^7:1 The life of man upon earth is warfare, and his days are like the days of a hired hand.
^7:2 As a servant longs for the shade and as a hired hand awaits the end of his work,
^7:3 so I also have had empty months and have numbered toilsome nights for myself.
^7:4 If I sleep, I say: When shall I arise? And again I will await evening and be filled with sorrows even until darkness.

121. The life of man upon earth is warfare, etc. In the preceding words, Eliphaz, wishing to remove blessed Job from despair, had promised him a certain earthly blessedness if he did not reject the rebuke of the Lord; hence blessed Job, after he has shown the reasonable causes of his sadness, wishes further to show that the aforesaid consolation of Eliphaz, from the promise of earthly happiness, is unfitting. And first he shows this from the condition of the present life; afterwards, however, he will show it from his own condition.

122. Now concerning the condition of the present life, the opinion of men has differed: for some have posited that ultimate happiness is in this life, and the words of Eliphaz seem to follow this opinion. For the ultimate end of man is there where he expects final retribution for goods or evils; hence, if in this life man is rewarded by God for good deeds and punished for evils, as Eliphaz was striving to assert, it seems to follow that the ultimate end of man is in this life. But Job intends to reject this opinion and wishes to show that the present life of man does not have the ultimate end in itself, but is compared to it as movement to rest and as the way to the terminus; and therefore he compares it to those states of men that tend toward some end, namely, to the state of soldiers, who by soldiering tend toward victory, and this is what he says: The life of man upon earth is warfare, as if to say: the present life by which we live upon earth is not like the state of victory but like the state of warfare. He also compares it to the state of hired hands, and this is what he adds: and his days are like the days of a hired hand, namely, of man living upon earth.

He compares the present life to these two states on account of two things that are incumbent upon man in the present life: namely, that he resist impediments and harmful things, and on account of this it is compared to warfare; and that he perform things useful for the end, and on account of this it is compared to a hired hand. From each example, however, it is given to be understood that the present life is subject to divine providence: for soldiers serve under a commander, and hired hands await wages from their master. The falsity of the opinion that Eliphaz was defending also appears sufficiently in these two examples. For it is manifest that the commander of an army does not spare vigorous soldiers from dangers or labors, but, according as the character of warfare requires, sometimes exposes them to greater labors and greater dangers; yet, after victory has been obtained, he honors the more vigorous more greatly. So also the head of a household entrusts greater labors to the better hired hands, but in the time of wages bestows greater gifts upon them. Hence divine providence does not have this as its purpose, that it should exempt the good more from adversities and the labors of the present life, but that in the end it should reward them more greatly.

123. Therefore, because the whole judgment of Eliphaz is undermined by these words, Job intends to confirm them and demonstrates them by an effective reason. For it is manifest that every thing rests when it has attained its ultimate end; hence it is necessary that, when the human will has attained the ultimate end, it rest in that and not be moved further to desire other things. But we experience the contrary of this in the present life, for man, as though not content with present things, always desires future things. Hence it is manifest that the ultimate end is not in this life, but that this life is ordered to another end, as warfare is ordered to victory and the days of a hired hand to wages.

Now it must be known that in the present life present things do not suffice, but desire tends toward future things for two reasons:

namely, because of the afflictions of the present life, and on account of this he brings in the example of a servant desiring shade, saying: As a servant, afflicted by heat, longs for the shade, by which he may be refreshed;

and because of the lack of the perfect and final good, which is not had here; and therefore he sets down the example of a hired hand, saying: and as a hired hand awaits the end of his work—for the perfect good is the end of man—so I also have had empty months, that is, I have reckoned the months past as having passed empty for me, as those in which I had not attained final perfection; and toilsome nights, assigned for rest against afflictions, I have numbered for myself, that is, I have reckoned them as though they were toilsome, insofar as in them I was delayed from attaining the end.

124. But how he had empty months and toilsome nights he explains, adding: If I sleep, that is, when it is the time for sleeping at night, I say: When shall I arise?, longing for day. And again, when day has come, I will await evening, thus always tending by desire toward the future. And this indeed is common to every man living on earth, but men feel this more and less according as they are affected more or less by joys or sorrows: for one who is in joy desires the future less, but one who is in sorrow desires it more. And therefore, to show that this desire is vehement in himself, Job adds: and I will be filled with sorrows even until darkness; because of these sorrows the present time becomes wearisome to me, and I desire the future more.