^7:16 Spare me, O Lord, for my days are nothing.
^7:17 What is man, that you magnify him, or that you set your heart toward him?
^7:18 You visit him at daybreak and suddenly test him.
^7:19 How long will you not spare me, nor release me, so that I may swallow my saliva?
^7:20 I have sinned; what shall I do for you, O keeper of men? Why have you set me contrary to you, and I have become burdensome to myself?
^7:21 Why do you not take away my sin? And why do you not remove my iniquity? Behold, now I shall sleep in the dust, and if in the morning you seek me, I shall not subsist.

134. Spare me, O Lord, etc. After Job showed that the consolation of Eliphaz from the promise of earthly happiness led him to despair and the desire for death, he shows what remains for him to hope from God, namely, that the tribulation inflicted may cease, and this is what he says: Spare me, O Lord, as though saying: I have fallen away from the hope of earthly prosperity; this is enough for me, that you spare me, that is, cease to scourge me. And because the littleness and misery of man are accustomed to induce one to spare, he adds: for my days are nothing, which seems to refer to the littleness of man and to the brevity of life: both commonly with respect to all and especially with respect to himself, whose days had already, as it were, passed by.

135. He consequently pursues both of these,

and first concerning littleness, saying: What is man, that is, how small and weak a thing he is according to the body, that you magnify him with a certain honor among the other creatures, or that you set your heart toward him, by guarding and protecting him with special care? Here it must be considered that, although all things are subject to divine providence and all things attain greatness from God according to their state, nevertheless in different ways. For since all the particular goods that are in the universe seem to be ordered to the common good of the universe as part to whole and imperfect to perfect, some things are disposed according to divine providence according as they have an order to the universe. But it must be known that according to the mode by which certain things participate in perpetuity, they essentially look to the perfection of the universe; but according as they fall short of perpetuity, they belong accidentally to the perfection of the universe and not of themselves:

and therefore, according as some things are perpetual, they are disposed by God for their own sake; but according as they are corruptible, for the sake of another. Therefore those things that are perpetual both in species and in individual are governed by God for their own sake; but those that are corruptible in individual and perpetual only in species are indeed disposed by God according to the species for their own sake, but according to the individual only for the sake of the species, just as the good and evil that happen among brute animals—for example, that this sheep is killed by this wolf, or something else of this kind—is not dispensed by God on account of some merit or demerit of this wolf or this sheep, but on account of the good of the species, because by divine ordering proper food has been appointed for each species. And this is what he says: or that you set your heart toward him, when, namely, you provide for him for the sake of his good; but he does not set his heart toward singular animals, but toward the good of the species, which can be perpetual.

136. But how he sets his heart toward him he shows when he adds: You visit him at daybreak, that is, from the beginning of birth, by your providence you administer to him the things necessary for life and magnification, both bodily and spiritual; and suddenly test him through adversities, in which it appears how he stands with regard to virtue, because, as is found in Sirach 27:6, the furnace tests the vessels of the potter, and the trial of tribulation tests just men. Now God is said to test man not so that he himself may learn what kind of man he is, but so that he may make others know him and so that the man himself may know himself. These words of Job, however, are not to be understood as though he disapproved of divine solicitude concerning men, but as one inquiring and wondering: for that which appears outwardly of man is a small thing, fragile and falling away; hence it would seem marvelous that God should have such great solicitude for man unless there lay hidden in him something capable of perpetuity. Hence by this inquiry and wonder the judgment of Eliphaz is excluded, because if there were no other life of man except that which is upon earth, man would not seem worthy of such great solicitude of God concerning him. Therefore the very solicitude that God has especially for man demonstrates that there is another life of man after the death of the body.

137. Then he adds another reason that he should be spared, taken from the brevity of life, proposing it under a question when he says: How long will you not spare me? As though saying: the time of man’s life is brief, and the greater part of the time of my life has already passed; what end, therefore, is awaited for you to spare me, if you do not spare me now, so that at least I may have some brief space in which I may rest? He signifies this in what he adds: nor release me, so that I may swallow my saliva? For when men utter words, they cannot swallow saliva; therefore in speaking it is necessary that some slight pause be made, so that the saliva may either be spat out or swallowed. He compares the remaining time of his life to this little hour, as if to say: if you delay sparing me, no rest from labors will remain to me, at least like that pause by which those speaking swallow saliva. And this reason also proceeds from the supposition of Eliphaz’s judgment, because if there is no other life of man except that which is upon earth, there will not remain a time when God may spare, if he does not spare in this life.

138. But someone could say that Job was unworthy to be spared by God, because his sins merited that he be afflicted further, according to the judgment of Eliphaz, who thought that he was being scourged because of sins; and therefore he adds: I have sinned, as though saying: granted that I have sinned and on account of this deserve to be scourged, there still remains a reason why you ought to spare me.

And to this he adds three reasons why he ought to spare him, taken from man’s weakness,

the first of which is taken from his inability to make satisfaction. For man can do nothing worthy by his own powers to recompense the offense that he has committed against God, and this is what he says: What shall I do for you, O keeper of men? As though saying: if you have such great solicitude for men, as their keeper, that you require an account of each of their acts, my powers are not sufficient for doing anything on account of which you would remit sins; hence, if this is awaited, you would never spare me. And therefore, notwithstanding this, spare me.

139. The second reason is taken from his inability to persevere. For after the corruption of human nature, man cannot persevere without the grace of God; hence also in Sacred Scripture it is customary to say that God hardens or blinds someone from the fact that he does not bestow the grace by which he might be softened and might see. Therefore according to this mode Job also speaks here, saying: Why have you set me contrary to you? That is, why have you not given me grace by which I might persevere in this, so that I would not be contrary to you through sin? For whoever sins is contrary to God, since he resists the divine commandments, whether those handed down in the written law or those naturally implanted in human reason. Now it must be known that reason is stronger than all the powers of the soul, a sign of which is that it commands the others and uses them for its own end; nevertheless, it happens that reason is sometimes swallowed up for a little while by concupiscence or anger or other passions of the lower parts, and thus man sins. Yet the lower powers cannot hold reason bound in such a way that it does not always return to its nature, by which it tends toward spiritual goods as toward its proper end. Thus, therefore, a certain struggle of man even against himself comes about: reason resists that by which, swallowed up through concupiscence or anger, it sinned; and because, from a past sin, a proneness to similar acts because of habit has been added to the lower powers, reason cannot freely use the lower powers so as to order them to higher goods and draw them back from lower goods. And thus, when man becomes contrary to God through sin, he also becomes burdensome to himself, and this is what he adds: and I have become burdensome to myself? In this it appears that sin at once has its punishment; and so, after this punishment, it seems that man should more readily be spared.

140. The third reason is taken from man’s inability to purge sin. For man falls into sin by himself, but it belongs to God alone to remit sin; and therefore Job asks: if my punishment ought not to cease as long as sin remains, and you alone can take away sin, why do you not take away my sin, which I have committed against God or against myself? And why do you not remove my iniquity, if any has been committed against my neighbor? Now it must be considered that Job does not ask questions of this kind as a rash inquirer into divine judgments, but in order to destroy the falsehood that his adversaries were striving to assert, namely, that in this life alone good or evil things were to be expected from God in return for human deeds. Once this is posited, the whole order of divine judgments is thrown into confusion, judgments by which God punishes men in this life because of sins or remits sins according as he preordains them to future life, either by predestining or by reprobating. But if there were no future life, but only the present one, there would be no reason why God should delay sparing those whom he intends to spare, or justifying and rewarding them. And therefore Job, to disclose his intention, adds: Behold, now I shall sleep in the dust, as though saying: the end of my life is now at hand, when I die and am to be resolved into dust; and because of the uncertainty of death, not even tomorrow can be firmly expected, and therefore he adds: and if in the morning you seek me, I shall not subsist, as though saying: I cannot promise myself the time of life until morning, much less long spans of life in which I might be able to expect that you would spare me, if there will be no other life.

141. Now it must be considered that Job proceeds in the manner of a disputant, for whom at the beginning it is sufficient to refute a false opinion, and afterwards he discloses what he himself thinks about the truth.

It should also be noted that Job, in the words set forth above, touched on three reasons why someone is scourged by God in this life:

the first is so that his malice may be restrained lest it be able to harm others, and he touched on this reason when he said: Am I the sea or a whale, that you have enclosed me in a prison?

The second is for the testing of man, so that his virtue may be manifested, and he touched on this when he said: You visit him at daybreak and suddenly test him;

the third is as punishment for sins, and he touched on this when he said: I have sinned; what shall I do for you, O keeper of men?, etc.