Thomas Aquinas Commentary Job 40:1-9

"Moreover Jehovah answered Job, and said, Shall he that cavilleth contend with the Almighty? He that argueth with God, let him answer it. Then Job answered Jehovah, and said, Behold, I am of small account; What shall I answer thee? I lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, and I will not answer; Yea, twice, but I will proceed no further. Then Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. Wilt thou even annul my judgment? Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be justified? Or hast thou an arm like God? And canst thou thunder with a voice like him?" — Job 40:1-9 (ASV)

In what He said before, the Lord demonstrated His wisdom and power by recalling the marvelous things that appear in His works (chapters 38 and 39), so that He might make clear that no one can contend with God in either wisdom or power. Here, He proceeds further to accuse Job for asserting his own justice (Job 27:6), which to some sounded like a derogation of divine justice (Eliud, chapter 34). The text also prefaces this speech by explaining the manner of God’s speech when it says, Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind and said. He gets his attention, saying, Gird up your loins like a man, and demands an answer when He continues, I will ask you and you tell me. These things have already been explained (Job 38:1, 3), so I will not explain them here.

Consider that Job, in appealing to his own justice, did not intend to impute evil to the divine judgment, as his three friends and Eliud wrongly understood. Instead, he intended to show that he had not been punished in revenge for his sins, as they reproached him, but to test him, as he already said in chapter 23: He will prove me like gold which passes through fire (Job 23:10). Yet this still seems reprehensible because he so commended his own justice that he seemed to others to cross over into derogating from divine justice. And so God says, Will you make my justice without effect?, as if to say: Does it seem to you that by appealing to your own justice, you cause My justice to be considered invalid—that is, false—by others?

The falsity of a judgment is the cause for condemning the judge who issues an evil judgment, either from ignorance or malice. And so He then says, and will you condemn me to justify yourself?, as if to say: Do you want to show yourself to be just so that I seem blameworthy before others?

Note here that if two people were equals, and if it were necessary to place the fault on one of them, it would not be reprehensible for the other to exonerate himself from an imputed fault, even if the first person remains culpable in the opinion of others. For a person naturally loves himself more than others. But where there is such a great distance as exists between God and man, a person ought to suffer a fault unjustly imputed to him rather than unjustly impute it to God. Therefore, in accusing Job, the Lord presents the excellence of God over humanity, and this excellence is indeed manifested in His works.

But since the question now is a comparison of justice, which is not properly perceived in irrational things, He considers the works God performs in rational creatures to show divine excellence. These works can be considered in two ways. First, according to the operation of His power. Regarding this, He says, If you have an arm like God, for “the arm” expresses divine power. He uses this arm, of course, to sustain the good, as Isaiah says, In his arm he will gather the lambs (Isaiah 40:11), and to punish evildoers, as Luke says, He has shown power in his arm; he has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart (Luke 1:51). Second, God works in rational creatures by the instruction of His wisdom, which He calls thunder because of its excellence. Regarding this, He says, and if you thunder with a voice like his? God uses this thunder to instruct the good, as chapter 26 says, When we have scarcely heard a small whisper of his words, who can understand the greatness of his thunder? (Job 26:14), and for the terrible rebuke of the wicked, as Psalm 76 says, The voice of your thunder rolled round, and the text says after this, the earth trembled and was shaken (Psalms 76:19).

From works of this kind, He demonstrates the divine excellence in three things. First, regarding beauty, He says, Deck yourself with beauty, as if to say: If you were as powerful in your works as God is, you could attribute His beauty to yourself. He pointedly says, Deck yourself, because God does not surround Himself with beauty as something added beyond His essence; His essence itself is beauty. By this beauty, one understands His clarity or truth, His purity or simplicity, and the perfection of His essence. But a person cannot have beauty unless he is decked with it, participating in it from God as something added beyond his essence. Second, He addresses divine majesty when He says, and lift yourself on high. The divine majesty is not in a place, because God is not contained by place. It consists in His perfection and power, because whatever is said about Him is fitting to Him in the highest degree. Majesty befits God essentially, and so He is not raised up to it but remains immovably in it. A person is in a weak condition by nature and so cannot arrive at that divine majesty by lifting himself up above himself. This is why God pointedly says, lift yourself on high. Third, He addresses His glory when He says, and be glorious. Glory includes the knowledge of another’s goodness, and so Ambrose says that glory is “fame known with praise.” However, the goodness of God is infinite, and there is no perfect knowledge of it except with God. Therefore, glory is in God alone, inasmuch as He knows Himself. A person cannot arrive at this glory except by participation in divine knowledge, as Jeremiah says, But he who is glorious will be glorified in this, that he knows and understands me (Jeremiah 9:24). This is why God pointedly says, be glorious, because a person does not essentially have this glory.

Having explained what pertains to the excellence of divine power and nature, He proceeds to call to mind the divine works in rational creatures, regarding both good and wicked people. Understand that the works God performs in raising up the just are attributed more to His mercy, whereas those He performs in punishing evildoers are properly attributed to justice. Thus, since the subject now is justice, He first briefly addresses the work God performs in the good when He says, and clothe yourself with splendid clothing. For in the end, all the good—angels and men—are splendid from their participation in divine wisdom and justice. And so, just as a person is adorned with splendid garments, so every beauty of holy angels and holy men contributes to the adornment of God, because the goodness of God is commended by it. As Isaiah says, In all these you will vest yourself as with a jewel (Isaiah 49:18). Consider that it is characteristic of God’s mercy to make His saints splendid, but the fact that He uses their beauty for His own glory is characteristic of His justice, about which He now speaks. So He does not say, “make yourself splendid garments,” but clothe yourself with splendid clothing.

Then He shows the effects of divine justice, which He brings about in the wicked, in a more extensive way. He does this first with regard to humanity. Know that all human evil has its beginning in pride, as Ecclesiastes says, Pride is the beginning of all sin (Ecclesiastes 10:15). Among all the vices, God detests pride most of all, and so the Epistle of James says, God resists the proud (James 4:6). This is because the proud, in a certain sense, rebel against God when they refuse to submit to Him humbly. From this, they fall into every sin, having scorned divine precepts. Earthly princes detest rebels most of all, and so the Lord specifically refers to the effect of His power that He exercises against the proud.

There are two types of proud people. Some exalt themselves above others on the basis of the goods they possess, like the man who said in Luke, I am not like the rest of men (Luke 18:11). These people are properly called the proud (superbi), as the name itself shows. The specific punishment of the proud is discord, because when one person strives to be higher than another and refuses to be subject to another, they cannot have peace with each other. And so Proverbs says, There is always quarrelling among the proud (Proverbs 13:10). He shows this by saying, Scatter the proud in your fury, as if to say: Exercise the office of God, which is to disperse the proud so that they cannot band together, for the fury of God here means grave punishment. Another type of proud people are those who presumptuously claim for themselves what is above them. These are properly called the arrogant (arrogantes), and so Jeremiah says, I know his arrogance and haughty character of heart, says the Lord, and his power is not up to it (Jeremiah 48:29). The proper punishment of these people is dejection. For since they wanted to be able to lift themselves up, the consequence is that they fall into peril, as Psalm 72 says, You laid them low when they were lifted up (Psalms 72:18). And so He says, and regarding every arrogant man humble him, meaning, you should cast him down from the standpoint of your providence.

He then describes four punishments common to both types of proud people.

1. The first punishment is confusion. Since they cannot attain the height to which they pretended, they are visibly confounded by their failure. And so He says, Consider all the proud and confound them, and as was already said, If his pride should ascend up to heaven, he will be thrown out like dung in the end (Job 20:6).
2. The second punishment is their destruction, which He shows by saying, and destroy the wicked in their place. He calls the proud wicked because, as Sirach says, The beginning of the pride of man is to apostatize from God , which is repugnant to divine worship and piety. The fitting punishment of the proud is that they are ground up, because what is ground up is shattered by the force of a stronger body into its smallest parts. It is just that the proud, who think themselves inordinately great, are reduced to the very least by a stronger power—a divine power. He pointedly says, in their place, to show that what they trust in cannot free them. For each person is preserved in his own place, and so the greatness of riches, the state of dignity, or whatever other such thing a person trusts in can be said to be his place. Despite these things, the proud person is ground down by God, so that he is, as it were, ground up in his own place.
3. The third punishment is that after they are reduced to the lowest place, the brightness of their renown ends. For it is just that those who sought the ostentation of glory should be erased from human memory, as Proverbs says, The name of the wicked will rot (Proverbs 10:7). And so the text continues, You will hide them in the decay together—that is, you will make them forgotten because of the state of contempt to which they will be reduced. He adds “together,” which can be interpreted in two ways: first, that all the proud suffer this end together; and second, that the proud do not perish successively but are cast down suddenly at the same time.
4. Their fourth punishment is that not only are they not known by others, but the goods in which they gloried will also not be known. And so He says, and their faces... plunge into the ditch, into the depths of hell. He speaks of the damnation of the second death through the image of the first death, in which people are reduced to bodily ashes and sunk into a ditch.

The Lord had first discussed these things as His own proper works. It is also proper to Him that He does not need anyone else’s help, something that does not befit a person, who cannot do these works. And so He says, And I will admit that your right hand can save you, as if to say: If you can do these works just mentioned, which are proper to God alone, you can reasonably claim for yourself that you do not need divine help to be saved. But just as you cannot do the former, so neither can you do the latter. Therefore, you ought not to glorify yourself in your own justice.