Thomas Aquinas Commentary Job 36:22-33

"Behold, God doeth loftily in his power: Who is a teacher like unto him? Who hath enjoined him his way? Or who can say, Thou hast wrought unrighteousness? Remember that thou magnify his work, Whereof men have sung. All men have looked thereon; Man beholdeth it afar off. Behold, God is great, and we know him not; The number of his years is unsearchable. For he draweth up the drops of water, Which distil in rain from his vapor, Which the skies pour down And drop upon man abundantly. Yea, can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, The thunderings of his pavilion? Behold, he spreadeth his light around him; And he covereth the bottom of the sea. For by these he judgeth the peoples; He giveth food in abundance. He covereth his hands with the lightning, And giveth it a charge that it strike the mark. The noise thereof telleth concerning him, The cattle also concerning [the storm] that cometh up." — Job 36:22-33 (ASV)

After Elihu rejected Job’s claim to be just, he now rejects Job's words because he believed Job had spoken against the justice of God's judgment. First, he presents the sublimity of God's power, saying, “Behold, God is preeminent in his power,” for God has a power greater than all else. It is unreasonable for someone with less power to convict a greater authority of injustice.

Second, he presents God’s authority, saying, “and no one is like him among the lawmakers,” because it is through His wisdom that those who make laws discern what is just, as we read in Proverbs 8:15. Therefore, no law can condemn Him for injustice; rather, His wisdom is the rule and measure of all laws.

Third, he presents the incomprehensibility of God's works, saying, “Who will be able to examine his ways?”—that is, to sufficiently search the nature of His works. From this, he concludes that God cannot be convicted of injustice, and so he asks, “Or who dares to say to him: You have done evil?” To condemn someone for evil, that person must be subject to a higher power, be bound by the laws of others, and have their deeds fully known. None of these conditions apply to God, as has already been established.

As a result, he begins to show clearly that humanity cannot examine the ways of God—which are His works—saying, “Remember that you are ignorant of his work about which men sang.” These “men” are the wise, so-called because of the strength of their souls. He says “they sang” because of the ancient custom of the wise, who expressed divine and philosophical truths in verse.

However wise some may be, they cannot arrive at knowing and explaining God’s essence. Instead, all human thought and discourse about God must come through His works. For no one is so lacking in wisdom that they do not perceive some of God’s works. Likewise, no one is so wise that their knowledge is not completely surpassed by the excellence of divine clarity. Therefore, he says, “each one beholds from afar.” This means that human knowledge is very far from the perfect comprehension of the divine essence, both because we can only know God through His works, which are an infinite distance from the excellence of His essence, and because we do not even know His works perfectly.

From this, he concludes that God, in His excellence, exceeds human knowledge, and so he says, Behold, the great God who surpasses our science. God cannot be known by us perfectly, not because of some defect in Him (as with motion and time), but because of His own excellence. Someone might object that although we cannot know what God is, we can still know that God is, which relates to His duration. He shows that this, too, exceeds human knowledge, saying, The number of his years cannot be counted, since the eternity of His duration cannot be comprehended by the human intellect.

Next, he shows the magnitude of God’s works that exceed human reason, listing different changes in the atmosphere. Sometimes it is disposed to dryness, and regarding this, he says, “He bears the drops of rain,” by which he means God prevents it from raining. Sometimes, however, the air is filled with rain, and he describes this abundance by saying, “he pours showers like torrents” that flow on the land. This abundance of rain seems marvelous when we consider its origin, for so much water bursts forth from clouds that have no solidity. Regarding this, he says the torrents “flow from the clouds,” not because the rain actually exists as liquid in the clouds, but because the vapors within the clouds gradually condense into rain.

The rain is even more wonderful because it is poured over a great expanse. So he says it “covers everything from above,” meaning that where it rains, no part of the land remains unwatered. Then he speaks about the clouds themselves, saying, “If he wills to unfold the clouds like a tent,” because the clouds hide heaven—the seat of God—just as a tent hides the seat of a man. Lightning proceeds from the clouds because of the collision of winds, and so he says, “and to make lightning with his light from above.” Sometimes the clouds cover the sky as far as the horizon and seem to enclose the farthest boundaries of the sea beneath them. Thus, he says God will “even cover the roots of the sea” with the tent of the clouds.

He says, “If he wills,” to show that the divine will is the source of all natural works. To will properly means to act for a purpose, and so he shows the purpose of these works: “Through these he judges the peoples,” because people are punished by them, and “he gives food to many mortal men,” because the rains are useful for the fertility of the land that produces food for humanity.