^13:13 Be silent for a little while, so that I may speak whatever my mind suggests to me.
^13:14 Why do I tear my flesh with my teeth and carry my soul in my hands?
^13:15 Even if he should kill me, I will hope in him; nevertheless I will rebuke my ways in his sight,
^13:16 and he himself will be my Savior: for no hypocrite will come into his sight.
^13:17 Hear my speech and perceive my enigmas with your ears.
^13:18 If I shall be judged, I know that I will be found just.
^13:19 Who is there who may be judged with me? Let him come! Why am I consumed in silence?
^13:20 Only two things do not do to me, and then I will not hide myself from your face:
^13:21 make your hand far from me, and let not your dread terrify me.
^13:22 Call me and I will answer you, or else I will speak and you answer me.
^13:23 How many iniquities and sins do I have? Show me my crimes and offenses.
^13:24 Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy?
^13:25 Against a leaf that is carried off by the wind do you show your power? And do you pursue dry stubble?
^13:26 For you write bitter things against me, and do you wish to consume me for the sins of my youth?
^13:27 You have placed my foot in a shackle and watched all my paths and considered the footprints of my feet,
^13:28 I who am to be consumed like rottenness and like a garment that is eaten by the moth?

225. Be silent for a little while, so that I may speak, etc. After Job had corrected the procedure of his friends, who tried to defend divine justice by lies, he now proceeds to destroy their false doctrines under the figure of a disputation with God. And first he asks for a hearing, as one about to say great things, saying: Be silent for a little while, so that I may speak whatever my mind suggests to me. He adds this lest perhaps they should say, “You are speaking empty things, and therefore you should not be heard”; but to listen for a little while to whatever someone says is not hard. Or he adds this to designate that he is not about to speak by composing lies or devising deceits, but what he has in mind.

226. Now Job’s friends had charged two things against him, namely, impatience and boastfulness, both of which he excludes from himself, lest in the disputation that follows he seem to speak either from anger or from pride. But it must be considered that impatience arises from an overabundance of sadness not moderated by reason, and overabundant sadness induces despair; and from despair it happens that a man makes little account of the salvation of both body and soul. Therefore, to exclude impatience from himself, he says: Why do I tear my flesh with my teeth? As if to say: there is no reason why I should despair of bodily health through impatience, after the manner of those who, despairing of bodily life and oppressed by hunger, eat their own flesh; and again, why do I carry my soul in my hands? That is, there is no reason why I should make little account of the salvation of my soul: for that which is carried in the hands is easily lost, whence it seems that its loss is not greatly feared; for the things someone fears to lose, he hides carefully. And he adds the reason why he ought neither to tear his flesh through impatience nor carry his soul in his hands, saying: Even if he should kill me, I will hope in him, as if to say: do not believe that because of the temporal evils I suffer I have ceased to hope in God. For if my hope were in God only because of temporal goods, I would be compelled to despair—as he said above, I have despaired—but because my hope in God is because of spiritual goods, which remain after death, even if he should afflict me unto death, the hope that I have in him will not cease.

But because disordered hope degenerates into presumption, on account of this he adds: nevertheless I will rebuke my ways in his sight, as if to say: I do not hope in him in such a way that I would be delivered by him even if I persevered in sins, but because he will deliver me if I reprove my sins; and this is what is added: and he himself will be my Savior, namely, if my sins displease me. But why he saves those who rebuke their ways in his sight, he shows by adding: for no hypocrite will come into his sight, that is, no dissembler who, although he is iniquitous, nevertheless professes himself just and does not rebuke his ways before God. Hence he will not come into his sight so as to see God, in whom the ultimate salvation of man consists, as he will explain more fully below; yet he will come into his sight as one to be judged by him. Thus, therefore, he has excluded from himself not only impatience but also presumption of innocence, while he professes that he rebukes his ways before God, so that every slander of his friends may cease.

227. Then, as he is about to enter the disputation, he first makes his hearers attentive in two ways:

in one way by the hiddenness of the things to be said—for when we profess that the things to be said are difficult, hearers are made more attentive—whence he says: Hear my speech and perceive my enigmas with your ears. An enigma is an obscure discourse that presents one thing on the surface and signifies another within;

in another way, however, from the certainty of the truth of the things to be said, whence he adds: If I shall be judged, I know that I will be found just. He does not say this, indeed, about the justice of his life, since he had said above, I will rebuke my ways in his sight, but about the truth of the teaching over which, as it were, the judgment was being contested; for in judgment that man is found just in whose favor the sentence is given. Hence, when someone is shown to speak the truth in disputing, he is found just, as it were, in judgment.

228. Therefore, after he has made his hearers attentive, he determines the manner of his disputation: for he wishes to dispute as one contending with another, and this is what he adds: Who is there who may be judged with me?, that is, with whom I may dispute about the truth? Let him come, that is, let him approach for disputation! But he adds the reason why he intends to dispute about the truth, saying: Why am I consumed in silence? For man is gradually consumed through the course of the present life, and especially when he is subject to infirmity, as Job was; but he is consumed in silence who so runs through the present life that he nevertheless leaves no trace of his wisdom through teaching. Therefore, lest Job should suffer this, he disposed not to be silent about the truth, so that, consumed in body, after death he might live on in his teaching. Or this can be referred to another intention: for when someone expresses outwardly the sorrow that he suffers in his heart, his spirit is in some way relieved; but by remaining silent he is inwardly more straitened by sorrow and in some way is consumed by his silence.

229. Therefore, because he had asked for a co-disputant, saying: Who is there who may be judged with me? and had said above, I desire to dispute with God, from this point he speaks as though having God present and disputing with him. Now a disputation of man with God seemed undue because of the excellence by which God surpasses man; but it must be considered that truth is not varied by the diversity of persons, whence, when someone speaks the truth, he cannot be overcome, with whomever he may dispute. But Job was certain that he was speaking the truth, inspired in him by God through the gift of faith and wisdom; whence, not distrusting the truth, he asked not to be pressed down by divine strength, either through evils presently inflicted or through fear of those to be inflicted, and this is what he says: Only two things do not do to me, and then I will not hide myself from your face, as though saying: I will not fear to dispute with you; for those who fear are accustomed to hide themselves from the face of those whom they fear. But he shows what those two things are, adding: make your hand far from me, that is, do not strike me with present scourges; and let not your strength terrify me, with respect to future scourges. For in these two ways a man can be prevented from being able, even by disputation, to defend the truth that he knows most certainly, while he is either troubled in body or disturbed in soul by fear or by some other passion.

230. Now disputation is between two persons, namely, the objector and the respondent; therefore, entering into disputation with God, he gives him the choice of either person, whether that of objector or that of respondent. Hence he says: Call me and I will answer you, as if to say: raise objections, and I will answer; or else I will speak, by raising objections, and you answer me. But he says this enigmatically, showing himself ready for either: either for defending the truth that he professes or for attacking what would be said against the truth. First, however, he gives God the part of objector, saying: How many iniquities and sins do I have? Show me my crimes and offenses. Here it must be considered that Job’s friends seemed to dispute against Job as though pleading God’s cause, according to what he said above: Do you show partiality to his person and strive to judge for God?

But Job’s friends objected this against him: that he was punished for his sins. Therefore he asks that this be objected to him by God, saying: How many iniquities and sins do I have? Show me my crimes and offenses, as if to say: if it is so that you afflict me for my sins, as my friends, trying to speak for you, calumniously claim, I ask that you show me for which sins you afflict me so gravely. Hence he does not say what iniquities I have, but how many, because if there is no other reason for present adversities than the sins of men, as Job’s friends thought, then the sins that are punished by the greatest afflictions must be very great. Now of sins, some are committed, which are done against the negative precepts of the law, and some are omitted, by which the affirmative precepts are neglected;

but something is committed against a precept of the law in three ways:

in one way, because it is to the harm of one’s neighbor, such as theft, homicide, and things of this kind, which are properly called iniquities, because they are contrary to the equity of justice, which is toward another;

in another way, insofar as man sins in himself through the disordering of his own act, as is apparent especially in the sins of gluttony and lust, and these are called sins, as certain disorderings of man;

in a third way, some things are committed directly against God, such as blasphemies, sacrilege, and things of this kind, and these, because of their gravity, are called crimes. Omissions, however, are properly named offenses.

231. Then, as though the one to whom he had given the part of opponent were silent, he himself assumes the part of one raising objections and inquires into the causes of his punishment.

And first, because someone could say that God had punished him as an enemy, he excludes this cause, saying: Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy? For it seems unjust that someone should consider another his enemy without cause; but there can be no fitting cause of enmity except an offense. Therefore it is manifest that God considers a man his enemy when his sins are made manifest; but Job had asked that his sins be shown to him, and they had not been shown to him. Therefore no reason appeared why God should be hostile to him, and this is what he suggests, saying: Why do you hide your face?, as though hating him secretly and for a hidden reason. For the face of a man who hates is open when he does not hide the reason for his hatred.

232. Second, because someone could say that God had punished him so as to show his power in him, he also excludes this cause, saying: Against a leaf that is carried off by the wind do you show your power? For it is not fitting that one who is most strong should wish to show his power in a thing that is weakest. But the human condition is compared to a leaf that is carried off by the wind, because man is both fragile and weak in himself, like a leaf that easily falls, and nevertheless he is led along by the course of time and the variety of fortune, as a leaf by the wind. Hence it does not seem fitting to say that God punishes some man solely in order to show his power in him.

233. Third, because someone could say that God punished him because of the sins he committed in his youth, he excludes even this, saying: And do you pursue dry stubble? For you write bitter things against me, and do you wish to consume me for the sins of my youth? For man in youth is compared to green grass, but in old age he is compared, as it were, to dry stubble. Therefore to punish a man in old age for the sins of youth seems the same as if someone, because of the defect of green grass, should rage against the stubble. But it must be considered that in this inquiry he does not depart from this judgment, that the adversities of men are inflicted by divine judgment; to signify this he says: For you write bitter things against me, as if bitter things, that is, the adversities of men, proceed from the writing of the divine sentence.

234. Fourth, because someone could say that, although Job had not committed grave sins, nevertheless he had committed some sins, without which the present life is not lived, and that he was punished in this way for them, he also excludes this, saying: You have placed my foot in a shackle and watched all my paths and considered the footprints of my feet, I who am to be consumed like rottenness and like a garment that is eaten by the moth? Here it must be considered that those who are placed in the prison stocks are so bound that they cannot turn aside from the stocks. But just as the foot of a man is constrained by the stocks, so the course of man is constrained by the law of divine justice, from which it is not permitted to turn aside, and this is what he says: You have placed my foot in a shackle. But it belongs to divine justice to examine the deeds of men, not only what each one does but also with what intention or for what end, and therefore he says: You have watched all my paths, with regard to deeds, and considered the footprints of my feet, with regard to the affection of the doer or also with regard to any circumstances whatever of the work. But it seems irrational that God should have such great diligence concerning the acts of men, if they entirely cease to exist through the death of the body. This death is sometimes natural, and sometimes violent; hence he adds concerning both, saying: I who am to be consumed like rottenness, with regard to natural death, and like a garment that is eaten by the moth, with regard to violent death, as if to say: if, as my friends suspect, there is no other life except the present one, which man loses either by the manner of rotting or by the manner of being cut off, it would seem irrational that God should have such strict care concerning the acts of men that he would punish man even for the smallest sins and negligences.

235. And because what was said last provides a broad way toward the inquiry of truth, he insists more on making this manifest, and what he had said singularly about himself he brings back generally to the whole human race.