Thomas Aquinas Commentary Job 20

After Zophar heard Job’s opinion about the hope of a future life, he seems to have acquiesced, contradicting nothing in his third response. Yet there was still something in his heart that did not permit him to completely abandon his former opinion. He thought that although retributions and punishments for one's deeds are given in the future life, as he had learned from Job, it still seemed to him that the prosperity and adversity of this life were given by God as rewards for virtues and punishments for sins.

As if convinced in part yet still holding to his first opinion, Zophar says, “Therefore,” that is, because of the words you say about the future life, my various thoughts succeed one another. The commentator notes that these various thoughts should not be understood as belonging to the same opinion, as when someone carefully thinks out various arguments for the same conclusion. Rather, Zophar continues, and my mind is disturbed about these various things. He is led now to one opinion and now to the other by the force of the arguments that can be made for both sides, as though their power were unable to resolve the opposition. Because he thought he should not reject Job’s opinion about the hope of the future life, he says, I will hear the teachings by which you argue with me, believing what you have said about the future resurrection. But he still does not totally dismiss his first opinion, expressing this by saying, and the spirit of my understanding will answer for me. This is as if to say: My intellect still knows what it should answer in defense of its own opinion.

It seemed most certain to Zophar, and proven by experience, that although the evil enjoy some prosperity, it is brief and quickly destroyed in this life by either a premature death or some subsequent adversity. He expresses this by saying he knows this from the beginning when man was placed upon the earth—that is, from the beginning of the human race—and that the praise of the wicked is short-lived. For they are sometimes praised for a little while because of some signs and beginnings of goodness that appear in them. But those signs are immediately darkened by their evil works, and so the joy they have from the favor gained by pretense passes away in a short time. Thus, he says, and the joy of the hypocrites is like a speck, passing away in a moment, because afterward they are known by their fruits, as Matthew 7:16 says.

Sometimes, from the favor he enjoyed for a short time through his pretense, a wicked man is elevated to a high rank. As a consequence, Zophar shows that this also will not endure for him, saying, If his pride should ascend up to heaven—that is, if because of this high state he has attained, he ascends to such great pride that he thinks himself not as liable to fall as the earth, but as immovable as the heavens—and his head touches the clouds, so that he is advanced beyond the common state of man, he will be lost in the end like dung. This will happen either through a premature death, by which he is rendered a worthless and abominable human corpse, like dung, as Jeremiah says, The dead body of a man falls like dung upon the face of the earth (Jeremiah 9:22), or by his evil being disclosed to all, so that he will be considered vile by everyone, as Scripture says, Every woman who fornicates will be trodden under foot like dung on the road .

When his pride is cast down, wonder will arise in people’s hearts about such a sudden loss, and the reverence he once enjoyed will end. So Zophar says, and those who saw him will say: Where is he?—spoken either in wonder or in contempt.

To show that this downfall is irreparable, Zophar says, Like a dream flying away he will not be found. Just as a bird flying away easily disappears from sight, so too do dreams easily disappear from human knowledge. As little or no trace remains of them, and no testimony exists by which a lost dream could be brought back, the memory of it passes away irreparably. Likewise, Zophar makes it understood that the downfall of the wicked is irreparable, showing that the causes of this are many.

1. First, on the part of the sinner himself who perishes, the text says, he will pass away like a vision in the night. This is a sensory image that is not lasting; after one loses it, it cannot return. A vision during the day is of something permanent, which if someone has ceased to see it, he can run back to see it again. In the same way, as long as a sinner remains in this life, he can hope for recovery if adversity comes to him. But when he passes out of this life, there is no further hope for recovery.
2. Second, his fall is irreparable from the perspective of other people. Zophar says, The eye which saw him will not see him again: for things that pass out of sight also pass easily out of mind, and so the dead, who are removed from human sight, are easily forgotten. As a result, they have no honor in the memories of others, nor do their friends care to give them any further aid.
3. Third, he cannot be restored because he cannot return to his former state. Zophar says, nor will his place behold him any more. For a person cannot return after death to the same mode of living.

Not only will the wicked man himself be cast aside—passing away in his own person and taken from the eyes of men, never to be restored to his place—but his sons will also be punished for his sin. So the text continues, His children will be wasted by extreme poverty, by the just judgment of God. Thus, since he sinned to attain riches for his sons, he is frustrated even in this hope when his sons are impoverished.

Then, as if now agreeing with Job’s opinion, Zophar also speaks about the punishments of the future life, saying, and his hands will cause him pain, because he will suffer painful punishment for the sinful works he did. It is apparent that this retribution of pain must be understood as occurring after death, for the text adds, His bones will be full of the vices of his youth and they will sleep with him in the dust. This is as if to say: Even after death, when his flesh has turned to dust and only his bones remain in the grave, he will suffer punishment for his sins—not only those he committed in old age, but also those he committed in his youth, a time more prone to sin.

Zophar shows the reason he is punished for sins after death, saying, Since wickedness was sweet in his mouth, he hid it under his tongue. Here he uses the metaphor of a man eating sweet food who does not quickly swallow it but keeps it in his mouth for a long time to enjoy it longer. To develop this comparison, he says of the sinner, he will spare it—that is, the evil or sin which is sweet to him—and does not want to destroy it. He would destroy it, of course, by giving it up, and so the text continues, he does not leave it.

He shows why the sinner does not leave his sin, saying, and he will keep it hidden in his throat. That is, he will not show it to anyone, and because of this, no one will dissuade him from his hidden sin or apply any cure. This cure is what is applied to those who confess their sins. The reason a person’s sins are punished after death is that in life, he did not want to give them up.

Since the author had said (in verse 11) that the bones of the evil person must be filled with the sins of their youth, so that they are punished after death, he now discusses their punishments more broadly. First, he shows that the good things they had in this world will turn into evils for them. He uses the metaphor of someone eating, whose food sometimes becomes a source of harm.

This happens in two ways. First, when food remains undigested in the stomach and is changed into poisonous fluids. He expresses this by saying, His bread is changed in his stomach into the venom of asps within, as if to say: Just as food sometimes turns into poisonous fluids, so the good things the wicked had in this world, which remained until death, will turn into the bitterness of death for them. Second, food that has been eaten, if it cannot be digested, is sometimes rejected by being vomited out in disgust and pain. Likewise, it sometimes happens that sinful people lose the temporal goods they acquire in this world because they do not use them well, and by divine judgment, they lose them painfully, like undigested food. So he then says, The riches which he devoured—which he greedily acquired—he will vomit forth, and will lose them with disgust. And from his stomach—that is, from his dominion—God will cast them out, because they will be taken violently from him by divine judgment.

Not only will the good things he possessed turn into evil for him, but he will also suffer harm from his enemies in both word and deed. He gives two examples of this. First is the asp, which kills with its bite. So he says, The asps raise their head against him to bite him. By this, he means the head of evildoers, or even Satan himself, attacking him. As the second example, he gives the viper, which distributes its poison with its tongue. So the text continues, and the tongue of the viper will kill him. By this, he means that some harmful thing comes from a person’s tongue, just like poison from the tongue of a viper.

Then he continues with the punishment that is the loss of goods, saying, Let him not see the stream of the river flowing with butter and honey. Butter and honey are similar in that both aptly describe what is sweet to the taste. However, honey is produced by bees who collect it from flowers, while butter is produced from the labor of humans who take it from the milk of domesticated animals. Therefore, honey can signify any enjoyable good that comes without human industry, whereas butter signifies any enjoyable good produced from human endeavor.

A torrent comes upon someone immediately and unexpectedly. The river signifies abundance because of its great quantity of water, and the streams signify the distribution of goods. Not everyone has every temporal or spiritual good; some have the latter, and others have the former. According to Zophar's opinion, we must admit that the sweetness of good things comes to good people abundantly and unexpectedly, both from human work and from divine providence, but in an ordered distribution. The sinner, he asserts, is deprived of this distribution.

Because a person sometimes becomes so weak from excessive punishment that they cannot sustain further punishments, he then adds that although the sinner is punished in many ways in this life, they are still destined for further punishment in the life to come. So the text continues, He will atone for everything he did—since for each and every sin he will suffer punishment—yet he will not be consumed, meaning in the soul, which is reserved for future punishments.

Consequently, he shows us the fitting nature of the punishments for blameworthy acts when he says, According to the great number of his stratagems—for the sins which he planned with great care—he will pay his debt, because the punishment will fit the specific proportion of the sin. He clearly demonstrates this first in the case of the sin of theft, where he presents two crimes in their proper order. The first of these is violent pillaging, which he refers to when he says, He broke in pieces and stripped the house of the poor, showing violence in the breaking and theft in the stripping. Second, he points to the lack of restitution, saying, he pillaged the house and did not rebuild it. This is as if to say: He neglected to repay what he took from the house or destroyed in breaking it.

He adds the proportionate punishment for this sin, saying, His belly has not been satisfied. This is as if to say: Since he stripped the house of the poor (verse 19) and would not allow himself to be satisfied with their goods, therefore, his appetite is satisfied neither with the goods he possesses lawfully nor with those he has acquired unjustly. As Ecclesiastes says, The avaricious man will never have enough money, and he who loves riches does not enjoy them (Ecclesiastes 5:9). Regarding the second point, he continues, and when he has what he desired, he will not be able to possess it, because either he will be taken away from his goods, or they will be taken away from him. This is fitting, because since he was unwilling to restore what he had stolen, he now loses it against his will.

Then he clearly shows the same is true for the sin of ravenous gluttony, saying, Nothing has remained of his food, because whatever he had, he turned to his own use, leaving nothing for the needs of others. He then adds the fitting punishment, saying, and so nothing will remain of his goods for him, because he will lose everything. This is a fitting punishment: since he was unwilling to reserve any of his goods for others, it is just that nothing is reserved for him.

Regarding the fact that he consumed superfluous things for his own use, he then adds another fitting punishment, saying, When he is satisfied he will be bloated. Here he uses the comparison of a man who eats too much and whose stomach becomes bloated from an excess of food. By this he means that the person who spends superfluous goods for their own use, or who acquires superfluous things for themselves, will suffer a kind of bloating, being unable to properly manage all the things they have acquired. This is clear in the Gospel of Luke concerning the rich man whose fields produced such abundant crops that he wanted to tear down his barns to build larger ones (Luke 12:18). Disordered agitation and anxiety follow the bloating of the stomach, and so he then says, and he will burn with desire. The same is true of those who inordinately amass many possessions for themselves and are afflicted with excessive anxiety. Finally, pain from overeating often spreads to all the members of the body, and so he adds, and every pain rushes against him. Likewise, many pains arise for those who have amassed surplus goods when they lose most of them.

Zophar then considered that the abundance of the evil person is harmful to them. As if from a zeal for justice, he desires the greatest abundance of temporal goods for Job so that he might suffer punishment. So the text continues, Would that his belly be filled—with an abundance of temporal goods—that he (God) might send on him the anger of his fury, which is revenge without mercy. He shows the measure of this anger, saying, and would shower his war upon him. He says he would shower to show an abundance of evils. By saying on him—that is, upon the very strength of the sinner—he shows the sinner's powerlessness to resist. When he says his war, he shows that these evils are not brought upon him to correct him, as a father chastises his son with discipline, but for extermination, by which one destroys enemies.

So he then says, He will flee before the weapons of iron—the present punishments—by impatiently enduring the punishments that wound him at close quarters, like an iron sword. And he will fall on a bronze bow—referring to the punishments of the life to come, which wound from afar like a bronze bow. This bow cannot be broken, which shows the infinite duration of future punishments. He consequently develops the image of this bronze bow, saying, drawn and coming out of its sheath. (Understand: “That bow will be” drawn and coming out of its sheath). For as long as the bow is in its sheath, it does not strike. In the same way, the vengeance of future damnation does not condemn as long as it remains in the foreknowledge of God as if in a sheath. But it is taken out of the sheath by the malice that provokes God, and then it is brought forth by divine disposition. He shows its effect when he says, and flashing for him in his bitterness. For just as a bolt of lightning comes from above—suddenly, violently, and brightly—so that vengeance will come upon the sinner from God unexpectedly, with such great violence that he is unable to resist, and with such clarity of justice that there will be no room for excuse. Because of this, the sinner will be filled with bitterness.

He then explains in detail the punishments of this vengeance. First, he explains that the sinner will be surrendered to the power of demons. Regarding this, he says, Terrors will go and come upon him, for the demons will receive free reign over him. Next, he describes the pain of loss, saying, Utter darkness has invaded his hidden places, because he will suffer perfect interior and exterior darkness, far from the brightness of God. He says this darkness is secret, for just as the brightness of the saints is hidden from us in this life, so is the darkness of the wicked. He next describes the pain of sense, saying, Fire will devour him—not by consuming him, but by swallowing him in his affliction. This is a fire of Hell, which is not enkindled by man, but by divine power, according to Isaiah: The breath of the LORD enkindles it like a torrent of sulfur (Isaiah 30:33). In these punishments, no aid will come to him, and so he says, abandoned, he will be afflicted in his tent, from the fact that he is left without help and in the place of punishment destined for him.

After describing the punishments the sinner will suffer in himself, he then adds the punishments that pertain to what remains of him in this life after his death. First, regarding how the sinner remains in human memory, he says, The heavens will reveal his evil, for by the power of heaven his evil, which was hidden while he lived, will be revealed after death. And the earth will rise up against him, because when his evil is clearly seen, the people of the earth who perhaps revered him while he was alive will rise up against the dead man. Next, he describes the punishment regarding what remains in his sons, saying, The seed of his house will be open, because his sons will be exposed to trials, and this seed will be carried off from this life on the day of divine vengeance. This can also refer to the final judgment, when the saints will reveal the evil of the sinners, and the whole earth will wage war against the foolish (Job 5:21). The seed—that is, the works of sin—will be clearly seen. At last, the evil man will be carried off to hell.

Then, in an epilogue, he says, This is the lot of the evil man given by God—which he acquired for himself by his evil works—and the heritage of his words from God, which he acquired for himself by his evil words. Note that in the preceding discussion, he mixes present and future punishments together.