Книга 3 [глава 2, стихи 1–13]

1. Blessed Job, after being threatened with death during his trial, returned to life thanks to reproaches; and the ancient enemy was put to shame when he saw an increase where he had intended to diminish the property of others. But since in the first battle he saw himself defeated, he began attacks of a different kind - temptations, but with the same vicious attention, as before, he watches the holy man: whether he will do something bad. For the evil one cannot believe either in what is good or in what is acquired by experience. Then what he had done in the first attack was repeated again, as it is said: Verses 1, 2, 3. - It happened that when one day the sons of God came and stood before the Lord, Satan also came among them and stood before His eyes and the Lord said to Satan: “Where have you come from?” He answered and said: “I walked around the earth and went out on foot.” And the Lord said to Satan: “Have you not noticed my servant Job, for there is no one like him on earth, a gentle and righteous man who honors God and shuns evil?” The impotence of the devil's vanity is condemned. – It’s better to keep silent about what we discussed in more detail above, so that it doesn’t turn out that, turning to subjects that have already been discussed, we will begin late to the unexplained. So, although it was said by the voice of God to Satan: “Where have you come from?”, I in no way want to admit that this is said to him in the same way as before. After all, when from a competition in which someone was defeated, he returns defeated, and the question: “Where did you come from?” he asks himself, about whom it is known where he came from - what else is blamed if not the impotence of his former vanity? It’s as if the Divine voice directly said to Satan: “Behold, you are defeated by man, clothed in weak flesh, you who are trying to rebel against Me, the Creator of all.” Therefore, the Lord then, calling the virtues of blessed Job in the same words, but already counting them among the trophies of victory, immediately added: Right there. - And to this day maintaining his integrity. 2. Job preserved his integrity in reproach to greater glory. – It’s the same as if the Divine voice directly said to Satan: “Although you committed evil against him, he still did not abandon his integrity; and in what you intended to deprive him of the opportunity to grow, you were forced to serve for his growth.” For the integrity of his mind, which Job kept in a peaceful disposition in a manner worthy of all glorification, was preserved by him in the face of reproach for his even greater glorification. Next: Right there. “And you incited me against him, so that I would strike him in vain.” 3. God struck Job in vain, for he did not punish any sin in him; and yet not in vain, for he increased his wealth. – In order to show that God is both just and truthful, it is necessary to examine how He communicates about Himself that it was in vain that He struck Job. After all, since He is just, He could not strike in vain; and, on the contrary, being truthful, the Lord could not say anything other than what he really did. Consequently, so that in our minds “fairly” and “truthfully” are combined with each other - for God spoke the truth and did nothing unjust - we say that blessed Job was struck to some extent in vain and to some extent not in vain. After all, God declares Himself to be both just and truthful, and we must show both the truth of what He said and the righteousness of what He did. All this was necessary so that the holy man, whom only God and himself knew was rich in virtue, would gain fame and now everyone could imitate him. For, truly, God would not be able to give examples of virtue for other people if this one remained without testing. So, the essence of what happened is this: the power of contrition showed the strength of Job, so that everyone could imitate them; disasters exposed everything that was indistinguishable during times of calm. However, in these disasters he also increased in the virtue of patience, and the glory of reward from his suffering in reproach increased. Therefore, - [I will say this] so that both the truth of what the Lord said and the justice of what He did could be seen - blessed Job is not in vain subjected to disasters, since the reward has been increased, and yet he suffers in vain, for the disasters that he suffers are not a punishment for any sin. Anyone who has not fallen into any guilt suffers in vain; and, on the contrary, the one whose reward for virtue is multiplied does not suffer in vain. 4. In what sense should we understand that God was “moved”? – What does it mean when it is said: “You moved me against him”? Is Truth really on fire because of Satan’s words to inflict torment on his charges? Who would suspect God of doing something that he would define as unworthy for a righteous man? But since we cannot imagine a blow that is not accompanied by a spiritual movement, this crushing by the Divine power of Job is called “movement.” Here the Divine voice condescends to our concepts, so that what God has done can be at least partially perceived by man. For that power which created everything without need, which reigns without contempt for its inferiors, which supports everything into existence without labor for itself, which governs without violating the freedom of those whom it governs, which even punishes without heat, still instructs human minds with scourges (as far as it deems necessary) that it does not pass from the light of real estate into the darkness of multiplicity. Next: Verses 4, 5. - Satan answered and said: “Skin for skin, and for life, a man will give all that he has; But stretch out Your hand and touch his bone and flesh, and then you will see how he will bless You.” 5. God allows the devil to constantly renew his war against the saints, so that he will be put to shame more often in defeat. – The ancient enemy resorts to external things, wanting to force the blessed husband to commit a crime with his mind. Satan says that “they repay skin with skin,” how often, when we see that a blow is directed at the face, we put our hand in front of our eyelids in order to protect our eyes from the blow; We also direct the body against the blow, so as not to be wounded, leaving the body in a more pliable state. The devil, knowing that this is usually what happens, says: “Skin for skin, and for his soul, a man will give everything he has.” It’s the same as if he openly said: “Job endures everything that happens outside of him so calmly because he is afraid that he himself will suffer. That is, it was precisely the concern for his own flesh that left his mind motionless while deprived of everything that is subject to the perception of the bodily senses. While Job was busy caring so much about himself, he did not worry much about the defeat of his loved ones.” Therefore, the devil subsequently asks Job himself for carnal suffering, saying: “Stretch out Your hand and touch his bone and flesh, and then you will see how he will bless You” (Job 2:5). Previously he said: “Touch all that he has, and see how he will bless You” (Job 1:11). Now, as if he had forgotten about his original proposal and, having been defeated in one thing, he offers another. And Divine Providence rightly allows him this, so that the foolish disputant may finally be silent, having been so often defeated. Next: Verse 6. – And the Lord said to Satan: “Here he is in your hand; save only his soul.” 6. Job is betrayed into the hand of the enemy in such a way that he still remains preserved in the hand of the Helper. – So, the allowance of suffering is accompanied by a guard who takes care of its protection; The Divine will leaves its chosen one, protecting him, or, on the contrary, leaving, protecting him; he gives away one thing for plunder, and saves the other. If God had given Job completely into the hand of the enemy, what would have happened to an ordinary person (cum homine)?! Consequently, a measure of love is mixed into this condemnation of torture, so that in the upcoming battle the humble slave, having experienced pain, will win, and the proud enemy, although having permission from God, will be defeated. The holy man surrenders into the hand of the enemy and yet is held in the hand of his Hidden Helper. For he was one of those sheep about which the Truth itself speaks in the Gospel: “No one will snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28). The greedy enemy is still told: “Here he is in your hand.” Thus, Job is simultaneously in the hand of God and in the hand of the devil. God says: “Here he is in your hand,” but then immediately adds: “Only save his soul,” and this clearly shows that He is a benevolent Helper, for He kept the one whom He gave, and, while giving, did not completely give up the one whom He protected from the arrows of His enemy, although He left him. 7. Satan is commanded to preserve what he is not allowed to interfere with. – What does it mean when said to Satan: “Save his soul”? For what reason does the one who is always eager to invade what is protected end up as a guardian? But Satan is commanded that he should preserve something and not dare to interfere with anything; We also beg our Father about this in prayer with the words: “Lead us not into temptation” (Matthew 4:13). The Lord in no way leads into temptation, Who always protects those under his care with mercy. However, He acts as if, on the contrary, it is in His nature to lead us into temptation, and not to protect us from these traps. It is then that He does not lead us into the snare of temptation, when He does not allow us to be tempted beyond our strength. In exactly the same way that God is said to lead us into temptation if he allows us to be tempted by the adversary, so the adversary was said to preserve the soul when he was forbidden to completely overcome it. Verse 7 – Satan departed from the presence of God. How Satan withdrew from the face of God is clearly seen from what we said above. Right there. - He struck Job with a most terrible plague, from the sole of his foot to his head. 8. In Job's body no place was freed from torment, so that no part of his soul remained unfilled with glory. – People talk about disasters in two ways: by finding out how many there are and what they are. However, it happens that disasters, both many in quantity and severe in quality, are often alleviated in the following way: when they are many, they are not too severe, and when they are cruel, they are not many. Therefore, in order to show to what degree of ferocity the enemy armed himself against the holy man in his attacks - not only with their unbearable severity, but also with their innumerable multitude - therefore, I repeat, it is said: “He struck him with a most terrible plague”; and to explain the abundance of misfortunes it is added: “From the foot to the head,” and all this so that no part of the mind remains unglorified in one whose body is not left free from suffering. Next: Verse 8. – He cleaned off the pus with a fragment of a vessel, sitting among the sewage. 9 . Job, cleaning off the pus from himself with a fragment of a vessel, teaches us that the clay vessel that we carry on ourselves will soon break. – Why did he use a fragment of a vessel to clean out the pus, if not because the vessel is made of clay? And what is bodily pus if not clay itself? About Job it is said that he scraped his wounds with a fragment of a vessel, but one could say: “With clay he cleansed himself from clay.” So we understand that the holy man took in his hand what he was wearing and scraped the damaged clay vessel with a fragment of a clay vessel. And this action reveals how much he subjugated his body during the time when it was in purity, that he continued, as a master, to calmly take care of it during his such unbearable defeat. And he did not sympathize with the disease of his body, because he intended not a piece of clothing, not fingers, but a shard for cleansing ulcers. Job cleaned out the pus with a fragment of a vessel and, through this, seeing himself in the fragment of a vessel, received healing for the wounds of his mind through a [bodily] wound. 10. Lying among the abominations, Job learns that his body will soon become dung. - Since the spirit is often influenced by everything surrounding the body, and because of what is happening around us, the frailty of our body is hidden from the gaze of our heart eyes, - just like some sons of this age, strengthening themselves in fleeting dignities, presiding over high assemblies, desiring to subjugate many to their will, they neglect to pay attention to their own frailty and do not think at all about the earthen vessel that they carry on themselves, they forget, that he will soon be broken - in order to show that blessed Job came to the consciousness of his weakness, based on circumstances, and multiplied before his eyes all the greatness of his rejection, he is described as sitting not even on the ground, which on most of its surface is found clean and uncontaminated, but among the impurities. The body placed itself among impurities so that the spirit, growing toward goodness, would recognize the nature of the body, that it was taken from the earth. The body placed itself among the impurities in order to understand through the vile place that it would soon find itself among the abominations. 11. From the misfortunes of the saints we must understand that for them a reward is prepared through what is punishment for the wicked. - When blessed Job suffered the damage of so many things, was saddened by the death of so many children, suffered so much suffering when he cleaned out festering ulcers with a shard and, bleeding with pus, placed himself among the uncleanness - I long to understand why Almighty God strikes those whom he has chosen as his loved ones in eternity in the most cruel way, as if despising them? But seeing the wounds and suffering of blessed Job, I immediately raise the eyes of my mind to John and not without the most sorrowful surprise I observe that he, who was filled with the prophetic spirit even in his mother’s womb, he who, so to speak, was “reborn before birth,” this “friend of the Bridegroom”; he, greater than whom no one was born of women, this “prophet,” who “[was] more than a prophet” (Matthew 11:9), is placed in prison by the godless, and because of the dance of a maiden he is deprived of his head; a man of such severity [of character] is killed to the ridicule of the immoral. Or should we admit something else in his life that such a despicable death was intended to atone for? Or has anyone ever sinned in food who ate only locusts and forest honey? Or did the one who girdled his body with a camel’s belt displease God in some way regarding the quality of his clothing? What could possibly offend someone from the conversation who did not leave the desert? Or what could lay the blame of garrulousness upon one who had long been excluded from the community of men? Or, on the contrary, was the guilt of silence really attributed to the one who severely rebuked those who came to him, saying: “O brood of vipers, who taught you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 3:7; Luke 3:7; Mark 1:4). What does it mean that Job is exalted by the testimony of God and yet is reduced to uncleanness by the blows of whips? What does it mean that the Divine voice praises John, and yet he is killed at the word of the drunkard as a reward for dancing? What does it mean that Almighty God so severely strikes in this age those whom he chose before the age, if not because - as is obvious for the piety of believers - that he plunges them into dishonor, knowing how he will reward them in great things. So, in this world, let everyone reflect only on what will be the suffering in the other world of all whom He will condemn, if He strikes here with such force those whom He loves; and how much will all those who are accused at the Judgment suffer if the lives of those who are praised by the Judge Himself do not escape shock! Verse 9 – His wife said to him: “How long will you remain in your simplicity? Bless God and die." 12. The devil tries to either split the steadfast with torment or soften them with persuasion. He used his wife as a ladder along which he wanted to climb into Job’s heart, but in vain. – The ancient enemy of the human race usually tempts in two ways: trying to split the hearts of the steadfast, either with internal torment, or with outside convictions. Against blessed Job he practiced both of them. First, he caused material damage to the father of the family, with the death of his children he made the father lonely, and now he is crushing the hitherto unharmed Job himself with rotting ulcers. But since he saw the one who stinks from the outside remaining healthy from the inside and the one whom he plunged into nakedness, he saw that he had become even richer internally due to the praise of the Creator spoken about him, then the devil is already cunningly counting on the fact that Job finds support in the thing with which they want to oppress him, and, having previously been defeated by this, turns to a more subtle weapon - tempting speeches. [Vet. V.] He repeats the machinations of an ancient species. Knowing how Adam usually falls into error, he approaches Eve. He saw that blessed Job stood as if on some exalted place thanks to his virtues, invincible among the losses of so many things and among so many plagues of disasters. For he strengthened his mind in a high place, and therefore enemy attacks could not harm him. And the enemy is looking for what steps to ascend to this defended height. The wife is closest to the husband; she is attached to her husband. The devil was able to take possession of the wife’s heart and found in it a kind of ladder, with the help of which he wanted to reach the heart of her husband. He has captured the wife's mind, which is the ladder to her husband. However, he did not achieve anything in this way, since Job treated his wife as subordinate to himself, and not in charge of himself. Job taught righteous things to the one who was led by the serpent, with the goal of forcing Job to say the opposite. So, it was necessary that the shaky mind [of a woman] be placed under strict male supervision, for a man, truly, has known since the time of the first fall that a woman does not know how to teach the righteous. That is why Paul said: “I do not allow a woman to teach” (1 Tim. 2:12), for, without a doubt, whenever she taught, she removed her from the knowledge of eternity. So, the ancient enemy placed among the abominations that Adam who [thanks to this] surpassed Adam himself in paradise in his steadfastness; and the devil, inciting the woman, his helper, to words of temptation to evil, led her to receive the understanding of holiness: she who was taught how to destroy was taught how not to perish. And as much as he plotted to increase the grief from the wounds he inflicted, so many weapons of virtue did he erect against himself. 13. The devil tempts us in words through those who are close to us. – Hearing the words of Job’s wife, who inclined him to do evil, we must beware with all sobriety when the ancient enemy himself and through those who are close to us tries to shake the fortitude of our mind. Having failed to destroy our heart with his own convictions, he often approaches it again through the tongues of those close to us. It is written in Ecclesiastes: “Be vigilant towards your friends and watch over your household” (Eccl.32:26). And the prophet says: “Let every one beware of his neighbor and put no trust in every brother” (Jer. 9:4). And, again, it is written: “A man’s enemies are his own household” (Matthew 10:36). The cunning adversary, when he sees that the hearts of the blessed do not accept him, chooses those whom they love, and speaks with kind words from the lips of those who love him, so that, at a time when the power of love opens the heart, the sword of his conviction may without hindrance invade the innermost strongholds of righteousness. Therefore, after the deprivation of property, after the death of children, after wounds and damage to members of the body, the ancient enemy moved the tongue of his wife against Job. 14. Order in the sequence of Job's temptations. – It is worthy of study at what point in time the devil seduces the husband’s mind with words of destruction. We see that he resorted to words after inflicting wounds, hoping to gain an easy victory by inciting evil when grief increased to the extreme. However, if you look more closely at the general order of his temptations, it will become clear how evil his plan was. So, he first applied material deprivation: this damage did not affect either his nature as a man or his flesh. Afterwards, he turned his friends away from him, which was essentially contrary to his nature as a person, but still did not concern the flesh. Finally, he crushed the body too. But since he still could not reach the wound of the mind even with bodily wounds, he turned to the language of his wife, who was close to him. Since in an open battle he saw himself pitifully defeated, he, as if from an ambush, attacked him from the lips of his wife, who said: “How long will you remain in your simplicity? Bless God and die." Tempting Job in this way, he immediately discovered everything. Through such a temptation, the wife received liberation from his power, and all his tricks were revealed to the holy husband. Job's wife was the devil's helper in one more respect (- when she said: “How long will you continue in your simplicity?” For Eve repeated her words. Because to say: “Leave simplicity” does not mean: “Despise obedience, having eaten of the forbidden [fruit”)? Or to say: “Bless God and die,” does not mean: “By breaking the commandment by which you were created, die”? But our Adam showed strength, lying among abominations, and ancient Adam, although he was standing in paradise, turned out to be weak, for Job responded to the words of his wife who convinced him to evil like this: Verse 10 – You speak like one of the foolish women. If we accept good from God, then why not accept evil? 15. Job, being deprived externally, was internally filled with God. In what sense are disasters called evil? - So, the enemy is defeated everywhere, conquered everywhere, in all the competitions of his temptations he is overthrown, even to the extent that he misses his usual consolation provided to him by the obedience of the female mind. Meanwhile, already defeated, he was pleased to leave the holy man deprived of external things, although he was inwardly filled with God. Paul, observing in himself the wealth of internal knowledge and seeing that from the outside he is nothing more than corruptible flesh, said: “We have this treasure in fragile vessels” (2 Cor. 4:7). So in blessed Job, the fragile vessel felt the disease of ulcers on the outside, but his treasure, which was from the inside, remained pure. For although Job was cast into misfortune, the inner treasure, growing unabated, was finally revealed outwardly in the words of teaching for holiness spoken to his wife: “If we have received good from the hand of the Lord, then why do we not accept evil?” Good means the gifts of God - temporary or eternal, and evil in the present place refers to disasters, as the Lord said through the prophet: “I am the Lord, and there is none other beside Me, who forms light and creates darkness, who makes peace and creates evil” (Is. 45:7). However, evil that does not have its own nature is not created by the Lord; and He calls Himself a doer of evil in the sense that He performs actions that are done for good, while we say that they are committed with the aim of harming; so that they turn out to be both evil because of the sorrow they bring to those who have sinned, and good because of the nature that is inherent in them. So, poison for a person is death, but for a snake it is life. Because we have loved the present age, we have withdrawn from the love of our Creator, and the fallen mind, having given itself over to the love of creation, has separated itself from communion with the Creator. Consequently, the mind had to be crushed by the Creator with the object that it preferred to the Creator, so that man, whom God nevertheless wants to correct, would find punishment in that for which he did not want to admit his guilt; and the sooner he turned to what he had lost, the more filled with sorrow he discovered what he desired. Therefore, it is rightly said: “Formating light and creating darkness,” for while the darkness of sorrows envelops us from the outside, intelligent light descends inside through this instruction. “He who makes peace and who creates evil,” for we find reconciliation with God when things created, according to the word of God, “very good” (Gen. 2:31), but by no means so very desirable, are turned into what is evil for us—our misfortunes. Because of sin, we have become hostile to God, so it is necessary to return to peace with Him through suffering. And when any good creation turns into sorrow for someone, then the mind of the one being taught may be corrected through this contrition for peace with the Creator. So, blessed Job called his misfortunes evil, for he contrasted the good of health and tranquility with the evil of those shocks and unrest that temptations cause. 16. Let the remembrance of the gift, which is joy, although in a small degree, moderate the sorrow of disaster, which lies in the fear of suffering. The mind of one woman may be unreasonable, and not the entire female sex is vicious. “Let’s see what skill he possessed when he said against his wife’s conviction: “If we have accepted good from the hand of the Lord, then why don’t we accept evil?” There is great consolation in torment, if only we have the memory of the Creator’s previous gifts to us, when we suffer from the opposite of these gifts. We will not be tormented by thoughts of despair if what is created through our suffering appears before our minds. For it is written: “In days of happiness there is forgetfulness of misfortune, and in days of misfortune happiness is not remembered” (Sir.11:25). Anyone who accepts gifts, but does not fear disasters while enjoying these gifts, will be crushed in his happiness because of pride. On the contrary, for anyone who is crushed by disasters and is not consoled during sorrows by the memory of the gifts that he happened to receive, despair undermines the strength of the mind. Therefore, it is necessary that these two things are always connected with each other and have the power to support each other: that the remembrance of gifts moderates contrition in adversity as much as the criticism and insurance inherent in adversity diminishes the joy of possessing gifts. The holy man, in order to calm his mind, oppressed by adversity, thought about the bliss of his former gifts, being among the sorrows of torment and saying: “If we have accepted good from the hand of the Lord, then why don’t we accept evil?” Before this he rightly added: “You speak like one of the foolish women.” Job’s bad wife had vice in her mind, but not in her nature, which is why he did not say: “You speak like one of the women,” but: “Like one of the bad women,” to show that she thought about the wrong thing because of the stupidity that visited her, but not because of the way nature was arranged. Right there. “In all these things Job did not sin with his lips.” 17. Job did not sin with his lips, for just as he did not utter unrighteousness, he did not keep silent about the righteous. – We sin with our lips in two ways: when we either say what we should not, or we remain silent about what we should. For if silence were not sometimes a sin, then the prophet would not have said: “Woe is me, for I have kept silent” (Is. 6:5). Blessed Job, in everything that he said, did not sin at all with his lips, since he did not say anything proud against the One who struck him, but he did not remain silent about righteous things in the face of his wife, who convinced him to evil. So, he sinned neither in word nor in silence, at the same time giving thanks to the Father who struck him and supplying his wife, who inclined him to evil, with knowledge of the [Divine] teaching. For he knew what was appropriate to offer to God and what was appropriate to offer to one’s neighbor, i.e. patience to the Creator, and wisdom to the spouse. For Job also taught the latter through reproof, and glorified the First by giving praise. Which of us, if we suddenly happen to experience at least one disaster of the same strength as this, will not immediately fall to our innermost depths, weakened and fragmented? And so, defeated from the outside through wounds of the flesh, remains adamant from the inside thanks to the strength of the mind; and sees that none of the blows touches him, for the enemy hurt himself with his own hand. Job vigilantly anticipated the blows directed at him through disasters, as if directly and as if from a trap through words. Our warrior, in the heat of battle, put out the shield of his patience in all directions; resisted the spears coming at him from everywhere, and turned his mind in all directions characteristic of valor, surveying the troubles that disturbed his peace. 18. I was tempted by my friends. “The ancient enemy, the more valiantly he is defeated, the more furiously he is inspired to attack. For the reason that the woman, instigated by him, fell silent, he set fire to others, who, at his instigation, were to use an insult. Just as the enemy previously made every effort to crush Job through new and new disasters, so now he is trying to pierce his strong chest, inflicting more and more verbal insults on him. Verse 11 – So Job’s three friends, having heard about all the disasters that happened to him, each one came from his own area: Eliphaz the Temanite, Baldad Suchit and Safar Naamafit. They consulted among themselves to 19. The correct intention of Job's friends is denigrated by their carelessness. - About those who came by agreement among themselves for the sake of consoling the one in distress, it is revealed what the power of love was between them and the stricken one. But still, although Scripture testifies to them as friends of such a husband, speaking of their thoughtfulness and correctness of intention, it turns out that this intention of theirs is denigrated by the fact that they so quickly switched to unrighteous words, in which their imprudence became obvious before the eyes of the Strict Judge. Next: Verse 12 – When they lifted up their eyes from afar, they did not recognize him; and, having exclaimed, they wept and, tearing their clothes, sprinkled dust on their heads towards the sky. 20. He who intends to console the suffering must also grieve. And let him assimilate the measure of his sadness to himself. - Since the face of the sufferer has been changed by ulcers, his friends, sobbing and exclaiming, tear their clothes and sprinkle dust on their heads. When they saw the one to whom they had come so changed, the face of the comforters changed with sudden grief. The procedure for consoling a mourner is such that when we want to distract someone from sobbing, we should first coordinate our mood with his cry with our sobbing. After all, a mourner cannot be consoled by someone who does not agree with his grief, for, differing from the sufferer in the absence of his misfortune, he cannot give anything to the sufferer, being separated from him by the mood of the mind. Thus, the spirit must first be softened so that one can approach the grieving person, and having approached, become assimilated to him, and, having assimilated, also distract him from grief. Likewise, a piece of iron will not stick to another unless each of the two pieces is softened by the heat of fire; nothing hard can be attached to a soft one unless its hardness is first tempered with softness and it becomes the same thing to which they want to attach it. Likewise, we will not be able to raise the prostrate ones if we do not bend our uprightness, since as long as uprightness separates the one standing from the bent prostrate, we will never raise up someone to whom we do not want to bend. Therefore, Job’s friends, in order to distract him from sadness, themselves accepted grief: seeing his wounded body, they hastened to tear their clothes, seeing him distorted in suffering, hastened to dirty their heads with dust - so that the more easily the suffering husband would accept their words, the more similar to his suffering he found in them. 21. With all this, you still need to know that whoever wants to bring comfort to the suffering person must observe a measure in the grief that he accepts for the sake of the mourner, so that it does not happen that he not only does not console the mourner, but, due to immoderate sadness, plunges the spirit of the sufferer into the abyss of despair. Our sadness must be so combined with the sadness of those in need that it can, in its moderation, lift us up, and not bring us down even more because of its disproportion. Let us take a closer look and see that Job’s friends grieved more than necessary in their consolation, for they, seeing only the degree of his contrition, but not knowing the contrite mind, turned to such immeasurable crying, as if a contrite man, who had such strength, had lost his very soul due to bodily illnesses. Verse 13 – And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him; for they saw that his grief was cruel. 22. Did you sit with Job continuously or at intervals of seven days and nights? friends, we don’t know for sure. – Whether they sat continuously for seven days and seven nights with the suffering Job, or for seven days and the same number of nights they zealoused only in frequent visits to him, we do not know. However, we often say that we study such and such a subject for so many days, although we do not constantly devote all those days to it. Often the Holy Scripture replaces both the whole with the private and the particular with the whole. To designate the whole, the particular is used, when, for example, Scripture describes the family of Jacob and says: “Jacob entered Egypt with seventy souls” (Gen. 46:27). And the whole, although the name of the part is used, Scripture implies when Mary at the Holy Sepulcher is perplexed, saying: “They have taken away my Lord, and we do not know where they have laid Him” (John 20:2). Of course, she came seeking only the body of the Lord, but she grieves as if the whole (i.e., living) Lord had been taken away. Here it is unclear whether the whole is used in relation to the particular or not. 23. Job was not rash in his words, nor careless after due silence. “You shouldn’t pass by with disdain the fact that friends were silent for so long and were so strongly condemned when they began to speak.” For there are some who begin to speak rashly, and what they begin with recklessness later becomes even more reckless. There are those who begin to speak late, but, having started, do not try to maintain moderation in their speeches. So Job’s friends, seeing his grief, were silent for a long time, but, starting to speak late, they began to speak with recklessness, for they did not care to preserve the peace of the suffering one. They restrained his tongue so that he would not begin to speak before the time they had determined, but when he began to speak, they did not bother to moderate his actions, so that the tongue would not, due to its rashness, pass from comfort to insult. They came with good intentions to console, but everything that a pious mind brought to God that was pure was desecrated by rash speech. It is written: “If you offer correctly (i.e., according to the commandment), but do not divide correctly, then you have sinned” (Gen. 4:7). The right offering is that which is done with good intentions. It is divided incorrectly when we do not reason with sensitivity about what we are doing. So, “rightly dividing” means weighing, reflecting with sobriety and due care on our part. And, of course, the one who neglects this sins, although he makes an offering. 24. It is necessary to ensure that what we started with a good purpose can be completed with a good ending. – Often we do not know what the final judgment will be regarding what we undertake with good intentions, but commit without due careful consideration; and sometimes what seems to be a reason for virtue turns out to be involved and guilty of a crime. Anyone who considers the deeds of the friends of blessed Job will not be able to deny that they came to him out of a pious motive. Let us think about what strength their love must have had in order to gather unanimously towards the smitten; what a virtue of patience is it to sit seven days and nights with the suffering; what compassion for throwing dust on your head! However, when they began to speak, they accepted condemnation where they wanted to receive a reward; those who are inattentive often end in sin what began solely with the goal of receiving a reward. Thus, with their reckless speeches they destroyed all the good things that they had acquired with so much difficulty. And if the grace of the Divine Spirit did not teach them to make a sacrifice for their guilt, then they could be punished by the Lord in what they wanted to please Him. They did not please the Judge in that which, out of their foolishness, they were zealous in, as if they were concerned about the protection of the Judge. Therefore, we say all this in order to remind those reading how carefully everyone should beware of doing something with insufficient aspiration; for this is the punishment the Lord punishes everything that, although begun with good intentions, is mixed with indifference and negligence, and with what misfortunes admonishes. Who else believed that he was acting for the sake of receiving a reward, if not the one who, in order to protect God, dared to say something against his neighbor, or not the one who was silent for seven days and nights for the sake of his neighbor’s grief? The friends of blessed Job, by doing this, nevertheless came to sin, although they worked hard, knowing only the value of the consolation that they wanted to give Job, but not knowing with what caution it was necessary to do this. Therefore, it is necessary that we not only think about what to do, but also about the caution with which we should seek to accomplish what we want. First, do not do evil, and after that, do not do good carelessly. The prophet calls us to the necessity of doing good with attention, saying: “Cursed is the man who does the work of the Lord carelessly” (Jer. 48:10). All this helps us to fear not only for what we have done bad before the subtle and unreasonable court of the Cruel Judge, but also for what is good in us, for often it turns out to be a sin in His reasoning that which seemed to be a virtue before His judgment, and where they expected a fair reward for what was done, the punishment of fair retribution will follow. 25. What is the unity of Christ and the Church. – We have taken a quick glance at what concerns history; now let us turn to words with a mysterious meaning contained in allegories. But since at the beginning of this work, when we spoke about the unity connecting the Head and the Body of Christ, we with close attention anticipated many thoughts about their interconnectedness in love: for, truly, the Lord suffers a lot through His Body, which we are, and yet His Body, that is, the Church, in its Head, that is, the Lord, is already now glorified in heaven. At the present moment we consider it necessary to show the extent of the suffering of This Head, so that it may be seen how much She endures through Her Body. For if our Head were not affected by our sufferings, then She would not cry out about the afflicted members of Her Body against her torturer even to the very heavens: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” (Acts 9:5). If our sufferings were not also His illnesses, then Paul, who believed but suffered, would not have said: “I make up for the lack of the sorrows of Christ in my flesh” (Col. 1:24). And yet, in amazement at the Resurrection of his Head, he says: “Who raised us up again and gave us to sit in heaven” (Eph. 2:6). Although he, while on earth, was burdened with suffering from persecution, he, under the weight of his illnesses, remained in heaven, participating in the glory of the Head. Beginning to consider the suffering of the Head, we will come to the torment of the body. About other things - that on a certain day Satan came before the face of the Lord, that he was asked where he came from, that blessed Job was exalted with the praise of the Great Creator - we avoid talking again, since we have already paid enough attention to this. For keeping the mind for a long time on a subject that has already been discussed becomes an obstacle to turning to what has not yet been discussed. For this reason, we will interpret in an allegorical sense only those passages in which we find something new to be added to what has already been said. Next: Verse 3. - You moved Me against him, so that I would strike him in vain. 26. Christ was struck in vain in relation to Himself and not in vain in relation to us. – If blessed Job forms our Redeemer in suffering, then what meaning can the words of the Lord to Satan have: “You moved Me against Him”? The mediator between God and people, the man Jesus Christ, in order to abolish the guilt of our sins, came to suffer the ulcers of our mortality; However, if He is inseparable from the Father in His nature, how did the Father say of Himself that He was moved by Satan against Him, while we clearly believe that the agreement of the Father and the Son is not violated by any inequality of power and any difference of will? And, however, the One who is equal to the Father in Divinity came for our sake to suffer bodily wounds, which he could not have endured if he had not, in redeeming, taken on the image of a flawed person. After all, if the first person had not sinned, then the Second would not have come for the shame of suffering. Just as the first man was separated from God by Satan, so the Lord draws closer to the Second man. So, Satan inspired the Lord to defeat Him when in paradise he overthrew the first man from the heights of righteousness through the sin of disobedience. If the first Adam had not at first, because of a voluntary crime, been drawn to the mortification of the soul, then the Second Adam would not have come for the voluntary mortification of the flesh without any guilt. Therefore, our Redeemer rightly says to Satan: “You moved Me against him, so that I would strike him in vain.” It’s the same as if it had been directly said: “Since this Adam was killed not through his own, but through the fault of that Adam, you moved Me to crush this Adam already when that Adam was carried away by a false temptation.” That’s why it was rightly added: “in vain.” After all, the one who bears the punishment for sin, but is not stained by participation in it, is in vain struck. The one who had no personal sins, but nevertheless accepted - without guilt - the wounding of the body, is amazed in vain. The prophet speaks about this: “What he did not seize, he must give back” (Ps. 68:5). He who was created for paradise wanted to steal the likeness of Divine power out of his pride, but the Mediator repaid the sin of this pride without his own guilt. Therefore, a certain sage said to the Father: “You are righteous and you rule everything righteously, but you condemn the one who should not be punished” (Wis. 12:15). 27. About the fact that God loved Christ, who was innocent in His suffering. “However, we must consider how He justly and righteously governs everything if He condemns Him Who should not be punished.” After all, our Mediator should not have been punished for Himself, for He was not involved in any sin. But if He had not accepted the death that was not due to Himself, He would not have freed us from the death that was due to us. Therefore, the Father, being just and punishing the Just, rules everything justly, for he justifies everyone by condemning Him who has no sin for sinners, so that all the elect are raised to the heights of righteousness - the punishment of Him who is above all for our unrighteousness. He who is here referred to as "Unjustly Slain" is elsewhere in Scripture called "Unjustly Condemned." For He who is struck in vain in regard to Himself is not in vain in regard to our deeds. Truly, the rust of vice could not be cleansed in any other way than through burning in fire. So, He who subjected Himself to torment of His own free will came without blemish in Himself, so that the due torment for our iniquities would justly be left to those guilty of them through the fact that He would accept contrition from their grandchildren. Therefore, it is in vain and not in vain that the One who washed away the shame of our guilt with His streams of blood, having no sins in Himself, is amazed. Verses 4,5. - Answering, Satan said: “A man will give skin for skin, and all that he has for his life.” But stretch out Your hand and touch his bone and flesh, and then you will see how he will bless You before Your face.” 28. It is said about Satan that he either recognizes Jesus Christ or doubts about Him. It is worthy of study how he is led astray by the love and patience of Christ. Satan speaks sometimes about himself, sometimes about his participants. - The evil spirit, when he saw our Redeemer shining with His miracles, exclaimed: “We know who You are, Holy One of God!” (Luke 4:34). The one who said this feared the Son of God, however, not knowing the power of the Supreme Deity, sometimes, seeing before him someone subject to suffering, he considered Him only a man. For he knows of many shepherds who lead a lifestyle under the guise of holiness, to whom, however, the treasures of love are alien, for they do not reflect on the misfortunes of other people. So he was inflamed against Him, as if he had been taught by his own experience that no one could resist him, since he had seduced many, and therefore he said: “Skin for skin, and all that a man has, will he give for his life. But stretch out Your hand and touch his bone and flesh, and then you will see how he will bless You before Your face.” It’s the same as if he openly said: “He did not allow the soul to move to what was outside of him, but it will quickly become clear what he is if he experiences in himself that which causes pain.” Passionately desiring all this to happen, Satan made it clear not with words, but with his intentions. And through his members he accomplished this: both in words and in intentions. Of course, he speaks in the voice of his followers when they cry out against the prophet: “Let us put wood instead of bread for him and destroy him from the land of the living” (Jer. 11:19). "Offering wood instead of bread" means that they nailed the wood of the cross to His Body; for they considered themselves able to destroy from the land of the living Him whom they saw mortal and intended to destroy by death. Verse 6. - The Lord said to Satan: “Here he is in your hand, just save his soul.” 29. Members of Satan are all those who live badly. The hand of Satan is his power. By betraying Himself to him, the Lord forced him to serve Himself. “What madman would believe that the Creator of all things is surrendering into the hand of Satan?” However, who who is versed in the Truth does not know that members of Satan are those who live badly? Pilate became its member, who did not recognize the Lord who came for our redemption, condemning Him to the very brink of death. So, the assembly of his servants were those leaders of the Jews who directed their efforts to cast out the Redeemer of the world from the world, pursuing Him even to the cross. Therefore, when the Lord gives Himself over for our redemption into the hands of the members of Satan, what else does He do than allow the hand of Satan to rage over Him, in order to free us both externally and internally through what will die externally. If we accept that the hand of Satan is his power, then it will be fair to say that Christ suffered against His flesh from the hand of the one whose power over His body he experienced, even to the point of spitting, punching, wounding, to the cross and the spear. Therefore, having come to Pilate to suffer, He said - in relation, of course, to His flesh: “You would not have power over Me if it had not been given to you from above” (John 19:11). However, this power, which He gave to Satan against Himself, He forced to serve Himself, even though Satan sought in it only his own self-interest. Pilate - that is, Satan himself, who, truly, was the head of Pilate - was in the power of Him over whom he was given power; for He who is above all controlled what He suffered from the persecutor during His sojourn below on earth, so that, having suffered persecution from the evil mind of unbelievers, He might serve to benefit the faith of all the elect. So, he righteously arranged in a mysterious way everything in which he openly allowed himself to suffer unrighteously. That is why it was said at the Supper: “Knowing that the Father had given all things into His hand, and that He had come from Him and was going to God, Jesus rose from the table and laid down His clothes” (John 13:3). Intending to go into the hand of the pursuer, He knew that He contained these very pursuers in His hand. From this knowledge of Him that He contains everything, it is clear that He possessed those who had Him in their power; doing this with the aim of using for the benefit of faith everything that will rage against Him with the malice that He allowed towards Himself. So, it is said to Satan: “Behold He is in your hand,” since the raging one, although he received permission to torment the flesh, nevertheless served His power without knowing it” (John 11:33, 38), then you need to understand that the Divine determined how embarrassed a Man should be. Being immovable above all, He showed Himself to be changeable in the full measure of weakness. So, being peaceful in Himself, He did, in His omnipotence, everything that was necessary for the revelation of His humanity, accepted by Him, and even showed Himself indignant. 31. The chosen ones can be called the soul of Christ. They are removed from the power of the devil. – Right love is not to love too much any of the created things. Just as we say that the soul loves those to whom we try to express the depths of our love, so by his soul can be meant the life of the elect. Satan receives permission to defeat the flesh of the Redeemer, but is not allowed to reach the soul, that is, having received His body for torment, he is deprived of the right of ownership over His chosen ones. When the flesh of the Redeemer is mortified on the cross, the minds of the elect are strengthened against temptation. Therefore it is said: “Here he is in your hand, only preserve his soul,” as if it were openly said: “You will accept permission against His body, but you will not have the right of evil dominion over His chosen ones, whom He appointed for Himself before the beginning of time.” Verse 7. – Having departed from the presence of the Lord, Satan struck Job with a most terrible plague from the heel of his foot to the head. 32. Christ has suffered in His followers since the beginning of the world. – None of the chosen ones have yet come into this world without being subjected to the machinations of the enemy. Therefore, members of Christ were all those who, from the very beginning of the world, suffered for their faithfulness, living godly. Or Abel did not reveal about himself that he was His member, not only bringing his death as if in a sacrifice, but also crowning his death with silence. So, there have been attempts to attack the Body of the Redeemer from the very beginning of the world. The defeat of His body by the devil from the heel of the foot to the head depicts the fact that, starting with the torment of ordinary people, he reached in his fury all the way to the Head of the Church. Therefore it is rightly said: Verse 8. – He cleaned out the pus with a shard. 33. With a skull, that is, with His flesh, taken from the earth, He cleansed the pus sin. – What else is a shard in the hand of the Lord if not flesh taken from the clay of our nature? The shard is known to be strengthened by fire. The Lord's flesh became stronger in suffering, for, having died through weakness, He rose from death without any weakness. Therefore, it is rightly said through the prophet: “My strength is established like a potsherd” (Ps. 21:16). So, the strength of the One who strengthened the weakness of the perceived flesh in the fire of His suffering was established, like a potsherd. And what else, if not sin, should be understood by pus? [In Scripture] sins of the flesh are generally designated by the name of "flesh and blood." So the Psalmist says: “Cleanse me from blood” (Ps. 50:16). Pus is putrefaction of blood. What else do we understand by pus, if not the sins of the flesh, worsened due to a long stay in a neglected state? Therefore, a wound that exudes pus is like a sin that was once neglected and which was aggravated by its abuse. So, the Mediator between God and people, the man Jesus Christ, giving His body into the hands of the persecutors, cleansed the pus with a shard, for he removed sin from the flesh. For he came, as it is written, in the likeness of the flesh of sin, that he might destroy sin with sin (Rom. 8:3). By giving His innocent body to the enemy, He cleansed the infection of our flesh and gave us freedom, sacrificing what the enemy in ancient times made us his captives; which we used as a weapon of sin, was turned by the Mediator into a weapon of justification. That is why the pus is cleansed with a shard, because sin is overcome by the flesh. Right there. - Sitting among abominations. 34. He sat among abominations, for he chose the weak of the world. – Not in the square where the law commands us to remain, and not in a building that rises among the high places, but sat down among abominations, for this typifies that the Redeemer of the human race, having come in the flesh, as Paul testifies, “chose the weak of the world to seduce the mighty” (1 Cor. 1:27). Didn’t He sit as if among abominations and on the ruins of buildings when He rested among those whom He had previously rejected because of their nationality? For the rest of the Jews chose to remain in their pride. The fact that Job remained wounded outside his home means that Christ endured the grief of suffering, despised by his people, and experienced the hostility of Judea, as John testifies: “He came to his own, and his own did not receive him” (John 1:11). However, the Truth itself speaks about Itself, how She rested among abominations: “For He said: There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, rather than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not require repentance” (Luke 15:10). Thus, He “sat among abominations in suffering” who takes possession of the hearts of those who repent even after the sins they commit. Are not the hearts of penitents like latrines, who look at their evil with disgust and, as if heaping dung, denying themselves? Therefore, just as Job, stricken with a plague, did not ascend to high ground, but sat down among abominations, so the Redeemer, who came to suffer, rejected the heights of the hearts of the proud and rested in the humility of the humble. This is what He pointed out in Himself - before He became incarnate - when He said through the prophet: “To whom will I look but to him who is humble, peaceful, and fearful of My words?” (Isa.66:2) 35. Christ suffers much in Himself, both from unbelievers and from carnal believers. – Who can understand how much He, Who brought so much good to people, suffered from people? Who will understand how much He endures even to this day, despite the fact that He rules the hearts of believers from heaven? Every day He suffers from what His chosen ones do and what His commandments condemn. The head of the body, which we are, cares for all that belongs to His children, and yet, with our body on earth, suffers from various punishments following the sins of His elect. What can we say about unbelievers, if in the Church itself we see many who live according to the flesh and are hostile to the life of the Redeemer? There are some who, unable to attack Him with swords, attack Him with their wicked deeds. They, seeing that they do not achieve what they want in the Church, become enemies of the good, and not only accustom themselves to an evil way of life, but, moreover, they make attempts to deviate those who maintain righteousness to the wicked. They neglect thinking about eternity and become rigid in cowardice, and because of the desire for the temporal, they fall away from the eternal and the highest, so that they see the temporary as good and as if the only thing that exists. They are irritated by the simplicity of the righteous and when there is an occasion that can confuse the latter, they use it to join them to their duality. This is perfectly consistent with what was added: Verse 9 – His wife said to him: “How long will you continue in your simplicity? Bless God and die." 36. Job's wife, persuading evil, depicts carnal people who are in the bosom of the Church. – Whose image does the one who persuades to evil give us, if not all carnal people who are in the bosom of the Church, who influence the good in the most detrimental way with their unrighteous morals, being inside the Church, professing faith in words? They, perhaps, would do less harm if the Church did not accept them to the very depths, which have now become almost inevitable for her, for the Church accepts according to her confessed faith. When the Savior was crowded by a crowd and one woman from it touched our Redeemer, He immediately said: “Who touched Me?” The disciples replied: “The crowds are crowding You and You are saying: Who touched Me?”, and He added: “Someone touched Me, for I felt that power had gone out of Me” (Luke 8:44-46). 37. They crowd Christ, but do not touch Him. – Many crowd the Lord, and only one woman touches, for all the carnal people who are in the Church crowd Him, standing far from Him, and only those touch Him who try to approach Him with humility. Oppression from the crowd means that the more carnal people are allowed inside the Church, the harder it is for [the Lord] to endure. The crowd crowds, but does not touch, because their presence is burdensome, and they are not involved in life. Sometimes they attack us with bad words, sometimes with vicious morals. That is, sometimes they convince people of what they do; sometimes, although they do not convince with words, they do not cease to provide examples of outrage. So, those who incite us to evil by words or example are truly our persecutors, from whom we [like Job] accept attacks through temptations, and let us try to overcome these temptations in our hearts. 38. Sometimes they persuade to the vicious by threats, and sometimes by insolence. – It is necessary to know that carnal people in the Church begin to persuade to evil either through threats or through boldness; and, having themselves the vice of cowardice or pride, they try to invade the hearts of the righteous, supposedly motivated by love for them. Peter had a carnal mind before the death of the Savior and his Resurrection; the son of Sarvia, devoted to his sovereign David, clung to the carnal mind. The first sinned because of fear, and the second because of pride. For the first, having heard about the death of the Teacher, said: “Let this not be done to you” (Matthew 14:22, 23), but the other did not bear the offense of his master and exclaimed: “Will Shimei not be killed for his words?” For he cursed Christ the Lord (2 Sam. 21:22). However, the first was immediately told: “Get away from Me, Satan,” and the second, together with his brother, heard: “What is it to me and to you, sons of Saruin, that you have become Satan to me?” Thus, those who persuade to evil are awarded the name of apostate angels, who with flattering words draw into a trap, taking on the appearance of lovers. But the worst are those who commit this sin not out of fear, but out of pride. It was they who were typified by the wife of blessed Job, who tried to kindle her husband to the proud thoughts of her husband, saying: “How long will you remain in your simplicity? Curse God and die." She reproached her husband for his simplicity; Her husband, despising everything that could pass away, desired only the eternal with his pure heart. It’s the same as if she said openly: “Why do you, in simplicity, desire the eternal and, being in adversity, are indifferent to the present? Having risen, show contempt for the eternal and free yourself from the disasters of the present, at least through death!” So, what kind of example of righteousness are all the elect, who can internally overcome the evil emanating from carnal people, we see from the words of Job - defeated, but remaining adamant; sitting, but standing, - and said: Verse 11 – You speak like one of the foolish women. If we have accepted good from the hand of God, then why not tolerate evil? 39. The saints oppose those who strike with the shield of patience, and throw arrows of instruction at those who persuade to evil. – Holy men who happen to take part in battles of temptations fight simultaneously with striking blows and convincing words. To the first they oppose the shield of patience, and to the second they throw arrows of instruction. They use both methods of fighting with amazing skill in virtue, since they both internally retain their conviction that what is being proposed is evil, and externally they forcefully condemn all this as evil. They correct the first with instruction, and convince the second with patience. For they do not turn away from the enemies who rise up against them, enduring, and with compassion they lead their weak fellow citizens to salvation: they resist the first, taking care that they do not harm others, and they take care of the second, so that they do not completely fall away from the righteous life. 40. This is confirmed by the example of St. Paul. “We see that the defenders of God’s fortresses defend themselves against both enemies, as it is said: “On the outside there are ulcers, on the inside there are fears.” Paul lists the misfortunes to which he was exposed: “In dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from fellow tribesmen, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brethren” (2 Cor. 7:5; 11:26). He further adds what weapons he used against the enemy in this war: “In labor and exhaustion, fasting and vigil, in hunger and thirst, often in fasting, in cold and nakedness” (Ibid.). Finally, having participated in so many battles, he had to reveal the main thing in defense: that he protects the fortress with a defense of vigilance. Therefore, he immediately adds: “In addition to those subjects that are extraneous, but make up my daily activities - concerns about all the Churches.” Thus, he accepts attacks on himself with determination and speaks mercifully in relation to his neighbors who kill him. He talks about the evil that he suffers, but he adds about the benefit that he receives. Imagine how much work it was to endure attacks from without and at the same time internally care for the weak! From the outside he suffers attacks, for he is torn by torment and tied with ropes, but internally he experiences fear, for he is afraid that suffering may harm: not him, but his disciples. Therefore, Paul writes these words to them: “Let no one be moved by these sufferings. For you yourselves know that this is what we have been appointed to do” (1 Thess. 3:3). So, in his suffering, he feared for the condition of others, so that the faithful would not lose the benefit they were receiving, seeing him crushed by suffering for the faith. O depth of immeasurable love! He who is in suffering is immersed in concern [for others] and takes care that the disciples do not suffer in heart from temptation. He endures the wounds of the body in himself and heals the wounds in the hearts of others. So, it is characteristic of the righteous not to abandon concern for the benefit of others, while suffering from disasters, and, suffering and enduring evil, to warn others with the instructions necessary for them. The righteous are like great doctors who are sick. They themselves experience the cutting of wounds, and provide others with medicines to restore health. After all, much less work consists in teaching without enduring anything, or enduring something without teaching anything. Therefore, holy men most skilfully use both methods of warfare and, when they happen to be struck, they accept external attacks, observing carefully so as not to harm the hearts of their neighbors. Holy men, being strong, can help on the battlefield: they shoot arrows into the enemy’s chest and use a shield to protect the weak who are lagging behind in battle. Because of the speed of their observing gaze, they observe all sides and strike those pressing in front of them, and cover those who are exhausted behind them. And since holy men are able to endure external evil so much that they manage to correct even those who are corrupt in heart, it is quite rightly said: “You speak like one of the stupid women.” For it is said to the elect: “Take courage and let your heart be strong” (Ps. 30:25), and, on the contrary, the minds of the carnal, serving God with an unstable intention, are not without reason called “women.” 41. He who strives for eternal blessings does not endure temporary evil with weakness. - “If we accepted good from the hand of God, then why don’t we tolerate evil?” It’s the same as if it was said: “If we strive for eternal blessings, then there is nothing surprising if we endure temporary evil.” Paul hoped to acquire those eternal blessings by quietly enduring the evil planned against him and saying: “The sufferings of this age cannot be compared with the glory to come, which will be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). Right there. “In all this Job did not sin with his lips. Job is not offended either by God or by his enemies. – Holy men, when they endure external or internal suffering, not only do not become offended by God, but also do not utter words to the offenders themselves, which are natural to hear from the wounded. The prince of virtue Peter calls us to this, saying: “Just so that none of you suffers as a murderer, or an evildoer, or someone who encroaches on someone else’s property” (1 Peter 4:15). He who, during his suffering, goes mad to the point of taking offense at the Savior for disturbing his peace, will suffer as an encroacher on someone else’s property. But since the Body of the Savior, that is, the Holy Church, endures such abysses of suffering that it is impossible to express in words the degree of its humiliation, it is rightly said about our sufferer: There is also verse 11. – In all this, Job did not sin with his mouth, and did not say anything foolish against God. So, three of Job’s friends, having heard about all the disasters that had befallen him, each came from his place: Eliphaz Temanite, Baldad Suhit, Zophar Naamafit. 42. Job's friends represent the heretics. – At the beginning of this work, we said that Job’s friends, although they came to him out of good intentions, nevertheless typified heretics, since they sunk into sin because of their inattentive speeches. This is why blessed Job tells them: “I want to compete with God, showing you as creators of lies and zealots of incorrect teachings” (Job 13:3–4). Therefore, the Holy Church, subject to attacks throughout its pilgrimage, enduring attacks, suffering from the falls of its members, also suffers from these new enemies of Christ who bear His name. The heretics come to tempt her, increasing her suffering and piercing her with their incomprehensible words, like some kind of arrows. 43. The place where the proud come from. - It is rightly said: “They came from their place.” The place from which heretics come is pride, for if they had not first been puffed up in their hearts, they would not have turned to attack because of their unrighteous convictions. For pride is the place from which evil comes, just as, on the contrary, humility is the place from which all good things come. What Solomon also says: “If the anger of the ruler flares up against you, then do not leave your place” (Eccl. 10:4). It’s the same as if it were directly said: “If you see that the wrath of the tempter defeats you in anything, do not hesitate to humble yourself through repentance.” And from the next sentence it becomes clear that [Scripture] means by the words “our place” humility in repentance: “For care can overcome even great sins” (ibid.). And indeed, the humility of the mourner cures sin. Heretics come from the place that belongs to them, that is, moving towards the Holy Church solely out of pride. 44. The names of Job's friends signify the modus operandi of heretics. – The modus operandi of the heretics is contained in the translation of the names of Job’s friends. They are called: Eliphaz, Baldad and Zophar, and, as we previously said, Eliphaz means “despicable to God.” If they had not despised God, they would not have suffered evil from Him. Valdad is translated as “old age only.” Fearing defeat and seeking only victories in their vicious desire, they neglect communication with the New Life and rely on “antiquity only.” Zophar means “destroying the city guard.” For those who are in the Holy Church humbly contemplate in true faith the mysteries of their Redeemer, but heretics, coming with their false teachings, “break the guard,” for they draw away from the direction of correct contemplation the minds of those whom they manage to win over to themselves. 45. The curiosity of heretics, their loquaciousness and hypocrisy are signified by the names of the places from which Job’s friends come. “Truly, the places from which heretics come are revealed by their deeds.” It is said: “Temanit, Suhit and Naamafit.” “Fema” is translated as “south,” “Sukhi” means “speaking,” and “Naama” means “grace.” Who doesn't know that the south wind is hot? Likewise, the heretics, in their too zealous thirst for knowledge [of Divine things], seem to seek heat more than necessary. Just as rigor in the cold corresponds to sitting, so fever corresponds to restlessness and immoderate curiosity. And for the reason that they strive to acquire the heat of knowledge more than necessary, they are said to come from the south. Paul tried to temper this heat of immoderate knowledge with the mind, saying: “Do not philosophize more than is necessary, but philosophize with sobriety” (Rom. 12:3). Therefore, just as David struck the Valley of Salt, so the Redeemer in his judgment suppresses the folly of immoderate knowledge in those who have a false idea of ​​it. "Sukhi" means "speaker". They are passionate not about living well, but about speaking sublimely. Therefore, it is said that they come from Thema and Sukha - that is, from heat and loquaciousness - for, showing themselves to be diligent students of the Scripture, they do not care about the treasures of love, but only about the words of vanity. “Naama” is translated as “grace.” Thus, they no longer strive to be taught, but rather to be visible, and they appear to lead a good life thanks to words about knowledge. They show themselves graceful by their ardor in idle talk, hoping to more easily convince evil with the elegance of their language, hiding with such cunning from the minds of their listeners the vileness of their way of life. The names of the places are arranged in exact order. Fema is placed first, then Sukhi and then Naama. So, heretics first come to an immoderate heat, then they are inflamed by the brilliance of vanity, and, finally, hypocrisy makes them graceful in front of people. Right there. - They consulted, and having come together, they would visit him and console him. 46. Heretics agree against the Church. They can be called friends. – Heretics “consult among themselves,” in unanimity among themselves, plotting something bad against the Church; but their agreements among themselves are far from the Truth. Those who turn us away from eternity, what do they do other than console themselves with the misfortunes of our pilgrimage? Heretics, who are eager to teach the Holy Church their own, fit this image, for they care about imaginary consolation. And it is not without reason that those who act as enemies are called friends - when it is said even to a traitor: “Friend, why have you come?” (Matthew 26:50), and Abraham addresses the rich man who thirsted in the fire of hell by the name of a friend - for although they do not want correction according to our [convictions], it is necessary that they be called friends: not because of their depravity, but for the sake of our good disposition of soul. Verse 12 – When they lifted up their eyes, they did not recognize him. 47. They don't recognize the Church. – All heretics, when they look at the deeds of the Holy Church, “understand with their eyes,” for they themselves are cast down, that is, when they look at her deeds, what they look at is at a certain height. However, they will not “know” that the Church is in sorrow. She herself wants to accept evil here in order to achieve reward in eternity in purity. She fears prosperity and rejoices over [true] zeal in knowledge. Heretics, who strive for great things in this life, “do not recognize” the Church as being in troubles. For what, although they see in Her, they do not know in their hearts. And while all this is obvious even to outsiders, they persist in their foolishness, because they do not know from their own experience what they are looking at. Right there. - Having torn their clothes, they sprinkled dust on their heads towards the sky. 48. Torn into many pieces. – Just as we understand by the name of the clothes of all the faithful of the Church, as the prophet says: “In all of them you will be clothed as if in a garment”; Thus are the clothes of heretics all those who partake of their errors, clinging to them in unanimity with them. Heretics have such a trait that they cannot remain for long in the state in which they were when leaving the Church, but are daily overthrown into even worse things, coming to even worse thoughts, being torn into many parts, and separated from each other in debates about their errors. And for the reason that they tear into many pieces those whom they associate with their unbelief, it is said in the most fair way that when his friends came to him, they tore their clothes. But just as the body is exposed when the clothes are torn, so the lie of their teachings is revealed in the division of their followers, in such a way that disagreement will ensnare those who were first captured by the sin of vicious consent. 49. They philosophize in an earthly way about heavenly words. - So, Job’s friends sprinkle “dust on their heads towards the sky.” What is meant by dust if not a way of earthly thinking? What is meant by head, if not that which is the main thing in us, that is, the mind? What is meant by heaven if not the commandment of high speeches? Sprinkling dust on your head towards the sky means distorting the mind through worldly wisdom and philosophizing in an earthly way about heavenly words. For heretics discuss divine words more than they try to assimilate them to themselves. “They throw dust on their heads” in that they strive to ascend to Divine things through earthly wisdom and beyond the strength of their minds. Verse 13 – And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights. 50. With the help of feigned humility they try to induce pride. - During the day we recognize everything that we see, but at night we either do not distinguish anything, being blind, or we wander in the darkness in the half-light. Day denotes knowledge, and night denotes ignorance. The number seven signifies the completeness of the whole world. Why is the time of this transitory [world] designated by seven days? By the sitting with Job of his friends for seven days and seven nights, it is meant that heretics - both in those things in which they can see the true light, and in those in whose understanding they are darkened by the darkness of ignorance - pretend to condescend to the weak Holy Church, and plunge Her into sorrow with their deceit. For although they exalt themselves before each other with an arrogant air and pride, both in those things that they understand and in those that they cannot understand, they sometimes approach the face of the Holy Church and inject poison, decorating it with words. To sit with Job on earth means to show something of the image of humility: thus, by showing humility, they teach pride through what they teach. 51. They sit with us on earth, because they agree with us in the doctrine of the Incarnation. – You can also use the earth to designate the very Incarnation of our Mediator. That is why it was said to Israel: “Build me an altar out of the earth” (Ex. 20:24). To make an altar to God from earth means to have an idea of ​​the Incarnation of the Mediator. Our service is accepted by God when our humility places everything that we bring on this altar, that is, on faith in the incarnation of the Lord. So, we place our offering on this altar of earth if we strengthen all our deeds with faith in the Lord’s incarnation. However, there are some heretics who do not deny the truth of the Incarnation of the Redeemer, but either think incorrectly about the Divinity that is inherent in Him, or disagree with us about the method of His Incarnation. Those who confess with us the true Incarnation are like those sitting with Job on earth. They are described as sitting with Job for seven days and seven nights, because they cannot deny the mystery of the Incarnation, or being still able to understand something of the fullness of the Truth, or because they are blinded by the darkness of [only] stupidity, [but not of evil intention]. So, to sit with blessed Job on earth means to believe with the Church in the truth of the flesh of the Redeemer. 52. When we remain silent, they behave like friends, and when we begin to contradict them, they become enemies. - Sometimes heretics rage against us with intrigues, sometimes they persecute us only with words, sometimes they bother us in our silence, sometimes, seeing us silent, they also become silent; but being friends in silence, they become enemies when we begin to speak. And for the reason that blessed Job did not say anything to them, it is rightly added: “And no one spoke to him a single word.” So, our enemies are the silent ones, unless we take care that they become friends by professing the true faith. If we begin to speak righteously, we will immediately become victims of insults in their response; They immediately hastily remember the enmity and fall upon us with a mournful cry, fearing that the voice of the one speaking the truth will draw hearts to the Highest, darkened by the abyss of their foolishness and ignominy. And just as our opponents love us when we are silent and hate us when we begin to speak, it is rightly said about the silent Job: Right there. “Nobody said a word to him.” Sometimes heretics are forced into silence. – Sometimes, seeing that the hearts of the faithful are inactive and cold, they sow the seeds of lies with their speeches. And when they see that the hearts of good [Christians] know high things, strive to return to the [heavenly] fatherland, suffer greatly in the labors of this exile, pacify their tongues with care and prudence, then, seeing that they speak in vain before the hearts of the suffering, they soon become silent. Why is it right that immediately after the words: “No one spoke a word to him,” the reason for silence is added, as it is written: Right there. “For they saw that his grief was cruel.” 54. When the heart suffers because of the love of God, the enemy is afraid to say something wrong. – When cruel grief because of the love of God oppresses our hearts, the enemy is afraid to instill everything that is wrong indiscriminately, for he sees that by tormenting a strong mind, not only will he not be able to draw him to the opposite, but, perhaps, if the mind arms itself against him, he will lose those whom he was able to take possession of. 55. In Scripture, what is done well sometimes means what is done badly, and vice versa. – At least some of us may be surprised by the words said, that the good done by Job’s friends means the evil done by heretics. However, the fact that in history there is mostly virtue, in its inner meaning can be a sin: just as sometimes some accomplished deed is the cause of condemnation in reality, and in Scripture it is a prophecy about virtue. Thus, we can rather explain this by giving evidence from Scripture for these two cases at once. What listener - not only among the faithful, but even among the unbelievers themselves - would not condemn in every possible way the fact that David, walking along the roof of the palace, desired Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah? David persuades Uriah, who has just returned from battle, to go home to wash his feet. But he answers: “The ark of the Lord is in tents, but will I rest in my house?” (2 Samuel 11:11). And David received him to his table and gave him messages according to which he was to be killed. Whose image does David have, walking along the roof of his palace, if not the one about whom it is written: “He pitched his tent in the sun” (Ps. 18:6)? And what does it mean to subjugate Bathsheba to yourself, if not to apply to yourself in a spiritual sense that law, the letter of which was given to a carnal people? "Bathsheba" is translated as "seventh well"; Thus, through the knowledge of the law, with the intervention of the grace of the Holy Spirit, perfect wisdom is delivered to us. And who else does Uriah mean if not the Jewish people? His name translated means “my light of God.” So, the Jewish people, exalted [at first] by accepting the knowledge of the law, [are now] glorified by the light of God. David took away the wife of this Uriah and subjugated her to himself, for thus, “by the hand of the mighty,” as the name “David” is translated, the Redeemer, who appeared in the flesh, made the law speak about Himself spiritually, showing that the letter of the law no longer belonged to the Jewish people, but was subordinated to Christ, for the law foretold about Him. The fact that David commands Uriah to go home and wash his feet means that the Incarnate Lord at His coming commanded the Jewish people to return to living according to their conscience and to wash away their sins with streams of deeds, to understand the requirements of the law spiritually and to resort to the source of baptism after the cruelty of the commandments, just as Uriah is called to water after labors. But Uriah, remembering that the ark of the Lord was in tents, replied that he could not enter his house. It’s the same as if the Jewish people directly said: “I see the commandments of God in the sacrifices of carnal things and do not strive to return to living according to conscience in a spiritual mind.” And anyone who understands the commandments of God only when they are expressed through carnal sacrifices is like someone who said that “the ark is in tents.” David calls to a meal the one who did not want to return home, [representing by this that] although the Jewish people neglected to return to living according to their conscience, the Coming Redeemer nevertheless gave them spiritual commandments, saying: “If you believe Moses, then believe Me, for he wrote about Me” (John 5:46). So, the Jewish people keep the law, which they respect with its holiness and which, however, they are in no hurry to believe. It is for this reason that Uriah is sent to Joab with letters according to which he himself must die, because the Jewish people have a law by which they are condemned by the One who exposes them. Anyone who preserves the requirements of the law, but persists in unwillingness to achieve [through it] perfection, thus himself announces the punishment with which he will be condemned. What criminal act can the act of David represent, and what pure thing can the act of Uriah represent? Or what is more holy in David and what is more untrue in Uriah, when the former, in his life's crime in prophecy, signifies innocence, and the latter, by his innocence of life, represents sin? Therefore, the interpretation according to which the bad traits of heretics are portrayed through what were good traits in Job’s friends cannot be called unfair; for the power of Holy Scripture describes the past in order to express what is to come, and asserts the reality of a thing in such a way that its mysterious meaning is in conflict with it, and [finally] condemns the committed act in order to mysteriously induce something [else] to be done. 56. Why does the devil sometimes become silent from temptation? – Having filled the mystery of allegory with alternate interpretation, we must soon touch the moral meaning. For the mind tends to strive to explore the hidden, and if it remains for a long time in what is already clear, then this prevents the study of what is not yet clear. Often the ancient enemy, after inflicting an attack through temptation, leaves the attacks for a time; however, not putting an end to his malice, but in order to, after retreating, unexpectedly invade, as if having repented at first, into hearts that had become careless because of this calm. Thus, [the enemy] plunges the blessed man into temptation and demands torture to the one whom the Supreme Deity, preserving, gives to him, saying: Verse 6. - Here he is in your hand, just save his soul. 57. Sometimes God leaves us with the purpose of preserving us. Temptation becomes salvation for the soul when it refuses to agree with it. The ulcer caused by pleasure should be healed by repentance. – God leaves us in order to preserve us; and He protects us by revealing to us the state of our weakness in the allowed circumstances of temptation. So the devil immediately departed from the presence of the Lord and struck Job, who had been taken [into his hands], “from the heel of the foot to the head.” When he receives permission, then, starting from the smallest things, he reaches to the top, as if covering the entire body of the mind with the ulcers of allowed temptations. However, his blows did not reach the soul, for the inner disposition persisted, being deeper than all other thoughts. All this despite the deprivation of Job of all those [objects] which he had previously enjoyed, and the dispensation of holy righteousness did not incline towards desecration through consent [to evil]. [He remains adamant] despite the fact that pleasure leaves deep marks on the soul. Therefore, we must cleanse ourselves from these traces of pleasure by hastily turning to repentance and testing ourselves; with strict strictness towards oneself, cleanse oneself from the weak things that spill out of the mind. Why is it right to immediately add: Verse 8. – For with a fragment of a vessel he cleansed the pus. 58. For “to cleanse leprosy with a fragment of a vessel” means to cleanse sin through condemning oneself and contemplating one’s own frailty. – What is meant by a fragment of a vessel if not the severity of punishment, and by leprosy - not the outflow of an unlawful thought? We, in our defeat, “wipe away leprosy with a broken vessel,” when, after being desecrated by an illicit thought, we cleanse ourselves through severe self-judgment. Also, a fragment of a vessel can be understood as the frailty of mortal nature. Then, to cleanse leprosy with a fragment of a vessel means to reflect on the finitude and frailty of mortal nature and thus cleanse oneself from the rottenness of despicable pleasure. For when someone thinks that the body will soon return to dust, he will soon be able to defeat what the flesh is shamelessly fighting against. An evil thought influences the mind through temptation, and this is like pus coming out of a wound. The “pus” can be “cleansed” more quickly if our mind holds on to the frailty of the body, just as [Job] held a fragment of a vessel in his hand. 59. Evil thoughts should not be underestimated. – One should not consider small and insignificant everything that, although it does not lead to action, is illicitly addressed in the mind. This is why our Redeemer entreats us to cleanse the festering sores, saying: “You have heard that it was said to the ancients: Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I tell you that if anyone sees a woman and lusts after her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27). Thus, pus is cleansed when there is no sin not only in deeds, but also in thoughts. It was exactly the same in the case of Jerobaal, when he was threshing wheat and saw an angel and immediately cooked a lamb for him, laid it on a stone and poured meat stew on it. The angel touched the stew with his staff and the fire that came out of the stone devoured it all. (Judges 6, 11, 12, 19). What else could the threshing of wheat mean if not the court's separation of the grains of virtue from the chaff of vices? The fact that the angel appeared during this action means that the Lord announces the mysterious only when people with determination cleanse themselves of external things. Jerubbaal's slaying of the lamb signifies the mortification of every desire in our flesh. In the image of laying flesh on a stone and pouring out stew on it, someone else means a stone, if not indicated by Paul: “The stone was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4). “We lay our flesh on stone” when we crucify our body according to the example of Christ. “The one who, having once turned to Christ, destroys carnal thoughts in himself pours a stew of meat on him.” Therefore, freeing the mind from carnal thoughts through their revelation is like pouring out a liquid stew of meat. The angel touched [the offering] with his staff, indicating that the power of the Divine Helper does not despise our aspiration. And the issuance of fire from the stone and the absorption of flesh and stew in it means that every mind touched by the Redeemer will burn its heart with such a flame of repentance that it will incinerate everything unlawful present in it in deed and thought. So, what in this place is expressed by the image of a libation of stew, in another place of Scripture is depicted by the cleansing of leprosy with a broken vessel. After all, a perfect mind with skill sees to it not only to renounce committing wickedness, but mainly to purify everything wicked that comes from it with thought. However, often after victory over himself [the vanquished] a new war begins - now he wants to impress the mind of the winner with pride in the fact that he has overcome an unclean thought. So, it is necessary to encourage the mind to purify, but this must be vigilantly based on humility. Therefore, after the words spoken about the holy man: “He cleansed leprosy with a fragment of a vessel,” it is immediately correctly added: 60. Let him who has overcome temptation maintain humility. The pride of those who do evil and imagine great things about themselves. The pride of the wicked, pretending that they are not sinning when they do what is a sin for others. – “Sitting among abominations” means thinking lowly and humbly about oneself. “Sitting among abominations” means for us, in repentance, to return the eyes of the mind to what we have committed that is not permitted, and, looking at the dung of sins lying before us, to throw down [there] everything that arises in the soul through pride. “Sitting among abominations” is the one who looks attentively at his own weakness and is not puffed up by the blessings that he has received through [God’s] mercy. Did not Abraham “sit as if in the midst of abominations” in relation to himself, who said: “Shall I speak with the Lord, I who am dust and ashes?” (Gen.18:27). We see in what place he put himself, evaluating himself as ashes and as dust, although he spoke with God. If he so despised himself, who has achieved the honor of the Divine interview, then it is worth always thinking about what punishment will be accepted by those who do not strive to achieve the highest and who are arrogant from the least. For there are some who, although they do evil, think great things about themselves. They set their minds high and think that they are superior to others in the rewards of virtue. They turn away within themselves from the “abominations” with which we portray humility, and rush to the heights of pride. And thus they imitate the one who [first] became arrogant before himself and fell in his ascent; they imitate the one for whom the honor of being created by the Creator was not enough and who said: “I will ascend into heaven and exalt my throne above the sun” (Is. 14:13). Therefore, Babylon, viciously attached to this [the first proud man], forming a multitude of diverse sinners, says: “I sit in the place of the queen and am not a widow” (Is. 47:8). Anyone who is proud within is like [the devil] puffed up before himself. Turning away from his infamy, he finds himself even more immersed in it. But there are also some who are not zealous in virtue, but, seeing others commit sin, consider themselves better in comparison with them. But it is not the same sin that controls all hearts! One is caught by pride, another is overcome by anger; one is tormented by greed, the other is kindled by the love of luxury. And it very often happens that the one ruled by pride despises the one struck down by anger; and he himself, not quickly kindled to anger, condemns the one who is arranged for a quick flare-up and is proud of him as if in justice, not wanting to think about the vice that rules over him. It also often happens that one tormented by greed observes someone who is immersed in the abyss of luxury and, seeing himself as alien to the defilement of carnal things, does not pay attention to what impurities of mental vices he himself is desecrated: considering as bad in others what he does not have in himself, he neglects to examine what he has in himself. And it turns out that while the mind is carried away towards condemnation, it is deprived of the light that can bring it judgment over itself, and the more it rises above others, the deeper becomes the ignorance of things that belong to itself. 61. Who of the perfect ones can maintain humility, paying attention to the sin of others? Temptation sometimes strikes both externally and internally. – Those who want to rise to the heights of virtue [act] completely opposite: hearing about other people’s sins, they immediately turn their hearts to their own, and the more correct their judgment about other people’s [sins] turns out to be, the more sincerely they mourn their own. For the reason that every elect must force himself to examine his own weakness, and it is said in the most just manner that the holy man in his suffering “sat among abominations.” Thus, only that self-abasement is true when someone, with an eye in constant attention, carefully looks at what impurities of sins he is surrounded by. In turn, you need to know that although more often the mind suffers attacks on what is good in it, sometimes it still happens that we suffer simultaneously from attacks from without and from within we are burdened by the severity of temptation, so that the flesh is struck with wounds and the mind is filled with inclination towards the carnal. Therefore, after [describing] so many wounds of blessed Job, the words of a wife who persuades evil are added: Verse 9 – How long will you continue in your simplicity? Bless God and die. 62. Job's wife, persuading evil, [depicts] a carnal mind. – A woman who persuaded evil depicts a carnal thought tormenting the mind. For often, as we said, we are crushed by external wounds, and internally we are tormented by carnal thoughts. This is what Jeremiah’s lamentation means when he exclaims: “The sword destroys without, and the same is death within the house” (Lamentations Jer. 1:20). “The sword destroys from without” when we receive external wounds. And “from within the house it is the same as death,” when someone, suffering wounds from the outside and from the inside, has his conscience stained with the impurities of temptations. Therefore, David says: “They became like dust before the wind, and the angel of the Lord that struck them down” (Ps. 34:5). He who has the spirit of temptation in his heart rises like dust in the face of the wind. And when Divine severity strikes for this, what else is fulfilled if not this image of defeat by the angel of the Lord? 63. Both the elect and the wicked accept temptation. – This is said about both the wicked and the elect. The hearts of the first, being tempted, accept temptation. The hearts of the second, although they endure temptation, resist it. The mind of the first is captured so that they experience pleasure from it; and even if at the moment when the attack occurs, they find it unpleasant, then subsequently they acquire a liking for it due to their inclination towards evil. The latter endure the attacks of temptations, constantly working to resist them, and if the mind is carried away to enjoy what is the content of temptation, they immediately mourn this theft committed by their craving for pleasure, and with strict punishment they condemn everything that they notice the carnal arising in themselves. Why is it rightly immediately added: Verse 10 – You speak like one of the foolish women. If we have accepted good from the hand of the Lord, then why not tolerate evil? 64. How to resist the rude and flattering. – It is necessary that the mind should put aside with the severity of the spirit everything that the flesh shamelessly whispers to it, so that it does not lead it to impatience through rude suggestions and does not unleash it to the streams of attractions with the help of flattering words. Manly firmness, opposed to the pretexts of a bad thought, condemns frivolous sensitivity to shame, saying: “You speak like one of the stupid women.” Contemplation of the gifts received condemns the impatience born of rude thoughts, saying: “If we have accepted good from the hand of the Lord, then why will we not tolerate evil?” Thus, anyone who wishes to defeat vice and ascends by the steps of righteous aspiration to the eternal glory of inner rewards, the more he sees himself being fought by a horde of vices, the more tightly he girds himself with the weapon of virtues. And the less he will be afraid of attacks, the more he strengthens his chest against everything that falls on it. 65. Vices hide themselves under the image of virtues. – Often, when we try to protect ourselves from the danger of temptation, some vices are hidden under the guise of virtues and come to us in a gentle form. The study reveals how hostile they are. Therefore, the friends of blessed Job come as if for consolation, but they end up insulting them. This is the image of vices, which, setting a trap, take on the image of virtues and hurt us with their hostile invasion. Thus, often immoderate anger wants to appear as justice, and dissolute wastefulness as mercy. Often uncontrollable fear wants to look like humility, and unreasonable pride wants to look like freedom. Friends come for consolation, but reach words of reproach, and vices, having taken the guise of virtues, begin with affection, but later strike us with rudeness and by their hostile nature. It is rightly said: Verse 11 – For they took counsel together, that they might come together and visit him. 66. Vices come against us in alliances. – Vices “consult with each other” under the appearance of virtues, for there are some things that seem to unite against us to visit together: such as pride and anger, waste and fear. For anger is close to pride, and wastefulness is close to fear. Therefore, those things “come in consultation” that are united against us in a certain logic of evil. However, if we recognize the severity of our captivity, if we are sick in the depths of our hearts with love for the eternal fatherland, then the vices that overthrow those who unrighteously rejoice will not be able to defeat us, the good mourners. Why is it rightly added: Verse 12 – And when they lifted up their eyes from afar, they did not recognize him. 67. Suffering drives out vices. – Vices cannot “recognize” us when we are broken; for having attacked the heart, they fall silent in shame. Those things that seemed to “know” us when we were in joy, because they penetrated into us, cannot “recognize” us when we begin to resist them, since they are reflected by our severity. Then the primordial enemy, the more he sees himself revealed in these things, the more in a higher guise of virtues he hides them. Why is it added: Right there. - And they cried out, wept, and tore their clothes, sprinkled dust on their heads towards heaven, and sat with him on the earth for seven days and seven nights. 68. It is under the guise of virtues that [vicious things are more likely] to seduce. – Piety is indicated by crying, caution by tearing clothes, zeal in work by dust on the head, humility by sitting [with Job]. Sometimes the enemy, plotting his intrigues, imitates a pious course of action in order to lead to a ruthless conclusion. This happens when a person admits that sin is not prevented by severity, and this sin, as much as it is not destroyed here, will be crushed there in the fire of Gehenna. Sometimes the enemy presents to the eyes the image of caution and plunges a person into the snare of imprudence, as happens when, at his instigation, we indulge in our weakness more than necessary, as if being careful, but thereby carelessly raising attacks of the flesh against ourselves. Sometimes vice imitates zeal for good deeds, but through this it causes trouble in labor, as happens when someone cannot be in the world, but [at the same time] is afraid of being condemned for inactivity. Sometimes vice shows the appearance of humility in order to harm the benefit of a cause - as happens when an adversary convinces some people about themselves that they are weak and useless, more than necessary, and they, considering themselves unworthy, are afraid to do things that could benefit their neighbors. 69. Self-reproach protects against vices. – Those vices that the primordial enemy hides under the guise of virtues can be revealed by the skillful hand of self-reproach. For the one who inwardly “suffers severely” correctly judges what external things are worth doing and what can be abstained from. So, if the virtue of self-reproach operates deeply in us, then every movement of vicious reasoning will cease. Why is it added: Verse 13 – And no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was severe. 70. Vices can serve to benefit virtues. – If the heart “suffers cruelly,” then vices have no tongue against us. For when a person strives entirely towards a life of righteousness, then the temptation to evil, offering something excessive, will have no power. And often, with great attention (studio) turning against the sparks of vices, we can turn the very vices into the service of virtues. Some have anger; but, having subordinated it to reason, they turn it to the service of sacred jealousy. Some are driven by pride, but they, bowing their spirit to the fear of God, turn it to defending the truth with the voice of their own example, free [from verbal coercion]. Some are driven down by the violence of the flesh, but they, devoting the body to the exercise of works of piety, achieve the fruits of piety through that in which they suffered from the sting of iniquity. Therefore, it is right that after so many battles, blessed Job sacrifices for his friends. For those from whom Job had long suffered as enemies because of temptations, thanks to sacrifice, Job made again fellow citizens [of the Heavenly Fatherland]. So we, turning various vicious thoughts into virtues when we defeat [them], seem to be turning these hostile efforts of temptation into the hearts of friends into a victim of intention. Now let it be sufficient that we have examined in three volumes threefold [historically, allegorically and morally]. For at the beginning of this work we, like a tree growing in a cramped situation, established the root of the language so as to produce branches of interpretation only where free space requires.