^19:1 But Job, answering, said:
^19:2 How long do you afflict my soul and wear me down with speeches?
^19:3 Behold, ten times you have confounded me and are not ashamed, oppressing me.
^19:4 Indeed, if I have been ignorant, my ignorance will be with me,
^19:5 but you rise up against me and accuse me with my reproaches.
^19:6 At least now understand that God has afflicted me with a judgment that is not equitable and has encircled me with his scourges.
^19:7 Behold, I will cry out, suffering violence, and no one will hear; I will cry aloud, and there is no one who may judge.
^19:8 He has fenced in my path, and I cannot pass; and in my track he has placed darkness.
^19:9 He has despoiled me of my glory and taken the crown from my head.
^19:10 He has destroyed me on every side, and I perish; and he has taken away my hope like that of an uprooted tree.
^19:11 His fury has been angry against me, and thus he has regarded me as his enemy.
^19:12 His robbers have come together, and they have made their way through me and have besieged my tabernacle all around.
^19:13 He has made my brothers far from me, and those who knew me have withdrawn from me like strangers.
^19:14 My relatives have abandoned me, and those who knew me have forgotten me.
^19:15 The residents of my house and my maidservants have regarded me as a stranger, and I have been like a sojourner in their eyes.
^19:16 I called my servant, and he did not answer me; with my own mouth I entreated him.
^19:17 My wife abhorred my breath, and I begged the children of my womb.
^19:18 Fools also despised me, and when I had withdrawn from them, they spoke ill of me.
^19:19 My former counselors abominated me, and he whom I loved most greatly turned away from me.
^19:20 My bone has adhered to my skin, my flesh being consumed, and only my lips around my teeth have been left.
^19:21 Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you, my friends, because the hand of the Lord has touched me.
^19:22 Why do you persecute me like God and are sated with my flesh?

285. But Job, answering, said: How long do you afflict my soul?, etc. Bildad, in the preceding words, seems to have intended two things:

first indeed, to refute Job concerning foolishness, pride, and fury, by which he intended to afflict him, just like his other friends, and therefore he says: How long do you afflict my soul?

Second, to confirm his judgment that the adversities of the present life come because of sins; and this indeed he had pursued at length by enumerating various adversities without introducing any other proof. And with regard to this he adds: and wear me down with speeches, that is, do you weary me with words, not convince me by proofs? Now it is tolerable if someone speaks once against his friend, but if a man multiplies words of this kind, it seems to belong to confirmed malice, whence he adds: Behold, ten times you have confounded me, both by speaking yourselves and by hearing me with a certain indignation. Now before this response, Job is found to have spoken five times, if we begin from what he said, May the day perish on which I was born, and his friends are found to have answered him five times. Yet at least out of shame, even if not because of friendship, they ought to have ceased from afflicting the afflicted, whence he adds: and are not ashamed, oppressing me, namely, weighing me down both with reproaches and with lengthiness of words.

But among the other reproaches, Bildad seems to have marked him with ignorance when he said: Understand first, and then let us speak. This ignorance indeed ought to have been tolerated by friends, and he ought to have been excused on account of it; it should not, however, have been cast in his teeth, especially in the time of adversity. And therefore he adds: Indeed, if I have been ignorant, my ignorance will be with me, as if to say: it weighs down none of you, but me alone; whence it did not belong to you, amid my adversities, to reproach me with ignorance. And therefore he adds: but you rise up against me, namely, displaying your excellence, and accuse me with my reproaches, that is, with things that pertain to me alone and do not weigh down others.

286. Having set forth these things that pertain to the refutation of his friends, he approaches the pursuit of the principal proposition, intending to show that what they were saying is false: that present adversities always come because of past sins. From this supposition he immediately leads to an unfitting consequence at the beginning, saying: At least now understand that God has afflicted me with a judgment that is not equitable, as if to say: if adversities come only for sins, then God’s judgment is not equitable, by which he has gravely afflicted me, who have not sinned gravely. But he says at least now because until this point he had not enumerated his adversities as particularly as he does now. But he says not only that he has been afflicted with adversities, but also enclosed by them so that he cannot find a way of escape, whence there follows: and has encircled me with his scourges, because, namely, the scourges themselves have taken away the way of remedies; and he begins to pursue this second point first.

Now in adversities a remedy can be found, first indeed, through human help, and this in two ways:

in one way in the very deed, for example, when someone is violently oppressed by another and has assistance from another,

and to exclude this he says: Behold, I will cry out, suffering violence, and no one will hear, as if to say: if I cried out against those who violently oppress me, no one would hear so as to bring help;

in another way after the deed, for example, when someone who has suffered injury complains to a judge, who restores and vindicates him by sentence, and excluding this he adds: I will cry aloud, and there is no one who may judge, that is, if I cried aloud in complaint, no judge would be present to deliver me by his judgment.

Second, in adversities a remedy is found from the man himself who escapes adversities, and this in two ways:

in one way through power, and he excludes this, saying: He has fenced in my path, and I cannot pass, as if to say: he has placed so many impediments before my undertakings that I cannot remove them;

in another way through prudence, and to exclude this he adds: and in my track he has placed darkness, namely, so that I do not see how I must proceed.

287. Then, after excluding remedies, he adds adversities, beginning from the exterior goods that he lost,

among which he first sets down the loss of honor and glory when he says: He has despoiled me of my glory, because, although before he was held in honor and reverence, then even those younger in age mocked him, as is said below in 30:1.

Second, he sets down the loss of dignity when he adds: and taken the crown from my head, because he who before sat like a king with an army standing around him, as is said below in 29:25, now, sitting on a dunghill, scraped the discharge with a potsherd, as was said above in 2:8.

Third, he sets down the loss of exterior things when he says: He has destroyed me on every side, namely, all his exterior goods having been laid waste, and I perish, while the adversity endures, because there is no hope of recovery, whence he adds: and he has taken away my hope like that of an uprooted tree. For as long as a tree clings to the earth by its roots, it has hope, if its branches have been cut off, that it may grow green again; but if its roots are torn from the earth, it must dry up and perish. So also he himself, as though his roots had been torn up, had no hope of recovering temporal prosperity.

288. Now the root of hope is twofold:

one indeed on the part of divine assistance,

but the other on the part of human assistance;

but the root of hope that comes from divine assistance seemed to have been torn up by the fact that God seemed gravely angry with him, according to the opinion of those who placed divine punishment in the adversities of this life alone, whence he says: His fury has been angry against me, which he says to designate the vehemence of the anger: for fury is anger set ablaze. Now the more vehement fury is, the more quickly it is accustomed to pass, and thus hope concerning one who is angry can remain for the future; but if anger passes into hatred, then no hope seems to remain, and to signify this he adds: and thus he has regarded me as his enemy: but from an enemy no remedy is hoped for. Now he sets down a sign of divine anger and hatred when he adds: His robbers have come together: he calls the Sabeans and Chaldeans and demons robbers, who had laid waste his goods together, as though by agreement; and he calls them God’s robbers, as though this had happened by divine ordinance, as Job’s friends also said. But the aforesaid robbers plundered Job publicly, without any reverence or fear, whence he adds: and they have made their way through me, as if to say: they have plundered me as an enemy found on the road. They also assailed him universally and perseveringly, and with regard to this he adds: and they have besieged, namely, perseveringly, all around, that is, universally with regard to all things, my tabernacle, that is, the goods of my house.

289. Then he shows that the root of hope that comes from human assistance has been torn up, showing that he could expect no help from those from whom it seemed most likely,

and he first enumerates those who are separated from the dwelling of his house, beginning with his brothers, saying: He has made my brothers far from me, namely, so that they either do not wish or are not able to bring me help;

then he sets down familiar friends when he adds: and those who knew me have withdrawn from me like strangers, namely, bringing me no help; but with regard to blood relatives, or those joined by any other bond, he adds: My relatives have abandoned me, bringing no help; and with regard to those with whom he had once associated, he adds: and those who knew me, namely, formerly as a familiar friend, now in tribulation have forgotten me, namely, not caring about me.

After these, he proceeds to enumerate those of his household, saying: The residents of my house, namely, those who had been accustomed to serve me, and my maidservants have regarded me as a stranger, namely, not caring about my afflictions, and I have been like a sojourner in their eyes, namely, with them utterly despising me. Then he adds concerning the disobedience of servants: I called my servant, and he did not answer me; but he also adds their proud contempt: with my own mouth I entreated him, that is, I had to deal with him not by command but by entreaties, because he despised me.

Then he enumerates the persons most closely joined to him, namely, his wife and children;

now the presence of a husband is usually made most delightful to his wife, unless perhaps he is rendered horrible by some grave corruption, and to signify this he adds: My wife abhorred my breath, namely, because of the stench of the ulcers by which he was rendered horrible to her. But it belongs to children to fulfill the will of a parent by a mere nod; yet it comes from great contempt of a parent that a father, to whom reverence ought to be shown by a son, must entreat his son as a suppliant, and to show this he adds: and I begged the children of my womb. But this seems contrary to what was said above in 1:19, that his sons and daughters were crushed by the ruin of the house; but it can be said that some little ones had remained who had not been present at that banquet, or perhaps some children of his children, who, imputing the death of their own parents to Job’s sins, despised him.

290. Therefore, after he said that he was despised by those of his household and by outsiders, he consequently shows that he was despised both by the foolish and by the wise. Now it is proper to the foolish that they despise those whom they see in miseries, because they think only earthly goods are to be honored, and therefore he says: Fools also despised me, namely, in heart while I was present, and when I had withdrawn from them, they spoke ill of me, namely, pronouncing with the mouth the things they were ashamed to say in his presence. Then he also says that he was despised by the wise, whom he had once had as familiars, whence he says: My former counselors abominated me, whom, namely, on account of their wisdom I admitted to my counsel, and he whom I loved most greatly turned against me; and perhaps he says this on account of one of those who were present, who was opposing him more gravely.

291. Thus, therefore, after setting forth adversities that pertain to exterior things, he adds concerning the wasting away of his own body, saying: My bone has adhered to my skin, my flesh being consumed, because, namely, on account of the gravity of his sickness, his flesh had been so consumed that his skin clung to his bones. But because the lips are fleshy and cling to the teeth as to bones, therefore, to except these, he adds: and only my lips around my teeth have been left, by which he seems to suggest covertly that, with all the other offices of his members ceasing, only the office of speech had remained to him.

292. Therefore, after enumerating his adversities, he invites them to compassion, doubling the petition for mercy because of the multitude of his miseries, saying: Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you, my friends, since I have been abandoned by others. But the cause for pity is misery, which is the graver the stronger the one by whom it is brought about, and therefore he adds: because the hand of the Lord has touched me; for he understood that he had been struck by God. Now it does not seem fitting that man should add affliction to the afflicted, and therefore he adds: Why do you persecute me like God? As if to say: the persecution that is from God is enough for me; but it would be more fitting for you to apply consolation. But how they persecuted him he shows, adding: and are sated with my flesh? This properly pertains to detractors, who are said to eat human flesh insofar as they delight in the infirmities of others: for flesh is the weaker part of an animal.