Thomas Aquinas Commentary Job 15:14-27

"What is man, that he should be clean? And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones; Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight: How much less one that is abominable and corrupt, A man that drinketh iniquity like water! I will show thee, hear thou me; And that which I have seen I will declare: (Which wise men have told From their fathers, and have not hid it; Unto whom alone the land was given, And no stranger passed among them): The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor. A sound of terrors is in his ears; In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him. He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, And he is waited for of the sword. He wandereth abroad for bread, [saying], Where is it? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. Distress and anguish make him afraid; They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle. Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, And behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty; He runneth upon him with a [stiff] neck, With the thick bosses of his bucklers; Because he hath covered his face with his fatness, And gathered fat upon his loins;" — Job 15:14-27 (ASV)

After Eliphaz had censured Job for provoking God to an argument, which he thought amounted to a presumption of wisdom, he now censures him for a presumption of justice. This is because Job had said, “If I am judged, I know I would be found just” (Job 13:18). Eliphaz attacks this statement in three ways.

1. First, he attacks it based on the frailty of the human condition, in which a person avoids sin only with difficulty. Thus, he says, “What is man that he should be without stain?” A person also does good only with difficulty, so he continues, “and be born just from his mother’s womb?” For, as Proverbs says, “Justice in abundance is the greatest virtue” (Proverbs 15:5). This does not seem to suit one who has his origin from the lowliest of things.

2. Second, he attacks the same statement by comparing man to more noble creatures. He says, “Look! Among his holy ones,” the angels, “not one is unchangeable” by his own nature; they can only be turned away from sin by the gift of divine grace. “And the heavens,” which hold the supreme place of purity among physical bodies, “are not pure in his presence”—that is, in comparison to God—since they are material, corporeal, and changeable.

3. Third, he attacks the statement based on the personal condition of Job himself, as a conclusion to the major premise above . “How much more abominable,” through sin, “and useless,” by the failure of justice, “is the man who drinks evil like water.” This means a man who commits evil as if it were nothing and without any consideration. For someone who drinks wine must do so with careful attention so that he does not become drunk, but this is not the case for someone who drinks water. In this, Eliphaz notes that Job would easily fall into evil, just as a man drinks water easily and readily.

After Eliphaz had censured Job for provoking God to an argument and presuming his own justice, he now censures him for the words he used. He especially focuses on Job’s statements, “Do you think of me as your enemy? Do you show your power against the leaf which is driven by the wind?” (Job 13:24–25) and “You have placed my feet in fetters” (Job 13:27).

First, he gets his attention, saying, “I will show you,” what you were asking from God, “listen to me” carefully. He explains how he can do this, saying next, “what I have seen,” in the discovery of his own intellect, “I will tell you.” He adds that he will not be embarrassed to share what he has heard from others, putting them forward as his authority, because “Wise men confess and do not hide their fathers,” from whom they learned wisdom. It is truly the mark of the ignorant and the proud to attribute to themselves what they have learned from others.

He then shows why these fathers should not be hidden, because of their dignity, saying, “The earth has been given to men alone.” This statement can be related interchangeably and in the same sense either to the wise men or to their fathers, whom he also wishes to be understood as wise. The earth is said to have been given only to wise men because they are lords of earthly goods, in that they use them only for their own good. Foolish men, however, use them to their own harm, as Wisdom says, “Creatures were made as a snare to the feet of the foolish” . To show the dignity of these men, he says, “and the stranger will not tread their ground,” because those who are strangers to wisdom cannot be numbered among the fellowship of the wise. Or, it could mean that the wise are not conquered by foreigners, for a stranger is said to tread on those who are defeated and made subject to a foreigner's power.

After getting his listener’s attention, he then tries to answer the arguments Job had used. He understood Job to have said two things: first, that Job was living in anguish and fear, as though God pursued him and laid traps for him, because he said, “Why do you think of me as your enemy?” (Job 13:24) and “Have you observed all my paths?” (Job 13:27). Second, he believed that Job doubted his own ruin when he said, “Do you write bitter things against me and want to consume me for the sins of my youth?” (Job 13:26).

First, then, he argues against the first point, and then against the second in the words, “He will live in desolate cities” (Job 15:28). Therefore, he first reveals the root from which this suspicion arises in Job’s heart: his impiety and his will to do harm. So he says, “For all his days, the evil man is proud,” because he exalts himself against God to harm others. He uses the term “days” to mean not the days of his life, but the days when he has power and prosperity.

But since the will to harm someone comes from the man himself, while the power to harm comes from God, he cannot know how long he will be given the power to carry out his evil will. So he continues, “The number of years of his tyranny is uncertain.” From this uncertainty, suspicion and fear arise. He describes this, saying, “The sound of terror is always in the ear of that man,” since he is threatened by every rumor, thinking some attack is being prepared against him. It is as though he trusts no one. To express this, he adds, “when there is peace, that man suspects plots,” for although no one is plotting against him, he is still terrified of everyone because of his own evil will, by which he is prepared to harm anyone.

Now, when someone fears some of his enemies, he can hope to escape with the help of his friends, even if he is defeated for a time. But one who trusts no one and fears everyone cannot hope for deliverance after he is oppressed. So he next says, “He does not believe that he can return from darkness to light,” from a state of adversity to prosperity, “when he sees the sword everywhere around him,” when he sees enemies threatening him on all sides. He says this especially to answer what Job had said: “I, who am consumed by rot and like a garment eaten by a moth” (Job 13:28). Eliphaz understood by this that Job was in despair of being delivered.

Although a tyrant fears all strangers, he can still sometimes trust his family or household members with whom he lives securely. But when his evil is beyond all measure, he fears even them. So the text continues, “When he goes to look for bread, he knows that the day of darkness is at hand,” that is, the day of death. This is as if to say: Not only is he suspicious of plots in his dealings with outsiders, but he is also suspicious in his dealings with his household in eating, drinking, and the like. He believes that death is being prepared for him by them. Since he has such fears of everyone, he does not rest but is always plotting against those whom he fears. Therefore, the occasion for fear is ever multiplied for him, and so he says, “Tribulation will terrify him,” threatening him through the actions of others, “and anguish wall him in,” because he fears danger from every quarter, “like a king who is prepared for battle.” A king prepared for battle is so anguished by the fear that he will lose that he still tries to destroy his enemies.

He next shows why the tyrannical, evil man suffers such great misery caused by fear, saying, “For truly he extended his hand against God,” by acting against God, “and he strengthened himself against the Almighty,” because he used the power given to him against God. He shows how Job has acted against God, saying, “He ran against him with his head erect,” that is, proudly. For a man resists God, whom he ought to serve in humility, most of all through pride. Sirach agrees with this: “The proud man begins by falling away from God” . Just as one who loves God is said to run in His ways because of his willingness to serve Him, so the proud man is said to run against God because of his arrogant spirit.

Pride usually arises from an abundance of temporal goods, and so the text continues, “he has a fat neck,” by acting proudly against God. For fat is caused by an abundance of humors and so is an image for an abundance of temporal goods. Just as humility is the first stage of wisdom, so pride is an obstacle to it, and so the text continues, “Thick darkness covered his face,” because the covering of his face is an image for an impediment to knowledge. Not only does Job have the opulence which causes pride, but this extends even to his companions, and so the text continues, “lard hangs from his sides.” By all these expressions, he intends to show that opulence made Job fall into the pride that makes him stand against God and act tyrannically against other men. Therefore, he came to the suspicion that he sees God as his adversary and a conspirator.