Fathers

Job 22

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Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, “Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him that you make your ways perfect? Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment? Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities. For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing. You haven’t given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it. You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken. Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you, or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you. “Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are! You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness? Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see. He walks on the vault of the sky.’ Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden, who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream, who said to God, ‘Depart from us;’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’ Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me. The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them, saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed their remnant.’ “Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace. By it, good will come to you. Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents. Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks. The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you. For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and will lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You will pay your vows. You will also decree a thing, and it will be established to you. Light will shine on your ways. When they cast down, you will say, ‘be lifted up.’ He will save the humble person. He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

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What the Fathers say

Job 22:9

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless hast thou broken. The common multitudes that are brought under to heretics on their preaching by a carnal understanding conceive the corrupt seeds of their false doctrine, and are joined to them in their condemnation. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVI ↗

Thomas Aquinas

He treats third of evil judgments, since he did not render justice to weak persons, and so he then says, "You sent widows away empty handed," since you did not do justice for them against their adversaries, as Isaiah says, "The cause of the widows has no place with them." (1:23) You even oppressed the weak, and so he then says, "and you weakened the arms of the orphans," as if to say: If there were any power in them, you have taken it away, contrary to what is said in Psalm 9, "To judge in favor of the humble and the orphan." (v.35)

Commentary on Job ↗