Thomas Aquinas Commentary Job 22:1-14

"Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said, Can a man be profitable unto God? Surely he that is wise is profitable unto himself. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? Or is it gain [to him], that thou makest thy ways perfect? Is it for thy fear [of him] that he reproveth thee, That he entereth with thee into judgment? Is not thy wickedness great? Neither is there any end to thine iniquities. For thou hast taken pledges of thy brother for nought, And stripped the naked of their clothing. Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, And thou hast withholden bread from the hungry. But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; And the honorable man, he dwelt in it. Thou hast sent widows away empty, And the arms of the fatherless have been broken. Therefore snares are round about thee, And sudden fear troubleth thee, Or darkness, so that thou canst not see, And abundance of waters cover thee. Is not God in the height of heaven? And behold the height of the stars, how high they are! And thou sayest, What doth God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness? Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he seeth not; And he walketh on the vault of heaven." — Job 22:1-14 (ASV)

When the blessed Job had finished speaking, Eliphaz did not understand his words according to their intended meaning. Indeed, when Job first spoke about the exalted nature of the matter, he said, Is my debate against man? (Job 21:4). Eliphaz takes this as if Job were contentiously disputing with God, and so he accuses him of presumption for three reasons.

1. A person is provoked to discussion or dispute with another when they see that person as comparable to themselves in knowledge of the truth, so that something hidden might be brought to light through mutual discussion. However, it is especially presumptuous for a person to dare to compare their knowledge to divine knowledge. Thus, Eliphaz says, Can man be compared to God, even if he is perfect in knowledge? as if to say, “No,” because God's knowledge is infinite.
2. Someone is provoked to dispute or reason with another concerning things they have received from that person, so that a comparison can be made between what was given and what was received. However, it is presumptuous for a person to think that the good they do is useful to God. And so the Psalmist says, I said to the Lord: You are my God because you do not need my goods (Psalms 15:2). And so he continues, What advantage is there for God if you will be just—that is, in doing good works? Or what will you give him if your life will be blameless—that is, by abstaining from sin?
3. Someone is challenged to a judgment by another out of fear of the higher power of the one calling them into judgment, which is a wicked thing to think of God. Thus he says, In fear—of some judge—will he blame you—by accusing you—and come with you in judgment, as if summoned by an equal?

Then, since Job had said that the opinions of those who claimed his house had perished like the tents of the wicked (Job 21:28) were unjust, Eliphaz intends to show that his own opinion is right. He says, Is it not because of your great malice and your infinite iniquities? as if to say: God accuses you by inflicting punishments, not because of fear, but out of a love for justice, to punish your sins.

Here, “malice” can refer to the sins by which he wounded others, and “iniquity” to the sins by which he omitted works of justice. Eliphaz says the malice is “great” and the iniquities are “infinite” because a person sins in more ways by omission than by commission. He then explains an observation about injuries done to neighbors, which are sometimes inflicted through slander under the pretext of justice. So he says, You took away the pledge of security of your brother without cause—that is, without necessity, because you were able to trust your brothers without a pledge.

Sometimes harms are inflicted without any pretense of justice, and regarding this he says, You despoiled the naked of their clothes. This can be understood in two ways: first, that in robbing them you left them naked, with nothing; second, that although they were already naked and without sufficient clothing, you took away what little they had. He then continues with the omission of good works, saying, you did not give water to the weary. They needed a drink because of the thirst that arises from the toil of a journey, as if to say: You did not offer help and comfort to workers and the afflicted. And you have taken bread from the hungry, which is to say: You did not help the needy. These things are said about the sins he committed as a private person.

He next speaks about sins related to the things given into Job's rule. Among these, he makes three points:

1. He claims that Job obtained his dominion not by justice but by violence. So he says, You gained possession of your land by the strength of your arm, for you acquired dominion over the land by your own force.
2. He says that Job did not govern his subjects with justice but with force, according to what is said in Wisdom, Let our strength be the law of injustice . So he then says, and you kept it because you were the most powerful, as if to say: You used your subjects for your own will with the might of force.
3. He discusses evil judgments, since Job did not render justice to the weak. So he then says, You sent widows away empty handed, since you did not do justice for them against their adversaries, as Isaiah says, The cause of the widows has no place with them (Isaiah 1:23). You even oppressed the weak, and so he then says, and you weakened the arms of the orphans, as if to say: If there was any power in them, you took it away. This is contrary to what is said in Psalm 9, To judge in favor of the humble and the orphan (Psalms 9:35).

He then states that punishments have come upon Job because of these faults. So he says, On that account you are surrounded with snares, for you are oppressed on all sides with adversities so that no place is open for you to escape after you have fallen into them. Nor were you even able to hide beforehand, because they came upon you suddenly. And so he says, and sudden dread throws you into confusion, since evil things overcame him suddenly, causing him to fear other things as well.

He shows the reason they came upon him suddenly when he then says, You thought that you would not see darkness—that is, you thought you would not arrive at these doubts where you do not know what to do, which refers to the “snares.” Then, regarding the fear that throws him into confusion, he says, and you would not be oppressed by the force of flood waters. This is as if to say: You thought that you would never be oppressed by the violence and great number of adversities coming from above, as 1 Thessalonians says, When they say: peace and security, sudden destruction will come upon them from above (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

The opinion that one will not suffer punishment for sins is related to a disbelief in God's providence over human affairs. Eliphaz perhaps wished to twist what Job had said, Will anyone teach God knowledge? (Job 21:22), which he wrongly interpreted as expressing a defect in divine knowledge. And so, it seems right to him to imply that Job denies God's providence.

Consider that some deny God has knowledge and providence over human affairs because of the exalted nature of His substance, to which, they say, His knowledge is proportioned so that He knows nothing except Himself. They think His knowledge would be defiled if it were extended to lower things. And so Eliphaz says, Do you think that God is higher than heaven—the whole universe of creatures—and is elevated above the greatest of the stars—above the highest of creatures? He draws the conclusion of this thought: And you say: What, indeed, does God know?—that is, about these lower things.

Still, people of this sort do not completely take knowledge of things away from God. Instead, they say that He knows them universally—for example, by knowing the nature of their being or their universal causes. And so Eliphaz says, He judges as though through a fog. For to know something only in a universal sense is to know it imperfectly, and so he calls this knowledge “foggy,” as if it were something seen from far off in a mist. For instance, God might know there is a man, but not know who he is.

He shows this to be analogous to what happens with people: one who hides in a certain place is not seen by those outside it, nor does he see them. The clouds are his hiding place and he does not see ours, as if to say: Just as He is hidden from us, as though obscured by the clouds (because we cannot fully know what is above the clouds), so the converse is true. He does not see those things that pertain to us, as if they existed under the clouds. As Ezekiel says, speaking in the person of one who holds this opinion, The Lord has forsaken the earth, he does not see (Ezekiel 9:9).

For they thought that since things on earth are subject to many defects and disorders, they are not ruled by divine providence. Only the heavens, whose order remains without defect, are so ruled. And so he says, And he walks about the hinges of heaven. A hinge is something on which a door turns. Therefore, by this he means that heaven is moved by God's providence, and that divine providence descends to these lower things from this motion as if through a door. For just as they say that God only knows human things in a universal sense, so they say that He governs human affairs, but only through universal causes which He governs directly. Perhaps Eliphaz wanted to allude to what Job had said earlier: Who judges eminent men? (Job 21:22).