Fathers

Job 25

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Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, “Dominion and fear are with him. He makes peace in his high places. Can his armies be counted? On whom does his light not arise? How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean? Behold, even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight; How much less man, who is a worm, the son of man, who is a worm!”

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What the Fathers say

Job 25:4

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

Can a man be justified being compared with God? or can he be found clean that is born of a woman? This verse is spoken above by blessed Job, and is now repeated in the upbraiding of him; since every just man is just by illumination from God, not by comparison with God. For man's righteousness when compared with the Maker is unrighteousness, since, even although man had held fast in his own estate of creation, the creature could never be equalled to the Creator. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVII ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Using the premise of the divine power, he proceeds to his proposition saying, "Can a man be justified in comparison to God?" as if to say: Since God is so great and so excellent in justice that he even makes concord in the highest creatures, which is an effect of justice according to Isaiah, "The work of justice is peace." (32:17), all justice of man compared to divine justice is reckoned as nothing. Not only can man not seem to be just compared to God, but what is more, he appears unjust compared to him. …

Commentary on Job ↗