^5:17 Blessed is the man who is corrected by the Lord. Therefore do not reject the rebuke of the Lord,
^5:18 because he wounds and heals, he strikes and his hands will heal.
^5:19 In six tribulations he will deliver you, and in the seventh evil will not touch you.
^5:20 In famine he will rescue you from death, and in war from the hand of the sword.
^5:21 From the scourge of the tongue you will be hidden, and you will not fear calamity when it comes.
^5:22 In famine and devastation you will laugh, and the beast of the earth you will not fear.
^5:23 But your covenant will be with the stones of the regions, and the beasts of the earth will be peaceful to you.
^5:24 And you will know that your tabernacle has peace, and visiting your appearance you will not sin.
^5:25 And you will also know that your seed will be manifold, and your progeny like the grass of the earth.
^5:26 You will enter the sepulcher in abundance, as a heap of wheat is brought in its time.
^5:27 Behold, this is as we have investigated; so it is. What you have heard, weigh in your mind.

104. Blessed is the man who is corrected by the Lord, etc. As was said above, Eliphaz in the preceding words had accused blessed Job both of impatience and of presumption, because he had asserted himself to be innocent; but now he strives to remove from him the despair from which he believed those words had arisen by which Job had detested his life. Therefore it must be known that, from the things said above, by which he had asserted divine providence both concerning natural things and concerning human affairs, he takes this as known: that all adversities are brought upon men by divine judgment, but upon some, indeed, for final condemnation, those who are incorrigible, and upon others for correction, those who are amended through adversities. These he asserts to be blessed, saying: Blessed is the man who is corrected by the Lord. For if correction by man is salutary, though man cannot know perfectly the measure and manner according to which correction can be salutary, nor is he omnipotent to remove evils and bestow goods, much more should the correction of almighty and all-knowing God be reckoned salutary and happy. From this judgment he concludes for the matter at hand, saying: Therefore do not reject the rebuke of the Lord, as though saying: although you suffer this adversity from God because of your sins, nevertheless you ought to judge that this is like a certain rebuke of the Lord for correcting you; hence you ought not to reject this adversity so greatly that on account of it you hold your life hateful.

105. And he adds the cause of the foregoing, saying: because he wounds, by a more grievous adversity, and heals, by taking away evils and restoring goods; he strikes, by a lighter adversity, and his hands, that is, his works, will heal, that is, will deliver. Therefore Eliphaz did not assert that the one who is corrected by the Lord is blessed because of the future life, which he did not believe in, but because of the present life, in which after correction man obtained from God immunity from evils and an abundance of goods. Hence, concerning immunity from evils, he consequently adds, saying: In six tribulations he will deliver you, and in the seventh evil will not touch you: for because the whole of time is carried through a cycle of seven days, universality is customarily designated by the number seven, so that the sense is that, after amendment, no adversity will harm the one who is corrected by the Lord. And because, according to his judgment, the more someone has been purified from fault, the less he suffers adversity in this world, therefore he says: and in the seventh evil will not touch you, as though before amendment man is not delivered from adversity; but when he begins to be delivered from it, he is touched but not oppressed, because God delivers him; while after perfect deliverance he is not touched at all.

This indeed is true with regard to the mind, which, when it sets its end in worldly things, is oppressed by worldly adversities; when, drawing back its love from them, it has begun to love God, it is indeed saddened in adversities but is not oppressed, because it does not have its hope in the world; but when it has totally contemned the world, then worldly adversities scarcely touch it. Yet this judgment is not true with regard to the body, as Eliphaz understood it, since the most perfect men sometimes suffer the gravest adversities, according to that saying of the Psalm: For your sake we are put to death all the day long, which is applied to the Apostles.

106. And because he had touched upon seven tribulations, he subsequently enumerates them.

Now it must be known that sometimes adversity comes from some particular danger to a person, and this sometimes is against his bodily life, which is sometimes taken away by the withdrawal of necessities; and with respect to this he says: In famine he will rescue you from death, as though saying: you will indeed suffer hunger as one rebuked by the Lord, but from this you will not come to death, since God delivers you. And this is the first tribulation.

Sometimes, however, it is taken away by the violence of someone inflicting harm, and with respect to this he says: and in war from the hand, that is, the power, of the sword, as though saying: war will come upon you, but you will not be brought under the power of the sword. And this is the second tribulation.

Bodily life is also taken away by natural death, but this is not counted among the tribulations, since the nature of man requires this. Sometimes, however, personal danger is against a man’s reputation, which pertains to civil life, and with respect to this he says: From the scourge of the tongue you will be hidden. Now the scourge of the tongue is called detraction that gravely defames; a man is hidden from it when his deeds, about which he could be defamed, lie hidden from the detractor. And this is the third tribulation.

Sometimes, however, adversity comes from some general danger, which indeed threatens either persons or things: persons, as when an enemy army comes upon someone’s homeland, by which either death or captivity is commonly feared, and with respect to this he says: and you will not fear calamity when it comes, as though saying: when calamity threatens your homeland from enemies, you will not fear. And this is the fourth tribulation. But a common danger threatens things either through the sterility of the land, which happens in time of famine, or through some devastation of fruits by enemies; and with respect to these two he says: In famine and devastation you will laugh, that is, you will have abundance, which will be for you a matter of joy. And thus the fifth and sixth tribulations are touched upon.

Sometimes, however, there is adversity from the attack of brute animals, either in common or in particular, and with respect to this he says: and the beast of the earth you will not fear. And this seems to be the seventh tribulation, in which evil does not touch.

107. After immunity from evils, however, he sets down abundance in goods,

and first with respect to the fertility of the lands, saying: But your covenant will be with the stones of the regions, that is, even stony and sterile lands will bring forth fruit for you, according to that saying of Deuteronomy 32:13: so that you might suck honey from the rock, etc.;

second, with respect to brute animals, and with respect to this he says: and the beasts of the earth will be peaceful to you, that is, they will not harm you. These two things could also be explained otherwise, so that by stones are understood hard and rough men, and by beasts, cruel men;

third, with respect to household members, when he says: and you will know that your tabernacle has peace, that is, your family will have peace among themselves;

fourth, especially with respect to a wife, and with respect to this he says: and visiting your appearance you will not sin, as though saying: you will have an honorable and peaceful wife with whom you will be able to live without sin;

fifth, with respect to children, whence he says: your progeny like the grass of the earth, that is, you will have many children and grandchildren;

sixth, with respect to a peaceful and quiet death, and with respect to this he says: You will enter the sepulcher in abundance, as though in good prosperity, not despoiled of your goods, as a heap of wheat is brought in its time, as though not overtaken by an untimely and sudden death.

108. Finally, however, he approves the things that he had said above, saying: Behold, this is as we have investigated; so it is. And because he judges Job to be so swallowed up by sadness that he would not think much on such things, he makes him attentive, saying: What you have heard, weigh in your mind.