Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Job 34:15

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

All flesh shall fail together, and man shall return to ashes. For all flesh fails together, when it is no longer a slave to its own emotions; because the spirit presiding therein restrains all its waverings, and destroys as it were with the sword of Its severity all evil which lived therein. Jeremiah had, in truth, slain himself with this sword of discipline, when he said, After Thou hadst converted me, I did penance, and after Thou hadst shewed to me, I smote my thigh. [Jer. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIV ↗

Thomas Aquinas

When the spirit has been taken away which was divinely given to man, the consequence is that the corporeal life fails, and so he says, "All flesh will be destroyed together," for the species of flesh will cease, and will be resolved into its component parts. So he then says, "and man will return to ashes," as Psalm 103 says, "You take back their spirit and they will fail and will return to dust." (v. …

Commentary on Job ↗