Fathers

Job 31

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“I made a covenant with my eyes, how then should I look lustfully at a young woman? For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high? Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity? Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps? “If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit (let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity); if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands, then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out. “If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door, then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her. For that would be a heinous crime. Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges; for it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase. “If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me, what then will I do when God rises up? When he visits, what will I answer him? Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him? Didn’t one fashion us in the womb? “If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it (no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, I have guided her from my mother’s womb); if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering; if his heart hasn’t blessed me, if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece; if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate, then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone. For calamity from God is a terror to me. Because of his majesty, I can do nothing. “If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’ If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much; if I have seen the sun when it shined, or the moon moving in splendor, and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth, this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges; for I should have denied the God who is above. “If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him (yes, I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse); if the men of my tent have not said, ‘Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?’ (the foreigner has not camped in the street, but I have opened my doors to the traveler); if like Adam I have covered my transgressions, by hiding my iniquity in my heart, because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door— oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment! Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; and I would bind it to me as a crown. I would declare to him the number of my steps. as a prince would I go near to him. If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together; if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life, let briers grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.

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What the Fathers say

Job 31:14

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

For what shall I do, when God riseth up to judge; and when He seeketh, what shall I answer Him? He who thinks on the Judge to come, is unceasingly day by day preparing the cases of his accounts for the better: he who views the Eternal Lord with trembling of heart, is forced to abate the rights of temporal lordship over those under him. For he considers well that it is nothing that he is set above others in time, when for the rendering account he is beneath Him, Who exercises dominion without end. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXI ↗

Thomas Aquinas

He shows why he did not despise submitting to judgment with his servants saying, "When the Lord God rises up to judge me," that is, when he himself comes to judge, if I now despise his judgment, I would have no one in whose help or to whose counsel I could go for refuge. Nor would I even be able to rationally answer God in judgment, and so he says, "and when he questions," when he examines my deeds, "what will I answer him," what reason will I be able to give for not being willing to submit to judgment with my servants? …

Commentary on Job ↗