Thomas Aquinas Commentary Job 9:1-7

"Then Job answered and said, Of a truth I know that it is so: But how can man be just with God? If he be pleased to contend with him, He cannot answer him one of a thousand. [He is] wise in heart, and mighty in strength: Who hath hardened himself against him, and prospered?- [Him] that removeth the mountains, and they know it not, When he overturneth them in his anger; That shaketh the earth out of its place, And the pillars thereof tremble; That commandeth the sun, and it riseth not, And sealeth up the stars;" — Job 9:1-7 (ASV)

In his previous answer to Eliphaz, blessed Job seemed to have overlooked one argument Eliphaz had proposed about God’s justice when he asked, Will man ever be justified in comparison with God? (Job 4:17). Instead, Job seemed to have spoken almost contentiously with God when he said, Am I the Sea or a whale...? (Job 7:12) and, How long will you not spare me...? (Job 7:19). So Bildad the Shuhite replied to Job’s argument, taking his starting point from a defense of divine justice. He asked, Can God pervert justice? (Job 8:3) and ended his speech in the same vein, saying, God does not spurn the simple man... (Job 8:20).

In this next response, blessed Job first shows that he does not want to speak against divine justice, nor does he want to argue against God, as they suspected. This is what the text says next: “Job spoke... ‘Truly I know this is so.’” Job is affirming that he knows “God does not pervert justice” and that “he does not spurn the simple man.” These were Bildad’s propositions. Job continues, “And I also know, man is not to be justified compared with God.” In this, he answers what Eliphaz had said: Will a man ever be justified in comparison with God?

He then shows a sign of how he knows this. When one man is just in comparison to another, he can freely and securely argue with him, because justice and truth are made clear in mutual discussion. However, no man is secure when he argues with God. So he adds, If anyone will wish to argue with him (that is, a man with God), he will not be able to answer him one question for a thousand.

We should note that the greatest number with a unique name in our usage is a thousand, for all higher numbers are named as multiples of lower numbers, for example, ten thousand or one hundred thousand. This is reasonable, for according to the ancients, the primary series of numbers extends up to ten, after which one repeats the first numbers again (1, 2, 3, and so on), whatever the truth of the matter may be. For the cube of ten is one thousand, as one thousand is ten times ten times ten. Thus, Job chooses the number one thousand as the highest number with a unique name, designating for us any large, specific quantity. When he says that man cannot answer God “one question for a thousand,” it is as if he were saying: no finite number can express how much divine justice exceeds human justice, since the latter is finite but the former is infinite.

Next, he shows that man cannot approach God as an equal in arguing a case when he says, He (God) is wise in heart and Almighty in power. For there are two types of dispute: one is carried on by argument, which requires wisdom, and the other is carried on by force, which depends on power. In both of these, God exceeds man, because His strength and wisdom surpass all other strength and wisdom. Consequently, he shows God’s preeminence in both. First, he shows God’s preeminence in power in relation to men when he asks, what man has resisted him and found peace?—as if to say, “No one.”

Note that a person obtains peace from another in different ways, depending on their relative power. Clearly, the more powerful person secures peace from the less powerful by fighting against them. For example, a mighty king wages war against a rebellious subject, and after achieving victory, re-establishes peace in his kingdom. Likewise, a person can sometimes obtain peace from an equal by fighting them. For although one cannot overcome the other, one can still wear them out through persistent fighting and lead them to sue for peace. But one never obtains peace from a superior by resisting and fighting; peace is only found by humbly submitting. Thus, the clear sign that God's strength exceeds all human strength is that no one can find peace with Him by resisting, but only by humbly obeying.

As Isaiah says, You will maintain us in peace. Peace surely which comes because we trust in you (Isaiah 26:3). However, the wicked who resist God cannot have peace, as Isaiah says, For the wicked, the Lord says there is no peace (Isaiah 57:21). Job means this here when he asks, What man has resisted him and found peace?

Then he shows that God's power exceeds all the power of natural things, in both the heavenly bodies above and the earthly bodies below. He demonstrates this first with earthly things, showing that by His will He moves things that seem especially firm and stable. Among these earthly things, the mountains seem especially firm and stable, to which the stability of the saints is compared in the Scriptures, as in Psalm 125:1: They who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion. Yet the Lord moves the mountains by His power, and Job speaks about this, saying, He has moved the mountains.

Even though God can certainly do this miraculously by divine power—since this seems to be a promise made to those with firm faith in Matthew, If you have faith and do not hesitate... if you will say to this mountain: ‘Rise and cast yourself into the sea,’ it will be done (Matthew 21:21), and in 1 Corinthians, If I have all faith, so as to move mountains (1 Corinthians 13:2)—the text seems to refer more fittingly to the natural course of things.

For the order of nature demands that everything created naturally is also destroyed at a determined time. Therefore, since the formation of mountains is natural, it follows that mountains must also be naturally destroyed at some point. He calls this natural destruction of the mountains a “moving” because their dissolution happens through the movement of their parts. Nor is it unreasonable for him to attribute these natural events to divine power. Since nature acts toward a specific end, anything ordered to an end either directs itself or is directed by another being. Therefore, a natural thing, which lacks knowledge of its end and cannot direct itself, must be ordered to that end by a higher intelligence. The whole activity of nature, then, can be compared to the intellect that directs it to its end—whom we call God—just as the motion of an arrow is rightly compared to the archer. Therefore, just as the arrow's motion is properly attributed to the archer, so the whole activity of nature is properly attributed to divine power. So, if mountains are destroyed by the activity of nature, it is clear that their stability is overcome by divine power.

Now, it sometimes happens among men that a king conquers a strong city, and the more quickly and imperceptibly he does so, the more he displays his power. The fact that the mountains are moved, then, especially attests to divine power, since it happens so suddenly and imperceptibly that even those who live on them cannot predict their collapse and consequently perish. So he says, They were ignorant whom he has destroyed by his anger, as if to say that God does such great things so suddenly that even those who live in the mountains cannot foresee them. This is evident because if they had known beforehand, they would have taken precautions and not been destroyed. He adds “by his anger” to show that God sometimes directs natural events according to His providence as a means to punish human sin. God is metaphorically said to be angry because He takes vengeance on them, which among humans is the usual result of anger.

He moves from composite bodies to the elements. Among these, the earth seems to be the most fixed and stable, for as the center of all motion, it is itself unmoved. Yet sometimes it moves naturally because of gas contained within its parts, as the philosophers correctly taught. This is the theme he addresses when he continues, He can move the earth from its place, not completely as a whole, but agitating parts of it, as in an earthquake. In this movement, even the mountains, which are like pillars based on the earth, are struck violently, and so he continues, and its pillars will be shaken.

By “pillars,” one can literally understand columns and other structures attached to the earth that are shaken in an earthquake. Alternatively, “pillars” can be understood as the deep, hidden parts of the earth. For just as a building's foundation is set firmly on pillars, so the earth's stability proceeds from its center, toward which all its parts naturally tend. Consequently, all the lower parts of the earth support the upper regions and are like pillars. Therefore, since an earthquake proceeds from the deep regions of the earth, it is like a violent shaking of the earth's pillars.

Finally, he proceeds to the heavenly bodies, which are also subject to divine power. Consider that just as the nature of the earth is to be unmoved and at rest, the nature of the heavens is to be in constant motion. Therefore, just as the earth's stability is clearly overcome by divine power through the motion that appears in it (earthquakes), so the power of a heavenly body is shown to be overcome when the motion of the rising and setting of the sun and other stars is impeded.

So he continues, He commands the sun and it does not rise. This does not mean that the sun is actually prevented from rising, since its motion is continuous. Rather, the sun sometimes appears to human perception not to rise, for example, when the air is so cloudy that the rising sun does not appear to people on earth with its usual brightness. Since cloudiness of this kind happens by the action of nature, it is properly attributed to the divine command, which regulates the action of the whole of nature, as was said before (Job 9:5). It is clear that the statement that the sun does not rise should be understood to mean that the rising sun is hidden, from the next verse: and he conceals the stars as under a seal. For the stars seem to be concealed when the sky is so covered with clouds that they cannot be seen.