Job's Undisturbed Endurance

It will be said: 'And the devil went out from the Lord.' This is spoken more literally concerning the devil, because he becomes one who is outside the Lord, even more so than Cain. For concerning him it was said: 'And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord God' (Gen 4:16). And to go out signifies that he has become invisible to God. Therefore, this one will always be found among those on the outside, even if he came in a feigned manner among the attendants of God.

'And it was as this day; the sons of Job and his daughters were drinking wine in the house of their elder brother' (Job 1:18-19). Consequently, he remembers both the day and the gathering of the children, so that their death might also happen in a continuous way at one time, following the fall of the house, having died. In custom, it is often written that many, as they come together into such assemblies, are thought to be drinking, not only drinking but also eating and talking as if in a banquet. And through allegory, examine the placed texts, lest they were 'drinking wine'—that which 'gladdens the heart of man' (Prov 15:15)—from the elder brother who was beginning the divine instruction.

'And behold, an angel came to Job and said to him: The pairs of oxen were plowing and the females were donkeys grazing with them. And the raiders having come, they raided them and killed the children with swords. But I alone, having been saved, have come to announce to you' (Job 1:19-20). It is presented through these things how the raids occurred in a single day: 'the pairs of oxen and the donkeys grazing were plowing.' And the messenger who announces is to be welcomed, just as it is written in the Kingdoms. It is worthy to understand how the things of the announcement, having happened continuously, have a weight in the narrative and an overflowing tendency toward grief; for the plowing of the pairs of oxen being raided works a double sorrow, and added to the loss of the animals is the loss of the nomadic donkeys, which did not provide a brief approach, and from the expected destruction of livelihood and property, an addition of excessive misery, and the slaughter of the children by the raiders was also announced along with the others. Sufficient to...

Therefore, even if it were falsely reported, it would have been immediately disturbed. However, despite the harshness of the occurring calamities, the holy man was not at all disturbed.

It has been said in one of the Psalms concerning a holy man: 'From an evil hearing he shall not be afraid. His heart is prepared to hope upon the Lord.' And even as it was said according to the blessed Paul: 'Who shall separate the faithful from the love of God? Neither tribulation nor distress, nor persecution, nor famine or sword' (Romans 8:35), following this, the most manly Job remained inseparable from the love of the Lord, having withstood so many attacks. For anyone might say that, as far as possible, one should despise the irrational and the work coming from them.

But having heard even concerning the slaughter of the children, to have taken this up manfully demonstrates the manliness of the holy man and his patience. It should be observed, lest the one being saved alone, in order to announce, was being saved for greater temptation. For if Job, having endured the occurring things unshakeably even until the stretching out of his own body, was not so unperturbed by the lesser things while the greater pains were present, then the lesser were not so unheeded.

'While he was still speaking this, another angel came and said to Job: Fire fell from the heaven and burned up the sheep, and the shepherds it devoured likewise. And having been saved, I myself came to announce to you.' The successive announcement of the pains demonstrates the excessive and marvelous manliness of the blessed one. For see the observation, how while the one announcing the former things was 'still speaking,' the second one did not come for their healing, but was announcing for an escalation, announcing harder things, as it is customary for the announcement of pains to overturn the reasoning and to hollow out and thus disturb, as if to make one move outside of the proper state, being drawn toward the various sorrows.

But the holy man was not such a one. But as an unbreakable wall, remaining likewise unshaken against the majority of those attacking who were able to see him, so the holy Job, having 'the foundation' upon 'the rock' of salvation, was not moved when the temptations fell upon it. And it is worthy to behold also the things of the second announcement, how it raises up the distress toward an escalation. 'Fire,' he says, 'fell from the heaven and burned up the sheep and the shepherds it devoured likewise.' For even if the holy man...