Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Job 36:20

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

Prolong not the night, that people may go up for them. As if the arrogant openly said; Act not so in the darkness of thy ignorance, as to substitute a host of infirm persons in the place of the strong. For by the name 'people' are designated those, who, given up to the common practice, live without restraint in all that they desire. But to 'prolong the night, that people should go up in the place of the strong,' is, if it is caused by negligence, that the unlearned and weak occupy the place of the learned and strong. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVI ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Sometimes, judges lack justice for the sake of their own comfort and so he says, "Do not lengthen the night," that is, do not permit the justice of a cause to be hidden for a long time but immediately bring the truth to light, and he shows the reason for this when he says, "so that the peoples rise up because of them," strong men, as if to say: Do not defer your judgment in such a way that the whole populace is stirred up by the violent action of the powerful and come to disturb you because of their wrongs. …

Commentary on Job ↗