Job 38:30

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? As when the author said about the sea, “When its mother begot it,” he did not mean that it has a mother; so here he does not mean that [ice] came forth [literally] from God’s womb, but he wants to speak about its formation and origin.… Why then did he constantly use here the words about “begetting”? In my opinion he wants to allude to the One who is the first and only cause of everything and to the fact that creatures were shaped even before being completely perfected.

56. For I remember that I have often taught already that ‘waters’ are taken for peoples. But by a ‘stone,’ by reason of its very hardness, the Gentile peoples are sometimes designated. For they themselves worshipped stones. And of these it is said by the Prophet, Let them, that make them, become like unto them, and all who trust in them. [Ps. 115, 8] Whence John, beholding that the Jews boasted themselves in their pedigree, and foreseeing the Gentiles passing over to the stock of Abraham, by the knowledge of the faith, says, Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up sons to Abraham. [Matt. 3, 9] Certainly calling ‘stones’ the Gentiles, who were hardened in unbelief. Because then Judaea first believed in God, while all the Gentile world was remaining in the obstinacy of its unbelief, and because the hearts of the Gentiles were afterwards softened to receive the faith, and the unbelief of the Jews was hardened, it is well said, The waters are hardened after the likeness of a stone. As if He were saying, Those soft hearts of the Jews, easily penetrated by faith, are converted into the insensibility of the Gentiles. For when God in His mercy drew to Him the Gentiles, He repelled Judaea in His wrath. And it came to pass, that as the Gentiles had been at first hardened against the reception of the faith, so, when the Gentiles were afterwards admitted to the faith, was the people of Judaea hardened in the torpor of unbelief. Whence the Apostle Paul says to these very Gentiles, As ye in times past have not believed God, yet now have obtained mercy through their unbelief, even so have these not believed, in your mercy, that they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all. [Rom. 11, 30-32] And accurately considering this his opinion, first concerning the calling of the Jews, and the rejection of the Gentiles, and afterwards concerning the calling of the Gentiles, and the rejection of the Jews, and reflecting that he could not comprehend the secret judgments of God, he subjoined in exclamation, O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how incomprehensible are His judgments, and His ways unsearchable. [Rom. 11, 33] Whence here also when the Lord was saying of the unbelief of the Jews, The waters are hardened after the likeness of a stone, to show that His judgments concerning their rejection were secret, He fitly subjoined;
And the surface of the deep is congealed.
57. Because the eye of the human mind does not at all penetrate the incomprehensibleness of the Divine judgment, from a kind of veil of our ignorance having been thrown over it. For it is written, Thy judgments are a great deep. [Ps. 36, 6] Let no one then seek to investigate, why, when one is rejected, another is chosen, or, why, when one is chosen, another is rejected, because the surface of the deep is congealed, and as Paul witnesses, His judgments are inscrutable, and His ways unsearchable. [Rom. 11, 33]
58. But by that which is said, Out of whose womb came the ice, and the frost from heaven, who hath gendered it? (ver. 29.) nothing prevents Satan being understood by the frost and ice. For he came forth as if ice from the womb of God, because the teacher of iniquity came forth, frozen with the torpor of sin, from the warmth of His mysteries. He was gendered as frost from heaven, because he was suffered to fall from the highest to the lowest condition, and to go and bind the hearts of the reprobate. And having been fashioned rightly in heaven, when he fell, he bound as frost the hearts of his followers, in the coldness of sin. And what he did amongst men, on coming to the earth, is fully stated, when it is added, The waters are hardened after the likeness of a stone. For by ‘waters’ peoples are designated, but by a ‘stone’ the hardness of this very Satan. The waters therefore were hardened after the likeness of a stone, when he came on earth, because men, imitating his wickedness, lost the soft bowels of charity. And because his crafty designs cannot be detected by men who have been led astray, it is rightly subjoined; And the surface of the deep is congealed. For one thing lies concealed within him, and another he presents without. For he transforms himself as an angel of light, and with his cunning art of deception frequently proposes laudable objects, in order to lead on to unlawful. The surface of the deep is therefore congealed; for while the fair appearance of his persuasion appears, as it were, like solid ice on the surface, his wickedness, lurking in the depth, is not observed.
59. But we can understand all these in another sense also, if we enquire into them, in their moral meaning. For whilst Almighty God fashions the minds of men in His fear, He conceives them, as it were, and brings them forth to open virtues, when He advances them onwards. But if they are elated by the virtues they have received, He abandons them. And we often know persons to be smitten by consideration of their sins, to glow with fear of the Divine dread, and, commencing in fear, attain to the highest virtues. But when they are elated by these virtues which they receive, being bound with the snare of vain glory, they return to their former torpor. When God therefore casts off such persons, He rightly says, Out of whose womb came the ice? For the ice comes forth, as it were, from the womb of God, when those who had before been warm within, become cold, by reason of the gift of virtue, and, being torpid, seek after outward glory, for the very reason by which they ought to glow with greater warmth to love things within. And whilst one man is powerful in signs, another in knowledge, another in prophecy, and another in mighty works, and seeks by these gifts to please men, he turns all his former inward warmth into torpidity, from loving outward praises. He comes forth therefore as ice from the womb, when, after the favours of gifts, he is separated from the bowels of heavenly compassion. Are not they ‘ice,’ who in the virtues they receive seek praise from men? And yet they say to the Judge on His coming, when recalling His own gifts to His mind; Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name have done many mighty works? [Matt. 7, 29] But He shows how the Lord casts out this ice, saying, I know you not whence ye are. Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity. [ib. 23] The Lord now bears this ice in His womb, because He tolerates it within the bosom of the Church. But He then openly casts it out, when He banishes such from the secret abodes of heaven by the last and public judgment. What is then the plain object: of these words, except that Job should be brought down from his lofty virtues, that he should not, in consequence of his former warmth in good living, grow cold through pride, and be repelled and go forth from the womb of the Godhead, by being swollen up within the bosom of his own heart?
60. And because by a righteous judgment He permits haughty minds to go forth to commit sin, from the virtue they have received, it is rightly added, still farther; And the frost from heaven, who hath gendered it? For He frequently vouchsafes the knowledge of Holy Scripture, but when he who receives it is elated by this knowledge, he is, by the anger of the strict Judge, so blinded in the Scripture itself, that he no longer sees its inward meaning, from seeking thereby for outward applause; and that, though he could be warm by remaining within, he goes forth and becomes frozen, and that he who before, when easily led to the knowledge of God, remained unfrozen at the top, becomes hardened, and sinks to the bottom. Is not Holy Scripture ‘heaven,’ which opening to us the day of understanding, illuminates us with the Sun of righteousness, and which, while the night of the present life surrounds us, shines for us with the stars of the commandments. But since there must be heresies, that they which are approved may be made manifest, [1 Cor. 11, 19] when the proud mind is kept back from a sound understanding of Scripture, frost is generated from heaven by the judgment of the strict Judge; in order that, when Holy Scripture itself glows in the hearts of the Elect, it may cast forth from itself in a frozen condition, those who proudly seek to know it. For they err in the very point, in which they should have corrected their faults; and while they fall away from the heavenly understanding of the resplendent Word, both hardened themselves, and about to deceive others, they sink to the bottom, as ice, and bind others also. But yet the Lord says that He Himself genders this frost, not because He Himself fashions the minds of the wicked to sin, but because He does not liberate them from sin. As it is written; I will harden the heart of Pharaoh. [Exod. 4, 21] For because He refused to soften it in His mercy, He plainly announced that He had hardened it in His severity.
61. But, because the image of virtue is retained for the sake of human praise, when the virtue of Divine fear, which has begun, is itself lost, it is rightly subjoined; The water are hardened after the likeness of a stone, and the surface of the deep is congealed. For waters are hardened by ice at the surface, but remain fluid underneath. And what do we understand by waters but the unstable hearts of the reprobate? For when they are deliberately forsaking virtue, they show themselves forth, in their hypocrisy, as resolute in good works, and whilst they are inwardly gliding down into sins, they outwardly feign themselves imitators of the holy and resolute. The waters are hardened after the likeness of a stone, and the surface of the abyss is bound together, because their weak and unstable conscience is concealed from men, by a superinduced appearance of sanctity. For when they are inwardly foul in their own sight, they are arrayed before the eyes of others with a kind of comeliness of living.
62. But, lest any one should wish these words of the Lord to be understood in a good sense, we ought to add it, for those also who thus look for it, provided we are not [perhaps, ‘so as we be not.’ (‘dummodo’)] considered to have neglected points which needed to be examined. For it is said in the former verse, Who is the father of rain? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? And it is immediately added, Out of whose womb came the ice? and the frost from heaven who hath gendered it? If therefore the following sentence is connected with the preceding words with a similar sense, its meaning is clearly laid open without any obstacle of difficulty even in a good sense. For when the earth is watered by rain, the seeds which have been cast in are pressed down more productively. But again, if the rain waters it too immoderately, it changes the richness and virtue of the corn in the stalk. But if the seed which has been thrown in, is after rain checked by the frost, the more it is kept from appearing too quickly above ground, the more productively does it root itself beneath: and the more it is forbidden to grow, the more it is compelled to multiply: because, when it is kept from too early a growth, being expanded by the slowness of its conception, it is filled more abundantly for fruit. What is meant then by the Lord first speaking of Himself as the father of the rain, but afterwards saying that the ice comes forth from His womb, and declaring that He genders the frost from heaven? Except that He first waters in a wondrous manner the soil of our hearts for the reception of the seeds of the word, by the secret rain of His grace, and that He afterwards keeps it down by the discipline of His secret dispensation, lest it should bring forth too luxuriantly with the virtues it has conceived, in order that the rigor of discipline may likewise bind that which the rain of grace received irrigates, lest it turn its fruit into grass, if it produce its virtues, either before it ought, or more than is necessary. For, frequently, when a good work is displayed before it ought by beginners, it is emptied of the grain of perfection, and while virtues are more exuberant than is necessary, they frequently dry up. Whence the Lord either refuses the desires even of His Elect, before the fit time, or again restrains at the fit time their unlimited progress, lest, if they advance either sooner, or farther, than they ought, they should fall into the defect of pride by the greatness of their proficiency. For when the heart is pricked with compunction after sin, the earth, which had been dry, is watered by the pouring of rain upon it; and when it proposes to abandon its iniquities and to follow after good works, it receives, as it were, seed after the rain. And many persons, when they conceive holy desires, are burning to exercise themselves at once in the sublimest virtues, so that sin may not only not infect their doings, but may not even assail their thoughts. They are still indeed living in the body, but they wish to suffer no further from their connection with the present life. They seek to aim at inward stability of mind in their intention, but are driven back by interrupting temptations, in order, namely, that they may remember their own infirmity, and may not be elated at the virtues which they receive. And when this is effected by the wonderful constraint of discipline, what else but frost is gendered from heaven over the watered earth? What but ice is produced from the womb of God, when the dispensation comes forth from its secret place within, and our wills are restrained even in their good desires?
63. Let us see with what ice of discipline Paul (that is, the watered earth) is weighed down, when he says, To will is present with me, but to perform what is good I find not. [Rom. 7, 18] For he who asserts that he has the will, makes known what seeds are even now concealed within him by the pouring of grace upon him. But whilst he finds not to do good, he certainly points out how much ice of the heavenly dispensation weighs on him. Had not this ice pressed their hearts, to whom he was saying, So that ye cannot do the things that ye would? [Gal. 5, 17] As if he were plainly saying, The secret seeds of your heart are now seeking to break forth into fruit, but they are kept down by the ice of the heavenly dispensation, in order that they may afterwards shoot forth more productively, the more patiently they bear the weight of the Divine judgment pressing on them.
64. And because the hearts of men, since they are unable to break out into those virtues which they desire, are frequently harassed with the stings of temptation, so far as they shrink back from carrying out their intention, but yet repress these same temptations of their thoughts, and fashion themselves, by the habit of discipline in a kind of strictness of living, it is well subjoined; The waters are hardened after the likeness of a stone. Because, though unstable thoughts harass within, yet they do not at all lead to consent in wicked doings. But the mind conceals, under an habitual custom of good living, as if under a kind of exterior hardness, whatever is softened within by the assault of temptation. Whence it is well subjoined; And the surface of the deep is congealed. Because, even if an evil thought comes as far as to suggestion, it does not break out into consent, because the superinduced rigour of holy discipline suppresses the fluctuating motions of the mind.
65. But by ‘frost’ or ‘ice’ can also be designated the adversity of this present life, which while it keeps down the holy by its asperity, makes them stronger. For while Almighty God permits us to be exercised with annoyances, and carries us on to the condition of a better life by the intervention of sorrow, He genders with wonderful wisdom the frost and ice over the coming fruit; in order that each of the Elect may endure in this present life, as if in winter, the adversities of winds and frosts, and may exhibit afterwards, as in the serenity of summer, the fruits which he has here conceived. Whence it is said by the voice of the Bridegroom to every soul which is hastening after the whirlwind of this life to those joys of eternity, Arise, hasten, My beloved, My fair one, and come. For the winter has already passed, the shower has departed and gone. [Cant. 2, 10. 11.] But because we are relaxed, if prosperity alone attends us, but are the better strengthened for virtues by means of adversities, it is rightly subjoined, The waters are hardened after the likeness of a stone. For minds, which had softly melted away through prosperities, become firm when hard pressed by adversities. And water is brought to the likeness of a stone, whenever any one who is weak imitates the sufferings of his Redeemer by endurance received from above. For water had, in truth, hardened after the fashion of stone, when Paul, that former impatient persecutor, was saying, I fill up those things which are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh. [Col. 1, 24]
66. And because persons, when depressed by adversities, guard more carefully their inward gifts, it is rightly added; And the surface of the deep is congealed. For joy is wont to lay open the secrets of the mind, and, by laying open, to lose them. But when adversities depress us outwardly, they make us more careful within. After frost then or ice, the surface of the deep is congealed, because our mind is strengthened by adversities, to preserve those deep gifts which it has received. For Isaiah had congealed the surface of his abyss, when he was saying; My secret to myself, my secret to myself. [Is. 24, 16. marg.] Paul had congealed the surface of his abyss, who labouring under so many dangers and adversities, under cover of some one else, speaks of himself, saying; I have heard secret words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. [2 Cor. 12, 4] And again, But I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth in me, or heareth any thing of me. [ib. 6] What then had he done, who, when enduring adversity without, was afraid to open the secrets of his heart, lest he should perchance vent himself in praises; what, but covered the abyss of his inward secrets by a congealed surface?