^1:6 But on a certain day, when the sons of God had come to stand before the Lord, Satan also was present among them.
^1:7 The Lord said to him: Where do you come from? He, answering, said: I have gone around the earth and walked through it.
^1:8 And the Lord said to him: Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth? A simple and upright man, fearing God and withdrawing from evil.
^1:9 To him Satan, answering, said: Does Job fear God for nothing?
^1:10 Have you not hedged him around, and his house and all his substance on every side? You have blessed the works of his hands, and his possession has increased in the land.
^1:11 But extend your hand a little and touch all that he possesses; see whether he does not bless you to your face.
^1:12 Therefore the Lord said to Satan: Behold, all that he has is in your hand; only do not stretch out your hand against him.

10. But on a certain day, when they had come, etc. After the prosperity of blessed Job has been enumerated, his adversity is set forth, and first its cause is introduced. And lest anyone should think that the adversities of the just proceed apart from divine providence and thereby judge that human affairs are not subject to providence, there is set forth first how God has care for human affairs and disposes them. But this is proposed symbolically and under an enigma, according to the custom of Sacred Scripture, which describes spiritual realities under figures of bodily things, as is clear in Isaiah 6:1, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and exalted, and at the beginning of Ezekiel and in many other places. And although spiritual realities are proposed under figures of bodily things, nevertheless those things that are intended concerning spiritual realities through sensible figures do not pertain to the mystical sense but to the literal sense, because the literal sense is what is first intended by the words, whether said properly or figuratively.

11. Now it should be known that divine providence governs things in such an order that it disposes lower things through higher ones; for generable and corruptible bodies are subject to the motion of the heavenly bodies, and likewise the lower rational spirits united to mortal bodies, namely souls, are administered through higher incorporeal spirits. Now ecclesiastical tradition holds this: that among incorporeal spirits there are certain good ones who, preserving the purity in which they were created, enjoy the divine glory, never departing from the will of God; and these spirits in the Scriptures are sometimes called angels, that is, messengers, because they announce divine things to men, while at other times they are called sons of God, insofar as they are assimilated to God by participation in glory. But there are certain evil spirits, not by nature or by creation, since God is the author of every nature and the supreme Good can be the cause only of good things, but they are evil by their own fault; spirits of this kind are called demons in the Scriptures, and the first of them is called the Devil, as though one falling downward,

or also Satan, that is, adversary. Therefore both kinds of spirits move men to doing certain things: the good indeed to good things, but the evil to evil things. And just as men are moved by God through the aforesaid spirits, so also the things that are done through men are said in the Scriptures to be referred to divine examination through the mediation of these same spirits. Therefore, to show that both the good and the evil that men do are subject to divine judgment, it is said, But on a certain day, when the sons of God had come to stand before the Lord, Satan also was present among them.

12. Now it should be known that the angels, who here are called sons of God, are said to stand before the Lord in two ways:

in one way, insofar as God is beheld by them, as it is written in Daniel: thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him; in another way, insofar as the angels themselves and their acts are beheld by God. For those who stand before some lord both behold him and are beheld by him. Therefore to stand before him in the first way belongs only to the blessed angels, who enjoy the divine vision, and not to all of these but only to those who are higher among them, who enjoy the divine vision more intimately and, according to the opinion of Dionysius, do not go forth to exterior ministries; hence, in the aforesaid authority of Daniel, those standing before him are distinguished from those ministering.

In the second way, however, to stand before the Lord belongs not only to all the good angels, but also to the evil ones and even to men, because whatever is done through them is subjected to divine sight and examination; and on account of this it is said that when the sons of God came to stand before the Lord, Satan also was present among them.

And although those things that are administered through good or evil angels are continually subjected to divine sight and examination, and thus the sons of God always stand before him and Satan is present among them, nevertheless it says on a certain day, according to the custom of Scripture, which sometimes designates by time those things that are above time, from certain things that are said in time; as at the beginning of Genesis God is said to have spoken certain things on the first or second day, although his speaking is eternal, because the things that are spoken by him came to be in time. So also now, because the event with which we are presently concerned existed at a determinate time, the administrators of this event are said to have stood before the Lord on a certain day, although they never cease to stand before the Lord.

13. It must also be considered that the things done through good angels are referred to the judgment of God in one way, and the things done through evil angels in another. For good angels intend that the things they do be referred to God, and therefore it is said that the sons of God came to stand before the Lord, as though by their own movement and intention subjecting all things to divine judgment; but evil angels do not intend to refer the things they do to God, yet, unwilling though they are, this comes about: that whatever they do is subjected to divine judgment. And therefore it is not said of Satan that he came to stand before the Lord, but only that he was present among them. Now it says among them both because of the equality of nature and to suggest that evils do not arise from the principal intention, but supervene upon goods as though by accident.

14. But there is a difference between the things done through good angels and those done through evil angels: for good angels do nothing except that to which they are moved by divine command and will, since in all things they follow the divine will; but evil angels by their will are at variance with God, whence the things they themselves do are alien from God as regards their intention. And because we are not accustomed to ask about the things we ourselves do, but about the things that happen apart from us, therefore it is not said that the Lord asked anything of the sons of God, but only of Satan; and this is what is added: To him the Lord said: Where do you come from? And it should be noted that the Lord does not say to him, What are you doing? or Where are you? but Where do you come from?, because those very deeds that are procured through demons sometimes come from the divine will, when through them the wicked are punished or the good are exercised; but the intention of the demons is always evil and alien from God, and therefore Satan is asked, Where do you come from?, because his intention, from which his whole action proceeds, is alien from God.

15. Now it should be known that “to speak” is taken in two ways: for sometimes it is referred to the concept of the heart, and sometimes to the signification by which a concept of this kind is expressed to another.

According to the first way, therefore, the speaking of God is eternal and is nothing other than to beget the Son, who is his Word.

In the second way, however, God says certain things temporally, yet in different ways according as befits those to whom he speaks: for to men, who have bodily senses, God has sometimes spoken by a bodily sound formed in some subject creature, as the voice sounded at the Baptism and at the Transfiguration of Christ: This is my beloved Son; sometimes by an imaginative vision, as is often read in the Prophets; and sometimes by an intelligible expression, and in this way it must be understood that God spoke to Satan, insofar as he makes him understand that the things he himself does are beheld by God.

16. Therefore, just as God’s speaking to Satan is his providing knowledge to him, so Satan’s answering God is not, indeed, handing on to God knowledge of some matter, but considering that all his deeds lie open to the divine sight; and in this way it is said, He, answering, said: I have gone around the earth and walked through it. Therefore, by the fact that the Lord says to Satan, Where do you come from?, God examines the intention and acts of the Devil; and by the fact that Satan answers, I have gone around the earth and walked through it, he renders, as it were, an account of his acts to God, so that from both it may be shown that all things done through Satan are subject to divine providence. Now by Satan’s going around, his cunning in exploring whom he may deceive is shown, according to that saying at the end of 1 Peter: Your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes about, seeking whom he may devour. Cunning, however, is fittingly designated by going around, just as simple justice is designated by the straight; for the straight is that whose middle does not depart from the extremes:

therefore, because the action of the just man does not differ from its principle, which is the will, and from the intended end, uprightness is fittingly ascribed to the just; but it belongs to the cunning to pretend one thing and to intend another, and thus what they show by their work departs from the extremes, since it accords neither with the will nor with the end. Hence the cunning are rightly said to go around, for which reason it is written: The impious walk round about. Now it should be known that although the Devil uses the pursuit of his cunning toward all, both good and evil, nevertheless he attains the effect of his cunning only in the evil, who are rightly named earth. For since man is composed of a spiritual nature and earthly flesh, the evil of man consists in this: that, abandoning the spiritual goods to which he is ordered according to the rational mind, he adheres to earthly goods, which belong to him according to earthly flesh; and therefore the evil, insofar as they follow an earthly nature, are rightly called earth. Therefore Satan not only goes around this sort of earth but also walks through it, because in them he completes the effect of his malice: for in walking through, the completion of his progress is designated, just as, conversely, it is said of just men that God walks in them, whence the Apostle adduces in 2 Corinthians 6:16: I will dwell in them and walk among them.

17. From this, something else can also be understood. For there is a threefold state of the living: some are above the earth, that is, in heaven, such as the angels and all the blessed; some are on the earth, such as men living in mortal flesh; and some are under the earth, such as the demons and all the damned. Therefore Satan neither goes around nor walks through the first, because there can be nothing of malice among the heavenly citizens, just as no evil of nature is found in the heavenly bodies. But those who are in Hell he walks through and does not go around, because he has them totally subject to his malice, and there is no need for him to use any cunning to deceive them. But those who are on the earth he goes around and walks through, because he both strives to deceive them by cunning and draws some of them to his malice, and these are especially designated by the earth, as has been said.

18. And that earthly men are designated by earth is shown quite clearly by the fact that the Lord seems to separate Job, although dwelling on the earth, from the earth. For when Satan had said, I have gone around the earth and walked through it, there is added, And the Lord said to him: Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth? For it would seem that the question whether he had considered Job was asked in vain, when he asserted that he had gone around the earth and walked through it, unless he understood his servant Job to be beyond the earth. And he plainly shows in what respect he is separated from the earth when he says, my servant Job. For man is constituted as a kind of mean between God and earthly things, since by the mind he cleaves to God, but by the flesh he is joined to earthly things; and every mean between two things recedes the more from one extreme the more it approaches the other. Therefore the more man cleaves to God, the farther he is from the earth. And this is what it is to be a servant of God: to cleave to God by the mind; for a servant is one who does not exist for his own sake. But he who cleaves to God by the mind orders himself to God as a servant of love, not of fear.

19. And it should be noted that earthly affections in some way imitate from afar the spiritual affections by which the mind is joined to God, but they can in no way attain to their likeness: for even earthly love falls short of the love of God, and consequently every affection does so, since love is the principle of every affection. Hence, after he had fittingly said, Have you considered my servant Job, there is added, that there is none like him on the earth?, because nothing among earthly things can be equated with spiritual things. Yet this can also be understood otherwise: for in each Saint there is some preeminence of virtue with respect to some special exercise, on account of which it is sung of individual Confessors in the Church, There has not been found one like him, who kept the law of the Most High, except that in Christ all things existed according to the most perfect excellence. And in this way it can be understood that none among those dwelling on earth was like Job, insofar as Job was preeminent with respect to some exercise of virtue. But in what respect Job was a servant of God and none was like him on earth, he shows when he adds, a simple and upright man, fearing God and withdrawing from evil; since these have been explained above, let them be left aside for the present.

20. Now it must be considered that God orders the life of the just not only to their own good, but also makes it conspicuous to others; but those who behold it are not affected toward it in the same way. For the good, having it as an example, profit from it; but the evil, if they are not corrected so as to become good by its example, fail after beholding the life of the Saints, while either they are tormented by envy or they try to pervert it by false judgments, according to that saying of the Apostle in 2 Corinthians 2:15: We are the good fragrance of Christ unto God, both in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing: to the one indeed the fragrance of death unto death, but to the other the fragrance of life unto life. Thus, therefore, God wills the life of the Saints to be considered not only by the elect for progress in salvation, but also by the wicked for an increase of damnation, because from the life of the Saints the perversity of the impious is shown to be condemnable, according to what is said in Wisdom 4:16: The just man dead condemns the impious living. And therefore the Lord says to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, etc., as though saying: Indeed you go around the earth and walk through it, but you can only consider my servant Job and marvel at his virtue.

21. Now it is customary for perverse men, whose prince is Satan and whose person he bears here, that, because they cannot reproach the life of the Saints, they slander them as not acting from a right intention, according to that saying of Sirach 11:33: Turning good things into evil, he lies in wait, and upon the elect he will impose a stain. And this appears from what is added: To him Satan, answering, said: Does Job fear God for nothing? As though saying: I cannot deny that he does good things, but he does not do this from a right intention, for love of you and of uprightness, but because of the temporal things that he has obtained from you. And therefore he says, Does Job fear God for nothing? For we are said to do something in vain when from it we cannot attain what we intend; but Job serves you because of the temporal things that he has obtained from you, and so it is not in vain that, by serving you, he fears you.

22. And that he had attained temporal prosperity he shows with respect to two things.

First, with respect to immunity from evils, namely, because he had been preserved by God from every adversity; and this is what he says: Have you not hedged him about, that is, protected him as a rampart or wall protects, him, with respect to his own person, and his house, with respect to his offspring and household, and all his substance, with respect to his possessions; and he adds on every side, so that perfect immunity may be shown, because what is hedged about on every side can suffer assault from no quarter.

Second, he shows his prosperity with respect to the multiplication of goods, and this is what he says: You have blessed the works of his hands. And indeed, since God makes all things by speaking, God’s blessing is to give goodness to things: therefore God blesses the works of someone when he brings them to good so that they attain their due end. And because certain goods come to a man apart from his own work and intention, he adds on this account: and his possession has increased on the earth. Thus, therefore, Satan slanders the deeds of blessed Job as though he did them from an intention for earthly goodness; whence it is manifest that the good things we do are not referred to earthly prosperity as to their reward, otherwise it would not be a perverse intention if someone served God for the sake of temporal prosperity; and similarly, conversely, temporal adversity is not the proper punishment of sins, a question which will occupy almost the whole book.

23. Now Satan wishes to show, by the contrary, that Job had served God on account of the earthly prosperity he had attained: for if, when earthly prosperity ceased, Job ceased to fear God, it would become manifest that he feared God because of the earthly prosperity he enjoyed. And therefore he adds: But extend your hand a little and touch all that he possesses, namely, by taking it away, unless he blesses you to your face, that is, openly curses you—supply, may evil befall me. And it should be noted that, from great adversity, even the hearts of the truly just are sometimes moved, but the falsely just are disturbed by slight adversity, as having no root of virtue. Therefore Satan wishes to suggest that Job was not truly just but only in appearance, and so he says that if he were touched even a little by adversity, he would murmur against God, which is to blaspheme God. And he says pointedly, unless he blesses you to your face, to signify that even in prosperity he was in some way blaspheming God in his heart, since he preferred temporal things to the love of God, but that once prosperity was removed, he would blaspheme even to his face, that is, openly. This expression, unless he blesses you to your face, can also be understood otherwise, so that blessing is taken properly, and the sense is: if you touch him a little by taking away earthly prosperity, may these things befall me unless it becomes manifest that before he had blessed you not with a true heart but to your face, that is, for appearance before men.

24. And because, as has been said, the Lord wills the virtue of the Saints to be known to all, both good and evil, it pleased him that, just as all had beheld Job’s good deeds, so also his right intention should be made manifest to all; and therefore he willed to deprive Job of earthly prosperity, so that, by his persevering in the fear of God, it would become manifest that he feared God from a right intention and not on account of temporal things. But it should be known that God punishes the wicked through both good angels and evil ones, but he never brings adversity upon the good except through evil ones; and therefore he willed adversity to be brought upon blessed Job only through Satan, and on account of this it is added: Therefore the Lord said to Satan: Behold, all that he has is in your hand, that is, I hand it over to your power, only do not extend your hand against him. From this it is plainly given to be understood that Satan can harm just men not as much as he wishes, but only as much as he is permitted. It must also be considered that the Lord, by his word, did not command Satan to afflict Job, but only gave him power, because the will to harm is in each evil one from himself, but power is only from God.

25. It is clear, therefore, from what has been said, that this was the cause of the adversity of blessed Job: that his virtue might be made manifest to all. Hence it is also said of Tobit that the Lord therefore permitted temptation to befall him, so that an example of his patience might be given to posterity, as also of holy Job. But care must be taken lest it be believed that the Lord was induced by the words of Satan to permit Job to be afflicted; rather, by eternal disposition he ordained this for the manifestation of Job’s virtue against all the slanders of the impious: and therefore the slander is set forth first, and the divine permission follows.