipped out of the land.

And now I have become their song, and I am a byword to them.

They abhor me; they keep far from me; and they do not withhold spit from my face.

Because he has loosed my cord and afflicted me, they have thrown off restraint before me.

On my right a brood rises up; they push away my feet, and build up against me their roads of calamity.

You see what especially afflicts him is to be mocked by those who reproach him for the evil actions that they commit. Some "thieves," he says, some wicked, some criminals, some robbers have made us the subject of their proposals and conversations.

At the right hand of the East my calamities on the spot arose. They overturned my feet, and oppressed with their footpaths as with waves. For 'calamities' would 'rise to the left,' if at the hand of any persons set without the pale of Religion, and openly denying Christ, she met with the adverse dealings of persecution.

He next shows that such adversities have been sent to him by God from the fact that they came to him beyond the usual manner of human adversities. He first demonstrates this from the place where the adversities came.

They break up my path; they profit from my ruin; no one helps them.

They come as through a wide breach; under the crash they roll on.

After those things that used to or could move my affections in themselves have dispersed, that is, after I have been deprived of both comforts and occupations, I know that no hope is left for me through which I may be supported.

As by a wall being broken, and a door being opened, they rushed in upon me, and were rolled down to my miseries. What is in this place designated by the title of 'a wall,' but the Redeemer of the human race, concerning whom it is said by the Prophet for the edifying of Holy Church, There shall be set in her a wall and a bulwark?

So he continues, "they rushed in upon me like a breached wall or an open gate," as though there had not been an obstacle, either from the substance itself, of difficulty which is meant by the breached wall, or from human concern, which is meant by the door.

Job’s Prosperity Becomes Calamity

Terrors are turned upon me; my dignity is pursued like the wind, and my deliverance has passed by like a cloud.

And now my soul is poured out upon me; days of affliction have seized me.

By night my bones are pierced from upon me, and my gnawing pains do not lie down.

With great force my clothing is disfigured; it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.

He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.

"I have become like dust and ashes," that is, I have been rendered contemptible to them as if I were dust, and I appear to be similar to vile mud. Emmanuel too, even though he was God, was thoughtlessly considered to be unworthy when he was clothed with flesh, so that the impure Jews said, "Even though you are a man, you make yourself God."

I was likened to mire, and became like dust and ashes. Since in the judgment of lost sinners the Holy Church of the Elect is 'likened to mire,' because it is trodden under and despised in time; it is 'compared to dust and ashes,' because while they do not see her interior good things, they calculate that she has been brought to those bad things alone, which they see brought to…

From the punishment of this kind he shows that he has become abominable to men, and so he says, "I have been made equal to filth," so that no one wants to approach me because of the great corruption and the number of the worms, as no one wishes to approach filth. "And I have become like dust and ashes," totally dejected and held in contempt.

I cry for help to you, and you do not answer me; I stand, and you look at me.

You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you bear a grudge against me.

You lift me to the wind, you make me ride it; and you dissolve me in the storm.

Thou liftedst me up, and as it were setting me upon the wind, thou dashedst me down strongly. Because the glory of the present life is seen as on high, but is not set firm by any stedfastness, one is as if he were 'lifted up and set upon the wind,' who rejoices in earthly prosperity, because the breath of fleeting happiness lifts him up only for this end, that it may in a momen…

Therefore from all exterior appearances it seems that you granted me prosperity in the past to my hurt, and so he adds, "You raised me up," in the time of prosperity, "placing me almost above the wind," in a very exalted position, yet unstable like the wind, "you powerfully dashed me to pieces," you struck me heavily as though you threw me on the ground from high up.

For I know you will return me to death, and to the house of meeting for all the living.

Surely no one stretches out a hand against a heap of ruins, if in his disaster he cries out for help.

Did I not weep for the one whose day was hard? Was my soul not grieved for the needy?

For I hoped for good, and evil came; and I waited for light, and gloom came.

My bowels boil and are not silent; days of affliction have met me.

I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

The excess of misfortunes that have befallen him force him to groan and to wail. Even if I wanted it, I could not stay silent, he says. "I stand up in the assembly and cry for help" without being ashamed before any of those present and without blushing before the multitude of the assembly. This attitude is due to the greatness of his misfortunes.

I went mourning: without rage rising up, I cried out in the crowd. I see that it is a thing to be carefully noted historically considered, that the holy man who a little before said, Thou hast lifted me up, added below, I went mourning.

Then, as to exterior evils he says, "I went along grieving," for when I walked among men I pretended sadness after misery. But although sadness is the cause of anger, there was still no anger in me, and so he then says, "Standing up without fury, I cried in the crowd," explaining my miseries.

I have become a brother to jackals, and a companion to daughters of the ostrich.

I have fallen, he says, into the animal condition of birds. I have not recognized my real nature anymore; my situation is not better than theirs.

I was a brother to dragons, and a companion to ostriches. The term 'dragons' is used to denote the cruel spirits who plot our destruction, or those persons who in the Holy Church imitate those spirits by living corruptly. The ostrich has wings and cannot fly, for it shows as it were the appearance of flight but never mounts upward into the air.

These came partly from the lack of friends about whom he continues, "I was the brother of snakes," because those who should have loved me as a brother, bit me like snakes, "and the companion of ostriches," who usually forget even their own offspring. (39:15) So they were so forgetful of me that they did not help me.

My skin has turned black upon me, and my bones burn from the heat.

And my lyre has turned to mourning, and my pipe to the sound of weeping.

Job30

Job’s Honor Turned to Contempt

Job’s Prosperity Becomes Calamity