Thomas Aquinas Commentary Job 34:24-37

"He breaketh in pieces mighty men [in ways] past finding out, And setteth others in their stead. Therefore he taketh knowledge of their works; And he overturneth them in the night, so that they are destroyed. He striketh them as wicked men In the open sight of others; Because they turned aside from following him, And would not have regard in any of his ways: So that they caused the cry of the poor to come unto him, And he heard the cry of the afflicted. When he giveth quietness, who then can condemn? And when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? Alike whether [it be done] unto a nation, or unto a man: That the godless man reign not, That there be none to ensnare the people. For hath any said unto God, I have borne [chastisement], I will not offend [any more]: That which I see not teach thou me: If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more? Shall his recompense be as thou wilt, that thou refusest it? For thou must choose, and not I: Therefore speak what thou knowest. Men of understanding will say unto me, Yea, every wise man that heareth me: Job speaketh without knowledge, And his words are without wisdom. Would that Job were tried unto the end, Because of his answering like wicked men. For he addeth rebellion unto his sin; He clappeth his hands among us, And multiplieth his words against God." — Job 34:24-37 (ASV)

There are two primary reasons why people deviate from justice. The first is that they show deference to important persons, and the second is that they yield to the majority against what is just. Elihu had already shown the perfection of divine justice (Job 34:18–23) in that God does not show deference to the powerful. Consequently, he now shows that God also does not yield to the majority, who are sinners.

Thus, he says God will destroy many sinners by killing them or punishing them in other ways. To prevent anyone from believing that divine justice applies only to a certain number of the multitude and goes no further, he then adds, without number. This is as if to say: Those whom God’s justice destroys for their sins cannot be counted within a fixed number.

To counter the idea that the human race might be utterly destroyed by this, he says, and who will make others take their places. This means that others take the place of those who have died, and others are raised up to replace those who lose their prosperity, thereby preserving a certain stability in the human race.

Ordinarily, when many people must be punished, human judges cannot examine each case with great care. So that this would not be believed about God, Elihu says, for he knows their works—that is, what each one deserves. Therefore, God gives to each according to his works. And so he says, for that reason he will bring about the night, meaning sudden and unexpected adversity, and they will be destroyed unexpectedly.

Elihu shows why they are destroyed “in the night”: although they could see what they ought to do, they despised it. It is therefore just that they are not given the ability to foresee the evils threatening them in order to prepare for them. He expresses this by saying that as evil men who reject the knowledge of piety, God has stricken them where they live, in the place of those who see. This refers to the state in which they are able to see—by both natural reason and sacred doctrine—what must be done and what must be avoided.

But they themselves rejected this light. As Elihu says, they are those who have departed from him almost on purpose, sinning against God out of a determined malice. He therefore suggests they have a willful ignorance when he adds, and they did not wish to understand all of his ways—that is, the commandments of God. It is clear, then, that they are not excused by ignorance but are all the more worthy of condemnation.

He shows the effect of this willful malice by adding that they cause the cry of the poor to come to him. This is to say: They show themselves to be so ignorant of God’s ways that they oppress the poor, whom God hears. Just as they do not recoil in horror from oppressing the poor, so they do not fear the anger of God. Thus, when the text says, and he hear the voice of the poor, it means they make light of the fact that God reveals His will to hear the poor.

Since Elihu had attributed the suffering of many to divine judgment, someone might think that the destruction of a great number and the prosperity of others was not the result of divine judgment, but of some powerful prince who governs or attacks them. To exclude this possibility, Elihu says, For if he grants peace, who will condemn him? This is as if to say: It is God who destroys many without number (Job 34:24). For if He willed to grant them temporal peace and prosperity, no one could condemn the multitude; and vice versa, if He intends to condemn it, no one can grant it peace. So he says, If he hides his face—by taking away the presence of His consolation—who will contemplate him? That is, who can find consolation in Him as if by seeing His beauty?

Besides suffering, there is another punishment for the multitude: affliction under the rule of tyrants. Elihu expresses this punishment by saying, And over people and all men, as if to say: God exercises His judgments through suffering or the oppression of tyrants not only over one nation, but over everyone. Regarding the oppression of tyrants, he then says God makes a hypocrite reign because of the sins of the people, who are afflicted under his regime. In this, Elihu seems to answer the question Job had proposed: Why do the wicked live? Why have they been comforted and raised up with riches? (Job 21:7). For he asserted that this was not because of their own merits, as Job had proved, but because of the demerits of others who are punished through the prosperity of the wicked.

Therefore, after showing that there can be no injustice in God and that His justice is especially manifested by the judgments He exercises on princes and the multitude, Elihu gives Job a chance to answer. He says, Since, then, I have spoken about God in matters concerning God’s honor, I also will not prohibit you from responding. He shows what kind of answer he expects, saying, If I have erred—as you attributed to your other friends when you said they were cultivators of false dogmas (Job 13:4)—you teach me the truth, so that I can be free from error. One can be mistaken in speech not only by erring against true doctrine, but also by making a particular judgment against the truth of justice. And so he adds, If I have spoken evil, I will not add anything further, showing he is ready for correction.

Since Elihu thought Job was deeply disturbed with him, he consequently shows that this disturbance is not justified. He continues, Does God seek it from you? This is as if to say: Even if I have spoken wrongly, you are not bound by God to answer for it, and so you should not be so disturbed by it, asking, because you were unhappy?—that is, through a disordered agitation of your soul.

Second, he shows why Job should not be disturbed: Job himself began the argument with his speech, Let the day perish... (Job 3:3). This was the beginning of the entire dispute, and so Elihu says, for you began to speak and not I. Third, he argues that Job should not be disturbed because he also has the ability to say what he likes. Thus, he says, If you know something better than what I have said, speak, to show my error or evil.

But lest Elihu seem to have said this because he doubted his own righteousness and the truth of his words, he proceeds to assert that Job lacks both wisdom and understanding, and for this reason, he judges him unworthy of debate. An opponent in a debate must have the sharpness of intellect required to find reasonable ways to prove his proposition. So Elihu says, Let intelligent men speak to me and make objections against me. The other role in a debate belongs to the one who answers, who must have the wisdom required to judge well what he has heard. And so he says, and let a wise man hear me, for I am an opponent ready to argue. Elihu had inferred a defect in both of these areas from Job’s own words, and so he says, Job has spoken stupidly—against wisdom, insofar as he considered that Job had said something against the righteousness of divine judgment—and his words do not show discipline, which is a characteristic of an ordered intellect. He seems to relate this to the fact that Job had asserted his own justice.

Since Job did not recognize these defects in himself, Elihu turns his words to God, requesting that Job be tested so that he might recognize his faults. He says, My Father—meaning, “O God, whom I regard as a father because of the reverence I have for You and whose justice I defend in all things”—Let Job be tried, let his defect be shown to him through scourges, even to the end, until death. He shows the justice of this petition, saying, Do you desist from testing the man of iniquity? This is as if to say: His evil merits that the scourges should never cease. He says with greater exaggeration that Job is one who in addition to all his sins—the past sins for which he has been scourged—adds blasphemy by saying he is just but God is unjust. For this, Elihu first desires present punishment for him, saying, let him be bound among us meanwhile with adversities. Second, he implies future punishments, saying, and then, after he has already suffered in this life, let him be brought to judgment—that is, to future retribution—and let him provoke God by his speeches, by which he blasphemes against Him.