^9:11 If he comes to me, I will not see him; if he departs, I will not understand him.
^9:12 If he suddenly questions, who will answer him? Or who can say: Why do you act thus?
^9:13 God, whose wrath no one can resist, and under whom those who bear the world are bowed.
^9:14 How great am I, then, that I should answer him and speak with him in my words?
^9:15 Even if I should have anything just, I will not answer, but I will beseech my judge.
^9:16 And when he has heard me invoking him, I do not believe that he has heard my voice;
^9:17 for in a whirlwind he will crush me and multiply my wounds even without cause;
^9:18 he does not grant my spirit to rest and he fills me with bitternesses.
^9:19 If strength is sought, he is most strong; if equity of judgment, no one dares to give testimony for me.
^9:20 If I wish to justify myself, my own mouth will condemn me; if to show myself innocent, it will prove me depraved.
^9:21 Even if I were simple, my soul will be ignorant of this very thing, and I will be weary of my life.

161. If he comes to me, I will not see him, etc. Blessed Job, wishing to show that his intention is not to contend with God, has shown by many indications the depth of divine wisdom in natural things; but now he wishes to show the depth of divine wisdom in human affairs.

Now it must be considered that three things seem to pertain to the ruler of human affairs:

the first is that he dispense to his subjects the precepts of justice and other benefits,

the second is that he examine the acts of his subjects,

the third is that he subject to punishments those whom he finds culpable. In these three things, therefore, he shows the immense depth of divine wisdom:

first, indeed, because he provides his benefits for his subjects so profoundly and subtly that this is incomprehensible even to those who receive them; and this is what he says: If he comes to me, I will not see him; if he departs, I will not understand him. Here it must be considered that in the Scriptures God is said to come to man when he bestows his benefits on him, whether by enlightening his understanding, or by inflaming his affection, or by benefiting him in any way at all; whence it is said in Isaiah 35:4: Our God himself will come and will save us;

but, on the contrary, God is said to withdraw from man when he withdraws from him his benefits or his protection, according to that saying of the Psalm: Why, O Lord, have you withdrawn far away? Why do you overlook us in opportunities, in tribulation? Now it happens sometimes that God permits tribulations, or even certain spiritual defects, to befall some for the procuring of their salvation, as is said in Romans 8:28: for those who love God, all things work together unto good. Thus, therefore, God comes to man by procuring his salvation, and yet man does not see him, because he does not perceive his benefit; but, on the contrary, from many God does not withdraw manifest benefits, which nevertheless turn to their ruin, and therefore God is said to withdraw from man in such a way that man does not understand him as he withdraws. Thus, then, the depth of divine wisdom appears in the dispensation of his benefits.

162. Second, the depth of divine wisdom is shown in the examination of human acts, because, namely, he examines so subtly and effectively that no one can escape his examination by any caviling whatever; and this is what he says: If he suddenly questions, who will answer him? Now God questions man when he brings him back to consider his conscience, either by inspiring him inwardly or by provoking him outwardly through benefits or scourges, according to that saying of the Psalm: The Lord questions the just and the impious. But then man would sufficiently answer God when nothing were found in him that could justly be reproved by God, which happens to none of men in this life, according to Proverbs 20:9: Who can say: My heart is clean; I am pure from sin? But he pointedly says If he suddenly questions, because if time for answering is given to man, he can wash away offenses through repentance. Now it sometimes happens that someone is found remiss in examining the excesses of others, fearing lest in turn his own excesses also be examined by others; but this is not to be feared by God, so that he would become lenient in his examination, because he has no superior who could judge concerning his deeds, and therefore there is added: Or who can say to him: Why do you act thus? As though by chastising him.

163. Third, the depth of divine wisdom is shown in the punishment of offenses, because wherever man may turn, he can avoid the vengeance of God by no cunning and no power, according to that saying of the Psalm: Where shall I go from your Spirit, and where shall I flee from your face? And this is what he says: God, whose wrath no one can resist; for wrath, according as it is attributed to God in the Scriptures, does not imply a movement of the soul but vengeance. He consequently brings in a proof of this: and under whom those who bear the world are bowed. Now those who bear the world are to be understood as the heavenly spirits, by whose ministry the whole bodily creation is divinely cared for, as Augustine says in Book III of On the Trinity. But these heavenly spirits are bowed under God because they obey him in all things, according to that saying of the Psalm: Bless the Lord, all his Angels, his ministers, who do his will. Thus, therefore, since the Angels obey God, it is manifest that the whole course of bodily things, which is administered through the Angels, is subject to the divine will, and so from no creature can man have help for fleeing the vengeance of God, according to that saying of the Psalm: If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I descend to Hell, you are present; indeed, as is said in Wisdom 5:21, the whole world will fight with him against the senseless. Those who bear the world could also be understood as the kings and princes of the world, who are bowed under God, according to Proverbs 8:15: Through me kings reign; or because not even kings themselves can resist divine wrath, so that from this, a fortiori, the same may be concluded about others.

164. Thus, therefore, after he has shown in many ways the immensity of divine power and the depth of divine wisdom, he concludes the proposed point, namely, that it is not his intention to contend with God; and this is what he says: How great am I, then, that is, how powerful, how wise, that I should answer him, namely, God, who questions most powerfully and most wisely, and speak with him in my words, by examining his deeds and saying: Why do you act thus? As if he were saying: I am not sufficient to contend with God; for contention consists in answering and objecting. Now it sometimes happens that someone, even if he is not very powerful or wise, nevertheless, because of the security of his conscience, does not fear to contend with any judge whatever; but he excludes from himself even this cause of contending with God, saying: Even if I should have anything just, I will not answer, namely, God examining me, as though by defending my justice, but I will beseech my judge, as one not seeking judgment but mercy. But he says pointedly, if I should have anything just, to designate the uncertainty of human justice by this, that he says if I should have, according to that saying of the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 4:4: I have nothing on my conscience, but I am not justified in this; and to show that the justice of man is small and imperfect when referred to divine examination, on account of which he says anything, according to Isaiah 64:6: all our justices are like the rag of a menstruating woman before him.

165. But what he obtains from his supplication he shows when he adds: And when he has heard me invoking him, I do not believe that he has heard my voice. For it sometimes happens that God hears man not according to his wish but according to his benefit: for just as a physician does not hear according to his wish a sick man asking that bitter medicine be removed, if the physician does not remove it because he knows it to be health-giving, yet he hears him according to his benefit because through this he brings about the health that the sick man especially desires, so God does not withdraw tribulations from a man placed in tribulations, although he is supplicating, because he knows they are expedient for final salvation. And thus, although God truly hears, nevertheless the man placed in miseries does not believe himself to be heard. And why he does not believe this, he shows, adding: for in a whirlwind he will crush me;

and in his usual manner he explains what was said metaphorically, adding: and he will multiply my wounds even without cause. For to crush is to multiply wounds, that is, tribulations, and this is in a whirlwind, that is, in terrible darkness. He says without cause, namely, without a cause manifest and perceptible to the afflicted man; for if the afflicted man perceived the cause why God afflicts him, and that the afflictions are useful to him for salvation, it is manifest that he would believe himself to be heard. But because he does not understand this, he believes himself not to be heard. And therefore he is afflicted not only outwardly but also inwardly, just as a sick man who did not know that he would obtain health through bitter medicine would be afflicted not only in taste but also in soul; and therefore he adds: he will not grant my spirit to rest. For the spirit rests, although the flesh is afflicted, because of hope of the end, according to what the Lord teaches in Matthew 5:11: Blessed shall you be when men have cursed you, and afterwards he adds: Rejoice, because your reward is abundant in heaven. And so while I am afflicted outwardly and inwardly, I do not rest; he fills me with bitternesses, namely, within and without.

166. And it must be considered that from that place, And when he has heard me invoking him, etc., he has clearly explained what he had said obscurely above: If he comes to me, I will not see him. For this is to be observed almost everywhere in the sayings of Job: that things said obscurely are explained through certain things that follow. And because above he had said briefly and summarily, How great am I, that I should answer him?, he consequently explains this more diffusely, where he also assigns the reason why he does not answer but beseeches his judge. For that someone answers a judge boldly can happen from two causes:

first, indeed, if the judge is weak and cannot coerce the subject; but he excludes this, saying: If strength is sought, namely, in God for coercing subjects, he is most strong, exceeding every strength;

second, someone answers a judge boldly because he has confidence in his cause, which sometimes happens because he has many to excuse him; but he excludes this, saying: if equity of judgment, namely, is required, according to which someone who has many witnesses on his side is absolved, no one dares to give testimony for me: for the understanding of man does not grasp this, that the justice of man should be greater than the truth of God reproving him.

Sometimes, however, even if a man does not have other witnesses on his side, nevertheless he has confidence in his cause, relying on the testimony of his conscience; but the testimony of conscience cannot avail man against divine reproof, and he shows this through the individual grades.

For the testimony of conscience has three grades, the highest of which is when someone’s conscience bears witness to him that he is just, according to Romans 8:16: The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are sons of God; but this testimony does not avail against divine rebuke, whence he says: If I wish to justify myself, that is, if I wish to say that I am just, when God objects to me that I am impious, my own mouth will condemn me, that is, it will render me condemnable because of blasphemy.

The second grade is when someone, although he does not presume that he is just, nevertheless is not reproved by his conscience concerning any sin, according to 1 Corinthians 4:4: I have nothing on my conscience;

but not even this testimony avails against God, whence he says: if I show myself innocent, that is, if I wish to show myself to be without sin, it will prove me depraved, insofar as he will make manifest to me or to others sins of which I am not conscious, because, as is said in the Psalm: Who understands his offenses?

The third grade is when someone, although he is conscious to himself of sin, nevertheless presumes either because he did not have an evil intention or because he did not act from malice and deceit but from ignorance and weakness; but not even this testimony avails man against God, and therefore he says: Even if I were simple, that is, without deceit or duplicity of a depraved intention, my soul will be ignorant of this very thing: for man cannot clearly discern the movement of his own affection, both because of its variation and because of the intermingling and impulse of many passions, on account of which it is said in Jeremiah 17:9: The heart of man is depraved and inscrutable; who will know it? And because of ignorance of this kind, by which man does not know himself or his own state, even for the just their life is rendered wearisome, and on account of this he adds: and I will be weary of my life.