^10:18 Why did you bring me forth from the womb? Would that I had been consumed, so that no eye might see me.
^10:19 I would have been as though I were not, carried from the womb to the tomb.
^10:20 Will not the fewness of my days be ended shortly? Release me, therefore, that I may lament my sorrow a little,
^10:21 before I go and do not return, to a dark land covered with the gloom of death,
^10:22 a land of misery and darkness, where the shadow of death and no order, and everlasting horror, dwell.

185. Why did you bring me forth from the womb?, etc. Job had ended his inquiry with this, that whether he were just or a sinner, he was subject to manifold tribulations; and lest someone could believe that God takes delight in his tribulations, he wishes to inquire whether this can be true. Now it seems unfitting that someone should produce his own effect so that it may fare badly, since rather every agent intends good in its effect. But he supposes, as is clear from what has gone before, that he is the work of God, and therefore he asks of him: Why did you bring me forth from the womb? As if to say: did you cause me to be born for this, that you should subject me to tribulations? And because someone could say that even to be thus in tribulations is simply better than not to have been born, he excludes this, saying: Would that I had been consumed, namely, in my mother’s womb, so that no eye might see me, that is, so that I would not suffer confusion from such great evils as the eyes of men behold in me. And yet, if I had been consumed in my mother’s womb, I would have had the dignity of existing without the misery that has befallen me as one existing, and this is what he says: I would have been, as though participating, that is, I would have participated in what is good in existing, as though I were not, that is, I would have been free from the evils of this life as if I had never existed; for it is not the dignity of human existence that it should be preserved for ever, but that at length man should die and be carried to the tomb, which is prepared for the dead so that some memory of him may remain after death. And this too would not have been lacking to me, whence there follows: carried from the womb to the tomb.

186. But no one who takes delight in another’s punishments is found so cruel that he does not at least cease from afflicting for a little while. Granted, therefore, that God were not the cause of man’s birth, nevertheless the days of man are brief, and especially in comparison with the eternity of God; and even this brevity, when a man has already passed through a great part of life, is expected soon to end, and this is what he says: Will not the fewness of my days, because all the days of my life are few, be ended shortly, now that a great part of this very fewness has passed? Therefore it is not a great thing if you cease from striking henceforth, and this is what he concludes: Release me, therefore. And if it seems hard to you that I should be without afflictions even for an hour, it is certain that even when you cease from striking, there remains for me not something by which I may rejoice but something by which I may grieve, and this is what he adds: that I may lament my sorrow a little, namely, the sorrow that I have conceived from the preceding blows. But he says this because he still considered himself to be struck while his friends were reproving him, concerning whom he had said: You renew your witnesses against me.

187. And because it could be answered to him, On the contrary, you are rather to be afflicted here for a little time; when you pass from here, you will find consolation,

which could be in two ways:

in one way, by returning a second time to this life, and he excludes this when he says: before I go, namely, through death, and do not return, so as to live again—

which can be explained in two ways:

in one way, so that he says that he will not return to a similar manner of living, as some used to fabricate; or better, it should be said that, in the manner of a disputant, he speaks according to what his adversaries think before the truth is manifested. But below Job will manifestly indicate the truth of the resurrection, and therefore in all the preceding matters he speaks of the resurrection while supposing the opinion of those with whom he was disputing, who did not believe there to be any life other than this one, but held that in this life alone men are either punished or rewarded for the evils and goods that they do—;

in another way, after the end of this life he could expect consolation in the very state of death, but he excludes this, saying: to a dark land, to which, namely, I shall go after death.

188. And this can be explained in two ways:

in one way, concerning Hell, to which the souls of all men, even of the just, descended before Christ, although the just did not suffer sensible punishments there, but only darkness, while the others suffered both punishments and darkness. But because Job had spoken as if it were doubtful whether he himself was just, as was the truth of the matter, or a sinner, as his friends were calumniating him, he describes Hell generally, both with regard to the good and with regard to the wicked. Taking Hell, therefore, thus generally, it is called a dark land insofar as it lacks the brightness of the divine vision; it is called covered with the gloom of death with regard to original sin, which is a gloom leading to death; it is called a land of misery with regard to the punishments that the reprobate suffer there; it is called a land of darkness with regard to the obscurities of actual sins in which the wicked are enveloped; but there is said to be there the shadow, that is, the likeness, of death, because they are afflicted as if they were always dying. And there is said to be no order there, either because of the confusion of minds that the damned suffer, or because the order found here is not preserved there: for here fire burns and gives light, which is not the case there; but everlasting horror dwells there because, although they always grieve over present punishments, nevertheless they always fear those to come.

189. But because those against whom he was disputing did not posit the immortality of the soul so that it would remain after death, while he himself is still speaking according to their positions, it is better, with regard to the literal sense, to explain it in such a way that the whole be referred to the body, which is buried in the earth and converted into earth. Therefore he says to a dark land with regard to the very property of the earth, which is opaque in itself; but although it is opaque in itself, nevertheless the living who dwell upon the earth are illumined by the light of the air covering the earth, but the dead do not enjoy this light, whence he adds: and covered with the gloom of death, as if to say: death causes someone after death not to use the light that the living use. Now it sometimes happens that, although someone alive does not enjoy the light surrounding the earth, nevertheless, existing in some hidden place of the earth, he enjoys desired things with respect to appetite and considers truths according to the intellect; but the dead lack this, whence he adds: a land of misery with regard to the lack of all desirable things, and of darkness insofar as the consideration of truths is lacking.

Among the other things in which the living take delight, the chief is human society with its due order, by which some preside, others are subject, and others serve; but the dead are deprived of this, whence he adds: where the shadow of death, as if to say: among the dead there are only shadows according to the estimation of the living, as is said in Wisdom 17:4: sad appearing faces gave them fear; and no order, because, without difference of honor and dignity, the condition of the dead is similar; but everlasting horror dwells, with regard to the living, for whom the dead are a horror, as if to say: there is nothing in the state of the dead except what men dread, and this will be among them for ever if they do not return to life.

190. Thus, therefore, by inquiring into the cause of his tribulation, Job shows that it is not from some impious one into whose hand the earth has been given, nor from God oppressing calumniously, nor from God inquiring into guilt, nor from God punishing sins, nor from God taking pleasure for himself in punishments; hence the cause of his tribulation still remains in doubt. Job pursues all these things in order to lead them necessarily to posit another life, in which the just are rewarded and the wicked punished, since, if this is not posited, no cause can be given for the tribulation of the just, who certainly are sometimes troubled in this world.