^27:1 Job also added, taking up his parable, and said:
^27:2 As God lives, who has taken away my judgment, and the Almighty, who has led my soul to bitterness.
^27:3 For as long as breath remains in me and the spirit of God in my nostrils,
^27:4 my lips will not speak iniquity, nor will my tongue meditate falsehood.
^27:5 Far be it from me that I should judge you just; until I fail, I will not withdraw from my innocence.
^27:6 My justification, which I have begun to hold, I will not forsake; for my heart does not reproach me in all my life.
^27:7 May my enemy be like the impious man, and my adversary like the unjust.
^27:8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite, if he greedily seizes and God does not deliver his soul?
^27:9 Will God hear his cry when anguish comes upon him?
^27:10 Or will he be able to delight in the Almighty and to invoke God at all times?
^27:11 I will teach you by the hand of God what things the Almighty has, and I will not hide them.
^27:12 Behold, all of you know, and why do you speak vain things without cause?
^27:13 This is the portion of the impious man with God, and the inheritance of the violent, which they will receive from the Almighty.
^27:14 If his sons have been multiplied, they will be for the sword, and his descendants will not be satisfied with bread;
^27:15 those who remain of him will be buried in destruction, and his widows will not be wept for.
^27:16 If he has heaped up silver like earth and prepared garments like clay,
^27:17 he will indeed prepare them, but the just man will be clothed with them, and the innocent will divide the silver.
^27:18 He has built his house like a moth, and like a watchman he has made a shelter.
^27:19 When the rich man has slept, he will bring nothing with him; he opens his eyes and finds nothing.
^27:20 Sudden waters seize him; by night a tempest will overwhelm him.
^27:21 A burning wind will lift him up and carry him away, and like a whirlwind it will snatch him from his place.
^27:22 He will send upon him, and will not spare; fleeing, he will flee from his hand.
^27:23 He will clasp his hands over him and will hiss over him, looking upon his place.

371. Job also added, taking up his parable, etc. In the preceding words Job had refuted the words of Bildad, who had alleged the divine power against him, as though Job were ignorant of its greatness. But when his response had been completed, he is understood to have waited for the third of the friends, namely Zophar, to answer in his customary order; but because he, as though convicted, fell silent, Job takes up the discourse again and by another reason shows that it is not contrary to divine providence if the wicked prosper in this world and the good suffer adversities. Hence it is said: Job also added, namely, after no one was answering him, taking up his parable, because, namely, he was speaking through likenesses, after the manner of those who introduce parables.

372. But before he shows the point proposed, he declares that he will never pass over into the opinion of his friends, and for the firmness of this he first sets forth an oath, whence there is added: and he said: As God lives, who has taken away my judgment, namely, supposing your opinion, by which you assert that it pertains to the justice of divine judgment that present adversities are brought upon none except sinners. And therefore, to explain in what he said his judgment had been taken away, he adds: and the Almighty, who has led my soul to bitterness, that is, who, without preceding fault, has brought exterior adversities upon me, from which I suffer bitterness in my soul; and nevertheless I do not withdraw from reverence and love of him, as is clear from the fact that I swear by him.

373. But he introduces the aforesaid oath for what is added: For as long as breath remains in me, that is, as long as I shall have life, which is preserved by breathing; and to show that he recognizes the benefit of life as from God, he adds: and the spirit of God in my nostrils. For breathing takes place chiefly through the nostrils, since the breathing that takes place through the mouth is not so fitting, as Aristotle says in the book On the History of Animals; therefore the breathing of man, which is placed principally in the nostrils, is here called the spirit of God, because man has this from God, that he can live by breathing. And he does not wish to be ungrateful for this benefit by sinning, whence he adds: my lips will not speak iniquity, namely, so that I would say that all who suffer adversities are unjust, nor will my tongue meditate falsehood, namely, so that I would say that this pertains to divine justice, that it reward the merits of the just with present prosperity and condemn the sins of the unjust with temporal adversity.

And because Job’s friends were asserting these things, he adds: Far be it from me that I should judge you just; for he could not judge them just unless he approved their unjust opinion, by which he would withdraw from his own justice, whence he adds: until I fail, namely, by death, I will not withdraw, that is, I propose not to withdraw, from my innocence, from which, namely, I would withdraw if, together with you, I judged as impious the holy ones who suffer adversity in this world. And just as I do not propose to pass from innocence to doing harm, so neither do I propose to abandon the way of justice, whence he adds: My justification, namely, what pertains to the execution of justice, which I have begun to hold, namely, by not approving a man because of the prosperity he has nor condemning him because of the adversity he suffers in this life, I will not forsake, namely, by declining into your opinion. Now those who have sinned once are accustomed to be more prone to sinning again, whereas those who are inexperienced in sins fall into sins with greater difficulty, whence he adds: for my heart does not reproach me in all my life, as if to say:

therefore I trust that I will not withdraw from innocence nor forsake justice, because I have learned this by experience: for I do not have a remorseful conscience concerning anything grave that I have committed in my whole life. Or it can be connected in another way: because he had said that he would not withdraw from his innocence nor forsake the justification that he had begun to hold, someone could say that before this he had had neither innocence nor justice; but he excludes this, adding: for my heart does not reproach me, and so forth. But I would decline from innocence and forsake justice if I favored you, who uphold injustice and impiety, whence he adds: May my enemy be like the impious man, insofar, namely, as he speaks against the truth of divine judgment, and my adversary like the unjust, insofar, namely, as he brings forth an unjust opinion in opposing me, when he says that I am impious because I am gravely afflicted.

374. Therefore, with these things set forth, pertaining to the refutation of his friends and to the firmness of his own opinion, he comes to the principal point, namely, to show that it is not contrary to divine providence if the wicked prosper temporally in this world and the just are temporally afflicted. And above he had indeed made this manifest from the future rewards and scourges that are reserved for the good and the wicked after this life; but now he shows this from the weakness of the temporal goods that the wicked possess in this life and the greatness of the spiritual goods that are granted to the good. Therefore he first asserts that it is useless for sinners if they obtain temporal goods in this life without the goods of the soul, whence he says: For what is the hope of the hypocrite, if he greedily seizes, that is, if he unjustly gathers riches, and God does not deliver his soul, namely, from sin through the gifts of grace; that is, what good can he obtain from this? And he speaks of the hypocrite, that is, the dissembler, in place of all sinners, because feigned equity is twofold iniquity, and hypocrites, as falsifiers of virtue, seem to be especially abominable to God, as is said below in 36:13: dissemblers and the crafty provoke the wrath of God.

375. But he consequently shows that they are deprived of a twofold hope,

one of which is the hope that the just have in God, that in time of necessity he will hear their prayer; but he excludes this from the impious, saying: Will God hear his cry when anguish comes upon him? As if to say: no; and the reason for this is assigned in Proverbs 1:24, from the mouth of Wisdom, who says: I called, and you refused, and a little later it is added: then, namely, when anguish comes upon them, they will call upon me and I will not hear; and in Proverbs 28:9 it is said: He who turns away his ear so as not to hear the law, his prayer will be detestable.

But the second hope of the just is that, when temporal consolation fails them in time of tribulation, they enjoy divine delight and delight in his praise; but he excludes this from the impious, adding: Or will he be able to delight in the Almighty, whom, namely, he is proved by his works not to love, and to invoke God at all times? For from great love of God it comes about that the praise of God is always in the mouth of some.

376. And because he had shown that the temporal goods that the impious possess are of little value without the hope of the just that the holy have, he consequently shows that the temporal goods that the impious sometimes possess are fragile.

And for the assertion of the things he is about to say, he first sets down two points:

first indeed that the things he is about to say agree with divine wisdom, whence he says: I will teach you by the hand of God, that is, by his power, what things the Almighty has, namely, in his wisdom as something certain, and I will not hide the things that I have learned with God instructing me.

Second, he shows that the things he is about to say are so manifest that even they cannot be ignorant of them, whence he adds: Behold, all of you know, namely, that the things I am about to say are true, and therefore it is marvelous that you speak so irrationally against manifest truth; and this is what he adds: and why do you speak vain things without cause?, that is, things that have no support of reason. For dull men are accustomed, when they know the premises, not to discern what follows from them.

377. Now it must be considered that, since God is the creator and governor of all, all receive something from him as their inheritance from a father; but evil men receive the temporal goods of this world from God as though their portion and their inheritance, whence it is said in their person: This is our portion and this is our lot. On the contrary, the good receive spiritual goods as though their portion and inheritance, according to that of the Psalm: The measuring lines have fallen for me in splendid places; indeed my inheritance is splendid to me. Therefore, describing how fragile and perishable is the portion of the impious that they receive in temporal things, he says: This is the portion of the impious man with God, that is, such is what falls to them by lot when spiritual things are distributed to the good and temporal things to them, and the inheritance of the violent, that is, of those unjustly acquiring temporal goods, which they will receive from the Almighty, namely, with him permitting it and providing the capacity, as was said above in 22:18: when he had filled their houses with good things. Now he shows that this portion or inheritance is perishable, first indeed with respect to what very often happens concerning the offspring of the impious, which is nevertheless regarded as chief among temporal goods; for sometimes it happens that the sons of the impious who have prospered in this world are killed, whence he says: If his sons have been multiplied, which, namely, was counted as great prosperity, they will be for the sword, that is, they will be killed.

And although it rarely happens that the sons of the rich come to great poverty, nevertheless this frequently happens concerning grandchildren and descendants, whence he adds: and his descendants will not be satisfied with bread, namely, because of want. But with respect to his other household members he adds: those who remain of him, namely, servants and friends, will be buried in destruction, that is, without solemnity, as though slain; whence also with respect to wives he adds: and his widows will not be wept for, which, namely, is customary in solemn burials.

378. Therefore, just as their happiness is fragile and perishable with respect to children and friends, so also with respect to the riches possessed, among which some are artificial riches, namely money, which was invented as a measure for the exchange of things, as the Philosopher says; and with respect to this he adds: If he has heaped up silver like earth, that is, if he acquires as great an abundance of money as there is of earth. But other riches are natural, namely those that provide for the natural necessity of men, such as bread and wine, garments and other things of this kind; and with respect to this he adds: and prepared garments like clay, namely, so that he has as great an abundance of them as of clay; he has indeed prepared them, that is, he has had solicitude and labor in preparing them, yet another will have the fruit, and sometimes a good man who is not solicitous about this, whence he adds: but the just man will be clothed with them, namely, with the garments for his necessity, and the innocent will divide the silver, that is, he will distribute it and give it to the poor: he will not keep it heaped up, which would be contrary to innocence.

379. Spaciousness of houses also pertains to earthly prosperity, but he shows that even this is perishable for two reasons:

first indeed because sometimes he builds a house for himself by violence on another’s land, from which he is driven away, whence he adds: He has built his house like a moth, which, namely, by gnawing another’s garment prepares a place for itself, from which, when the garment is shaken out, it is cast down;

in another way because, even if he builds a house on his own soil, nevertheless it is not granted to him to have care and dominion over that possession for long, but for a little time, whence he adds: and like a watchman, namely, of a vineyard, he has made a shelter, which, namely, is cast down when the time of his watch has ended. But how he loses the goods he has acquired he shows, adding: When the rich man has slept, that is, when he has died, he will bring nothing, from those things that he possesses, with him, namely, into the other life; he will open his eyes, namely, in the resurrection, and find nothing, because, namely, he will not return to possess temporal goods. Sometimes also in this life he suddenly loses them, in the way that rain suddenly comes upon a man, whence he adds: want will seize him like water, namely, rainwater, that is, it will come upon him suddenly; and although rain can be foreseen in some way by day, nevertheless at night it overtakes a man altogether suddenly, whence he adds: by night a tempest will overwhelm him, namely, of adversity, that is, altogether unexpectedly.

380. Finally, he shows the fragility of worldly prosperity with respect to the very person of man, which sometimes perishes through some fever or through some persecution; and with respect to this he adds: A burning wind will lift him up, that is, fever will kill him, and carry him away, namely, from the society of the living; and this will happen suddenly and unexpectedly, whence there follows: and like a whirlwind it will snatch him from his place, that is, violently and without delay. But sometimes he is killed not by an interior infirmity but by an exterior persecutor, whence he adds: He will send, namely, God will send, some persecutor upon him, that is, one more powerful than he, whom he cannot resist, and he will not spare, namely, the persecutor himself; whence the impious man himself, from his hand, that is, from his power, fleeing, will flee, or through death, because after he has killed, he has nothing more he can do. But when he is dead, astonishment and mourning remain for his friends, whence he adds: He will clasp his hands over him, as though out of astonishment, and will hiss over him, as if pitying him, looking upon his place, that is, considering his former dignity.