Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Job 31:17

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

Or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof. That is to say, reckoning that he prejudiced his pitifulness, if he ate alone what the Lord of all created in common. Which same fellowship of intercourse should be carried on within the domestic walls with those persons, by whom the rewards of eternal retribution may be promoted. Whence the holy man describes himself as having had not any indifferent person, but, for eating, the 'fatherless' as his companions. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXI ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Others do not refuse nor defer giving what is asked, but they give nothing from their own initiative. He excludes this from himself, showing that he did not wish to use his smallest possessions alone, but rather to share them with others, and so he continues, "if I ate my morsel alone and the orphan did not share it." Here he implies: Let these things and other grave consequences happen to me. Notice that he speaks here with great precision. …

Commentary on Job ↗