^14:18 A falling mountain crumbles away, and a rock is removed from its place;
^14:19 waters hollow out stones, and by flooding the earth is gradually consumed: and will you therefore destroy men in like manner?
^14:20 Have you strengthened him for a little while, so that he would pass away forever? Will you change his face and send him away?
^14:21 Whether his sons have been noble or ignoble, he will not understand.
^14:22 Yet his flesh, while he lives, will suffer pain, and his soul will mourn over itself.

246. A falling mountain crumbles away, and a rock is removed from its place, etc. After Job had set down his judgment about the future resurrection, here he strengthens it with probable reasons. And the first reason is taken from the comparison of man to lower creatures, which are totally consumed without hope of restoration. For all things that are generated are subject to corruption; hence even mountains, although they seem most firm, nevertheless, from certain causes, after some courses of time, are dissolved, and this is what he says: A falling mountain crumbles away. Rocks also, although they seem most strong, are nevertheless cut away either by violence or from some natural cause, and this is what follows: and a rock is removed from its place. Stones also, although they seem most hard, are nevertheless hollowed out by waters, and this is what is added: waters hollow out stones. The earth also, although it seems most stable, nevertheless is gradually changed from its condition, and this is what is added: and by flooding the earth is gradually consumed. But it would be unfitting if there were the same account of the corruption of man and of the aforesaid things, and therefore he concludes, as though it were unfitting: and will you therefore destroy men in like manner? As if to say: it is not fitting that men be corrupted in like manner as other bodily creatures; for the aforesaid creatures are totally corrupted, whence the same things in number are not restored; but man, although he is corrupted according to the body, nevertheless remains incorruptible according to the soul, which transcends the whole genus of bodily things, so that in this way there remains hope of restoration.

247. Then he brings in reasons for the same point taken from the properties of man. Now man excels all lower creatures in two things. One of these is operative power: for he is master of his own act through free will, which belongs to no other bodily creature, and according to this man is more powerful than any bodily creature, whence he also uses other things for his own sake. The other in which he excels is intellective knowledge, which, although it is in the mind, nevertheless has some indication in the body, and especially in the face, which man has as very different from other animals. And from these two things it appears that man is not so corrupted as other things are, so that they should not exist forever. Therefore, with regard to the first of these he says: Have you strengthened him for a little while, so that he would pass away forever? As if to say: it is not fitting that you have given man such great strength for a little time, in such a way that afterwards he would not exist forever. For it would seem foolish if someone made a very strong instrument in order to use it for a brief hour, and afterwards cast it away entirely. But the power of any bodily creature is determined to finite effects, whereas the power of free will is related to infinite actions; whence this very fact bears witness to the power of the soul, that it should endure unto infinity. But with regard to the second, namely, to the intellect, he says: Will you change his face and send him away? As if to say: it is not fitting that you have changed his face, that is, diversified it from other animals, and yet send him away from the state of life in such a way that he is not to return forever, as other animals are. Now intellective knowledge is usually understood by the face because it is proper to the rational creature; but intellectual knowledge cannot belong except to an incorruptible substance, as is proved by the philosophers.

248. But someone could say that, although man does not return to life after death, nevertheless he does not pass away forever, insofar as he lives in some way in his children; the words of Bildad also sound in this way, when he said above: This is the joy of his way, that others may spring up again from the earth. But Job excludes this response, adding: Whether his sons have been noble or ignoble, he will not understand, as if to say: man grasps an eternal good through the intellect, whence he also naturally desires it; but the good that is in the succession of children cannot satisfy the intellectual appetite, if man is totally consumed by death so as not to exist forever, because the intellectual appetite rests only in a good that is understood. But the good that is in the succession of children man does not understand, either while he lives or after death, if he totally ceases to exist through death. Therefore the intellective appetite of man does not tend toward the eternity of this good, but toward the good or evil that he has in himself. Whence he adds: Yet his flesh, while he lives, will suffer pain, and his soul will mourn over itself, where he distinguishes a twofold pain: one of the flesh in the apprehension of sense, and another of the soul from the apprehension of the intellect or imagination, which is properly called sadness and is here named mourning.