^40:1 But the Lord, answering Job from the whirlwind, said:
^40:2 Gird your loins like a man; I will question you, and you shall make known to me.
^40:3 Will you make my judgment void and condemn me, so that you may be justified?
^40:4 If you have an arm like God, and if you thunder with a voice like his,
^40:5 surround yourself with beauty, and raise yourself on high, and be glorious, and clothe yourself with splendid garments.
^40:6 Scatter the proud in your fury, and, looking upon every arrogant one, humble him.
^40:7 Look upon all the proud and confound them, and crush the impious in their place.
^40:8 You will hide them together in the dust, and plunge their faces into the pit.
^40:9 And I will acknowledge that your right hand can save you.

526. But the Lord, answering Job from the whirlwind, etc. In the preceding things the Lord, by recalling the wonders that appear in his effects, demonstrated his wisdom and power, so that from this it might be manifest that no man can contend with God either in wisdom or in power. But now he proceeds further to reprove Job for the fact that he had recalled his own justice, which seemed to some to sound like a derogation from divine judgment. The manner of divine speech is also set before us when it is said: But the Lord, answering Job from the whirlwind, said; and the arousing of attention when it is added: Gird your loins like a man; and the request for an answer when it is added: I will question you, and you shall make known to me. Since these have been explained above, it is not necessary here to repeat their explanation.

527. Now it should be considered that Job, by recalling his own justice, did not intend to impose iniquity on the divine judgment, as his three friends and Elihu perversely understood, but intended to show that he had not been punished in vengeance for sins, as they charged against him, but for testing, as he had said above in 23:10: He will test me like gold that passes through fire. Yet nevertheless this very thing seemed reprehensible, that he commended his own justice in such a way that to others this seemed to redound to a derogation from divine justice; whence he adds: Will you make my judgment void? As though saying: does it seem to you that, by commending your own justice, you should cause my judgment to be reputed void by men, that is, false? But the falsity of a judgment is the condemnation of the one judging, who brings forth an iniquitous judgment either from ignorance or from malice; whence he adds: and will you condemn me, so that you may be justified? As though saying: do you wish to show yourself just to such a degree that I would seem condemnable before others?

528. Now it should be noted that, if there are two equals, and blame must be imposed on one of them, it is not reprehensible if one of them clears himself of the blame imposed, although the other remains blameworthy in the opinion of others, because a man naturally loves himself more than another. But where there is so great a distance as there is between God and man, man ought rather to suffer blame to be referred to himself unjustly than that it be referred unjustly to God. And therefore, in order to reprove Job, the Lord sets forth the excellence of God over men, which excellence indeed is manifested from his effects. But because now the matter concerns a comparison of justice, which properly is not considered with respect to irrational things, therefore, to show the divine excellence, he takes the effects that God works in rational creatures. These effects can be considered in two ways: in one way according to the operation of his power, and with respect to this he says: If you have an arm like God; for by the arm the power of the divine strength is expressed, and he uses this arm both for the sustaining of the good, according to Isaiah 40:11: in his arm he will gather the lambs, and for the punishment of the wicked, according to Luke 1:51: He has shown power in his arm; he has scattered the proud in the mind of their heart. In another way God works in rational creatures through the teaching of his wisdom, which because of its excellence he calls thunder, and with respect to this he adds: and if you thunder with a similar voice. But God uses this thunder for the instruction of the good, according to what was said above in 26:14: When we have scarcely heard a little drop of his words, who will be able to behold the thunder of his greatness? And for the terrible reproof of the wicked, according to the Psalm: the voice of your thunder in the wheel, and afterward there follows: the earth was moved and trembled.

529. Now from effects of this kind he demonstrates the divine excellence with respect to three things:

first indeed with respect to beauty, when he says: surround yourself with beauty, as though saying: if you are as powerful in effects as God, attribute his beauty to yourself; whence he expressly says: surround yourself. For God does not have beauty surrounding him as something added to his essence, but his very essence is beauty, by which is understood the very clarity or truth, and purity or simplicity, and perfection of his essence. But man cannot have beauty except as something surrounding him, as though participating in it from God as something added to his essence.

Second, he touches upon the divine height when he adds: and raise yourself on high. Now the divine sublimity is considered not by place, because God is not comprehended by place, but by perfection and power, because whatever is said of him belongs to him in the highest degree;

but sublimity of this kind belongs to God essentially, whence he is not raised to it, but remains immovably in it; man, however, according to his nature, is of the lowest condition, whence he could not arrive at that divine sublimity except by lifting himself above himself, and therefore he expressly says: raise yourself on high.

Third, he touches upon his glory when he adds: and be glorious. Glory indeed implies knowledge of someone’s goodness, whence Ambrose says that glory is clear knowledge with praise. But the goodness of God is infinite, and perfect knowledge of it belongs only to God, and therefore glory is in God alone insofar as he knows himself; man cannot arrive at this glory except by participating in divine knowledge, according to Jeremiah 9:24: let him who glories glory in this: to know and understand me, and therefore he expressly says: be glorious, because man does not have this glory essentially.

530. Therefore, after setting forth these things that pertain to the excellence of divine power and nature, he proceeds further to recall the divine effects in rational creatures, both with respect to the good and with respect to the wicked. But it should be known that the effects that God works for the exaltation of the just are more attributed to mercy, while those that he works for the punishment of the wicked are properly attributed to justice. And therefore, because justice is now being treated, he first briefly touches on the effect of the divine operation with respect to the good when he says: and clothe yourself with splendid garments. For all the good, both Angels and men, are splendid from participation in divine wisdom and justice; and just as a man is adorned by a splendid garment, so all the beauty of the holy Angels and men redounds to the adornment of God, insofar as from this the goodness of God is commended, in the manner in which it is said in Isaiah 49:18: you will be clothed with all these as with an ornament. Now it should be considered that it pertains to the mercy of God that he make his holy ones splendid, but that he use their beauty for his glory pertains to justice, concerning which he is now speaking; and therefore he does not say, “make splendid garments,” but clothe yourself with splendid garments.

531. Then he shows more fully the effects of divine justice that he exercises upon the wicked, and first he pursues this with respect to men. Now it should be known that all human malice takes its beginning from pride, according to Sirach 10:15: the beginning of every sin is pride. Among all vices God also detests pride most of all, whence it is said in James 4:6 that God resists the proud; and this is because the proud, as it were, rebel against God when they are unwilling to be humbly subject to him, and from this they fall into all sins, once the divine precepts have been contemned—whence earthly princes also detest rebels most of all. And therefore the Lord especially recalls the effect of his power that he exercises against the proud. Now there is a twofold kind of proud persons: for some, from the goods they have, lift themselves up over others, like the one who said in Luke 18:11: I am not like the rest of men, and these are properly called proud, as the very name sounds;

but the proper punishment of the proud is discord, because, while each one strives to be above another and refuses to be subject, they cannot be in harmony with one another, whence it is said in Proverbs 13:10: among the proud there are always quarrels. And to designate this he says: Scatter the proud in your fury, as though saying: exercise the office of God, which is to scatter the proud so that they cannot come together as one. But by the fury of God is understood grave vengeance. The other kind of proud persons are those who arrogate to themselves what is above them, and these are properly called arrogant; whence it is said in Jeremiah 48:29: I know his arrogance and the loftiness of his heart, says the Lord, and that his strength is not according to it. But their proper punishment is being cast down: for since they wish to raise themselves beyond their ability, it follows that they fall dangerously, according to the Psalm: you cast them down while they were being lifted up; whence he adds: and, looking upon every arrogant one, humble him, that is, cast him down from the gaze of your providence.

532. But the first punishment common to both is confusion, because when they cannot attain the height that they were pretending to, they are confounded once their defect appears; whence he adds: Look upon all the proud and confound them. Whence also it was said above in 20:6: If his pride should ascend even to heaven, in the end he will be destroyed like a dunghill.

But their second punishment is their destruction, which he designates by adding: and crush the impious in their place. He calls the proud impious because, as is said in Sirach 10:14, the beginning of man’s pride is to apostatize from God, which is opposed to divine worship, which pertains to piety. But it is a fitting punishment of the proud that they be crushed: for what is crushed is, by a certain violence of a stronger body, resolved into the smallest parts; and it is just that the proud, who inordinately consider themselves great, be reduced to the least by a stronger power, namely, the divine.

He also expressly adds in their place, so that it may be shown that the thing in which they trust cannot set them free: for each thing is preserved in its own place, and therefore the multitude of riches or the state of dignity, or anything else of this kind in which man trusts, can be called his place; notwithstanding these things, the proud man is crushed by God, so that he seems to be crushed, as it were, in his own place.

The third punishment is that, after they have been reduced to the least, the brightness of their fame ceases: for it is just that those who sought the pomp of glory be blotted out from the memories of men, according to Proverbs: the name of the impious will rot; whence there follows: You will hide them in the dust, that is, you will make them obscure because of the state of baseness to which they will be brought down.

But what he adds, together, can be referred to two things:

namely, to the fact that all the proud suffer such an end together,

and to the fact that the proud do not perish successively, but together, that is, suddenly, they are cast down.

But their fourth punishment is that not only are they themselves not known by others, but they are also not permitted to know the goods about which they were proud; whence he adds: and their faces, by which, namely, their cognitive powers are signified, because man’s sight is placed in the face, you will plunge into the pit, that is, into the depth of Hell. And he speaks of the damnation of the second death by the likeness of the first death, by which men, plunged into a pit, are reduced to bodily dust.

533. Now the Lord had set these things forth as his own proper works; but it is proper to him that he not need another’s help, which cannot belong to man, just as he cannot exercise the aforesaid works; whence he adds: And I will acknowledge that your right hand can save you, as though saying: if you can do the aforesaid works, which belong to God alone, you can reasonably attribute to yourself that you do not need divine help for salvation; but just as you cannot do the former, so neither can you do this. Hence you ought not to glory in your justice.