Fathers

Job 33

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“However, Job, please hear my speech, and listen to all my words. See now, I have opened my mouth. My tongue has spoken in my mouth. My words will utter the uprightness of my heart. That which my lips know they will speak sincerely. The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. If you can, answer me. Set your words in order before me, and stand up. Behold, I am toward God even as you are. I am also formed out of the clay. Behold, my terror will not make you afraid, neither will my pressure be heavy on you. “Surely you have spoken in my hearing, I have heard the voice of your words, saying, ‘I am clean, without disobedience. I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me. Behold, he finds occasions against me. He counts me for his enemy. He puts my feet in the stocks. He marks all my paths.’ “Behold, I will answer you. In this you are not just, for God is greater than man. Why do you strive against him, because he doesn’t give account of any of his matters? For God speaks once, yes twice, though man pays no attention. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, in slumbering on the bed; Then he opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. He is chastened also with pain on his bed, with continual strife in his bones, so that his life abhors bread, and his soul dainty food. His flesh is so consumed away that it can’t be seen. His bones that were not seen stick out. Yes, his soul draws near to the pit, and his life to the destroyers. “If there is beside him an angel, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show to man what is right for him; then God is gracious to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.’ His flesh will be fresher than a child’s. He returns to the days of his youth. He prays to God, and he is favorable to him, so that he sees his face with joy. He restores to man his righteousness. He sings before men, and says, ‘I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it didn’t profit me. He has redeemed my soul from going into the pit. My life will see the light.’ “Behold, God does all these things, twice, yes three times, with a man, to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of the living. Mark well, Job, and listen to me. Hold your peace, and I will speak. If you have anything to say, answer me. Speak, for I desire to justify you. If not, listen to me. Hold your peace, and I will teach you wisdom.”

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What the Fathers say

Job 33:13

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

Thou contendest against Him, because He hath not replied to thee to all thy words. God will speak once, and will not repeat the same thing a second time. It is natural to the afflicted heart, when it beholds any thing going contrary to its wishes, to wish to gain an answer, if possible, by the voice of God, why things are in this way, and not in that: to consult God in this whole matter under debate, and to acquiesce on learning the meaning of His reply. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIII ↗

Thomas Aquinas

And so he then says, "You contend against him because he will not answer all your arguments." He wanted to take this from these preceding works of Job, and from what he said in Chapter Nineteen, "Behold, I will shout out violently in my suffering and no one will hear. I will cry out and there was no one to judge." (v.27) Job did not say these words and others like them in a contentious manner, but because he desired to know the reasoning of divine wisdom.

Commentary on Job ↗