^12:1 But Job, answering, said:
^12:2 Are you, then, the only men, and will wisdom die with you?
^12:3 I too have a heart just as you do, nor am I inferior to you: for who is ignorant of these things that you know?
^12:4 He who is mocked by his friend as I am will call upon God, and he will hear him. For the simplicity of the just man is mocked,
^12:5 a lamp despised in the thoughts of the rich, prepared for the appointed time.
^12:6 The tabernacles of robbers abound, and they boldly provoke God, although he himself has given all things into their hands.
^12:7 Indeed, ask the beasts, and they will teach you, and the birds of heaven, and they will make it known to you;
^12:8 speak to the earth, and it will answer you, and the fish of the sea will recount it.
^12:9 Who is ignorant that the hand of the Lord has made all these things?
^12:10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the spirit of all the flesh of man.

203. But Job, answering, said, etc. Zophar, in the preceding words, had attempted to show that man cannot comprehend the secrets of the wisdom of God, in order to reproach Job, who seemed, as it were, to require a disputation with God. And as can be gathered from his words and from those of the other friends, their whole intention revolved around three things:

first, they strove to say certain magnificent things about God, extolling his wisdom and power and justice, so that from this their case might appear more favorable;

second, they applied such magnificent things taken up about God to certain false doctrines, namely, that because of justice men prosper in this world and because of sins they are troubled, and that after this life nothing is to be expected;

third, from assertions of this kind, because of the adversity that Job was suffering, they accused him as though he were iniquitous and promised him certain empty things if he would abandon iniquity, such as that buried, secure he would sleep, and that at evening the brightness of midday would rise for him, which Job regarded as mockeries:

and around all these things Job’s whole response revolves.

First, therefore, he speaks against them concerning this, that they were exalting themselves by proposing certain great things about God as if they alone knew them and Job did not know them; and therefore it is said: But Job, answering, said: Are you, then, the only men? This follows if you consider yourselves alone to know these things concerning the greatness of God, which all men know; and since wisdom consists in the knowledge of the greatness of God, it follows that, if you alone know these things, wisdom is in you alone, and thus, when you cease, wisdom ceases. And therefore he adds: and will wisdom die with you? As if to say: it is unfitting either that you alone should be men or that you alone should be wise.

204. But because they could say, “We are not the only ones who know, yet you do not know,” he answers by adding: I too have a heart, namely, for knowing these things, just as you do, nor am I inferior to you, namely, with regard to this knowledge. And lest this could be ascribed to arrogance, he adds: For who is ignorant of these things that you know? As if to say: it is no great thing if I say that I know the things that you know, because it is no great thing to know them, since everyone knows them; but in that you judge me ignorant of these things, you seem to hold me in contempt, as though I were ignorant of what everyone knows. Whence he adds: He who is mocked by his friend as I am, namely, by you, while you judge me foolish, will call upon God, and he will hear him, because where human help is lacking, there especially divine help is present, according to that saying of the Psalm: For my father and my mother have abandoned me, but the Lord has taken me up. And in this he seems, as it were, to answer what Zophar had said above: then you will be able to lift up your face, as if to say: I need not wait any longer in order to pray with confidence, because from this very fact, that I am mocked by friends, hope is given to me of having recourse to God.

205. But why one mocked by a friend is heard by God, he shows by adding: For the simplicity of the just man is mocked, where he shows both who are mocked and why, and also by whom, when he adds: a lamp despised in the thoughts of the rich. For to be mocked belongs to one who is deficient, but to mock belongs to one who has abundance; but those who abound in virtues do not mock those who are deficient in virtues, but rather have compassion on them and help them if they can. Rather, those who abound in temporal things are especially accustomed to mock those who are deficient in temporal things, and especially when they do not apply zeal to acquiring temporal things. But the zeal of the just is not directed toward acquiring temporal things, but toward pursuing rectitude; hence they abstain from frauds and deceits, by which riches are often acquired, and from this they are judged simple. Therefore, for the most part, the just are mocked. Now the cause of the mockery is simplicity, yet it is not mocked as a manifest evil but as a hidden good, and therefore simplicity is here called a lamp because of the brightness of justice, but one despised in the thoughts of the rich, namely, of those who place their end in riches—for one who places the highest good in riches must think that things are so much better insofar as they are more useful for acquiring riches—and hence the simplicity of the just, by which the multiplication of riches is impeded, must be contemptible to them.

But although the very simplicity of the just is despised in the thoughts of the rich, nevertheless in its own time it is not defrauded of its due end, whence he says: prepared for the appointed time. He does not say this as though at some time in the present life some earthly prosperity is to be repaid to the just for their simplicity, but he leaves undetermined what that appointed time is and for what end the simplicity of the just is prepared; for the disputation has not yet arrived at this point, but it will be shown in what follows. Thus, therefore, Job secretly suggests why he was mocked by his friends, whom he calls rich, because they were placing the prosperity of this world as the end of man, as though it were the reward of man’s justice; but he, in his simplicity, was not seeking this reward but another at the appointed time, and therefore he had confidence that, if he invoked the Lord, he would be heard by him.

206. And because the rich who mock the simplicity of the just do not stop at this but proceed even to contempt of God, there is added: The tabernacles of robbers abound. For it follows that, since some place their end in riches, they seek out every way to attain this ultimate end, whether by fraud or by any other means, and thus they become robbers; and while they rob, they abound in riches. From this abundance, however, there follows contempt of God, whence there is added: and they boldly provoke God. For someone does something boldly when he believes that what he does is good: for when conscience bites back concerning evil, a man does not perpetrate evil without fear, because, as is said in Wisdom 17:10, since wickedness is timid, it has been given for the condemnation of all; but those who place their ultimate end in riches, from this very fact, judge that all things are good through which they attain this end. But it is manifest that when they acquire riches by robbery, they provoke God by acting against his justice: hence it follows that they boldly provoke God. Or otherwise: from riches man is lifted up into pride, judging himself to be self-sufficient through them, and from this he boldly despises God, trusting in his riches, according to Deuteronomy 32:15: The beloved grew fat and kicked.

207. But because he had said that the tabernacles of robbers who provoke God abound, lest perhaps it be answered that such abundance is not from God, he adds: although he himself has given all things into their hands, that is, into their power, because the power of harming someone is only from God, but the will to do evil is only from oneself; and therefore, in that they rob, they provoke God, but the abundance that follows is theirs from God. And he consequently proves this when he adds: Indeed, ask the beasts, and they will teach you, and the birds of heaven, and they will make it known to you; speak to the earth, and it will answer you, and the fish of the sea will recount it. But what all these things, when questioned, answer, he shows by adding: Who is ignorant that the hand of the Lord has made all these things? This, therefore, is what all things confess: that they have been made by God. Now man questions creatures when he considers them diligently, but when questioned they answer while, through considering them, man perceives that so great an ordering as is found in the disposition of parts and in the order of actions could in no way exist unless it were dispensed by some higher wisdom.

But if creatures of this kind have been made by God, it is manifest that they are in God’s power, as works of art are in the power of the artisan, and therefore he adds: in whose hand, that is, power, is the soul of every living thing, and not only of other animals but also the spirit of all the flesh of man. But if they are in his power, it is manifest that no one can have them except from him, according to Daniel 4:14: the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and he will give it to whomever he wills. It is manifest, therefore, that no man can have the earth and the animals of which he had spoken above, in which human riches consist, unless God has given them into his hand; and thus, if robbers abound, God has given it into their hands. Therefore by this the opinion of those who held that riches are given by God for the merit of justice is refuted, since they are given by God even to robbers.