^11:11 For he himself knows the vanity of men, and, seeing iniquity, does he not consider it?
^11:12 A vain man is raised up in pride, and, like the colt of a wild ass, he thinks himself born free.
^11:13 But you have hardened your heart and stretched out your hands to God.
^11:14 If you remove from yourself the iniquity that is in your hand, and injustice does not remain in your tabernacle,
^11:15 then you will be able to lift up your face without stain, and you will be stable and will not fear.
^11:16 You will also forget misery, and you will not remember it, like waters that have passed by.
^11:17 And, like the brightness of midday, light will rise for you at evening, and when you think yourself consumed, you will rise like the Morning Star.
^11:18 And you will have confidence, with hope set before you, and, buried, you will sleep secure;
^11:19 you will rest and there will be no one to terrify you, and very many will beseech your face.
^11:20 But the eyes of the impious will fail, and escape will perish from them, and their hope will be the abomination of the soul.

198. For he himself knows the vanity of men, etc. After Zophar showed that in divine wisdom there is something secret that is incomprehensible to man, he proceeds to manifest something else that he had previously supposed, namely, that God exacts punishment from man for sin; and, to manifest this, that God knows the deeds of men. Hence he says: I rightly say that less is exacted of you by God than your iniquity deserves, for he himself knows the vanity of men, that is, the vain deeds of men. Now those things are customarily called vain which are unstable because they are not established in due ends. Therefore the vanity of man consists in this, that his heart is not fixed in truth, by which alone it can be made stable; and from this, that he withdraws from truth, he works iniquity, namely, while he desires what appears good in place of what is good. Hence he adds: and seeing, namely, God seeing, iniquity, proceeding from the vanity of men, does he not consider it?, namely, in order to punish? For then a judge seeing sin seems to pass by inconsiderately when he dissembles and does not care to impose punishment, which seems not to be said of God. Since, therefore, he himself sees the vanity of men, he exacts punishment for iniquity.

199. But just as it happens from vanity that man inclines toward iniquity, so from the same vanity it comes about that man does not consider himself subject to divine judgment, and therefore he adds: A vain man is raised up in pride, namely, so that he does not believe himself subject to his superior, and this is what he adds: and, like the colt of a wild ass, he thinks himself born free. A wild ass is an untamed ass, whose colt is born free from the dominion of man; but the colts of asses that are possessed by men are born in the service of men. Therefore men who do not think themselves subject to divine judgment consider themselves as though born like the colts of a wild ass, although they see other men of the same condition restrained by divine judgment. He seemed to say this as a reproach against blessed Job, understanding from his words that he wished, as it were, to contend with God as an equal, because he had said: Let him take his rod away from me, and let his dread not terrify me; I will speak and not fear him; and therefore he adds: But you have hardened your heart, namely, so that you would defend your iniquity. And yet, with this hardening of heart, you have stretched out your hands to God in prayer, namely above when he said: I will say to God: Do not condemn me; and therefore your prayer is useless: for prayer is useful when man first abandons iniquity and afterwards asks God to cease from punishing,

and this is what he adds: If you remove from yourself the iniquity that is in your hand, namely, so that you desist from the iniquitous work that you still have at hand, and injustice does not remain in your tabernacle, namely, so that you restore what you have stored up unjustly, or so that you correct the members of your household, for whose offenses masters are sometimes punished because of negligence in correcting them, then you will be able to lift up, namely, to God by praying, your face without stain, namely, the stain of guilt. And so condemnation will cease, first indeed with regard to the future, whence he adds: and you will be stable, namely, so that you will not be further moved by tribulations, and also will not fear future dangers; and because sometimes, although a man does not fear concerning the future, he is nevertheless afflicted over the things he has lost or suffered, he adds: You will also forget misery, namely, the misery that you have suffered up to now, because of the abundance of good things coming upon you; and he confirms this by an example when he adds: and you will not remember it, like waters that have passed by, which he says because, after a storm of rain, when fair weather comes, a man forgets the preceding rains, or because the waters of rivers run very swiftly, and after they pass no memory of them remains.

200. But because against the promise of prosperity in this life Job had above objected two things, namely, the devastation of his own body when he said: My flesh is clothed with rottenness, and the passing away of the days of his life when he said: My days have passed more swiftly, etc., therefore, to exclude each objection, Zophar adds: And, like the brightness of midday, light will rise for you at evening, as if to say: although it seems to you that your days have passed and your life is at its end, as though at evening, nevertheless such great prosperity will be able to come upon you that it will, as it were, bring you back to the joy of your youth; for just as old age is understood by evening, so youth is understood by midday, and he calls the brightness the splendor of earthly prosperity. But against what Job had said concerning the consumption of his own body, he adds: and when you think yourself consumed, namely, because of the infirmity that you have suffered, you will rise like the Morning Star, that is, your body will return to its former beauty.

201. And because Job had again said above that his days had been consumed without any hope, he adds: And you will have confidence, with hope set before you. And because Job above had rejected the opinion of those who said that man, after death, when many ages have passed, returns again to this manner of living, Zophar does not say that the hope of this matter is set before him, but the hope according to which man lives after death in the memories of men. This indeed happens in two ways: in one way, from tombs in which the bodies of the dead are laid, so that the memory of the departed may be preserved, whence they are also called monuments, and with regard to this he says: and, buried, you will sleep secure, as though no one will violate your sepulcher, nor will it even have to be feared that anyone will attempt it, whence he adds: you will rest and there will be no one to terrify you; in another way, the dead live in the memories of men because of the good things they did while they were living, on account of which their life would be desired, and with regard to this he adds: and very many will beseech your face, that is, very many will long for your presence or show reverence to your tomb, remembering your benefits.

202. And because he had promised these things if Job were willing to depart from iniquity, he consequently shows that these things are not given to the iniquitous, and therefore he adds: But the eyes of the impious will fail, because, namely, they will not obtain the good things they long for; for someone’s eyes are said to fail when he looks toward apprehending something that he is not able to reach. And just as they do not obtain the good things desired, so they cannot avoid the evils that they suffer or fear, whence there follows: and escape will perish from them, because, namely, they will not be able to flee evils. But after death they will not be held in veneration or desire, but in abomination because of the evils they have done, and this is what is added: and their hope will be the abomination of the soul, that is, what can be hoped concerning them after death is that they will be in abomination.