Fathers

Job 14

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“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble. He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue. Do you open your eyes on such a one, and bring me into judgment with you? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass; Look away from him, that he may rest, until he accomplishes, as a hireling, his day. “For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease. Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stock dies in the ground, yet through the scent of water it will bud, and sprout boughs like a plant. But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes and dries up, so man lies down and doesn’t rise. Until the heavens are no more, they will not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep. “Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would keep me secret until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time and remember me! If a man dies, will he live again? I would wait all the days of my warfare, until my release should come. You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire for the work of your hands. But now you count my steps. Don’t you watch over my sin? My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity. “But the mountain falling comes to nothing. The rock is removed out of its place; The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man. You forever prevail against him, and he departs. You change his face, and send him away. His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it. They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them. But his flesh on him has pain, and his soul within him mourns.”

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What the Fathers say

Job 14:16

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

Ver. 16. For now Thou numberest my steps, but Thou sparest my sins. God 'numbers our steps,' when He marks each one of our several deeds for the recompensing them. For what is denoted by the steps, but each particular act of ours? Thus Almighty God both 'numbers our steps' and 'spares our sins,' in that He at once surveys our actions with exactness, and yet remits them in mercy to those that repent, Who both sees obduracy in those that sin, and yet softens it into penitence by preventing grace. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XII ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Now that he has posited his opinion about the resurrection of the dead, he returns to the subject of his wonder before at how much careful attention God gives to the works of man. He expressed this when he said, "You observed all my paths and considered the traces of my footsteps." (13:27) Here then he says, "You have numbered my steps," as if to say: Now it is no wonder if you so diligently examine the deeds of man since you reserve him for another life. Note however that divine providence considers human acts in two ways. …

Commentary on Job ↗