John Chrysostom — Commentary on Scripture

Job 30:27-31

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 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.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 30:26-29

Job 31:5

Nobody can say, Job says, either that I was hankering after pleasures, luxuries and that kind of lustful life, or, on the other hand, that by becoming too hard and austere in my heart I finally fell into those vices that are contrary to that sort of life, that is, the vices of malice and deceit. No! I kept away from both of those two vices!

COMMENTARY ON JOB 31:1-5

Job 31:6-8

There is in my way of life, even in its details, as much exactness as in the arm [of a balance]. I have not overlooked the smallest detail. For this, I do not appeal to the testimony of a mortal, who may want to please and ignores many things, but to the testimony of God, who accurately knows all that is hidden and to whom nothing can escape. “The Lord,” he says, “knows my innocence, if my foot has turned aside out of the way or if my heart has followed my eye.” Is this a further detail? Yes, truly, it was important at that time as well as now. It is important, in fact, to overturn inordinate desires, and it is not less important, after receiving those desires, not to satisfy them. And proceeding further, he states something that is even more important, that is, that not even his eyes have ever accepted anything of that kind.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 31:6A-7

Job 31:9-10

He did not say, my eyes, but, my heart; I never allowed, he says, my thoughts to become corrupted, or my body either. This is exactly what Christ says: “He who has cast his glance upon a woman to desire her has already committed adultery in his heart.”

COMMENTARY ON JOB 31:8-10

Job 31:24-25

Now what kind of fault can be detected there? You see that he is not keen on riches. Observe him, while he reflects and considers in truth the accidental, transitory, ephemeral and negligible character of human realities.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 31:17-25

Job 31:33-34

“Because I did not turn away,” he says, “from the great multitude of my people,” that is, away from my subjects, from those who were aware, who knew even the character itself of my fault. This is real wisdom. “First of all confess spontaneously your sins in order to be justified.” So I took nobody as a witness of my good works, because I wanted everybody to be aware of my faults and errors. That is the summit of wisdom, that is the rule of virtue: to hide one’s good work and to expose one’s faults in public. But the people of today just do the opposite.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 31:32-34A

Job 31:35-37

“I have torn all that was received unjustly.” Without boasting, I have torn what I had received. And the expression “on my shoulders” suggests that some [of his friends] gloried in the afflictions of the others; and I did not content myself with giving it back simply, but I nullified it by tearing it. “I have torn all that was received unjustly.”

COMMENTARY ON JOB 31:35-40

Job 31:38-40

“If my land has ever cried out against me, or if its furrows have wept together.” Therefore, neither the land cries out nor weeps. What does he mean? Certainly the land does not really groan, but inanimate beings perceive injustices. As the prophet asserts, “The earth stood up and shuddered.” Now the earth moans every time we make an unjust use of its fruits.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 31:35-40

Job 32:1-3

Elihu is inflamed not because [Job] declared himself to be righteous but because he did that before the Lord, as he invoked him as his witness; or because he thought that [Job] brought an action against God. In fact, to justify oneself has no great importance in itself, but to do that with the intention of bringing an action against God is absolutely inopportune.… Now, if this is true, what an extreme act of impiety on the part of Job if he believed himself to be more righteous than God [and to be authorized to bring action against him]. What really happened? This was not Job’s thought at all. It is Elihu who believed so. Job did not speak with the idea that he was more righteous than God but with the idea that God was responsible for his afflictions. Therefore he did not reproach God for any injustice: it is Elihu who understood it so.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 32:2-3

Job 32:6

Why is it not said, But then, why did you not fight from the start together with us in order to defend God? He answers, I withdrew into my age, while I expected, he says, to hear you pronounce a beautiful and wonderful speech. Notice how he did not look for honors, how he conceded them the first rank, how he showed that even now he would not have spoken if they had not compelled him to do so.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 32:6

Job 32:17-19

He wants to show that he suffered for a long time and waited to speak and that he contained himself and could burst. Therefore, he needed a large amount of patience. To be able to control one’s words is the greatest proof of wisdom, and [Elihu’s] ardor for God has enabled him to bear such an interior fire.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 31:18-19

Job 33:1-3

These words mean, I do not speak so out of envy or jealousy. Even though the three friends said the same things as him, they did not do so in the same spirit or in order to defend God. Indeed also Judas and the eleven disciples expressed the same opinion about the vase of perfume, but not in the same spirit. Therefore, let us not examine the words but the intention with which each expresses himself. How the first wanted to overthrow him, whereas the latter wanted the opposite. Take heed: Elihu, who speaks last, expresses the thoughts that God is about to express, so that God may justify himself even better, once Job has heard the same remarks from his companions in bondage that he will afterwards hear from the Master.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 33:1-3

Job 34:16-17

Did you see? He did not dare come to the conclusion that he is [just]; with great discretion he avoided asserting it plainly. Not only by participating in the universe, or in the creation or in his power, we must realize his justice, but also by participating in his own nature and acts. He hates the wicked and loves human beings. He is not like us, who keep away from sin not because of our aversion to vice but because of the fear of punishment. Where does [this fear] come from? From the fact that he “hates injustice and makes the wicked perish.” “He, who is eternal,” he adds. Elihu is right in introducing the concept of eternity because God is not required every day and for every action to give explanations about what happened; it is usual that God manages a matter whose fulfillment must extend over a long period. Therefore, do not anticipate the conclusion of a fact, and do not try to understand the judgment of God before everything has been completed, because you will get no profit from your hurriedness. That is why he says, eternal and just. All past testifies to him. Is it possib…

Did you see? He did not dare come to the conclusion that he is [just]; with great discretion he avoided asserting it plainly. Not only by participating in the universe, or in the creation or in his power, we must realize his justice, but also by participating in his own nature and acts. He hates the wicked and loves human beings. He is not like us, who keep away from sin not because of our aversion to vice but because of the fear of punishment. Where does [this fear] come from? From the fact that he “hates injustice and makes the wicked perish.” “He, who is eternal,” he adds. Elihu is right in introducing the concept of eternity because God is not required every day and for every action to give explanations about what happened; it is usual that God manages a matter whose fulfillment must extend over a long period. Therefore, do not anticipate the conclusion of a fact, and do not try to understand the judgment of God before everything has been completed, because you will get no profit from your hurriedness. That is why he says, eternal and just. All past testifies to him. Is it possible that he has changed now?

COMMENTARY ON JOB 34:12-17

Job 34:36-37

He did not say, in an iniquitous and impious manner, but “for a long time,” showing that we must not argue with God for a long time. If, when we are in the presence of a king, we do not dare argue with him for a long time, even more so we must behave before God.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 34:36-37

Job 35:6-7

These words mean, you will do no wrong to him, and you will not be more useful to him by being righteous. In fact, he said, “If I have sinned, what shall I be able to do?” What shall I do to you? Elihu says, Why did you say that? Does God care about the fact that you sinned, as if he is the victim of an injustice or as if he is suffering damage?

COMMENTARY ON JOB 35:6

Job 35:9-11

These words mean, do you not see that everything is set in good order, as in a field, and that with an even greater precision each object is in the most convenient place? [Do you not see] that no object exceeds its own limit or steps on the area reserved to another? It is as if the night watches control everything; during the sleep of mortals nobody tries to attack. Observe wild animals. When they move around, that is the time when human beings sleep. They must not invade cities; people must not perish, because they sleep being conquered by sleep.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 35:10B

Job 35:14

“For he, the Almighty, observes all those who commit impieties. But plead before him, if you can praise him conveniently.” If he had established a court and had published its decisions, you would have not praised him, you would have not glorified him, as he deserves, with regard to what happened to you, because you think you have been unjustly punished. Not to be able to praise God as he deserves, that is not too serious; but not to be able to praise him as he deserves when we plead before him, that is really serious.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 35:11-16

Job 37:5-8

This is the reason, he says, for the grandiosity of his creations, the reason for the cold and the heat, the reason for the irregularity of the winds. Was it impossible to produce a harmonious blend? [If God did not do that], it is because he wants to prevent by any means the pride and arrogance of thought. It is “so that everyone may know his own weakness.” “Who can resist,” Scripture says, “before his cold?” The entire universe has been created for this purpose, and everything exists for it. Since [pride] first of all drove away from us our trust in God, for this reason God has organized everything in view of its contrary, either the creation, or the fashioning of our body or the course of our life, so that all this exists for humility in order that we may learn to act with moderation and recognize our own weakness.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 37:7B

Job 37:17-18

Here he may mean, You are now in the midst of afflictions, but later you will have rest—and there is also the proof given by divine wisdom, which has foreseen death as a solution and end to human tribulations. Or perhaps [he means], even in the midst of your trials, you remain out of the fight of the war and the troubles, and he punishes you in this manner.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 37:17

Job 38:1

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. This is what also happened, it seems to me, “on the mountain,” when “the cloud” settled on it, so that we might learn that “the voice came from above.” Let us listen carefully, because it is the common Master of the universe who speaks. Let us see how he exhorts Job. Does he do it with the same vehemence of humankind? Not at all. Now we find a very clear solution to all the previous, disquieting questions, dear friends, which Job asked and to which we have tried to find a solution.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 38:1