Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Job 41:24

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

His heart shall be hardened as a stone, and he will be bound as the anvil of the hammerer. 11. For the heart of the ancient enemy will be hardened as a stone, because it will never be softened by any penitence of conversion. And because he will be fitted only for the blows of eternal punishment, it is rightly immediately added; And he will be bound as the anvil of the hammerer. For the hammerer puts up an anvil fitted to receive blows only. For an anvil is erected for the very purpose of being struck with frequent blows. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXIV ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Second, he shows the reaction of Leviathan to what God does against him, when he says, "His heart will be hardened like stone." Hardness describes a natural power which is not easily corrupted by an exterior agent. This verse shows the natural power of the heart of the whale, because he is not easily corrupted by an exterior agent trying to harm him. …

Commentary on Job ↗

Bonaventure

The third judgment of God is the judgment of obstinacy, namely when the heart of man can be softened neither by promises nor by threats nor by scourges nor by torments. Of such a one it is said: "His heart shall be hardened as a stone." The wife of Lot was turned into stone. I would rather that my heart were turned into stone than that it should be so hardened.

Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 2 ↗