Thomas Aquinas Commentary Job 7:1-4

"Is there not a warfare to man upon earth? And are not his days like the days of a hireling? As a servant that earnestly desireth the shadow, And as a hireling that looketh for his wages: So am I made to possess months of misery, And wearisome nights are appointed to me. When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day." — Job 7:1-4 (ASV)

Since Eliphaz previously spoke (Job 5:17–27) to move blessed Job from despair, he promised him earthly happiness if he would not reject the Lord’s rebuke. Here, after blessed Job has demonstrated the rational causes of his sorrow, he wants to further show that Eliphaz’s consolation—based on the promise of recovering earthly happiness—is unfitting. He first demonstrates this from the condition of the present life and then, later (in verse 5), from his own individual condition.

People’s opinions have differed about the condition of this present life. Some have held that ultimate happiness is experienced in this life, and the words of Eliphaz seem to follow this opinion.

The ultimate end of a person is in that place where he expects the final retribution for good or evil. Therefore, if a person is rewarded by God for good deeds and punished for evil deeds in this life, as Eliphaz is eager to prove, it seems necessary to conclude that a person’s ultimate end is in this life.

However, Job intends to disprove this opinion. He wants to show that our present life does not contain the ultimate end, but is related to this end as motion is to rest, or as a journey is to its destination. He therefore compares this life to states that are directed toward an end, namely, the state of soldiers who strive for victory in a military campaign. Thus, he says, Man’s life on earth is combat, as if to say: The present life we live on earth is not a state of victory, but a state of warfare. He also compares it to the state of a hired worker, adding, and his day like the day of the hireling—that is, the time of a person living on earth.

Job compares the present life to these two states because of two things that threaten a person in this life. First, one must resist hindrances and harmful things, and for this reason, life is compared to warfare. Second, one must also do work that is useful for the final end, and for this reason, life is compared to the work of a hired man.

From both images, we are given to understand that the present life is subject to divine providence, for soldiers fight under a general and hired men wait for their pay from an employer. The falsity of the opinion Eliphaz defended is also clear enough from these examples. It is obvious that an army’s general does not spare his strong soldiers from dangers or toils. Instead, the very nature of warfare sometimes demands that he expose them to both great dangers and difficult tasks. After the victory is won, the general honors more highly those who proved to be the strongest.

In the same way, the head of a household entrusts the more difficult tasks to the better hired hands, but on payday, he gives them higher wages. So too, divine providence does not arrange things so that the good are freed from the adversities and labors of this present life; rather, it rewards them more fully at the end.

Therefore, since Eliphaz’s entire position is undermined by these arguments, Job intends to strengthen his own points and demonstrate them effectively through reason. For clearly, everything comes to rest when it attains its ultimate end. So, once the human will has attained its ultimate end, it must rest in it and no longer be moved to desire anything else.

Our experience in this present life is contrary to this, for a person always desires the future, as if never content with what he has in the present. Clearly, then, the ultimate end is not in this life. Instead, this life is ordered toward another end, just as warfare is ordered toward victory and a hired man’s day is ordered toward his pay.

Note, however, that our desire tends toward the future for two reasons, because what we have now in this present life is not sufficient. First, because of the afflictions of this life, he introduces the example of the slave desiring shade, saying, Like the slave, worn out from the heat, he sighs for the shade, which refreshes him. Second, because of the lack of the perfect and final good that one does not possess here, he uses the example of the hired man, saying, or the workman for the end of his work. For the perfect good is the end of humanity.

Job then applies this, saying, So I have passed empty months, for he considered the past months empty because he did not obtain final perfection in them. He adds, and nights—that is, when he should have been resting from his afflictions—I have counted sleepless, meaning he considered them sleepless because he was delayed in attaining his end.

He next explains how his months have been empty and his nights sleepless, adding, If I sleep—that is, when it was time for sleeping at night—I say, ‘When will I arise?’ longing for the day. And again, when day has come, I wait for the evening, as he is always tending toward the future in his desire.

This desire is indeed the common experience of all people living on earth, but they feel it more or less according to the measure in which they are affected by either sorrows or joys. For one who lives in joy desires the future less, but one who lives in sorrow desires it more. So Job passionately shows this desire for the future is in him as he continues, I will be filled with pain until dark. Because of these pains, the present time is tedious for him, and he desires the future all the more.