Thomas Aquinas Commentary Job 14

Since this last point is particularly valuable for investigating the truth, he insists on clarifying it further. He now applies what he had said about himself specifically to the entire human race.

1. First, he explains the frailty of the human condition. Regarding our origin, he says, “Man, born of woman,” indicating we come from something frail. Regarding our duration, he says we “live for a short time.” And regarding our condition, he says we are “filled with many sorrows.” This explains what he said above: Do you show your power against the leaf which is driven by the wind? (verse 25).

2. Second, he addresses the things in which a person might glory. The first is the beauty of the body, with which a person is strong in youth. But this glory is nothing because it passes quickly like a flower. Thus, he says, “Who like a flower comes forth and is crushed”—that is, easily. The second is fame, which does not last long. And so he says, “and he flees like a shadow,” for no trace or memory of a passing shadow remains. The third is power and strength, with which someone tries to preserve himself and his possessions. Against this, he says, “he never rests in the same state.”

   These three things can refer to the three points the previous verse addresses. For “man born of woman” is like a flower that comes forth and is quickly crushed. He lives for such a brief time that he “flees like a shadow” whose trace does not remain. Therefore, he is “filled with many sorrows,” so that even though he might at times acquire prosperity and joy, he still “never rests in the same state.”

3. Third, he wonders about the attentiveness of divine providence toward humanity. It seems marvelous that God should have such great care for something so fragile and contemptible. Although everything is subject to divine providence, God’s care for humanity appears especially in three ways:

   1. God has given us laws and precepts for living. The author touches on this when he says, “and you consider it worthy to open your eyes on someone like this,” for one is said to “open his eyes” on another when he directs him and considers his ways.
   2. God rewards people for good deeds and punishes them for evil deeds. He touches on this when he says, “and bring him with yourself in judgment.”
   3. God adorns a person with the virtues by which he preserves himself as pure against the deformity of sin. He touches on this when he says, “Who can make clean one conceived of unclean seed?”

   The seed of man is certainly unclean, not by nature, but because of the infection of sinful desire. Yet a person conceived from this unclean seed is sometimes proven pure by virtue. Just as the power to make something hot belongs to that which is hot in itself, so the power to make something pure belongs to that which is pure in itself. And so he then says, “If not you alone,” who are truly pure in Yourself? For purity and cleanliness are found perfectly only in God, in whom there can be no potentiality or defect. Therefore, whatever is clean and pure in any way receives this purity and cleanness from God.

Job had wondered about God's high regard for humanity, given our frail and unhappy condition in this present life. This wonder, however, would cease if one considers that another life is reserved for us after this one—a life in which we will remain for eternity. From this point on, Job attempts to demonstrate this.

He begins by stating his premise: the brevity of our present life. He says, "The days of man are short." He shows that the very measure of human life is determined by God when he says, "the number of his months is with you," similar to how we say something is "with us" when we have established its number. Furthermore, he uses the unchangeable nature of God's determination as a premise, saying, "You set up limits which cannot be passed."

God's decree cannot be thwarted. Therefore, it is impossible to live either longer or shorter than what divine providence has established. This is true even though, from a human perspective, it may seem contingent whether a particular person dies now or later. Natural boundaries are also set for human life by physical causes, such as one's constitution. A person's life cannot extend beyond these natural limits, though it can be shortened by some accidental cause. However, a person's life can ultimately be neither longer nor shorter than the limits determined by divine providence, under which all things fall.

Job also uses the expectation of the next life as a premise when he says, "Leave him a little while so that he might rest until the desired day comes like a hired man." Here, we must observe that just as the sun is the cause of the day, God is the author of life. When the sun departs, the day ends and night comes. Similarly, Job understands God's "leaving" as the end of the present life, which we have from God.

This present life, however, is filled with many tribulations. Indeed, Job spoke of this when he said that man "is filled with many sorrows" (Job 14:1). Since rest is the end of toil, he calls death "rest." Thus, he says, "Leave him for a little while so that he might rest," meaning, "Withdraw the power by which you give life so that he may die."

But a person's death is not final, for he will be made whole again for a life that does not die. The state of human death—however long the resurrection is deferred—is brief in comparison to the state of future immortality. This is why Job specifies, "for a little while." God allows other things that will not return to perish for eternity, but He departs from humanity for only a short time, for a person perishes in such a way that he will rise again.

Job said earlier that human life on earth is like the day of a hired worker (Job 7:1), who desires his payday. But the time of repayment is not in this life, as Job's friends believed, but in the life to which we are restored by the resurrection. He says, "that he might rest"—that is, that he might die, yet not forever—but "until the day comes he desires," which is like the desired payday for a hired worker.

Here, Job finally makes his intention clear. He does not deny that present adversities are punishments, as if God does not reward or punish human actions. Instead, he maintains that the proper time of retribution is in the life to come.

After stating his opinion, Job proceeds to clarify it. First, he shows that as things appear in this life, man is in a worse condition than even weak creatures that are renewed after their destruction. This fact is especially clear in the case of trees.

The life of a tree, like the life of a man, can fail in two ways: by violence or by nature. He speaks about the violent destruction of the tree, saying that if a tree is cut down, it has hope—a natural aptitude to renew its existence. This is because, if replanted, it grows green again, and its branches sprout. In this, he demonstrates that it recovers the perfect life it formerly had.

He expresses the tree's natural failure by saying that if its roots age in the earth, it cannot take in food due to a defect in its natural power. Consequently, its trunk has rotted in the dirt, reduced to dust in some places by rot. Yet, it will be rejuvenated by the mere scent of water when the rain comes, because the rotten wood possesses a seminal potency. And it will put forth a shoot—a growth of leaves—as when it was first planted.

This is not the case for man after this present life passes. Therefore, Job asks, Where, I ask you, is man when he has died, been stripped and destroyed? Job suggests that man loses three things by degrees:

1. The soul is separated from the body, which he expresses by saying, when he has died.
2. He loses the coverings and decorations of the body, which remain for some time after death. But afterward, he is stripped of even these, and so Job says, been stripped.
3. The very structure of his body is dissolved, which he expresses by saying, and destroyed.

After these things are completed, no perceptible appearance of the person remains. Therefore, to those who believe only in what is perceptible and corporeal, the person seems entirely reduced to nothing. To express the doubt of such people, Job then asks, Where, I ask you, is man? (Job 14:10).

Note here that what does not perish completely can be renewed, as he has already said about wood that is cut down or old (Job 14:7–9). But the renewal of something from which nothing remains seems impossible—for example, renewing water in a sea or a river that has completely evaporated.

Man, however, as the text has explained, seems to be so consumed by death that nothing remains of him. According to this argument, it seems impossible that he could be restored to life again. He expresses this theme, saying, As the waters recede from the sea and the rivers dry up empty, so when a man sleeps (that is, when he has died), he will not rise again (from the dead).

Just as it seems impossible for incorruptible things to be corrupted, it also seems impossible for what is totally corrupted to be restored again. Heaven is incorruptible, and so he says, until heaven passes away, he will not awaken (that is, come to life again), nor arise from his sleep (to do the works of the living again). He is saying, in effect: Just as it is impossible for heaven to pass away (that is, to be corrupted), so it is impossible for man to rise again from the dead. This is said, as we already established, on the assumption that nothing remains of man after death.

One can also relate this to the opinion of those who proposed that the entire corporeal universe would be corrupted and then renewed. In this restoration, they proposed that the same people would return. So the meaning would be: As long as this world lasts, man will not rise again from the dead.

The Catholic faith, however, does not hold that the substance of the world will perish, but only the state of this world as it now exists. Paul expresses this in 1 Corinthians 7:31: The figure of this world is passing away. Therefore, this change in the figure of the world can be understood here by the wearing away of heaven. For the general resurrection of the dead at the end of the world is expected, as it says in the Gospel of John, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day (John 11:24).

After showing what can be concluded about human resurrection from things apparent to the senses, Job now presents his own opinion on the matter. It would be a horrible and unhappy thing if a person were to depart in death, never to be brought back to life, because everything naturally desires its own existence. So Job shows his desire for the future resurrection, saying, "Oh, that you would protect me in Sheol," that is, that you would preserve me with the special care with which you protect a person, "until your anger passes" at the time of death.

Human death is caused by the removal of the divine action that preserves life, which is why he said before, Go away from him for a little while (Job 14:6). God seems angry with a person when He takes away the gift of life, especially for us who believe that death came from the sin of the first man. Job explains how he wishes to be protected even in Sheol when he says, "and will you determine a time for me when you may remember me?" For God seems to have forgotten a person when He takes the gift of life away from them. He then remembers them when He brings them back to life. Therefore, to determine the time in which God remembers the dead is nothing other than to determine the time of the resurrection.

He fittingly calls this "protection" (Job 14:13). For when an artist has dismantled his work, such as a house, and does not intend to rebuild it with the same materials, he appears to have no concern for those materials as they fall into ruin. But when he intends to repair the building from this same material, he guards it carefully so that it does not perish. He calls this guarding "protection."

After expressing his desire to rise again, he then asks if his desire could ever be realized in the future, since desires are sometimes for impossible things. He then says, Do you think a dead man can live again? He shows what he himself thinks about this, saying, For all the days during which I now struggle, I await the time when my transformation will come. We should note here that he had compared the life of man on earth to a soldier's life (Job 7:1) and to the days of a hired worker (Job 7:6), because both soldiers and hired workers await something after their present state. Therefore, just as he expressed that the state of the resurrection is like payday for the hired worker, he now shows the same concept using the metaphor of the soldier.

Note that he does not await the desired end in any part of the present life, because he likens all the days of this life to the state of military service, saying, For all the days during which I now struggle. One should also note that a person does not await another life like this one, because then that life would also be like warfare. Instead, he awaits a life in which he will not struggle like a soldier, but will triumph and reign. So he says, I await the time when my transformation will come. He means: For my whole life I struggle like a soldier, changeable and subject to labors and sorrows. But I wait to be transformed into the state of the other life, which is without labors and sorrows. The Apostle Paul expresses the same theme of transformation in 1 Corinthians when he says, We shall all arise, but we shall not all be changed (1 Corinthians 15:51).

He rules out that a person is transformed into the state of the next life by natural power, saying, You will call me, and I will answer you. This is as if to say: The future transformation will proceed from the power of your voice or your command, as John says, All those who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live (John 5:28). Calling is characteristic of commanding, while answering is the obedience by which the creature obeys the Creator. Since the dead will not only rise to life according to God's command, but will also be changed to a higher state by divine power, he then says, You will stretch forth your right hand to the work of your hands.

This is as if to say: The person who rises again will not be the work of nature, but of your power, and you stretch forth your helping right hand to this work when he is raised to the glory of the new state by the help of your grace. Alternatively, his statement, You will call, and I will answer you, can refer to the renewal of the body. This is because he adds the phrase, you will stretch forth your right hand to the work of your hands, in reference to the soul. The soul naturally desires to be united with the body, and God will extend His right hand as a helper to it, so that the soul will attain by divine power what it cannot attain by its own.

Now that he has presented his opinion about the resurrection of the dead, Job returns to the subject he previously wondered about: how much careful attention God pays to human works. He expressed this when he said, You observed all my paths and considered the traces of my footsteps (Job 13:27). Here he says, You have numbered my steps, as if to say: It is no wonder that you so diligently examine a person's deeds, since you reserve them for another life. Note, however, that divine providence considers human acts in two ways. First, in that He examines and evaluates them. Job clarifies this when he says, you have numbered my steps. One numbers things one cares about. Lest anyone object that it is a mark of great severity for God to examine the deeds of frail humanity with such care, Job then emphasizes God's tendency to pardon us when he says, but spare my sins. He means: Although you number these things, I am still filled with hope that you may spare me.

Second, divine providence is attentive to human acts in that He preserves the good and wicked deeds of people in His memory to repay them with good or evil. And so he continues, You have sealed my faults in a sack. For what one seals in a sack is carefully kept. Lest anyone say this sealing excludes divine mercy, he then says, But you cured my iniquity. This is as if to say: You store up punishments for sins in such a way that you nevertheless cure my faults through penance.

After Job has presented his idea about the future resurrection, he now strengthens it with plausible arguments. The first argument comes from a comparison between humans and lesser creatures, which are completely destroyed with no hope of restoration. For all created things are subject to decay, and so even mountains, after a period of time, are dissolved by certain causes, although they seem very solid. He addresses this by saying, A falling mountain is leveled. Rocks are also shattered by violence or by some natural cause, even though they seem very strong. He continues, and the rock is displaced. Even stones are worn away by water, although they seem very hard. He expresses this, saying, water wears away stones. The earth, too, is gradually changed in its state, although it seems very stable, and so he says, The earth is gradually consumed by flood.

But it would be inappropriate to apply the same reasoning to the decay of man and the decay of these other things. So he concludes, as if leading the argument to an absurd conclusion: "Will you then destroy man in the same way?" He seems to be saying that it is not right for humans to experience decay like other physical creatures. For all the other creatures mentioned are completely destroyed and are therefore not restored individually. However, although a person's body may decay, the soul remains incorruptible, transcending the entire category of physical things. Therefore, the hope of restoration remains.

He then draws the same conclusion using arguments based on human characteristics. Man excels all lesser creatures in two ways. One of these is the power to act, for through free will, he is truly the master of his own actions—a quality unique among all physical creatures. Because of this, man is more powerful than any other physical creature and uses the others for his own purposes. The second way he excels them is in intellectual knowledge. He has a mind, and this is indicated in his body—especially in the face, which is very different from that of other animals.

As a result of these two qualities, it is clear that man is not destroyed like other things, which cease to exist forever. Regarding the first quality, he says, Have you strengthened him a little to allow him to disappear forever? He means: It is not fitting for You to strengthen man so much for only a short time, only for him to cease to exist forever afterward. For it seems foolish for someone to make a very strong tool, use it for only a short time, and then throw it away for good. The power of every physical creature is limited to finite effects, while the power of the free will is directed toward infinite actions. This in itself testifies to the soul's power to endure infinitely.

Regarding the second quality, he says, will you change his face and let him go to waste? He means: It is not fitting that You should make his face so different from other animals, only to dismiss him from this life forever, never to return, just as they do. Intellectual knowledge is commonly symbolized by the "face" because it is unique to the rational creature, and it can only properly belong to an incorruptible substance, as the philosophers prove.

But someone could object that even if a person does not return to life after death, he does not pass away forever, because he lives on, in a sense, through his children. The words of Bildad seem to have addressed this theme when he said, This is the joy of its life, that others may be brought forth from the earth again (Job 8:19). But Job dismisses this idea, saying, Whether his sons are noble or base, he will not understand.

He means that a person grasps eternal good through the intellect and therefore also naturally desires it. However, the good that comes from the succession of one's children cannot satisfy this intellectual appetite if the person is completely consumed by death and ceases to exist forever. A person does not comprehend the good in the succession of his children, either while he lives or after he dies, if he completely ceases to exist through death. Therefore, a person's intellectual appetite is not directed toward the eternity of this kind of good, but toward the good or evil which he possesses in himself. And so he adds, yet his flesh will suffer pain while he lives, his soul will grieve over him. Here he distinguishes between two kinds of pain: one of the flesh, perceived by the senses, and the other of the soul, perceived by the intellect or imagination, which is properly called sorrow and is here termed grief.