Job 38 · The Lantern

The LORD Challenges Job

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,

In my opinion, he has placed at this stage a cloud over this righteous man in order to raise his thoughts and to persuade him that "that voice" came "from above," as [in the case] of the "mercy seat placed upon the ark of alliance." Since the cloud is a symbol of heaven, it is as if God wanted to place heaven itself over Job, as if he had moved his throne near him.

But the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said. PREFACE After the loss of his goods, the death of his children, the wounds of his body, the words of his wife persuading him to evil, the insulting language of his comforters, and the darts of so many sorrows boldly received, blessed Job ought to have been praised by his Judge for such great power of constancy, if he had…

After the discussion of Job and his friends about divine providence took place, Eliud had assumed to himself the office of determining the answer, contradicting Job in some things and his friends in others. But because human wisdom is not sufficient to understand the truth of divine providence, it was necessary that this dispute should be determined by divine authority.

Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Gird up now your loins like a man; for I will demand of you, and answer you me.

Since Job was overwhelmed by his dejection, God encourages him with his words, so that he may pay attention to what is said now, and he introduces his speech in the form of questions, which is the best means to convince.

Gird up thy loins as a man. Holy Scripture is wont to call those persons 'men,' who follow, doubtless, the ways of the Lord with firm and steady steps. Whence it is said by the Psalmist, Do manfully, and let your heart be strengthened. [Ps. 31, 24] Whence Paul says, Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees. [Heb.

So after the Lord rejected the determination of Eliud, he himself begins to determine the question. First, he gets Job's attention when he says, "Gird up your loins like a man," which here is used as a metaphor. For men usually gird up their loins in preparation for a journey or some work.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if you have understanding.

Where wast thou when I was laying the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if thou hast understanding. ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION Behold all things are put together in historical narration, as if concerning the origin of the world. But something is immediately subjoined, which seems to be said of the creation, not of the world, but of the Church.

Again, there are in angels some virtues related to rational souls through which they govern men. Indeed, they are the conveyors of light and the uplifters of intelligences so that illuminations may be received.

He questions Job about his effects which are accessible to the experience of the human senses. When a man is shown to be ignorant of these, he is much more convinced that he does not have knowledge of the higher realities. Among other sensible effects he begins to ask about the principle parts of the earth.

Who has laid its measures, if you know? or who has stretched the line upon it?

Whereupon are its foundations fastened? or who laid its corner stone;

"And who created at the same time the morning stars?" that is, those stars that also rise and appear in the evening. But in a different sense [we may intend], when we refer to these stars to the substances that are separated from our senses, their generation does not agree with the nature of angels.

Whereupon are the bases thereof fastened? Or who hath laid the corner stone thereof? ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION What else do we understand by the foundations of this earth, but the teachers of Holy Church? For columns are raised on the bases, but on the columns the weight of the whole fabric is raised. Holy teachers are then not improperly designated by the name of bases.

Third, after the artisan has determined the size of the foundation and where it is to be located, he determines on what the foundation can be solidly laid. As to this he says, "On what were the bases," of the land, "sunk," because it was founded on the center of the world.

When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

For the angels having been created beings were not co-workers with God, but His ministers who praised Him in song, and expressed their gratitude for being brought into existence, being aware that, as they had no previous existence, they had been created by the Spirit of goodness.

A man usually lays the foundation of a building because he needs a place to live. But to show that God does not lay the foundation of the earth from need, he adds, "when each of the morning stars praised me," as if he should say: Although heaven whose stars praise me is my dwelling, yet I founded the earth, not because I need the servants who live there, but from my will alone.…

Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?

Who shut up the sea with doors, when it was breaking forth, as if proceeding from the womb? ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION For what do we understand by the 'sea,' but the world, and what by the 'womb,' but the corruption of carnal thoughts? For in this place by the word 'womb' is designated the secret and evil thought of carnal things.

The sea is like a baby who gets out after being fashioned in the womb and is wrapped in clothes of wool. After bringing it into existence from nothing, God gathers the sea together from the place where it was and delimits, shuts and encircles it in the womb of the earth.

After the foundation of the earth, he continues then speaking about the waters which are immediately placed over the land. The natural order of the elements requires that water surrounds the earth at every point like air surrounds earth and water at every point.

When I made its cloud the garment, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,

And broke up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,

He keeps [the sea] firmly within a sort of barrier, and in some perfect prescriptions of docility, as if he had given it precise commands. I have spoken, he says, and it did not reply, because that happens not only when no constraint forces it but also if the violence of an unchained power whips it quite hard.

I surrounded it with My boundaries. ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION The Lord surrounds the sea with His boundaries, because He so restricts the wrath of persecutors by the dispensation of His judgments, that the swelling wave of their mad wrath is broken on the level shore of His secret dispensation.

After he posits these things which express the primordial production of the sea, he explains his conclusion as if he said: When the sea was newly made, then, "I surrounded it with my limits." He posits three things which pertain to the boundary of the sea. One of these is shown when he says, "within my limits," that is, those placed by me.

And said, Until now shall you come, but no further: and here shall your proud waves be stayed?

Have you commanded the morning since your days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;

That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?

It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment.

And from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken.

Have you entered into the springs of the sea? or have you walked in the search of the depth?

Have the gates of death been opened to you? or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?

Have you perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if you know it all.

Where is the way where light dwells? and as for darkness, where is its place,

"Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness?" He says what he had said before but more clearly, that is, that the course of human life is regulated by the alternation of times, so that at one time people dedicate themselves to work; in another time, the vigor of the body, which exhaustion had taken away, is returned to them.

Tell Me, if thou knowest all things, in what path the light dwelleth, and what is the place of darkness? that thou mayest take each of them to the bounds thereof, and understand the paths to the house thereof.

When he has said these things about the action of heavenly light on lower bodies, he mentions the light itself when he says, "Tell me, if you know everything," so that you are fit to argue with God who knows everything, "in which path does light dwell?" Consider here that light is found in the heavenly bodies of the world, which are called luminaries because of the fact that th…

That you should take it to its bound, and that you should know its paths to the house?

Know you it, because you were then born? or because the number of your days is great?

"Did you know then that you would be born?" These words are not said without purpose but to demonstrate that God's benevolence is the reason for everything. If you owe the fact that you exist to my benevolence, since you did not exist before, he says, how can you think that [benevolence] is denied to you, now that you live and are able to function?

Didst thou know then that thou wast about to be born, and didst thou know the number of thy days? As if He were openly saying, What wonder if thou understandest not thine end, since thou dost not comprehend thy beginning? And since thou knowest not with what beginning thou camest hither, what wonder, if thou canst not tell with what end thou art taken away?

The duration of the lower bodies and the times of generation and corruption are measured according to the motion of the heavenly bodies, as Dionysius says in Chapter IV of The Divine Names.

Have you entered into the treasures of the snow? or have you seen the treasures of the hail,

Which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?

By what way is the light parted, which scatters the east wind upon the earth?

By what way is the light scattered? The heat is divided over the earth. For He in truth is the way, Who says, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The light is, therefore, scattered by this way, because all the Gentile world is enlightened by His presence.

But by what way does grace descend into men? Job asks, saying: "By what way is light spread, and heat divided upon the earth?" I respond and say that grace descends upon rational minds through the Word incarnate, through the Word crucified, and through the Word inspired.

After a storm of snow and hail ends, a calm follows in which warm and clear air is prepared, and so he says, "By what path does light scatter?" which expresses the clear air, "and heat is divided upon the earth," which expresses warm weather.

Who has divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;

To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, in which there is no man;

To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?

Has the rain a father? or who has begotten the drops of dew?

God does not want to say that it comes out from his womb, God forbid! But then what do the words about "begetting" and "womb" mean in this context?

Who is the father of the rain? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? [ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION] As if He were saying, Except Myself, Who sprinkle, of My free grace, the barren earth of the human heart with drops of knowledge. For of this rain is said elsewhere, Thou wilt set apart, O God, a voluntary rain for thine inheritance.

Next he discusses the rains without the wind when he says, "Who is the father?" that is, the efficient cause "of the rain" not from necessity, but from the order of providence which befits a father. For God moves the sun and the other heavenly bodies which are the proximate efficient causes of the generation of the rains.

Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who has gendered it?

The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.

Can you bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?

Since in ordering the complexity of the world, Providence did not lack the collaboration of [divine] power, Job now enumerates those things that evidently are an integral part of the power of the Creator.

When the three virtues of faith, hope and love are included, they rise up to a series of seven symbolized by the seven stars, the seven women, and the seven loaves of the gospel: and this, in so far as they are resplendent, fecund and strengthening. Their luminosity is represented by the seven stars.

When he has explained these things about the variable changes of the air, he proceeds further to the immutable changeableness of the heavenly bodies. On this subject he first considers the immobility of figure in the fixed stars, because each of them maintains its place so that one does not approach the other too much or too little.

Can you bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or can you guide Arcturus with his sons?

Know you the ordinances of heaven? can you set its dominion in the earth?

Knowest thou the course of heaven, and wilt thou set down the reason thereof on the earth? To know the course of heaven, is to see the secret predestinations of the heavenly disposals. But to set down the reason thereof on the earth is to lay open before the hearts of men the causes of such secrets.

In the order of hope, concerning what we should expect, there is anagogy, and this in two ways: one in the skies, as in this passage: "Abram, look at the heavens and, if you can, count the stars." And that means the heavenly intelligences. Again, in Job: "Do you know the ordinances of the heavens; can you put into effect their plan on the earth?"

Fourth, the order, placement, and movement in the heavenly bodies seems wonderful, and so he says, "Do you know the order of heaven?", which man cannot comprehend?

Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you?

Up to this point God divides the heavenly realities in terms of those through which he punishes us, as distinguished from those through which he benefits us. Notice how the lightnings answer. They do not really mean, "What do you want?" The text wants to signify that all creatures, as though they were living creatures, bend their ear to God.

1. Blessed Job is asked by God, Who questions him, whether he has done such things as man is surely unable to do; in order that, when he discovers that he cannot do them, he may fly for refuge to Him, Whom he understands to be the only One Who is able to do them, and that he may appear more powerful before the eyes of his Judge, if he learns more truly his own infirmities.

True, the effects of divine power just discussed are very great; yet the greatness is known by the vast majority of ordinary men in them so much as in thunder and lightning, and so he places these effects last. So as to thunder he says, "Will you lift up your voice in the clouds?" For thunder is generated in the clouds and the sound seems like the voice of God.

Can you send lightnings, that they may go, and say to you, Here we are?

Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? or who has given understanding to the heart?

Who hath placed wisdom in the inward parts of a man? or who hath given the cock understanding? 9. Who else are designated in this place by the name of the cock, but these same holy preachers, mentioned again in another way, who strive amid the darkness of this present life to announce by their preaching, as if by their notes, the approaching light?

The words "Who has put wisdom in the inwards parts?" means who else [but God] has secretly put the wisdom of reason in the souls of mortals?

After the Lord has brought to mind the marvels of his effects concerning the principal parts of the earth, which are the earth, the sea, and heaven, and their ordering, he now goes on to tell the marvels of his works especially seen in the different properties of animals.

Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,

Who will declare the system of the heavens? But because He withdraws their words, when He presents Himself to us in outward form, He immediately subjoined; And who will make the harmony of heaven to sleep? 17.

The third firmness of faith is found in the writings of the doctors and of those who were wise with the knowledge of things worldly or divine: Dionysius, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa, the Damascene, Basil, Athanasius, Chrysostom. Among the Latins, Hilarion, Gregory, Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome.

According to this, the cock seems to have a certain likeness to intelligence because he breaks forth in song at determined times as though he knew the proportions of the heavenly motions, and so he says, "Who told him", the cock, "the reasoned order of the heavens?" that is, the proportion of the heavenly motions so that he could discern from this the determined times for crowi…

When the dust grows into hardness, and the clods cling fast together?

Will you hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions,

When they couch in their dens, and remain in the covert to lie in wait?

Who provides for the raven his food? when his young ones cry to God, they wander for lack of food.

Job38

The LORD Challenges Job