Fathers

Job 17

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“My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, and the grave is ready for me. Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation. “Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me? For you have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore you will not exalt them. He who denounces his friends for plunder, Even the eyes of his children will fail. “But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face. My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow. Upright men will be astonished at this. The innocent will stir himself up against the godless. Yet the righteous will hold to his way. He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger. But as for you all, come back. I will not find a wise man among you. My days are past. My plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart. They change the night into day, saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness. If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness, if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father;’ to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’ where then is my hope? as for my hope, who will see it? Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?”

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What the Fathers say

Job 17:12

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

Ver. 12. They have changed the night into day. For 'the thoughts being scattered change night into day,' in that it is sometimes more grateful to the righteous through adversity to undergo sufferings, rather than as the effect of prosperity to be harassed with the charge of earthly ministering. But because they have learnt by paying attention that both adversity passes away, and prosperity dawns again, it is fitly added; And again after darkness I look for light. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIII ↗

Thomas Aquinas

This torture of the heart was not even interrupted by night which is the time set aside for man's rest, and so he then says, "They have turned night into day," because of the reflection previously mentioned he spent the night in insomnia as though it were day. It is more painful to suffer the loss of sleep at night than during the day, because during the day the soul of man is lightened by the company of men and by the sight of daylight. So as long as night was sleepless for him he desired that it end quickly. …

Commentary on Job ↗