^12:11 Does not the ear discern words, and the palate of one eating, flavor?
^12:12 In the ancients there is wisdom, and in length of time, prudence.
^12:13 With him are wisdom and strength; he has counsel and understanding.
^12:14 If he destroys, there is no one who may rebuild; and if he shuts a man in, there is no one who may open.
^12:15 If he holds back the waters, all things will dry up; and if he sends them forth, they will overturn the earth.
^12:16 With him are strength and wisdom; he knows both the deceiver and him who is deceived.
^12:17 He leads counselors to a foolish end and judges into stupor.
^12:18 He loosens the belt of kings and girds their loins with a rope;
^12:19 he leads priests away without glory and supplants the nobles;
^12:20 changing the lip of those who speak truth and taking away the teaching of the elders,
^12:21 he pours contempt upon princes. And those who had been oppressed he raises up,
^12:22 he who reveals deep things from darkness and brings the shadow of death into light;
^12:23 he who multiplies nations and destroys them, and, once overturned, restores them whole.
^12:24 He who changes the heart of the princes of the people of the earth, and deceives them so that they walk in vain through a pathless place:
^12:25 they will grope as in darkness and not in light, and he will make them wander like drunken men.

208. Does not the ear discern words, etc. Because Job had set forth above that the things Zophar had said concerning the excellence of divine greatness are manifest to all, he intends here to show that this can come to the knowledge of men through experience of divine power and wisdom in human affairs.

Hence he first makes manifest how men come to knowledge of things through experience, saying: Does not the ear discern words, namely, while it hears them? And the palate of one eating, flavor, does it not discern it? Because experience is from sense, he fittingly makes manifest the power of experience through the judgment of the senses, and especially through hearing and taste, because hearing among all the senses is the most teachable, whence it is of great value for the contemplative sciences; but taste is perceptive of foods, which are necessary for man’s life, whence by the judgment of taste he signifies the experience that is had concerning matters of the active life. And on account of this, from the judgment of the two senses, he shows the power of experience both in speculative and in practical matters, when he adds: In the ancients there is wisdom, which pertains to contemplation, because, namely, the ancients have heard many things; and in length of time, prudence, which pertains to action, because, namely, in much time men taste many things, useful or harmful.

209. Thus, therefore, once the power of experience has been made manifest, he adds what men can experience concerning God when he says: With him are wisdom and strength; he has counsel and understanding.

Here he attributes to God four things that are ordered among themselves:

for the first indeed is to know hidden things, which pertains to understanding;

the second is, from those things that man understands, to find in active matters suitable ways to some end, which pertains to counsel, just as also in speculative matters, through those things that man understands, he draws out reasons for knowing certain conclusions;

the third is that man have right judgment about those things that he has discovered, which pertains to wisdom;

the fourth is that someone powerfully execute those things that he judges ought to be done, and strength pertains to this.

210. But because experience proceeds from sensible things, which, although they are prior with respect to us, are nevertheless posterior absolutely and according to nature, he therefore begins to show how men can experience divine strength,

and first indeed in human affairs themselves. For we see that some men are totally destroyed, either by death with respect to the being of nature, or by every kind of abasement with respect to civil standing, although they have many supporters; hence, since they cannot be helped by men so as not to come to destruction, it is manifest that this happens from some hidden and divine cause, one surpassing human power, since human power cannot resist it, and this is what he says: If he destroys, there is no one who may rebuild. Likewise, we see some men impeded in their undertakings, even if they are not totally destroyed, although they have very many directors; hence it is manifest that this also is done by some more excellent power, whence there is added: and if he shuts a man in, by entangling him in various difficulties, there is no one who may open, that is, who can set him free. Hence it is said in Ecclesiastes 7:14: No one can correct him whom God has despised.

211. Then he shows how men can experience divine power in natural things, especially with respect to rains and droughts, whence he says: If he holds back the waters, namely, so that they do not fall as rain, all things will dry up, namely, the things that germinate from the earth, and if he sends them forth, in great abundance, they will overturn the earth, as happens in floods. And although it comes about from certain natural causes that at times the rains cease even to total drought, and at times abound even to the overturning of the earth, nevertheless this is not withdrawn from divine power, which has ordered even the natural causes themselves to their proper effects. Thus, therefore, as though concluding from the premises, he adds: With him is strength.

212. Then, beginning to proceed to the second member, he adds: and wisdom, as though setting forth what he intends to make manifest. Now it is proper to wisdom that through it right judgment be had about things; but he judges rightly about the truth of things who can discern how someone is deceived by turning aside from truth. And therefore, to show that wisdom is in God, he adds: He knows the deceiver and him who is deceived, that is, with right judgment he discerns deceptions, by which someone passes over the truth, from right knowledge of the truth. And this indeed he supposes from that in which he and his friends commonly agree, namely, that human affairs are subject to divine judgment; but he could not judge concerning these unless he knew sins, among which deceptions and frauds hold a great place.

213. Then he shows, through those things that appear in human affairs, that counsel is with God. Concerning this, however, it must be considered that, just as God knows both the principles of speculative sciences and the conclusions and their order to one another, yet does not receive knowledge of the conclusions through the principles but knows all things by a first and simple gaze, so also in practical matters he knows both the ends and the things that are for the end, and what ways are expedient for attaining certain ends, yet he does not inquire into the ways from the ends as we do when we take counsel. Therefore, just as reason is said to be in God insofar as he knows the order of principles to what follows, yet it does not belong to him to investigate something in the manner of reason, as reason does, so counsel is said to be with him not by way of inquiry but by way of simple and absolute knowledge.

But the depth of someone in counsels can be discerned from two things:

first indeed, when by the subtlety of his counsel he brings adversaries, even if they seem practiced in counsels, to the point that, all their ways failing, it is necessary for them to arrive at an unfitting end; and with regard to this he says: He leads counselors to a foolish end, namely, by impeding through the depth of his counsel the ways that they devise for avoiding an end of this kind.

Second, the depth of someone in counsels is shown when, by the subtlety of his counsel, he can bring adversaries to the point that they do not know what they ought to do; and with regard to this he adds: and judges into stupor. Now he calls those wise men judges who are accustomed to have right judgment about things to be done. As also happens in speculative disputations, that someone is regarded as an effective disputant who can lead an adversary to an unfitting consequence, or establish the proposed point in such a way that nothing can be said to the contrary; so also God acts against his adversaries, because through the ways that they themselves choose he leads them to destruction, and he so establishes his truth and his works that they cannot be shaken by adversaries.

214. And because he had said this in general, he consequently makes it manifest through particular examples, showing how all things that seem to excel in human affairs are brought, by the depth of divine counsel, to a foolish end and into stupor. Now in human affairs kings excel according to power, and with regard to these he says: the belt, that is, the military girdle, of kings he loosens; for their power is designated in the girdle, according to that saying of the Psalm: Gird your sword upon your thigh, O most mighty one; and he girds their loins with a rope, when they are dragged into captivity, in which the greatest defect of power is denoted. Priests, however, excel with regard to the reverence in which they are held; concerning them he adds: he leads priests away without glory. The chief men and counselors of a city or kingdom seem to excel according to prudence in counsels, and concerning these he adds: and he supplants the nobles, that is, deceives them.

Philosophers, however, excel in the consideration of truth, and concerning these he says: changing the lip of those who speak truth, that is, of those who devote themselves to speaking the truth; for sometimes God clouds their mind by withdrawing his grace, so that they cannot find the truth and consequently cannot speak it, according to Romans 1:22: Claiming to be wise, they became fools. Elders also excel in the direction of the young, and concerning these he adds: and taking away the teaching of the elders, either because the elders are made foolish, or because they are entirely taken away from their midst, according to Isaiah 3:1: The Lord will take away from Jerusalem the judge and the prophet and the diviner and the elder. Princes, however, excel in the authority they have for commanding others, and concerning these he adds: he pours contempt upon princes, namely, so that they are despised by those who ought to have obeyed them.

215. Therefore all these things seem to pertain to what he had said: He leads counselors to a foolish end; but that at times some are advanced from the lowest state to the highest seems to pertain to what he had said: and judges into stupor, and with regard to this he adds: And those who had been oppressed he raises up, so that this may be referred to the powerless oppressed by the power of greater men, who, when their oppressors have been cast down, are sometimes raised to a state of power. But with regard to those who have no glory but lie hidden in the lowest state, he adds: he who reveals deep things from darkness, that is, men placed in the lowest state and, on account of this, unknown as though existing in darkness, he brings into glory by revealing them to others.

But with regard to those who are judged ignorant and foolish, he adds: and brings the shadow of death into light; for the shadow of death seems to be ignorance or foolishness, since living things are especially distinguished from non-living things through knowledge. Therefore he brings the shadow of death into light when he either bestows wisdom on the ignorant or shows those who were wise to be wise, whose wisdom was previously unknown. Thus what was said, Those who had been oppressed he raises up, is said as though in opposition to what he had said: He loosens the belt of kings; but what is added, he who reveals deep things from darkness, is set against what he had said: He leads priests away without glory; and what is added, and brings the shadow of death into light, is set against all that follows. And just as he had said that this kind of alternation of exaltation and abasement is done by God concerning individual persons, so he shows the same also concerning a whole nation, adding: He who multiplies nations, namely, so that they grow by the multitude of men, and destroys them, that is, destroys them either by wars or by plagues, and, once overturned, either by these calamities or by the oppression of someone or of some who preside unjustly, restores them whole, that is, leads them back to a good state.

216. Therefore, after showing that strength, wisdom, and counsel are in God, last of all he shows that understanding is in him, which we have said pertains to knowledge of hidden things, which seem especially to be those things that lie hidden in the heart. But he shows that God knows these by the fact that he works in the hearts of men, and thus he knows the hidden things of hearts as, so to speak, his own effects. Therefore he says: He who changes the heart of the princes of the people of the earth, namely, with respect to the will, whence it is also said in Proverbs 21:1: The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord; wherever he wills, he will incline it; and although God inclines the wills of all men, nevertheless special mention is made of kings and princes because their wills have greater weight, as those whose will many follow. But with respect to the intellect he adds: and deceives them, which is said not because he leads them into falsehood, but because he withdraws his light from them so that they do not know the truth, and clouds their reason so that they cannot find suitable ways for accomplishing the evils they propose,

whence there follows: so that they walk in vain through a pathless place, that is, so that they proceed by unsuitable ways through which they cannot arrive at their end.

Now it happens that someone errs in things to be done in two ways:

in one way through ignorance, and with regard to this he says: They will grope in darkness and not in light, so that ignorance is designated by darkness, and knowledge by light; but some grope through ignorance in the manner of the blind, when they consider nothing except what they sense as present, as though by touching;

in another way, some err in things to be done because of passions, by which their reason is bound with regard to particulars so that it does not apply universal knowledge to things to be done, and with regard to this he adds: and he will make them wander like drunken men; for reason is bound by passion as though by a certain drunkenness.