Fathers

Job 17

Tap a verse to read the Fathers. Press and hold, then drag, to make a card.

“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?”

About · Privacy · Credits · Support VRSZ

What the Fathers say

Job 17:15

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

Ver. 15. Where then is now my expectation? What could be the 'expectation' of the righteous, but God who justifieth the righteous, Who should freely go down to (what was) the punishment of mankind, and by the efficacy of His righteousness set free the captives of death? For they never ceased to expect His appearing with intent expectation; they knew that it was to come, but they sought for it to come quickly. Wherefore he does not say, 'Where, then, is my expectation?' but, where then is now my expectation? …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIII ↗

Thomas Aquinas

From these things he concludes as though deducing an unfitting conclusion saying, "Where then now is my hope?" as if to say: If I were to find my consolation because of the expectation of temporal prosperity, my hope would be vain. Again he concludes to a greater absurd conclusion saying, "and who appreciates my suffering?", as if to say: Even though I hold up patiently, nothing still remains but the grave and its darkness, corruption and maggots. …

Commentary on Job ↗