Thomas Aquinas Commentary Job 10:18-22

"Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me. I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. Are not my days few? cease then, And let me alone, that I may take comfort a little, Before I go whence I shall not return, [Even] to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death; The land dark as midnight, [The land] of the shadow of death, without any order, And where the light is as midnight." — Job 10:18-22 (ASV)

Job had finished his investigation with the statement that he has suffered many tribulations, whether he is just or unjust. He now wants to ask if this can be true, so that no one would believe that God rejoiced in his tribulations. It would seem unfitting for a creator to treat his own creation evilly, because every agent intends the good in its effect. This assumes, however, that he is the work of God, as he made clear in the preceding arguments (verses 3 and 4). So he asks him, “Why did you take me from the womb?” as if to say: Did you cause my birth in order to subdue me with trials?

Because someone could object that, considered in absolute terms (simpliciter), it is better to exist even in tribulations than not to have been born at all, he rejects this opinion, saying, “would that I had perished in my mother’s womb, so that no eye would see me.” He says this so that he would not suffer shame from the great evils that men see in him. If he had perished in his mother’s womb, he would still have had the dignity of existence without the unhappiness that befell him in life. He speaks about this, saying, “I would have been”—that is, I would have participated in the good of existing—“as though I had not been”—that is, I would have been free from the evils of this life as if I had never existed. For the dignity of a man’s being does not consist in being preserved perpetually. Instead, when a man eventually dies, he is carried to a tomb prepared for the dead so that his memory may remain in some way after death. I would have been without even this, and so the text continues, “carried from womb to tomb.”

No one who delights in the torments of another is so cruel that he would not give him at least a brief respite from his affliction. So, even if one supposes that God was not the cause of man’s birth, a man’s days are still short, especially in comparison to the eternity of God. A man expects that brief time to end quickly, since he has already passed a great part of his life. This is what he says now: “Will not the short span of my days finish quickly?”—meaning, since all the days of my life are few, and a great part of that short span is already past. It is not a great thing to stop persecuting me for the rest of my days, and so he concludes, “Leave me, then.” If it seems difficult for you to stop afflicting me for even one hour, it is certain that even after you cease, there remains no cause for my joy, but only for grief. He continues on this theme, seeking “a little comfort in my pain,” which he feels from the blows he is suffering. He says this because he still considered himself to be struck hard as long as his friends were rebuking him. He spoke about this when he said, “You set up witnesses against me” (verse 17).

But one could object: On the contrary, you should be afflicted here for a little while so that when you depart from here, you will find consolation. This can be interpreted in two ways. First, by returning a second time to this life. He excludes this, saying, “Before I go away... and I do not return”—that is, in death, he will not return to live again. This can be explained in two ways. One way is that he is not to return to the same kind of life, as some have falsely maintained. A better interpretation is that he is speaking as a debater, adopting the viewpoint of his adversaries before the truth is revealed (Job 14:13 and 19:25). In a subsequent chapter, Job will clearly give evidence for the truth of the resurrection. In all the preceding text, therefore, he speaks about the resurrection by assuming the opinion of those with whom he argues is true, for they do not believe there is another life besides this one. They think men are punished or rewarded for their evil or good deeds only in this life. Alternatively, he could expect consolation after the end of this life in the state of death itself. But he rejects this, saying he will go “to the land of gloom” after death.

This, too, can be explained in two ways. First, it can be interpreted as expressing the hell (infernus) to which the souls of all people, even the souls of the just before Christ, descended. Although the just did not suffer physical pains there, but only darkness, the others suffer both pains and darkness. But since Job had spoken as if it were doubtful whether he himself was just or a sinner—as his friends unjustly accused him (though, in fact, he was just)—he describes hell in a way common to both the good and the wicked.

If hell is considered in this common sense, it is called a “land of gloom” because it lacks the clarity of the divine vision. It is said to be “covered with the mist of death” because of original sin, which is the mist leading to death. It is said to be a “land of unhappiness” because of the punishments the condemned suffer. It is called a “land of shadows” because of the obscurities of actual sins that entangle the wicked. A “shadow of death” is said to be there—that is, a likeness of death—because their affliction is like a perpetual death. There is said to be “confusion” there, either because of the confusion of minds that the damned suffer or because the order observed here is not observed there. Here, fire burns and gives light, but not so there. There, “one dwells in everlasting terror” because although they are always in pain from present punishments, they still always fear future ones.

But since those against whom he disputes did not assert the immortality of the soul as surviving after death, he continues to speak from their position. The passage is better explained in its literal sense, so that the whole text refers to the body that is buried in the ground and turns to dust. So he says, “to a land of gloom,” to express the property of the earth itself, which is opaque. Although the earth is opaque in itself, those who inhabit it are illuminated by the light of the air covering it. The dead, however, do not enjoy that kind of light, and so he says, “covered with the mist of death,” as if to say: Because of death, one does not enjoy the light after death that the living enjoy. Sometimes, a living person might not enjoy the light surrounding the earth—for instance, while living deep in hidden caverns—yet he can still enjoy things according to his appetite and contemplate truths with his intellect. But the dead cannot do this, and so he calls it “the land of unhappiness,” because of the lack of all desirable things, and “of shadows,” because the contemplation of truth is lacking. Among the things enjoyed by the living, human society is special, with its proper order in which certain people rule, others are under them, and still others serve them. The dead are deprived of this society, and so he continues, speaking of “the shade of death,” as if to say: From the perspective of the living, there is nothing but shadows among the dead. For Wisdom says, “Specters who appeared sad made them tremble with fear” . “No order” is there, because the condition of the dead is one without honor or dignity. “But everlasting terror dwells” there with respect to the living, for whom the dead are a horror. It is as if to say: There is nothing in the state of the dead except what people shudder at, and this will be eternally true for them if they do not return to life.

Therefore, in his investigation into the cause of his trial, Job shows that it is not caused by:

• some unjust person into whose hands the earth has been given (Job 9:24 and following),
• God persecuting him on a false charge (verse 3),
• God looking for a fault (verse 4),
• God punishing sins (verse 14),
• or God enjoying the punishments (verse 18).

As a result, the cause of his pains remains in doubt. Job pursues all these things to lead his friends to conclude that there must necessarily be another life in which the just are rewarded and the wicked are punished. If this position is not accepted, no cause can be given for the suffering of the just, who are certainly sometimes troubled in this world.