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 31:22

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

Then let my shoulder fall from its joining, and mine arm be broken in pieces along with its bones. Because bodily action is carried on by the shoulder and the arm, if the good things which he put forth with the lips he did not fulfil in deed, he wishes to himself 'the shoulder to fall,' and 'the arm to be broken in pieces.' As though he said in plain words, 'If the things that I said I refused to do, this very member of my body, which was given to me for working withal, may I lose, that surely that may fall from the body which I …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXI ↗

Thomas Aquinas

It is just that a man should be deprived of the limbs which he uses for injustice, and so he speaks not only of the loss of his hand as a punishment, but also the arm to which the hand is attached, and of the shoulder to which the arm is connected, and so he says, "let my shoulder fall from its joint and let my arm be crushed with its bones," if I have abused my hand by using it to oppress the poor.

Commentary on Job ↗