^35:1 Therefore Elihu again spoke these things:
^35:2 Does your thought seem right to you, that you should say: I am more just than God?
^35:3 For you have said: What is good is not pleasing to you, or what does it profit you if I have sinned?
^35:4 And so I will answer your words and your friends with you.
^35:5 Look up at heaven and behold, and contemplate the ether, that it is higher than you.
^35:6 If you have sinned, how will you harm him? And if your iniquities have been multiplied, what will you do against him?
^35:7 But if you have acted justly, what will you give him? Or what will he receive from your hand?
^35:8 Your impiety will harm a man who is like you, and your justice will help a son of man.
^35:9 Because of the multitude of slanderers they will cry out, and they will wail because of the force of the arm of tyrants.
^35:10 And he did not say: Where is God who made me? Who gave songs in the night?
^35:11 Who teaches us above the beasts of the earth, and instructs us above the birds of heaven.
^35:12 They will cry out, and he will not hear, because of the pride of evil men.
^35:13 For God will not hear in vain, and the Almighty will look into the causes of individuals.
^35:14 Even when you have said: He does not consider, be judged before him and wait for him.
^35:15 For now he does not bring in his fury, nor does he greatly avenge crime.
^35:16 Therefore Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge.

463. Therefore Elihu again spoke these things, etc. After Elihu had rejected the words of Job with respect to the fact that, as he himself judged, Job had imposed iniquity on divine judgment, here he intends to reject his words with respect to the fact that he had said he was just; whence it is said: Therefore Elihu again spoke these things. That is, when his speech had been interrupted, he waited to see whether Job would answer; and when he did not answer, he took up his speech again, saying: Does your thought seem right to you, that you should say: I am more just than God? Job indeed had never said this, nor does Elihu impute to him that he had uttered these words, but that the words he did utter proceeded from this thought; hence he expressly made mention of thought. But from which words Elihu shows that he had had this thought he adds: For you have said: What is good is not pleasing to you—another reading has what is right—or what does it profit you if I have sinned? These two statements are nowhere found in the preceding words of Job, but the first of them, namely, that what is good is not pleasing to God, he seems to take from what Job had said above in 10:15: If I should be impious, woe to me. And if I should be just, I will not lift up my head, which Job had said to signify that the just and the unjust alike are afflicted by temporal punishments; but Elihu interpreted this as said as though man’s justice were not pleasing to God.

But as for what he proposes second, what does it profit you if I have sinned?, nowhere is Job read to have said this; but he wished to take it from the fact that Job had said in the same place: If I have sinned, and for an hour you have spared me, why do you not allow me to be clean from my iniquity? Job had said this to show that temporal prosperity does not always accompany innocence; otherwise, in the time of prosperity, he had been innocent, his sins having been forgiven him, nor was there any reason why, after the forgiveness of sins, he should again be cleansed from sins by God. But Elihu twisted these words to this meaning, as though Job had thought that his sin, or the punishment of sin, had brought some benefit to God. But from these two things, namely, that what is good was not pleasing to God and that God considered sin useful to himself, it would seem to follow that Job was more just than God, since above he had said of himself that evil things displeased him and good things pleased him.

464. But from the preceding things, because of their absurdity, he concludes that he is compelled to answer; whence he says: And so I will answer your words and your friends with you, namely, those who could not convict you when you said such things. And he begins from what was said last, showing that God cannot be helped or harmed by our works, whether good or evil, and this because of his loftiness, which he first proposes, saying: Look up, that is, look upward, at heaven, which, namely, is the seat of God, and behold, namely, by sight, and contemplate, namely, with the mind, the ether, that is, the whole upper body, from whose height, not only, but also magnitude, motion, and adornment, you can infer this, namely, that it is higher than you, to such an extent, namely, that your works can neither profit nor harm him. Whence he adds: If you have sinned, namely, against yourself or against God, how will you harm him? As though saying: in no way will he suffer detriment from this. But with respect to the sins that are committed against one’s neighbor, he adds: And if your iniquities have been multiplied, by which, namely, you unjustly harm your neighbors, what will you do against him? As though saying: in no way will he be harmed by this. But with respect to the good things that are done for one’s neighbor, he adds: But if you have acted justly, namely, rendering to your neighbors what is their right, what will you give him? As though saying: what will he gain from this? But with respect to the works of divine worship, he adds: Or what will he receive from your hand?, namely, in sacrifices and oblations? As though saying: nothing, according to that of the Psalm: I will not accept calves from your house.

465. And because someone could believe that it would not pertain to God whether man acted justly or unjustly, to exclude this he adds: Your impiety will harm a man who is like you, namely, one who is susceptible to harm, and your justice will help a son of man, namely, one who needs the help of justice. Therefore impiety is forbidden by God and justice commanded, because God has care for men, who by this are either helped or harmed. And from this faith it happens that oppressed men cry out to God against oppressors, some of whom oppress deceitfully by calumny; whence, with respect to these, he adds: Because of the multitude of slanderers they will cry out, namely, to God, those who have been oppressed by them. But some oppress manifestly by violence, and with respect to these he adds: and they will wail because of the force of the arm of tyrants, that is, they will lament to God because of the violent power of tyrants. From this it is given to be understood that not only does it not profit God that someone sins, but it displeases him and he punishes it; otherwise the oppressed would cry out in vain.

466. Then he turns to rejecting the other statement that he had set forth before, What is right is not pleasing to you, which would be opposed to divine wisdom. This first appears in the creation of things, whence he says: And he did not say, namely, Job, thinking that good things were not pleasing to God: Where is God who made me? For God did not make things except for the good, whence it is said in Genesis 1:25: God saw that it was good, etc.; hence it is manifest that the good is pleasing to God.

Second, he brings in the benefit of human instruction, by which some are instructed toward the good from divine revelation, whence he adds: Who gave, namely, through revelation, songs, that is, teachings of human instruction, which among the ancients were often contained in songs, in the night, that is, literally in a nocturnal dream, or in the quiet of contemplation, or in the obscurity of vision; but he would not instruct men toward the good with such familiarity unless the good were pleasing to him.

Third, he brings in the infusion of natural light, by which we discern good from evil through reason, in which we surpass brute animals; whence he adds: Who teaches us above the beasts of the earth, which, namely, lack reason. And because the ancients observed the chatter and movements of birds as if they were divinely instructed and as if they had reason, therefore, to exclude this, he adds: and instructs us above the birds of heaven, which also do not have reason.

467. And because he hates evil and the good is pleasing to him, he therefore hears the oppressed who cry out, but does not hear oppressors; whence he adds: They will cry out, namely, the slanderers and tyrants, as though asking from God the fulfillment of their desires, and he will not hear, namely God, and this because of the pride of evil men, according to that of the Psalm: He has looked upon the prayer of the humble. And lest someone believe that God hears all indifferently, he adds: For God will not hear in vain, that is, without reason, because, namely, for a most just reason he hears these and not those; whence he adds: and the Almighty will look into the causes of individuals, so that, namely, he may hear the worthy, not the unworthy. But it especially seems that God does not see the causes of individuals from the fact that sometimes the impious prosper; but to exclude this he adds: Even when you have said, that is, have thought in your heart: He does not consider, namely, God, the deeds of men, be judged before him, that is, prepare yourself to receive his judgment, and wait for him, namely, as one who will judge in the future, even if he does not punish here:

for he delays so that in the future he may condemn more gravely. Whence he adds: For now, that is, in the present life, he does not bring in his fury, that is, the greatness of punishment, nor does he greatly avenge crime, that is, he does not punish in the present according as the gravity of the fault demands, because the punishments of the present life are for correction, and therefore those whom he judges unworthy of correction he reserves for future damnation. And this is another reason why the impious prosper in this world, in which he agrees with Job’s opinion. But because he had understood his words wrongly, he therefore reproves them, concluding from what has been said: Therefore Job in vain, that is, without reason, opens his mouth, as though reproving in him prolixity of speech, and multiplies words without knowledge, in which he charges him with ignorance and useless talkativeness.