^15:14 What is man, that he should be immaculate, and that one born of woman should appear just?
^15:15 Behold, among his holy ones no one is immutable, and the heavens are not clean in his sight.
^15:16 How much more abominable and useless is man, who drinks iniquity like waters.
^15:17 I will show you; hear me. What I have seen, I will recount to you:
^15:18 the wise acknowledge and do not hide their fathers,
^15:19 to whom alone the earth has been given, and no stranger will pass through them.
^15:20 Through all his days the impious man is proud, and the number of the years of his tyranny is uncertain.
^15:21 The sound of terror is always in his ears, and when there is peace, he suspects ambushes.
^15:22 He does not believe that he can return from darkness to light, looking all around for the sword.
^15:23 When he moves himself to seek bread, he knows that the day of darkness is ready in his hand.
^15:24 Tribulation will terrify him, and anguish will surround him, like a king who is prepared for battle.
^15:25 For he has stretched out his hand against God and has been strengthened against the Almighty.
^15:26 He has run against him with raised neck, and he is armed with a fat neck.
^15:27 Fatness has covered his face, and lard hangs from his sides.

252. What is man, that he should be immaculate, etc. After Eliphaz had rebuked Job because he had provoked God to disputation, which seemed to pertain to presumption of wisdom, he now rebukes him for presumption of justice, because he had said: If I shall be judged, I know that I will be found just.

Eliphaz attacks this, first indeed from the fragility of the human condition, through which man only with difficulty avoids sin, whence he says: What is man, that he should be immaculate? And also only with difficulty does he do good, whence he adds: and that one born of woman should appear just? Because, as is said in Proverbs, in abundant justice there is the greatest virtue, which does not seem to belong to one who has his origin from a weak thing.

Second, he attacks the same point from comparison with the higher creatures, whence he adds: Behold, among his holy ones, that is, the Angels, no one is immutable, namely, by his own nature but only by the gift of divine grace, so that he cannot turn aside into sin; and the heavens, which hold the highest place of purity among bodies, are not clean in his sight, that is, in comparison with him, because they are material and bodily and mutable.

Third, he attacks the same point from the proper condition of Job himself, as though concluding from the greater: How much more abominable, through sin, and useless, through defect of justice, is man, who drinks iniquity like water, that is, who commits iniquity as though it were nothing and without any restraint; for one who drinks wine drinks with some restraint lest he become drunk, which is not observed in drinking water. In this, therefore, he marks Job as one who would easily decline to iniquity, just as someone easily and readily has it at hand to drink water.

253. I will show you; hear me, etc. After Eliphaz had rebuked Job because he had provoked God to disputation and because he presumed concerning his own justice, he now rebukes him for the words he had said in disputing, and especially for those: You consider me your enemy; against a leaf that is carried off by the wind you show your power, and You have placed me in a shackle, and the rest.

And first he stirs up attention, saying: I will show you, namely, that which you were asking of God; hear me attentively. But whence he can show it, he makes manifest, adding: what I have seen, namely, by discovering it through my own understanding, I will recount to you; and again, I will not be ashamed to say what I have heard from others, bringing them in as authorities, because the wise acknowledge and do not hide their fathers, from whom, namely, they have received wisdom. For it belongs to the foolish and proud to ascribe to themselves what they have received from others.

And why they should not be hidden, he shows from their dignity when he adds: to whom alone the earth has been given; and this can be referred indifferently and with the same sense either to the wise or to the fathers of the wise, whom he also wishes to be understood as wise. For the earth is said to have been given to the wise alone because they are the masters of earthly goods, using them for their own good; but the unwise use them to their own harm, according to Wisdom 14:11: creatures have been made a snare to the feet of the foolish. And again, to show their dignity, he adds: and no stranger will pass through them, because, namely, those who are strangers to wisdom cannot be numbered among the company of the wise; or because the wise are not subdued by strangers: for a stranger is said to pass through those who are conquered and subjected by someone alien.

254. Therefore, after he had made his hearer attentive, he now attempts to respond against the words of Job in disputing, from which he understood two things:

first indeed, that Job was living in distress and fear, as though God were persecuting him and setting snares for him, because he had said: You consider me your enemy and You have watched all my paths;

second, that he believed Job was doubting about his own consumption, because he had said: You write bitter things against me, and do you wish to consume me for the sins of my youth? Therefore, first he speaks against the first point, and second against the second, where he says, He will dwell in desolate cities. Therefore he first shows from what root the aforesaid suspicion arises in Job’s heart: from his impiety and will to harm, whence he says: Through all his days the impious man is proud, that is, he is lifted up against God and to the harm of men. Now he calls his days not the days of his life but the days of his power or prosperity; but because the will to harm belongs to man from himself, while power is from God, he cannot know for how much time power is given to him to fulfill his impious will, whence there is added: and the number of the years of his tyranny is uncertain. And from this uncertainty there follows suspicion and fear, which he consequently describes, saying: The sound of terror is always in his ears, because, namely, at any rumor he fears that something is being prepared against him, as though trusting no one; on account of this he adds: and when there is peace, he suspects ambushes, that is, when no one is plotting anything against him, nevertheless he fears everyone because of his impious will, by which he would be prepared to harm everyone.

255. But when someone fears some of his enemies, he can hope for liberation, even if he should succumb for a time, through the help of friends; but one who trusts no one but fears everyone cannot hope that after oppression he will be raised up. And therefore he adds: He does not believe that he can return from darkness to light, that is, from a state of adversity into a state of prosperity, looking all around for the sword, that is, seeing enemies threatening him on every side. And he says this especially because Job had said: I who am to be consumed like rottenness, and like a garment that is eaten by the moth, through which Eliphaz understood that Job despaired of his liberation.

Now it sometimes happens that a tyrant, even if he fears all outsiders, nevertheless has some familiar and domestic companions with whom he associates securely; but when his malice is superabundant, he fears even those of his household with whom he lives. Whence there follows: When he moves himself to seek bread, he knows that the day of darkness is ready in his hand, that is, of death, as if to say: he suspects ambushes not only in exterior acts, in which he has to associate with outsiders, but even in domestic acts, by eating and drinking and the like, believing that death is being prepared for him by those of his household. And since he thus fears everyone, he does not rest, but is always devising something against those whom he fears, and thus the occasion of fear grows for him; whence he adds: Tribulation will terrify him, namely, threatening him from others, and anguish will surround him, namely, through fear of heart on every side, like a king who is prepared for battle: for a king who is prepared for battle is so straitened by fear lest he lose what he nevertheless is trying to destroy his enemies.

256. But by what merit the impious man and tyrant comes into such great misery of fear, he shows by adding: For he has stretched out his hand against God, by acting against God, and has been strengthened against the Almighty, that is, he has used the power given to him against God. And how he has acted against God, he shows by adding: He has run against him with raised neck, that is, by being proud: for through pride man especially resists God, to whom he ought to be subject through humility, according to Sirach 10:14: The beginning of the pride of man is to apostatize from God; and just as one who loves God is said to run in his way because of the readiness of his will to serve him, so also the proud man, because of the presumption of his spirit, is said to run against God. But pride is accustomed to arise from an abundance of temporal things, and therefore there follows: and he is armed with a fat neck, namely, by being proud against God: for fatness is caused by an abundance of humors, whence it signifies an abundance of temporal things. But just as humility is the beginning of wisdom, so pride is an impediment to wisdom, whence there follows: Fatness has covered his face; for by the covering of the face an impediment to knowledge is designated. Nor is the opulence that is the cause of pride found only in himself, but it is also derived to those at his sides, whence there follows: and lard hangs from his sides. By all these things he intends to signify that Job, from opulence, fell into pride, through which he raised himself up against God and exercised tyranny over men, and therefore came into this suspicion, that he suspected God of being his adversary and one laying snares for him.