^7:5 My flesh is clothed with rottenness and with the filth of dust; my skin has dried up and is contracted.
^7:6 My days have passed more swiftly than a web is cut off by the weaver, and they have been consumed without any hope.
^7:7 Remember that my life is wind, and my eye will not return to see good things,
^7:8 nor will the sight of man behold me; your eyes are upon me, and I will not subsist.
^7:9 As a cloud is consumed and passes away, so he who has descended to the lower regions will not ascend.
^7:10 Nor will he return any more to his house, nor will his place know him any longer.

125. My flesh is clothed with rottenness, etc. Blessed Job had shown above that the consolation of Eliphaz, from the promise of happiness in earthly life, was inept because of the general condition of man’s life upon earth; but now he intends to show that the same consolation is inept because of his own condition.

And he sets forth two things that prevent him from expecting prosperity upon earth,

the first of which is the bodily infirmity that he was suffering: for to a man held fast by grave infirmity nothing can happen that would make him happy in this life, and therefore he says: My flesh is clothed with rottenness, as though saying: my body is surrounded on every side by the rottenness of ulcers, as a body is surrounded by clothing. And because wounds cared for from the beginning come to health, he shows that his ulcers had been neglected, whence he says: and with the filth of dust; for they were not cared for in the due manner, because, according to the letter, he was sitting on a dunghill, as was said above. Now health is sometimes expected even if ulcers have been neglected, when nature is strong; but in Job the vigor of nature had failed, whence he says: my skin has dried up and is contracted, because, namely, the natural moisture had already been consumed, either because of old age or because of infirmity. Hence there seems to be no place for me to expect happiness any further in this life.

The second is that very much of the time of his life had already passed; hence little time remained, and in it he could not expect great happiness. And on account of this he says: My days have passed more swiftly than a web is cut off by the weaver. For the life of man is, in some respect, like weaving: for just as one who weaves a web joins threads to threads in order to arrive at the perfection of the web, and, once it is finished, cuts it off, so, in order that the life of man may be completed, days are added to days, and when it has been completed it is taken away. Yet he says that the days of man pass more swiftly than a web is cut off because in the work of a web the weaver sometimes rests, but the time of man’s life continuously slips away without rest.

126. But someone could say that, although very much of the time of his life had passed, nevertheless he could still expect a return to the state of his past life. For some have posited that, after death, when very many cycles of years have been completed, man was to return to the same course of life that he had previously lived, as, for example, that Plato in future times would read at Athens and do the same things he had done before; and thus, although very much of the time of a man’s life had passed, he could expect the restoration of blessedness in earthly life. And therefore, to remove this, Job adds: and they have been consumed without any hope, namely, of returning to the former days. And to prove this he adds, speaking to God—to whom, from that place, The life of man upon earth is warfare, he seems to have directed his speech—saying: Remember that my life is wind, that is, like the wind; for just as the wind passes by and does not return again, so the life of man, when it has passed by, does not return,

and this is what he adds: and my eye will not return to see good things, namely, the goods of earthly life that I once had and now have lost. And just as when my life has passed by I will not return to see earthly goods, so neither will I be seen by an earthly eye; hence there follows: nor will the sight of man behold me. But he sets down these two things to signify that he will not return to human association, which consists especially in seeing and being seen: for sight, since it is the more subtle of the senses, holds primacy in sensible life. But although he had said that after death he would not be seen by the eye of man, nevertheless he confesses that he will be seen by the divine eye in what he adds: your eyes are upon me, namely, they will be: for to God the dead are manifest, since he beholds spiritual things, because the dead live according to the spirit, not according to the flesh, which the sight of man can behold.

127. But from this someone could understand that the eyes of God regard a dead man not according to the present state but as he regards future things, as though a dead man were again to return to the life that he left behind; and therefore, to exclude this, he adds: and I will not subsist, as though saying: I say that your eyes will be upon me after death in such a way that, nevertheless, I will not afterwards subsist again in the state of this earthly life. And he proves this by a likeness when he adds: As a cloud is consumed and passes away, so he who descends to the lower regions will not ascend. Now the dead are said to descend to the lower regions either because, according to the soul before the death of Christ, all descended to the lower regions, or because, according to the flesh, they are placed beneath the earth. For as regards the present matter, it makes no difference in whichever way this is explained: for he wishes to say nothing other than that the dead do not return to the life that has passed, and he proves this in a certain likeness, with a sufficient proof.

For as the Philosopher teaches in Book II of On Generation, a certain circular motion appears both in corruptible bodies and in incorruptible bodies; but this is the difference: that in the heavenly bodies, according to circulation, the same thing in number is repeated, just as the same sun in number that sets returns to rising, and this because the substance is not corrupted in such a change, but only the place is changed; but in the motion of generable and corruptible things, the same thing in number does not return, but the same in species. For it is plain that, according to the annual circular motion of the sun, a certain circulation occurs in the disposition of the air: for in winter there are clouds, and afterwards in summer they are consumed, and when winter returns the clouds return again, yet not the same in number but the same in species, because those clouds that existed before utterly pass away. And it is similar with men: for the same men who existed before do not return through generations according to number, but only according to species.

128. From this the solution is clear to the argument of those who posited a return to the same life and to the same acts: for they believed that lower things are disposed according to the motion of the heavenly bodies; hence, when the same constellation returned after very many spaces of time, they believed that the same thing in number would return. But it is not necessary that the same things return in number, as has been said, but only things similar according to species. Now these people posited that a dead man, after certain spaces of time, would return not only to life but also to the same possessions and houses that he had before, and therefore, to exclude this, he adds: Nor will he return any more to his house. They also posited that he would do the same works that he had done before and have the same offices and dignities, whence, to exclude this also, he adds: nor will his place know him any longer, that is, he will not return again to his place; and here place is taken for the state of a person, in that manner of speaking by which we are accustomed to say: this man has a great place in that city.

129. Now it is manifest from these things that Job here does not deny the resurrection that faith asserts, but the return to carnal life that the Jews posit and that some philosophers also posited. Nor does this contradict the narrative of Scripture concerning the fact that some have been raised back to the present life, because what is done miraculously is one thing, and what is done according to the course of nature is another, as Job is speaking here. It must also be considered that what he said above, Remember that my life is wind, he did not say because forgetfulness falls upon God, but he speaks on the hypothesis of the position of his adversaries: for if God were to promise goods in this earthly life to a man whose life has already, as it were, passed by, it would seem as though he had forgotten that the life of man passes in the manner of wind, without return.