^7:11 For this reason I also will not spare my mouth: I will speak in the tribulation of my spirit; I will converse in the bitterness of my soul.
^7:12 Am I the sea or a whale, that you have enclosed me in a prison?
^7:13 If I say: My little bed will console me, and I will be relieved, speaking with myself on my couch,
^7:14 you will terrify me through dreams and shake me with horror through visions.
^7:15 For this reason my soul has chosen hanging, and my bones, death.
^7:16 I have despaired; by no means will I now live any longer.

130. For this reason I also will not spare my mouth, etc. After Job showed, by demonstrative reasons, that the consolation of Eliphaz, who promised earthly prosperity, was unfitting, he now shows this by leading it to unfitting consequences: because if he relied on that consolation which had been given to him by Eliphaz from the hope of earthly prosperity, since that hope is frivolous, as has been shown, it followed that he would have to remain still in sadness, utter words of sorrow, and despair completely. And therefore, as though disputing against this position, he concludes: For this reason, because, namely, it is vain to expect earthly prosperity, as has been shown, and you have nothing else from which to console me, I also, as one destitute of consolation, will not spare my mouth, so as not to speak words of lamentation according as my mind suggests; and this is what he adds: I will speak in the tribulation of my spirit, that is, according as the tribulation that I suffer impels my spirit to speak. Nor was exterior tribulation alone present to him, but also interior sadness conceived from it, and therefore he adds: I will converse in the bitterness of my soul, that is, I will speak empty and, as it were, fanciful words, according as the bitterness of my soul will furnish them to me.

131. But among the other things that embittered men are accustomed to chatter about, they are especially accustomed to inquire into the causes of their bitterness, because scarcely anyone is embittered without its seeming to him that he is afflicted either altogether unjustly or more than is just. And therefore Job, bearing the person of an embittered man, inquires into the cause of his affliction, saying: Am I the sea or a whale, that you have enclosed me in a prison? Here it should be noted that the providence of God operates in one way concerning rational creatures and in another way concerning irrational creatures: for in rational creatures merit and demerit are found on account of free will, and on account of this punishments and rewards are owed to them; but irrational creatures, since they do not have free will, neither merit nor demerit punishments or rewards, but God operates concerning them for their expansion or restriction according as it is fitting for the good of the universe. From this provision or reason it happens that God restrains the sea lest it occupy the whole surface of the earth, so that there may be a place for animals and things springing from the earth; similarly also, he restrains the whale within the Ocean Sea lest, if it were led into other seas, it might be harmful to some. And therefore Job asks whether the cause of his affliction is similar to the cause on account of which the sea or the whale is confined, namely, whether he has been afflicted not because of some demerit of his own but because of some usefulness that would thereby come to others.

132. Now he says that he is enclosed in a prison because he was so oppressed by tribulation that neither liberation nor consolation lay open to him on any side. And therefore he consequently shows that he was deprived of those remedies by which the afflicted are accustomed to be consoled, one of which is sleep, for after sleep sadness is mitigated; and he notes this when he says: If I say: My little bed will console me, namely, at the time of sleeping. Another remedy is when wise men console themselves by the deliberation of reason, and he touches on this remedy when he says: and I will be relieved, namely, from the oppression of sadness, speaking with myself, through the deliberation of reason, on my couch: for when wise men are alone and removed from the tumults of men and of affairs, then they can speak more with themselves by thinking something according to reason. But these remedies could not help him, because at the time when he ought to have used these remedies, other impediments were present to him by which he was disturbed, namely, terrifying dreams and horrible visions, and this is what he adds: you will terrify me through dreams, which, namely, appear to one who is sleeping, and through visions, which, namely, appear to one who is awake but withdrawn from the use of the exterior senses, you will shake me with horror. For nocturnal phantasms are customarily conformed to daytime thoughts; hence, because by day Job was thinking of mournful things, he was disturbed by similar phantasms at night. Bodily infirmity also works toward this, that disturbed phantasms appear to those who sleep.

133. Thus, therefore, with consolation excluded on every side, no way remains for me to escape such great anguish except through death, and therefore I prefer death, however abject, to so miserable a life; and this is what he says: For this reason my soul has chosen hanging. And lest this choice be thought to arise from some weak thought, while other strong thoughts resisted it, he adds that there is nothing in him so strong that it does not desire death, and this is what he says: and my bones, death; for by bones in Scripture there is usually designated what belongs to strength in man. And why he chooses this he shows when he adds: I have despaired, namely, of the hope that you have given me, that I should again enjoy earthly prosperity; and why he has despaired he shows, adding: by no means will I now live any longer. In this can be understood the two things that he had set down above, namely, that the greater part of the time of his life had already passed and that there was no return after death to the same life, namely, so as to live upon earth. Therefore this unfitting consequence followed for Job from the consolation of Eliphaz, namely, that he would despair, choose death, and have nothing by which to restrain sadness.