Fathers

Job 23

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Then Job answered and said, Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning. Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me. Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me. There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge. Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him. Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him. For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me: Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.

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What the Fathers say

Job 23:10

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

But He Himself knoweth the way that I take. And He shall try me like gold which passeth through the fire. LITERAL INTERPRETATION As if he said in plain terms, 'I for mine own part both search myself strictly, and am not able to know myself thoroughly; yet He, Whom I have not power to see, seeth most minutely all the things that I do.' Gold in the furnace is advanced to the brightness of its nature, whilst it loses the dross. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVI ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Although he is hidden to me in this way, the things which act about me are not hidden from me, and so he continues, "But he knows my way," the whole course of my life. Job seems to say this against what Eliphaz had said before about the person of evil men as if he had attributed this position to Job, "The clouds are his hiding place and he does not see ours." (22:14) Since someone could object that, "If he knows your way, then, he punished you because of your sins," he answers, "and he will prove me as gold which passes through …

Commentary on Job ↗