Job 40 · The Lantern

Job Humbles Himself before the LORD

And the LORD answered Job and said:

Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who argues with God answer it.

And Job answered the LORD and said:

Look, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I have put my hand over my mouth.

I who have spoken lightly, what can I answer? 1. The higher holy men advance with God, in the dignity of virtues, the more accurately do they discover that they are unworthy; because while they become close to the light, they find out whatever escaped their notice in themselves, and they appear to themselves the more deformed without, in proportion as that is very beautiful, wh…

Lest Job seem obstinate in his opinion even though he was proved wrong, he breaks forth in words of humility, and so the text continues, "Job answered and said to the Lord: What can I who have spoken thoughtlessly answer?" Consider here that Job, speaking in the presence of God and his own conscience is not accusing himself of speaking falsely or of a proud intention, for he ha…

Once I have spoken, and I will not answer; and twice, and I will say no more.

At a meeting of the hermits in Cellia, Evagrius made a speech. Then the priest there said, 'Evagrius, we know that if you were in your own country, perhaps you would already be a bishop, ruling over many.

One thing have I spoken, which I would I had not said; and another, to which I will add no further. 3. If we examine the former words of blessed Job, we find that he has said nothing wickedly. But if we distort his words, which were uttered with truth and freedom, into a sort of sin of pride, there will no longer be two only; because there will be many.

I do penance for these things which I have said, and so he says, "I have said one thing, and would that I had not," namely, when I said that I wanted to dispute with God, (13:3) "and another thing," that I preferred my own justice when it was a question of divine judgments. (6:2) He does not acknowledge the third thing which Eliud had reproved him with, i.e.

The LORD Challenges Job Again

And the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

Gird up your loins now like a man; I will ask you, and you make me know.

Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, so that you may be righteous?

And do you have an arm like God? And can you thunder with a voice like his?

Adorn yourself now with majesty and height; and clothe yourself with splendor and glory.

A slanderer conspired against you. Sometimes he said to me, "Stretch out your hand now." He said to me, "Touch all that he has," and he added about you that "you would have cursed me to my face." But, on the contrary, you were victorious. Therefore I say to you, "Clothe yourself with glory. Abase the slanderer completely. Humiliate his angels.

Surround thyself with beauty, and raise thyself on high, and be full of glory, and array thyself with beautiful garments. 8. Thou understandest, As I. For He surrounds Himself with beauty, of Whom it is written, The Lord hath reigned, He hath put on beauty. [Ps. 93, 1] He is raised aloft in us, when He is proved to be in His own Nature unsearchable by our minds.

From effects of this kind he demonstrates the divine excellence as to three things. First, as to beauty when he says, "Deck yourself with beauty," as if to say: If you were as powerful in your works as God is, attribute his beauty to yourself, and so he clearly says, "Deck yourself," for God does not surround himself with beauty as something added beyond his essence but his ess…

Scatter the overflowings of your anger; and look on everyone proud, and bring him low.

Look on everyone proud, and humble him; and tread down the wicked where they stand.

These words are not spoken with an offended mind but with zealous affection, so that they may be useful in consoling and instructing him and that he may understand that to perform such a great judgment is beyond human strength.

Look on all the proud, and confound them, and tread down the wicked in their place. 11. Thou understandest, As I. For the proud are confounded at the look of the Lord, either here, by His mercy, when acknowledging and condemning their faults, or there, by suffering punishments from His justice.

The first punishment common to both of these types of proud men is confusion. Since when they could not attain the height to which they pretended, they are apparently confounded by their failure, and so he says, "Consider all the proud and confound them," and he also said already, "If his pride should ascend up to heaven, he will be thrown out like dung in the end." (20:6) The…

Hide them in the dust together; bind their faces in the hidden place.

And I also will praise you, that your own right hand can save you.

Look now at Behemoth, which I made along with you; he eats grass like an ox.

Look now, his strength is in his loins, and his vigor in the muscles of his belly.

It is no wonder, then, if the loins of sinful men are filled with illusions, since Job too speaks thus of the dragon, who is understood to be the devil: "All his strength is in the loins, and his power in the navel of his belly." The strength of the devil, then, is chiefly about the loins of man, whence fornication and adulteries proceed, whence the corruption of boys, whence a…

The words "its strength is in its cover" [mean] its strength and vigor are precisely in the animal itself. Animals usually take shelter in different places, but [the author] says this animal does not need a shelter at all.

Second, he describes his conjugal relations. For the principal animal pleasures consist in food and intercourse. He describes the intercourse of the elephant first as to the principle of pleasure by which animals are excited to intercourse when he says, "His strength is in his loins," for semen is drawn to the genital members from the loins or from the kidney area.

He bends his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together.

His bones are tubes of bronze; his limbs are like bars of iron.

He is the first of the ways of God; the one who made him can bring near his sword.

For the mountains bring him their produce, and all the beasts of the field play there.

"And when he has gone up to a steep mountain, he causes joy to the quadrupeds in the deep." This means the wild animals have raised their heads only when this animal has withdrawn to the mountains. If [God] has created these two enormous beasts, he did so in order that you might know that he may create all of them according to their own type.

The mountains bring him forth grass. 1. The proud become the more familiarly devoted to the ancient enemy, who is described by the voice of the Lord, under the name Behemoth, the higher they swell with pride within, at the successes of this life.

Since he had said that, "He eats grass like an ox," (v.10) he shows where he gets his grass to eat, and so he says, "The mountains yield grass for him." By this one understands that the proud and lofty men in this world offer the devil the material of his delight or eating.

Under the lotus plants he lies down, in the covert of the reed and the marsh.

The lotus plants cover him with their shade; the willows of the wadi surround him.

The shadows cover his shadow. 10. For all the wicked are in truth shadows of the devil: for while they give themselves up to imitate his iniquity, they derive, as it were, a form of resemblance from his body. But as the reprobate are his 'shadows' in the plural number, so each separate sinner is his 'shadow' in the singular.

The words "the shadows surround it." Because of the size of the animal, [the author says], anywhere it goes, it casts shadows around it. The words "the crows like a torrent surround it." [This is said] because the habit of these birds is to approach and croak anytime they see something terrifying.

Since this animal does not desire just any kind of shade but deep dark shade, he says, "The shadows protect his shadow," to say that the smaller shadow is protected by the larger shadow from the heat. He shows the cause of this shade saying, "the falling willows cover him," for willows make a thicker and cooler shade than reeds.

Look, a river oppresses him, and he does not hurry; he is confident, though the Jordan bursts into his mouth.

Jesus sanctified Baptism by being Himself baptized. If the Son of God was baptized, what godly man is he that despiseth Baptism? But He was baptized not that He might receive remission of sins, for He was sinless; but being sinless, He was baptized, that He might give to them that are baptized a divine and excellent grace.

Hence the Lord says to blessed Job concerning the ancient enemy of the human race: "He will swallow up a river and not wonder, and he has confidence that the Jordan will flow into his mouth." For who is signified by the river except the flow of the human race?

For the same reason this animal seeks humid and shady places, he also drinks a lot of water, and so Aristotle says in The History of Animals VII that, "Now an elephant drinks fourteen Macedonian measures of water as a draft and again later another eight." So to describe the great quantity of his drink he says, "He will swallow rivers and not wonder," because he is used to drink…

Can anyone take him by his eyes, or pierce his nose with snares?

Job40

Job Humbles Himself before the LORD

The LORD Challenges Job Again