Thomas Aquinas Commentary Job 30

After listing the many prosperous things he had enjoyed in the past, Job now lists the adversities he was suffering. He begins by showing that, in contrast to his former glory and the reverence he received, he is now held in contempt. Contempt is more difficult to bear when it comes from someone worthless. Therefore, Job demonstrates that those who hold him in contempt are themselves contemptible in many ways.

1. Regarding age, he says, But now men younger than I make sport of me. This is the direct opposite of what he said in the last chapter: Young men saw me and hid themselves, and the aged rose and stood (Job 29:8).
2. Regarding their lowly origin, he says their fathers were men I would not have considered worthy to put with the dogs of my flock. I did not deem them worthy enough to perform even the most ordinary services of my household, such as caring for the dogs. This is the direct opposite of what he said earlier: the city elders refrained from talking (Job 29:9).
3. Regarding their insignificant power, he says, whose strength of hands held nothing. This refers to either the detractors or their fathers, for Job regarded all their power as worthless. This is the opposite of what he said before: generals governed their tongues (Job 29:10).
4. Regarding their lack of honor, he says, and they were not accounted worthy of life itself, because of their many grave sins. This is the opposite of the parallel statement he made: The ear that heard, blessed me (Job 29:11).
5. Regarding their poverty, he continues that they were in want—from a lack of possessions—and hunger, which is the affliction that accompanies want. He says they are barren, for they are not capable of producing fruit. This is the opposite of the statement he made earlier: The rock poured out rivers of oil for me (Job 29:6).
6. Regarding the difficult life they led, he says, They gnawed in desolate places, consuming plain foods like acorns which they found in the desert because they lacked the fruits of the field due to their poverty. The effect of this diet is that they are squalid with want and misery—disfigured from the affliction of their own bodies and from their external adversities. He then explains what they gnaw: and they ate grass and the bark of trees, and the root of the junipers was their food. Here he shows how crude and cheap their food was. He then shows that they did not have an abundance of even this cheap food and that they found it only with great effort. He expresses this by saying, They uproot these things from enclosed valleys, gathering them with great difficulty because of the climb down and up. He shows they gather it in small quantities when he says, when they have found each of them, they fight over this vile food. He expresses this by saying, they ran to them shouting, so that one could arrive before another. All these things are the direct opposite of what he had said above: I washed my feet in butter (Job 29:6).
7. Regarding the vile character of their dwellings, he says they do not have houses, but live in desert stream beds—the dry beds caused by storms, where they protected themselves from the heat—and in the caverns of the earth, for shade, or in gravel, for the coolness of nearby water or the softness of the sand. It seemed pleasant to them when they could find such places, so he says, they are happy in places like this, as though they did not have an abundance of even these kinds of places. If they happened to find more comfortable spots, they considered it a luxury. So he says, and to live under briars they think luxurious, because such a place was more comfortable for lying down than what they had before. This seems to be the opposite of what he had said previously: I will die in my little nest (Job 29:18).

After enumerating their miseries one by one, Job summarizes them in an epilogue, calling them, The sons of fools (in mind) and of men of low birth, and not known on earth at all, being conspicuous for no dignity or glory.

Next, he shows what he suffered from them. First, he was mocked by them, both in their jokes—so he says, Now I have been turned into a verse in their songs, because they made up mocking lampoons about him—and in serious matters. He expresses the latter by continuing, and I have become a proverb for them, because they commonly used his misfortunes like proverbs, presenting him as an example of fault and unhappiness. Second, he shows how they held him in contempt in their hearts when he says, They abhor me, as if he were vile and unclean. Third, he shows how they held him in contempt by their deeds. They recoiled in his presence, as he continues, and they fled far from me. He says this in opposition to his previous statement, They awaited me like the rain (Job 29:23). They also inflicted injuries on him: and they were not afraid to spit in my face, as a sign of insult and scorn.

So that no one would think he was scorned for a fault he had committed, Job shows that the cause of this contempt was God, who had struck him. First, he shows he is afflicted by God when he says, He opened up his quiver and struck me down. Arrows are taken out of a quiver to wound someone. Here, arrows mean divine scourges from God, just as he used them in Chapter Six: The arrows of the Lord stick fast in me, and their displeasure drains my spirit (Job 6:4). The quiver of the Lord is the divine plan from which adversities come to men. Job says it has been opened because of the abundance of adversities by which he has been tried, both externally and internally. Second, he asserts that God has prevented him from being able to repel these injuries, at least with words. So he says, and he placed a bridle in my mouth, because God’s affliction took away his confidence to answer when others used those very afflictions as arguments against him.

Job next shows that such adversities have been sent to him by God because they came to him in a way that is beyond the usual manner of human adversities. He first demonstrates this from the place where the adversities came. Raids usually arise from the North, where barbaric nations and ferocious, warlike men lived, as we read in Jeremiah: all evil spreads from the north (Jeremiah 1:14). But those who assaulted the blessed Job came from the South, where less warlike and ferocious men usually live. The text has already said that his adversity began when the Sabeans took his cattle and donkeys and killed his herdsmen (Job 1:15). So he says, At the right hand of the East—meaning from the South, which is on the right-hand side when one faces East—my misfortunes immediately arose, because they began at once when the Sabeans rushed in.

Second, he shows that his adversities are beyond common expectation in the magnitude of the assault. He was assaulted even to the loss of the resources that enabled him to function, which are represented by the feet. So he says, They have ruined my feet, for they destroyed my faculties, and they did this easily and completely. He says, and they crushed them—my feet just mentioned—in their passing, without any difficulty. He adds another example: like waves, for the waves of the sea both suddenly overflow the land or a ship and completely submerge it.

Since his feet (his faculties) have been ruined, his progress is also impeded, so the text continues, They have demolished my paths, meaning all the progress of my works. Furthermore, they also crushed him personally with deceit, which he suggests when he continues, they have lain in ambushes for me, and with power, in what he adds, and they prevailed, without any opposition, because no one stopped them. So he says, and there was no one who brought aid to me when I was oppressed by them, nor even anyone who stopped them from approaching me. He continues, they rushed in upon me like a breached wall or an open gate, as though there had been no obstacle, either from the substance of the difficulty (meant by the breached wall) or from human concern (meant by the gate). Moreover, those who rushed in so freely showed no mercy, for he says, and they rushed in on my mishaps, as they fully intended to make me miserable.

Third, he shows that adversities of this kind are sent by God from their effect, because he had been left completely destitute by them. So he says, I have been reduced to nothing, because nothing remained for him from his former prosperity. This prosperity consisted of two things. First, in external goods, which he lost by violence, so he says, like the wind he took away my desire—everything I found desirable in external things. Second, his prosperity consisted in the health of his own person, and regarding this he says, and like a cloud, my health has vanished, suddenly and completely.

When his desirable goods had been taken away, his soul remained in sadness, so he says, Now my soul languishes within me. He truly could not have been anything but sad after losing his children and his property. Because he had lost the health of his body, he also felt bodily pain, which gave him no rest even in the day. So he says, days of pain take possession of me. Physical suffering gets worse at night, so he says, At night pains tear my bones. It is as if to say: My pains so increase at night that they seem to pierce through my bones.

He shows that the cause of his pain was the rotting of his sores, saying, and they who consume me do not sleep—the worms generated from the rotting wounds give him no rest. He shows their great number, saying, My clothing is consumed by their great numbers. It is as if to say: The multitude of worms is so great that they not only eat my flesh but also gnaw my clothing. To show that they are spread not just in one part of the body but over almost his whole body, even to his head, he says, and they encircle me like the collar of my tunic. It is as if to say: Because of their great number, they cannot be contained under the cover of a band and garment but break out into the open and go around his neck. From this kind of punishment, he shows that he has become detestable to men, and so he says, I have been made equal to filth, so that no one wants to approach me because of the great corruption and the number of worms, just as no one wishes to approach filth. And I have become like dust and ashes, totally dejected and held in contempt.

Those who are despised by men often find help from God, but Job was abandoned by God in his temporal adversity. So he says, I will call to you, and you will not hear me, seeking continually to be freed from this adversity. I stood, for I persevered in prayer, and you do not notice me, by freeing me from adversity. Thus, if I were to consider only my temporal state, I would consider you a cruel and hard enemy. So he says, You have changed into someone cruel to me, based on the appearance of these external afflictions, since you do not spare me even when I plead with you. And you persecute me with a heavy hand, for you afflict me gravely. Therefore, from all external appearances, it seems that you granted me prosperity in the past only to my harm. So he adds, You raised me up, placing me, as it were, above the wind, in a very exalted yet unstable position, and you powerfully dashed me to pieces, striking me heavily as though you threw me to the ground from high up.

He proves that he did not say this in despair, saying, I know that you will hand me over to death. It is as if to say: I do not suffer these things as if they were unplanned, for I know that I will go to a still greater state of decay: death. He says that he knows this because of the condition of mortal life, where the house of every living thing has been built, since all people tend toward death as a person does toward his house. However, a person is not totally destroyed in death, because the immortal soul remains. So he says, Yet not for their destruction do you send forth your hand to reduce them to nothing by your power. And if they should be destroyed by death, You will save them by making their souls happy. I hope for this from your kindness, however hard and cruel you seem to me in these temporal adversities.

After beginning his remarks by discussing his past prosperity (Chapter 29) and subsequent adversity (Job 30:1–24), he offers a summary, saying, I once wept over him who was afflicted, as Scripture says, Weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15). I also had compassion on those suffering a loss, which he shows when he says, and my soul had compassion on the poor, not only in feeling but also in action, as he said already (Job 29:12). In return for these works of mercy, I expected good things, the prosperity of this world according to the opinion of his friends, and evil things came to me, which clearly demonstrates that their opinion was false. I waited for the light—the consolation or counsel by which I might escape from evil—and the darkness of bitterness and hesitation rushed in.

He then explains the evils overcoming him, beginning with internal evils when he says, My bones are inflamed without rest. This can refer to the weakness of the internal powers from too much heat, and also to the affliction of the heart proceeding from the intensity of the heat of pain. To show this kind of turmoil is premature, he says, Days of affliction have come upon me early. For all people suffer from ill health in their old age, but he has been overtaken with afflictions in his youth. Then, regarding external evils, he says, I went along grieving. When I walked among people, I showed sadness after my misery. But although sadness is a cause of anger, there was still no anger in me, so he says, Standing up without rage, I cried in the crowd, explaining my miseries.

These miseries came partly from the lack of friends, about whom he continues, I was the brother of snakes, because those who should have loved me as a brother bit me like snakes, and the companion of ostriches, who are known to forget even their own offspring (Job 39:15). So they were so forgetful of me that they did not help me. His adversity was also partly the result of the weakness of his body. Regarding his external infirmity, he says, My skin turned black on me, from the internal corruption of the humors. Then, as to his internal infirmities, he continues, and my bones dried out from the heat, meaning so great an amount of disordered heat rested on me that it dried up the marrow of my bones. His adversity partly consisted in the external signs of sadness, so he uses images to show how his signs of joy had been changed. These are either musical instruments, which he expresses by saying, My lyre was turned to mourning—as if to say, mourning had taken the place of the lyre I used to use in my joy—or songs sung by the human voice, so he says, and my song, which I used to express my joy, has changed to the voice of those who weep.

Chapter 31