^38:1 But the Lord, answering Job from the whirlwind, said:
^38:2 Who is this entangling statements with unskilled words?
^38:3 Gird your loins like a man; I will question you, and you answer me.
^38:4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding,
^38:5 who set its measures, if you know, or who stretched a line over it;
^38:6 upon what its bases have been founded, or who laid its cornerstone,
^38:7 when the morning stars praised me together, and all the sons of God rejoiced?
^38:8 Who enclosed the sea with doors? When it was bursting forth, as though proceeding from the womb,
^38:9 when I set a cloud as its garment, and wrapped it in mist as in swaddling clothes.
^38:10 I surrounded it with my bounds, and I set a bar and doors,
^38:11 and I said: Thus far you shall come and shall proceed no farther, and here you shall break your swelling waves.
^38:12 Have you, since your birth, commanded the daybreak, and shown the dawn its place?

491. But the Lord, answering Job from the whirlwind, etc. After the preceding disputation between Job and his friends concerning divine providence, Elihu had taken upon himself the role of one determining the question, reproving Job in some matters, but his friends in others. But because human wisdom does not suffice to comprehend the truth of divine providence, it was necessary for the aforesaid disputation to be determined by divine authority. But because Job thought rightly concerning divine providence, yet had exceeded in his manner of speaking to such a degree that scandal arose from this in the hearts of others, when they thought that he was not showing the reverence due to God, therefore the Lord, as the one determining the question, reproves both Job’s friends for the fact that they did not think rightly, and Job himself for his disordered manner of speaking, and Elihu for an unfitting determination;

whence it is said: But the Lord, answering Job, because, namely, this response was made on his account, although he himself had not spoken immediately before. But he shows the manner of answering by adding: from the whirlwind. This can indeed be understood literally, so that the voice of God is said to have been formed miraculously in the air with a certain disturbance of the air, as is read to have happened on Mount Sinai in Exodus 20:18, or as a voice came to Christ when certain people said that thunder had occurred, as is read in John 12:29. Or it can be understood as said metaphorically, so that this response of the Lord was an interior inspiration divinely given to Job himself; and thus the Lord is said to have answered him from the whirlwind, both because of the disturbance that he was still suffering, and also because of the obscurity of a whirlwind, since in this life we cannot perceive divine inspiration clearly, but with a certain overshadowing of sensible likenesses, as Dionysius says in the first chapter of The Celestial Hierarchy; and the Lord also signified this if he sensibly made his voice heard from a bodily whirlwind.

492. But once a disputation has been determined, as by the sentence of a judgment, nothing further remains to be said unless the sentence of determination is rejected; and therefore the Lord first rejected the determination of the disputation that Elihu had made. But he rejects it because Elihu had entangled the true statements that he had proposed with many false and frivolous words; whence there follows: he said: Who is this entangling statements with unskilled words? Elihu indeed had spoken statements by arguing against Job concerning the fact that he had said he wished to dispute with God and concerning the fact that he had called himself just to such a degree that he seemed, as it were, to detract from the justice of divine judgment; but he had entangled these statements with many presumptuous and even false words, as is clear from what was said above. These are here called unskilled words because every disorder seems to proceed from a defect of reason.

493. Thus, therefore, after Elihu’s determination has been excluded, the Lord himself begins to determine the disputation, and first he stirs Job up to attention when he says: Gird your loins like a man. This is said metaphorically: for men are accustomed to gird their loins so that they may be ready for a journey or for any action; hence the Lord wished him to be ready to consider the things said to him, with all impediments removed. Whence he expressly makes mention of the girding of the loins, because by the loins carnal pleasure is understood, which especially impedes spiritual hearing, according to Isaiah 28:9: Whom will he teach knowledge, and whom will he make understand what is heard? Those weaned from milk, taken away from the breasts.

494. But first, in his determination, he begins to argue against Job concerning the fact that he seemed to have spoken presumptuously when he challenged God to a dispute. And because above in 13:22 he seems to have given God the option of two things when he said: Call me, and I will answer you, or else I will speak, and you answer me, since Job had already spoken enough, the Lord, as it were, chooses the other part when he adds: I will question you, and you answer me. This questioning of God indeed is not so that he may learn, but so that he may convict man of his ignorance. Now he questions him about his effects, which are present to human senses; and when man is shown to be ignorant of these, he is much more convicted of not having knowledge of higher things. But among other sensible effects he begins to question him about the principal parts of the world, among which the earth is better known to us, as being nearer; and beginning to question him concerning it, he says: Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? He rightly compares the earth to a foundation, because just as the foundation is the lowest part of a building, so also the earth is the lowest of bodies, which lies beneath all. And because the earth is especially the matter of the human body, while matter precedes in time that which is made from it, and much more does the reason of the artisan who established the matter precede it, he therefore says expressly: Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? As if to say: you cannot know the reason for the founding of the earth, because when the earth was founded, you were not yet in the nature of things.

495. Now it should be considered that some of the ancients attributed the position of the earth and of the other elements not to some ordering reason but to the necessity of matter, according as heavy things sink beneath light things. But so that this opinion may be excluded, the Lord consequently compares the founding of the earth to the founding of a building, which takes place according to the plans of the builder; and similarly the founding of the earth was made according to divine providence, which human understanding is not able to comprehend. And he signifies this when he adds: Tell me, if you have understanding, as though saying: therefore you cannot tell the reason for these things, because your understanding does not suffice to grasp them. Now it should be considered that an artisan disposes four things in the founding of a building:

first indeed, how great the foundation ought to be, and similarly it has been disposed by divine reason that the quantity of the earth ought to be so great, and no greater or lesser. And with respect to this he adds: who set its measures, namely, according to all dimensions. And he expressly says set: for the species of earth does not by necessity require such a quantity, but this quantity has been imposed on the earth by divine reason alone, which man cannot know; and therefore he adds: if you know, because, namely, man can neither know nor declare this.

Second, the artisan by his reason disposes the determined position of the foundation, which he comprehends by the extension of a measuring line, whence he adds: or who stretched a line over it, by which, namely, is signified the reason of the divine disposition, designating the determined position of the earth among the parts of the universe.

Third, once the quantity of the foundation and where it is to be placed have been thought out, the artisan disposes where the foundation can be firmly placed, and with respect to this he adds: upon what its bases, namely, of the earth, have been founded, because it has been founded upon the center of the world.

Fourth, once the three preceding things have been thought out, the artisan now begins to lay stones in the foundation, and first the cornerstone, to which the different walls are joined; and with respect to this he adds: or who laid, that is, sent downward, its cornerstone, by which, namely, is signified the very center of the earth, to which the different parts of the earth are connected.

496. Now a man is accustomed to place the foundation of a building because of the necessity of habitation, but so that it may be shown that God did not lay the foundations of the earth out of need, he adds: when each of the morning stars praised me, as though saying: although the dwelling of heaven was present to me, whose stars praise me, nevertheless I founded the earth, not from need of servants who would inhabit it, but from will alone. Now this is not said as though heaven was made before the earth, especially since in Genesis it is read that in the beginning God created heaven and earth, while the stars of which mention is made here are read to have been made on the fourth day; but this is said to show that, in the order of nature, heaven and the stars are prior to the earth, as the incorruptible to the corruptible and the mover to the moved. But he says morning stars, that is, newly established, just as among us morning stars are said to be those that are accustomed to appear at the beginning of the day. But the fact that the morning stars are said to praise God can be understood in one way materially, namely, insofar as because of their brightness and nobility they were matter for divine praise, if not for men, who did not yet exist, at least for the angels, who already existed;

in another way, according to those who say that the heavenly bodies are animated, the stars in the beginning of their establishment were praising God, not with vocal praise but with mental praise. This can also be referred to the angels by whose ministry the heavenly bodies are moved, so that what is added, and all the sons of God rejoiced, is referred to the angels of the highest hierarchy, whom Dionysius says are placed in the vestibules of the Godhead; and therefore he expressly attributes praise to the former as to inferiors, but rejoicing to the latter as to superiors, which conveys a certain excellence of praise.

497. Therefore, having set forth the founding of the earth, he consequently adds concerning the waters that are immediately placed above the earth. Now the natural order of the elements seems to require that water should surround the earth on every side, just as air surrounds the earth and water on every side; but by divine disposition, for the generation of men, animals, and plants, it was brought about that some part of the earth should remain uncovered by the waters, God by his power holding back the waters of the sea within certain limits, whence he adds: Who enclosed the sea with doors?, that is, with certain boundaries. Now there were some who thought that some part of the earth had been dried out by the action of the sun, but the Lord shows that from the beginning it was thus disposed, so that the sea would not cover the earth on every side. But he describes the production of the sea under the likeness of the birth of a living thing, namely, of a child, because water is especially formable into living things, whence also the seeds of all things are moist;

but a child first comes forth from the womb of its mother, and he signifies this when he says: When it was bursting forth, as though proceeding from the womb. But in the production of the sea he uses the word bursting forth, because, namely, it is proper to water to be moved almost continually;

but it is said to proceed as though from the womb, not because it had its origin from some other bodily matter, but because it proceeded from the hiddenness of divine providence as from a certain womb.

Second, a child once born is clothed, and with respect to this he adds: when I set a cloud as its garment: for because clouds are generated from vapors dissolved from water, it follows that clouds of this kind are multiplied more in maritime places.

Third, a child once born is wrapped in certain swaddling bands, and with respect to this he adds: and wrapped it in mist as in swaddling clothes; and by mist can be designated vapors not lifted up nor condensed into clouds, but darkening the air over the surface of the sea, and perhaps he alludes to what is said in Genesis 1:2, that darkness was over the face of the abyss.

498. Therefore, having set down these things that pertain to the new production of the sea, he explains its enclosure, as if to say: when the sea was newly made, then I surrounded it with my bounds;

and he seems to set down three things pertaining to the enclosure of the sea,

the first of which is signified when he says: with my bounds, that is, those set by me,

the second is signified when he says: and I set a bar,

the third when he says: and doors.

Now these three things pertain to the command of divine power, whence, as though explaining the preceding things, he adds: and I said: Thus far you shall come, which pertains to the notion of boundaries, for a boundary is the endpoint of motion, and shall proceed no farther, which, namely, pertains to the bar by which the advance of something is impeded, and here you shall break your swelling waves, which pertains to the doors, which are set in place so that someone may not go out or enter indiscriminately but according to a fixed rule. So also the sea does not indiscriminately go beyond the shore but according to a certain measure of its swelling waves.

499. But after the earth and the waters he proceeds further to the air, which according to sight is continuous with heaven. Now the first disposition common to the whole body that lies above the water and the earth is the variation of night and day, which comes about according to the daily motion, which is the first of motions; and therefore he consequently says: Have you, since your birth, commanded the daybreak? As though saying: are night and day alternated over the earth by your command? For daybreak is a certain boundary between day and night. And he expressly says since your birth, just as above, when he was speaking of the earth, he had said: Where were you? For just as the earth is principally the material principle of man, so also the highest heaven, which by its motion varies day and night, is the principal principle of the human body among corporeal causes.

Now it should be considered that the brightness of daybreak or dawn is diversified according to the different parts of the elevation of the signs through which the sun passes, because when it is in a sign of swift ascension, namely, by which it rises quickly, the dawn lasts a short time; but when the sun is in a sign of slow ascension, it lasts longer. And there is a determinate measure of the place from which, when the sun is there, the brightness of daybreak begins to appear, and this is what he adds: and shown the dawn its place? As though saying: have you dispensed the places in heaven from which the dawn gives light? As though to say: no. And from all these things it is given to be understood that your reason falls short of the comprehension of divine works; hence it is clear that you are not fit to dispute with God.