CHAPTER 1

1:3. His labors were great on the earth, for he was busy perfecting his labors.

1:4. Each day, in turn, they gave each other a feast, a sign of charity.

1:5. "He offered for each of them victims. The confessions of each of them were as many particular victims and differed from the general sacrifices made for the sins of all; This is what he makes, saying, Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. He is right in saying "maybe," because he only dreads this misfortune.

1:6. And behold, the angels of God came to present themselves before the Lord. The love of the soul for truth can only be expressed by making time and place known in some way. And the demon also came with them. By what he could only hear through them, is it said, "With them? "

1:7. And the Lord said to the devil, Where are you from? The answer to this question is the reconciliation of and what he has done and the permission given to him to act afterwards. The question itself is the divine power, which does not allow us to do what we want, because "the impious will be questioned on his thoughts (Wis. 1:9),” to make known to us.

1:11. But extend your hand, and touch what he has. Give it the power. If he does not bless you in the face. Suspension which means: If he does not bless you in the face, when you have touched his property, what will you order? This last word is implied.

1:12. And the devil departed from before the Lord. He goes from council to action.

1:15. The enemies came and seized it; In accordance with this saying: "He is now acting in the children of mistrust (Eph. 2:16)," he also excited these enemies. Notice how he exercised his power over men and the elements, but he has it from God.

1:21. I came out naked from my mother's womb. Note how consoling this language is, although Job, moreover, abandons himself to pain, according to custom.

CHAPTER 2

2:6. I abandon you, respect only his soul, so that he would not think himself allowed to take his life.

2:8. He seizes the debris of a vase, in order to remove the pus from his wounds. Figure of the Passion of the Lord; by it sins are erased to those who confess them.

CHAPTER 3

3:3. And the night in which it was said, A man is conceived. These are some higher powers who have held this language, for they may have known of this fact.

3:4. Let this night be darkness, so that Job no longer has to suffer what he has suffered. "Let this night be darkness," that is to say, delivered to oblivion. May the Lord not look for it from above. Let it not be reproduced in immortality, that is to say, it will perish with all that is mortal. Let not light enlighten him; The light of remembrance.

3:5. But let it enter into darkness and the shadows of death, that life which is the shadow of future chastisement. The meaning, therefore, is that the righteous, who is the true light, should not see it, but rather the darkness, that is, the sinners and carnal tribulations arising from this life. Let the trouble come to him like the bitterness of the day. These bitterness are the precepts of a holy life or the day of judgment, which terrifies carnal men.

3:6. Let this night go into darkness, eternal. That it no longer counts among the days of the year, for the righteous become spiritual who enjoy the sun and are higher than the others.

3:7. But let it be pain; Because it brings pain to those who love it. That it counts no more in the days of months, for those righteous who, the righteous in the Church, who are like the moon, the lesser star; It is to them that these words are addressed: "For me, my brothers, I could not speak to you as to spiritual men (1 Cor. 3:1)." St. Paul would then be among the days of the year.

3:8. May this one curse her, who will curse the day. That is to say, the Lord, who curses lovers of carnal pleasures.

3:9. Let the stars of this night be darkened; The most advanced men in sin. Let her stay and come not to the light; Because they will not be converted; it is a prophecy.

3:10. Because she did not shut the breast of my mother; From the earthly city Babylon is. It would be closed if one did not praise the sinner in the desires of his soul (Ps. 10:3). Why am I not dead in the womb? Before pointing out to me in your presence by some action, for the conception is but a hope. "What did I perish coming out of her bosom?” See in these words the figure of a man who had aged in concupiscence.

3:12. Why did my knees strengthen? To strengthen me? Why did I suck the milk? of the doctrine that prepares for sin?

3:13. Now I would rest in my sleep; Dying for this world.

3:14. With the kings whom the earth has put in honour, in the Church. Who boasted in their sword (Eph. 3:14); In the sword of the Spirit, that is, the word of God (Eph. 6:17). Or with princes who possess much gold; A lot of wisdom. Who filled their palace with money; From the word of God.

3:16. Like a runt escaped from his mother's womb; And that was not noticed. Or like children who have not seen the light; Who have not reached any distinguished rank.

3:17. There the wicked have laid down their fury; Dying to this world. There rest the strong ones exhausted with fatigue; Tired in their bodies, not in their souls; or after fulfilling the destiny of perishable creatures.

3:18. They did not hear the voice of the exacter. Hence the words: The judge will deliver you to the exactor (Lk. 12:58); That is to say, their sins are forgiven them; he spoke of the ungodly.

3:19. There are the big and the small. Here we can see only one man, according to this sentence: He who humbles himself will be glorified (Lk. 14:11). And the servant who does not fear his master; In the sense of this passage, Do you want to fear power? do good (Rom. 13:3); Or of this other: Perfect love drives away fear (I Jn. 4:18).

3:20. Why is light given to those who are in sorrow? This is the honour bestowed on the wicked. And life to souls who are in pain? In what produces pain, that is, in sin.

3:21. Who desire death, and it does not come. They do not gather fruit from sin.

3:23. Death is a rest for the man whose life is hidden. Because it is only seen by God, or known only to a few. This is the death that makes us die in the world; in the other there is no rest. God shut him up on all sides; By not abandoning him to the desires of his heart.

3:24. Before taking my food, the groan is on my lips. Before the joy of heavenly food comes tribulation. And I cry in anguish, sending that I cannot avoid what I dread.

3:25. For the dread fear, fear has come to me. The adversity which comes to us from the divine mercy for our amendment.

3:26. I was neither in peace, nor in silence, nor in rest. For it was only false goods, the loss of which he feared. "And anger came to me. The vengeance before which the just barely will be saved (1 Pet. 4:18).

CHAPTER 4

3. "Who will sustain the weight of your words? Eliphaz thinks he is obliged to speak, because he can not endure Job's words.

6. "Is not your fear insane? If you were sincere in advising others, you had to expect what is happening to you. You have frightened yourself for no reason of these evils, have you not said: "The fear which I feared has come to me? And are not your hope, and the simplicity of your life, like stupidity, that which makes one believe that these goods are true?

10. "The roar of the lion and the cry of the lioness; That is to say, the devil himself, and the proud city, often described by the prophets as the beast. "And the joy of the dragon will be destroyed; That of the proud and traitors.

11. "Myrmicoleon perished because it has no prey; Because in the last day the devil will not be able to seduce them to devour them, for the good will be separated from the wicked. Eliphaz is mistaken in applying to Job the prophetic words which must be understood as the devil. This one must be so called (ant-lion), or because the features of these two beasts are in him

this animal steals and secretly removes the wheat, and prevents it from producing, destroying its germ; either because the demon is the master of the miser and those who hoard; and lastly, because it torments the righteous, who, like ants, gather in summer the provisions of winter; but he can not devour them, for then the good will be separated from the wicked. "And the lion's cubs have been scattered. The princes who came from the alliance of this city with the devil had formed a league that had been dispelled, or else they destroyed one another, according to this saying: "One nation will rise against another nation ( 2). "

12. "None of these evils would have happened to you; Either these losses, these privations, those bleeding wounds, or the sorrows that have overwhelmed your mind. You could have consoled yourself if your speeches had been sincere.

13. "Did not he make me hear beautiful accents? He announces here that his words are inspired from above.

15. "And a spirit came to stand before me. He wants us to hear that a breath has touched him, and we see, by what he adds, that he was not a vain ghost. Let us remember that the Holy Spirit descended in this way upon the Apostles.

17. "What! will man ever be pure before God? He means or has heard this thought, or was frightened to see that no one is pure before God, or has had that kind of vision, because no one is pure enough to see God as he is. Here the word pure signifies a perfect purity higher than it was understood of a relative purity, and in this sense it could say that the man would not perish.

18. "If he does not believe evil against his servants. This is what happened when Elijah said, "Lord, they have killed your prophets; He replied, "I have reserved for myself seven thousand men." Not that these seven thousand men were already pure. This was said of angels and prophets. "And in his angels he found" evil; Or because the evil was spoken against them, or because they said it themselves. This can be understood even good angels.

19. "Those who dwell in houses of mud," whose conversation is not in heaven. "He hit them as if they were eaten by worms. Or some disease has gnawed at them like worms; or God himself has condemned them to be eaten by worms, or. lastly, their culpable voluptuousness has given rise in themselves to a germ of corruption which has bitten them little by little; it's because they lived in a mud house.

20. "Born in the morning, in the evening they are no more. This means that they are nothing after this life, or that they arrive promptly from prosperity to tribulation; for chastisement has followed them closely. "And because they could not help each other, they perished," because they put their hope in them.

21. "They perished, because they had no wisdom," the wisdom of not confiding in themselves.

CHAPTER 5

1. "Call for your help; maybe someone will answer. God responds to those who are pure in his eyes.

2. "For anger kills the fool. The indignation which seizes him at the sight of his misfortune, as if it happened to him unjustly: he forgets that the defilements of his soul, known to God, prevent the Angels from answering his prayer, or from showing himself to him ; for not having these thoughts, he is foolish, and his unjust anger makes him die. Or else the fool can not see or hear the angels, because he is beaten by his anger, annihilated by his anger. "And envy makes one who is mistaken die," when he wants to imitate sinners.

3. "I have seen the foolish as strengthened by deep roots. Fools are here impious; and the wisdom of man signifies his piety, as the following will show us.

4. "And let them be crushed at the door of the weak," that is to say, the humble, when they are received in the room of the bridegroom and the foolish will be left outside (1).

5. "The righteous will feed on what he has amassed. This may apply to the Jews, who have gathered the prophecies, then best received by the Gentiles, or to those who nourish their souls by doing what others prescribe without accomplishing it. "For they will not be delivered from their sins," though they teach what to avoid. "And let their strength be destroyed; When they prevail against the weak; that she be exhausted and that they know the fatigues.

6. "For it is not the earth that produces pain. They have no reason to complain of creatures, but of themselves.

7. "Man is born in labor." It is said here, "He is born," in the sense that man leaves a state of rest for a laborious life. "And" the vulture's little ones rise very high in their flight. The vulture is the Lord who, from the heights of Prophethood, sees our mortal condition: He comes to put on it and change us into his body. The vulture's little ones are. the little ones of the husband; their flight is very high, since their conversation is in heaven (2); so they are delivered from the work in which man comes into the world. They obeyed this voice: "Come to me, all of you who work (3). Through the little vulture, we can still hear, in bad part, the powers of the air, to whom death, that is to say, sin, serves as pasture. Because these avaricious angels have not been lowered to our mortal condition, condemned to our fatigues, they are availing themselves of them to excess: they rise very high in their flight.

10. "He pours rain on the earth. He gives mercy to those who confess guilt.

 12. "That their hand may not accomplish what they have meditated; That they do not do what they promised, when they threatened to crush the weak.

14. "During the day they will be surrounded by darkness; Like the Jews who did not know the Lord. "In the middle of the day they will fumble as during the night:" Seeing the miracles some say. "Is he a prophet? The others: "He seduces the people." They did not want to open their eyes to the light.

15. "Let them perish in the fight; In temptations. "Let the weak escape the hands of the strong; To those of the devil. "Let hope be at the heart of the weak; Because these forts are here seeking reality itself.

17. "Blessed is the man whom the Lord takes again. Here Eliphaz is mistaken, he thinks that Job suffers because of his sins: on the contrary, Job is blessed; because if he is condemned in this life, he can purify himself.

19. "And on the seventh day evil will not be able to reach you. Mysterious designation of the Sabbath.

20. "In the time of famine, he will save you from death. By his word he nourishes and makes strong against temptation. "In the day of battle he will deliver you from the iron hand; Of the power of the chains.

21. "He will steal you from the bites of the tongue," so that you do not feel the outrages, and not to turn them away from you.

22. "Thou shalt laugh at the unjust and the wicked; As it is said that wisdom will laugh at the loss of the wicked (2). "You will no longer have to fear the" cruel beasts, "that is to say, you will not fear the Jews any more, for the Gentiles will be docile to your voice. This must be understood as our Lord Jesus Christ. Eliphaz is mistaken here in attributing to Job what is revealed to him; everything must apply to the Savior.

23. "Because you have made a covenant with the stones of the field. These field stones are the Gentiles. The Law was not promulgated among them; they were like the stones that are assembled for the building. "Ferocious animals will tame you in front of you. This can be applied to Jews as well as Gentiles.

24. "Then you will see your house rest in peace; That is to say, the Church.

25. "And your children will be like the grass of the field; "Preserved from drought.

26. "And you will come into the tomb like ripe wheat. After your passion.

27. "This is what we have carefully pondered. These words confirm the authority of this prophecy. "For you, know well yourself and what you have done. Because God did not allow this to happen to you unfairly.

CHAPTER 6

3. "So it seems to you that my words are bad. Job did not speak to complain of the blows of adversity; he has only expressed his grief, less his own than that which the fate of the entire human race makes him feel.

4. "The arrows of the Lord are fixed on me. It is the word of God that pierces the soul by making him confess his faults. "Their fury has abated with my blood; Because they remove sin. "As soon as I want to talk, they pimp me. They impose on me what I must say.

5. "What! Is it not when he is hungry that the evening primrose grows in vain clamor? "If he suffers from hunger, it is because he wanted to be free. "Will the ox roar when he has his food before him? The work of the beef prepared with the donkey his food. So it was prepared for the Gentiles by the Prophets and the Apostles, who were Jews. These words express the desire to eat; that is to say, to be rescued, and not the impatience to suffer.

6. "Can bread without salt be eaten? As if someone were saying to him: Why do you speak thus in figures? He replies that these things expressed on their own would be tasteless. "What is sweetness in foolish speeches? He calls the speeches of men insensate; the word of God is the true bread, but the heavenly bread. "That's why my mind can not shut up. As without salt you can not taste bread, so I owe everything to the word of God, as it is written, "How shall they hear, if no one preacheth them? "

7. "I see it, my food has become foul like the smell of a lion. My words are as fetid as the lion: or because in their pride they have availed themselves of their thoughts, or because attached to carnal pleasures, they have spread the smell of the lion, they who boast in their speeches.

8. "If it please the Lord that my request come. He calls the very thing he asks for. "And that he meets my expectations. The test is good for one who has the hope of being consoled after the tribulation. The word hope is here chosen, because after having obtained what he expects, the man does not need any more to be tested.

10. "Let the city whose walls I passed be for me a sepulcher. He wants the impious city of Babylon to be a sepulcher for him, not to cover it with ruins, but to know that it contains only the dead, where he boasted of his support and his defense. "I will be pitiless; for I have not told the lie; my words are the holy words of my God. He only said what the Lord inspired him; to know that humanity in general needs to run for rent.

11. "What is my strength to support everything? That's the wound. "How much longer must my soul suffer? At the approach of death men are in a hurry to convert and to confess to God their most shameful sins; and this consideration forced him to acknowledge himself guilty.

12. "Do I have the strength of the stones?" It designates the hardened ones, whom the features of the divine word can not penetrate, that nothing touches and determines to confess their sins.

13. "Have I refused to trust in him in my prosperity? When, in the image of God, I was immortal. "And he withdrew his support. I became mortal by wanting to trust me. "God visited me and scorned me; According to what is written, "What is the son of man? "For you to visit (1)?"

16. "My relatives refused to see me. I horrified the angels. "Like the torrent that flows. I was as inundated with mercy; everything has dried up, and there is no source to quench my thirst. "They passed before me like the waves. So consolations were for him like a drink. "Those who feared me came to melt on me. A The demon with his angels. "It is made of me, I am exiled from my own house; He wants to speak of the eternal abode or his own conscience: that is why he was sitting in front. his door ,.

19. "See the paths of Teman, the paths of Saba. He designates here those who love only the goods of this world, on which he assures himself not to support himself, or better the humanity he represents.

20. "And you also mercilessly arouse yourselves against me," thinking that man is happy if he overflows with the goods of this world. They insulted him rather than sympathized with his ills.

21. "But see my wounds, and fear; Understand what they mean and fear the chastisements to come.

22. "What? What have I asked you for, and what do I need your strength? Because he suffers in the presence of the One who can heal him.

24. "Instruct me, and I remain silent. They had to be attentive to his teachings, since they could not instruct him.

25. "But I see it, the words of the truthful man have been few on your lips. He calls the truthful man who by his conversion has become a true model of penance, and of which his friends. did not imitate the language.

26. "I do not implore your help. The true man implores only the help of God, and this truthful man is also the one who confesses his sins: beyond this word: "He who practices the truth comes to the light." "I will no longer bear the excesses of your language; It is the word of God that he alone wants to accept, it is she who must guide him

27. "And yet you are attacking the orphan" that is your role: you want to insult me ​​without understanding. what all this means. They should not have insulted Job who was in their presence; he says, "And yet. "

28. "Now that you see me, leave me alone; Since you can not teach me.

29. "And now look for justice. It had at first seemed to them that the right made them speak

30. "For iniquity is not on my lips, and has not my heart meditated wisdom? He has not accused God, he says, but he has made a man speak who accuses himself, as he has already made us understand in his other words. This is how he meditated wisdom.

CHAPTER 7

1. "Is not the life of man on earth a test? He says here more clearly what he represented above in his language. The temptation for him is like the arena of combat, where the man must be conqueror or vanquished. "And his existence as that of the day mercenary," who expects his wages from this world. Therefore those who wait in the other life for the reward of their virtues no longer live on the earth.

2. "Like the slave who dreads his master and runs in the shade. This recalls Adam's flight to avoid the presence of the Lord and the foliage with which he covered himself: he had only the shadow of this foliage, after having abandoned the Lord. "Or like the mercenary waiting for the wages of his work. This one differs from the preceding in that the first possesses the temporal goods, while he desires them.

3. "So have I had months of sterile waiting. He called them sterile, because he sought there or the shadow, temporal goods. "And nights of pain have been given me. These are those where one loses the light of wisdom, and where one prepares punishments for the future.

4. "If I fall asleep, I ask when will the day come; if I watch, I also look for when the evening comes. This is indeed the desire of work which torments man in rest, and that of rest which torments him in work. "From evening to morning I am filled with bitterness. That's where he came in separating from God. So God, advancing toward evening, drove them away. Which means that the unfortunate have no hope of relief until the morning, according to what is written: "In the morning I will appear before you (2); That is to say, when after the judgment, God, the true morning, will reveal himself to the righteous. This is why Our Lord is buried in the evening and resurrects in the morning (3). We can therefore compare this life to the morning star.

5. "My body is formed of the rotten worms:" of an infinite number of verses. "And the earth has watered over the defilement of my wounds. Such are the desires and worries of the wicked, when they joyfully recount their sins. They make an occasion of sin, of what excites others to repentance, are dogs who come to lick the wounds of Lazarus (1).

6. "And my life flies faster than speech. I act even less than I speak.

7. "Remember, then, that my life is a breath," that is, that it suffers spiritual hunger. "And that I can not return to things visible. "

8. "He who sees me will know me no more. Because I will change. By the "who sees me" we must hear the demon who looks at us with envy. "Your eyes are turned towards me, and I no longer stand. You have destroyed in me the carnal life, which made it reign over me.

9. "As a cloud driven out of the sky," or dissipated in the sky; as they say, driven out by iron. He teaches here that he was rescued by the sky to purify his soul, or that there is no more cloud for him, because it has been reduced to an unmixed air, purified by the rays of the sun, and so the darkness of flesh and blood is no longer in heaven. Because flesh and blood; will not possess the kingdom of heaven, after this mortal body has put on incorruptibility, and death will have been destroyed in its victory (2). "If man goes down to hell, he will not come back. Remember this so you do not go down there.

10. "And he will not return to his house; That is to say, he will not find his first rest.

11. "That's why I will not remember my words:" I'll admit my mistakes because it's time.

12. "Am I like to deny it or the dragon? Because you did not reject me like you. repel the wicked or the demon. "You have charged to watch over me; That I may not be moved like the shores of the sea.

13. "I had said to myself: My bed will comfort me:" the carnal pleasures where he rested. "And" on my couch I will bring sweetness to my troubles: "And yet I must give you all my consolation.

14. "You will terrify me in my sleep, and you will trouble me with horrible visions. By the tribulations of the present life, true dreams as well as its prosperity.

15. "You will deliver my soul from this kind of life; Because of these frightful visions from which every soul will be delivered, fearing to receive them. "And I have from my bones repelled death. They would be seized by death, if in my terror I had not shown more courage and patience; which is their strength.

16. "I will not live always, to be always patient. The brevity of life and the fear of death served to correct me. So the devil can not be converted because he does not die, and his judgment is pronounced. Hence this word: "Fear is the beginning of wisdom." "Remove yourself from me, my life is nothing but vanity; Because I can not bear the hardships.

17. "Or that you extend to him your spirit. Because he is endowed with reason and is said, "We have the Spirit of the Lord." Now, the characteristic of reason is to develop intelligence.

18. "And you will judge him in the rest:" Witch of rest.

19. "How long will you keep me chained? In the bonds of tribulation. "Will not you abandon me, let me breathe? In order to be instructed by tribulation, I can contain and absorb, in the pains of my torment, the flow of carnal pleasure.

 20. "If I have sinned, what can I do for you? That means; if I have sinned, I can do nothing for you. Do men bother you with their speeches? You who know his thought, would you have formed the man so that his speeches turn against you; for you a burden? And if the sin of man, be in word, or. in action, can not reach you, why do not you forget it? why do you trust whoever committed it? Is it not necessary to relate to your goodness what is said above: "What is the man for you to exalt him? Because they did not understand this, Job's friends thought he had accused God. If the trials to which you submit me must not contain in me the disorderly movements, if you do not take care thus of me, what other motive have you to chastise the man? His sin can not harm you. Or if you see that he speaks against you, since you know his most secret thoughts, you must not establish what is against you.

21. "And why have not you forgotten my iniquity? If my trials are not to be useful to me, and everything, even chastisement, do not come to me from your mercy? "Now I will return to the earth. "All purified that I will be of my sins, it will be necessary that I die and that my body is put in the ground. "I will get up and no one will see me again," in this land.

CHAPTER 8

4. "He has taken their iniquities in their hands. He took them into their own hands, either to chastise them, or to falsify them, and thus to find his debtors, because they had sinned.

6. "He will restore you to the life of righteousness," in the life that is due to righteousness, that is to say, in the blessed life.

7. "And your first prosperity shall appear without brightness," in comparison with future goods which are infinite.

10. "Will they not be able to teach you and speak to you wisely? The authority of many is always greater: he will therefore say what has been revealed to him from Christ, as already Eliphaz repeated what he had learned by inspiration.

11. "Can the rush grow without water? So will the wicked drift away from divine mercy.

12. "He stops at the moment of growth and no one comes to pick him," since he is without water. "Before being watered does the grass not dry out? If it is not watered; never, indeed, has the ungodly been able to grow.

14. "The spiders will fill his house. These are the useless works. He seems to speak here of the Jews and of our Lord.

15. "If he wants to prop up his house, it will crumble. To support it or the holy Scriptures, or the hope of the divine promises: is it not here a question of the kingdom of God? "If he comment, he can not persevere," to follow God. This is what happened to the Jews, who did not follow it to the end.

16. "It's wet in the sun. They are corrupted under the flood of human passions. He says, "In the sun," under the weight of tribulation. In front, can mean under; so we say; do it before me, before my eyes. "And by rotting it makes its seed grow. If they had not been so perverted, passion would not have raised him who was born of them according to the flesh (1).

17. "He falls asleep on heaps of stones. They are the ones who crucified him. "And he will live among the pebbles; In the midst of the humble, among whom were the Apostles.

18. "If it is done away with, the place it occupied will no longer recognize it. If he does not show that he is the Son of God, it will be said that he is not: he must therefore declare it himself, for where he is, one does not want to recognize the works of God.

19. "And another will come out of the earth; Or our Lord raising up, or another race of righteous, that of the Christians.

20. "The Lord will not put to the test" his innocence. »Dominos not probabit innocentem. Must we translate: The Lord will not reprove the innocent man? or else, will not find innocent the ungodly? "No present," the raw sacrifices offered him the Jews.

21. "He will put joy on the lips of sincere men; Of those who confess guilt. "And try not the ungodly can stand up; Or their temple, or their kingdom.

CHAPTER 9

"I know it is so. That is to say, that he overwhelmed me with these evils; because of my iniquities, but it is not as you have thought it is rather because no man is right in front of him.

3. "A thousand accusations we can not answer to one. In all he will prove that they are guilty.

5. "He makes the mountains grow old and they do not know it. He weakens them little by little, as it is said: "I have aged in the midst of my enemies." - "He throws them into his anger. When he is angry with them, he overthrows them so that they can not find what they have sought, since he who raises himself will be humbled (2).

6. "He shakes the world in its foundations; So when he called the men to him, he shook those in the front row. "And his columns will falter. "

7. "He commands and the sun does not rise. Wisdom will not be known, or those who write will be understood, according to this saying: "Seal the book." "

8. "He alone extends the heavens; The Church sits, with its power, which it spreads through all the world. "He alone," he says, "expresses the unity of the Trinity, for all was done by the Son in the Holy Spirit. "He walks on the waves like on the ground. On the earth, that is to say, by strengthening its Church on firm supports in the midst of the agitations of the world, or by submitting to its power the sinners who can not swallow it up; he never bows before their efforts.

11. "If he passes before me, I will not see him. If he is higher than me and dizzies me by the speed of his race, I will not know him. He must therefore sympathize with my weakness and not abandon me.

12. "If he delivers to death, who can edit it? He delivers to death, when he passes with disdain, or without being known; and that's death. - For the soul to not know God.

13. "No one can avoid the blows of his anger. That of another can be avoided by a more powerful one. "He has subjugated everything under heaven. Heaven must be excepted, that is to say, the creature endowed with reason, because if it had submitted to itself all the others, it could never have been punished by beings. that, as it is God who has subordinated them to her, she finds in them her punishment, when she offends him who has subjected them to it.

15. "Even so, I. be fair, he will not answer me; If, by praying to him; rely on my holiness. For if he compares my merits with the saints who are near him immortal and immutable, he will reject my prayer like that of a criminal. It is therefore true that his mercy is necessary to me. "I will implore his judgment," because I can not believe myself just myself, according to this saying: "I do not judge myself it is the Lord who is my judge (1). "

16. "If I call on him and he does not answer me, I will not believe that he heard my voice. When I ask for his judgment, if he does not hear me, I will not believe that he has ever heard me, but that he has listened to my words for secret motives and not because of the excellence of my prayer. Or, I do not think he does not give me a license now, since he has sometimes answered me. Here is another explanation: If he gives me what I ask, I will believe that he answered me, because if I do not believe it, although I have what I asked, I'm not answered point; so the faith of the one who prays would be the sign that he has been answered.

17. "Lest I be broken in the storm," so I asked for his judgment lest he break me in the storm. "He multiplied on me the tribulations, without motive; I could not know the motive. This is the language of a man who admits that the chastisements of God have not changed him, and that he may be swallowed up by the storm, that is to say, struck with even more punishment. rigorous.

18. "He lets me barely breathe; So great is the number of my afflictions.

19. "Because He is the Almighty, He prevails. He conquered me, so that I might do his will and not the Arienne. "Even if I am just, impiety would still be on my lips:" if I thought myself right.

21. "Nevertheless life will be taken away from me. Even if I do not know if I have acted with impiety, they will take away my life; I will be condemned to suffer what I fear, and not to do what I desire.

22. "I only said one thing: anger breaks the strong and the powerful. That is to say, if men are afflicted, it is so that none of them can rely on their own forests, to believe themselves powerful and formidable.

23. "Because a long death. is the sharing of the wicked; And not a short death, like that of the just, when he is in pain and derided by the impious.

24. "The earth has been delivered to the hands of the ungodly. The saints in their bodies and not in their souls are delivered to him, when he persecutes them, or when he can impose their will on them. One can still see here the sinner falling into the hands of the demon in his mortal nature. "He pronounces his judgment and does not make him known. The judgment of the just as that of the ungodly is not known in this life. Or, he gives him his judgment, he punishes him by holding for him the decrees of his. Providence, according to this saying: "In the excess of his anger, he will abandon it." Or again: He avenges the righteous by hiding from his persecutor the decrees of his righteousness, that is, those of his Providence, so that impunity may lead him further into the snares of his sin. "And if it is not him, what other is it? All this can be understood as our Lord, who was mocked, and whose earth, that is, the body, was delivered into the hands of the Jews. and it was when his judgment was rendered that his majesty remained unknown. "And if it's not him, what else then," would it show more power? Or again Site is not God who judges the just and the impious, what else could do it?

25. "My life is faster than a messenger. He looks like fugitives, those who move away from holiness, like the prodigal young man who left for a distant country.

26. "Or the eagle lowering its flight and seeking its prey. From this high rank, where creatures endowed with reason taste the happiness merited by their acts of virtue, they have lowered themselves to carnal voluptuousness.

27. "If I want to raise my voice, I forget as I speak. Just as the word is addressed only to external objects, so the soul occurring outside, and seduced by the bait of the creature, forgets its Creator within itself. "I lower my head, and only have to moan. These falls indeed her followed by pains.

 28. "All my members shudder. It is fear that prepares conversion.

29. "If I am an ungodly, why am I not dead, rather than suffer? I know it, you hear it, yourself. He means, perhaps, that he is suffering, because he is not dead to impiety.

30. "And I will be cleansed by pure hands. By those of God or his, that is, by good works after his return to grace.

31. "You have covered me with defilement; Thrown in the midst of this mortal life. "And my garment has cursed me:" that of immortality, of which we want to be clothed (2). But because we can not in this life of sin, he adds, "And my garment cursed me. "

32. "You are not a man like me, whom I can contradict. Before a man I could proclaim my justice, but in your court, I am only a sinner.

33. "May another judge be judge between you and me! It would be a blasphemy, if one did not know that he calls here the Mediator of God and men (3), to present his prayers. Placed between the one and the other, this mediator listens to the man to take it back, for the Son has received from the Father the power to judge everything (1). "Let him accuse me and pronounce between us! "

34. "Let him turn his rod away from me," that the fear of the Law may disappear, and that I may be united to him by the freedom of adoption and love.

35. "For thus am I not master of my thoughts; Because I am attached to external objects.

CHAPTER 10

1. "I will speak against me. This is a humble admission.

2. "And I will say to the Lord, Do not teach me to become ungodly. Do not test me beyond my strength, and let me come to what would bring me to impiety.

3. "Do you think it is good that I have committed iniquity? You certainly do not agree that I did it; you have not been unjust, thus disposing of me. "Since you despise the work of your hands; If, nevertheless, you despise after the work of your hands. "Do you consider the designs of the ungodly? There is no question of the impiety which is shown to men. These words: "Do you consider the designs of the ungodly? Do not mean that God likes to see them commit iniquity.

4. "Do you look like the man is watching? Evidently you do not see as man. This is why you have considered the projects of the ungodly; I want to speak of the impiety known only to you, and which men can not see.

5. "Or is your life the life of man? "That is to say, of little duration, so as not to be able to judge of what is eternal.

6. "You have probed my iniquities. Because we can not hide what we hide from men.

7. "You know that I am not an impious one." Never before men have I acted with impiety. "But who can escape from your hands? When you judge, because you judge in God, you see impieties which man can not discover.

8. "But then changing your plans, you hit me. It is he and not God who has changed: but man, by perverting himself, believes that God changes in his turn, like the eyes long accustomed to darkness and for whom the sun seems to be changed afterwards.

9. "Remember, then, that you have kneaded me with clay. So I need your mercy. "And you will make me return to the earth," by death, which is the punishment of sin.

10. "Have you not thickened my substance like milk? It is because God testifies his mercy to mortals from the very moment when He forms them with the shapeless substance of their parents.

13. "You contain all these treasures in yourself, and you can do anything. Such is their goodness, that they produce the living principles of the flesh.

14. "If I commit sin, you protect me still," so as not to lose me, or to let me ignore my sin.

15. "And if I am just, hardly daring to breathe," in the presence of other men, for you discover sins that they can not know. "I am covered with confusion," in your present.

16. "I am taken like the lion that is led to death. It is the sin of pride that men do not see, and which can slip into actions worthy of praise. "And you changed again to torment me cruelly. After the pain of sin which has subjected man to death. He speaks here of the evils which men suffer here below: most of them come suddenly to us, and disturb the repose which the present life gives to the health and peaceful possession of temporal goods, which are received from divine goodness.

17. "Reviving against me my torment. For it is already a pain to be subject to death, and this punishment produces other tribulations.

18. "Why did you shoot me from my mother's womb? From an obscure condition to an illustrious rank; this rank alone is the source of a greater misery, when. we are precipitated. He has already recalled this birth above.

19. "I would have been like not being," completely ignored. Hence this word: "He calls what is not, as is (1)," from the point of view of reputation.

20. "Is not my life short? If I am not dead, it is not that my life is long, because it is assuredly little. "Let me rest for a few moments; After the kindness you showed me by forming clay, condemning me to die when I corrupted myself, consoling myself after that very condemnation, and then feeling myself by afflictions. Suffer that I rest in you.

21. "Before going to those places of torment from which one can not return. One can escape these. other penalties that have been discussed, if we come back to God. He therefore wants to rest before enduring the eternal tortures, that is to say, not to endure them. As if someone were to be corrected before being punished, obviously, if he corrects himself, he will not be punished.

22. "Earth without light, where we can not see the life of man. This life of man is there only where is the true light which enlightens all men (1). Here, then, is the land of the living, and here the land of the dying.

CHAPTER 11

2. "Is it enough to speak well, to appear right? Sophar believes that Job is richer in words than in works. "Blessed man born for few days. He repeats what the other has just said, to show him that it is only a vain and insane maxim.

3. "Since nobody contradicts you. When he spoke, no one actually contradicted him.

5. "And how could God himself speak to you? Say rather what can draw on you his mercy.

6. "He will make himself felt doubly:" by his chastisements, by his consolations. "And you will see, the Lord has only fallen on you the just punishment of your sin. After his punishment, you will receive his lights.

7. "Have you entered the sanctuary of divinity? To dare to condemn her.

8. "The sky is lost in the heights; what can you do? To discover the secrets. You must not condemn Him whose works you can not understand.

10. "Who can say to him, What have you done? In truth, all is well, if it is God who did it he can do only that which is good.

11. "He knows the works of the wicked:" without doing anything wicked. He wants to make it clear how much Job, that he believes bad, has been foolish to accuse God: that is how he interprets his words.

12. "Man, on the contrary, always hesitates in his speeches:" One by one he loves God and condemns him, although God does not change. "The man, born of woman, is like the wild onager in the desert:" eager for liberty, not wishing to be neither dominated nor tamed.

13. "You lift up supplicating hands to him," that he may accept your works.

14. "If in your hands there is some defilement. He uses the same two ideas, but in a different order. "That iniquity does not dwell in your house. He means in his heart.

15. "Then your face will shine like limpid water. His conscience will be pure.

16. "Like the stream that stops, and you will not be afraid anymore; Unless God strikes all the living.

17. "And your prayer will be bright as Lucifer. She will walk before the great light. It seems as if all the above has been revealed or inspired to him like the other friends of Job, in a prophetic sense, relative to the holy city or the people of God.

19. "And many will come to implore you. All this relates to the Church.

CHAPTER 12

4. "But the righteous and holy man is mocked. This righteous man is our Lord, and here is the meaning: so it is not surprising if I too are mocked.

5. "His dwelling devastated by the wicked. It is the Church in the hands of the persecutors. "But let no one in his wickedness flatter himself to remain unpunished. For the judgment begins with the house of God (1).

6. "As if they were not to undergo a severe examination," they are not reassured.

7. "Ask the field animals and they will answer you. In his righteousness he seeks the works of the wicked, because they have been able to recognize the Creator in his works and to serve him. It was not for creatures to instruct them, since the reason with which they were endowed was to bring them to this knowledge.

10. "Unless all living beings are not under his power. One can therefore know that he has created everything, since he holds in his hands the life of all that breathes. "And the breath that animates the body. of man, »all

11. "The ear discerns the words. As sensible objects fall under our senses, so spiritual things are seen from the mind. The spirit must therefore know the works of God, since it is under his hand.

12. "Wisdom comes after a long time:" not after a long time, but it is near God to be asked.

14. "If he destroys, who can rebuild? His power has destroyed, his wisdom has closed the entrance, so that we can not reach her.

15. "If he restrains the waters, the earth will be dried up. Water is wisdom, and earth is man. "If he gives them passage, they will upset. When many become wise, sinners become confused.

17. "He holds the councilors captive. He subjugates those who take counsel only of themselves. "He throws fear among the judges of the earth. These are the Jews or Pilate, or those who judge according to the maxims of the world.

18. "He places kings on their throne," these are the Apostles; "And the girdles of the harness," the austerities of continence.

19. "He allows his Pontiffs to be bound together," so that they may be led by men: he here designates the Jews.

20. "He changes the lips of his faithful servants. He changes them for good so that they may rest, not on their holiness, but on their grace. "He knows the experience of old people. He likes it. Whence this word: "You are known to God (1); And this other, quite the opposite, "I do not know you." This is how he wisely leads us from faith to the experience of the aged.

22. "He discovers the depths of darkness," explaining the prophecies. "He produces in the light the shadows of death. That is to say, he makes known what the present life is worth: it is only the shadow of death.

23. "He deceives the nations, and forsakes them. They thought they were losing the Church; they are lost themselves: this applies to the ungodly. "He overthrows the peoples, then directs them; To humiliate them, like the donkey he is talking about.

24. "He has reconciled the hearts of the princes of the earth. He reconciled the Jews or the kings of the earth, who had first persecuted his Church. "He led them on a new road which they did not know." In abrogating the Law he spoke only to their intelligence; so they looked at him as a sinner.

25. "They went astray in the darkness like a drunken man. "

CHAPTER 13

3. And if he will, I will accuse him in his presence; It is to accuse himself: it is another confession.

4. "All you are but the doctors of the wicked. You can not bring comfort to the righteous.

6. "Listen to the reproaches of my lips," against you.

7. "And you only say lies in his presence; When, without being righteous, you want to appear it.

8. "Do you pretend that you do not want to judge? Can you still hide, and not agree that I have spoken of you in truth?

9. "And when you have accomplished all things, you are still indebted to him; That is to say, even if you observe all his commandments, he will still find in you what to condemn you; because no one is right in front of him.

10. "Even if you admire the characters; Themselves, justifying themselves in their own eyes as before men.

12. "Your body is muddy; So fear fearing your nothingness.

14. "And my teeth have torn my flesh. I do not wish to spare myself, accusing myself as I accuse you. "I will take my soul in my hand," to look at it, to hide nothing and count the number of my faults.

15. "If the Almighty put me to death, as he began; If he makes my sins die. "I will speak and condemn myself before him. I will not justify myself by hiding my faults.

18. "Here I am near my judgment: I must judge myself. It is an act of justice not to spare oneself by confessing one's faults.

20. "I will not flee your presence," as sinners do.

21. "Remove from me your hand; That nothing in me deserves your punishments any more, and that I have your love. "And do not overwhelm me with your terrors. "

23. "What are my iniquities? Which shows that it was to count them that he said: "I will take my soul in my hand. "

24. "Why do you believe me rebelling against you? I am so weak 1 Do you believe that my justification makes me your equal, who am like the leaf? So there is another hidden cause of your anger, for it is not this one.

26. "You have burdened me with the sins of my youth. If he has not known his sins, it is because he has listened to pride, the sin of his youth.

27. "You have put obstacles in my feet; The bonds of death. "You followed my footsteps:" observed my guilty desires.

28. "I am like old stuff:" which can not contain the new wine. "Or like the clothing gnawed by insects," attached to a new stuff.

CHAPTER 14

1. "The man born of woman lives few days, and he passes them in anger," in pain.

3. "And you call him in your presence to judge him. Despite his fragile existence, he still has to give you an account of his life. He is required of him what he can, though it is very little.

5. "You counted the number of his months. This so limited existence is proof of his sin because you created him immortal.

6. "Get away from him, let him rest. Thus reason the carnal man; slave of his senses, who places his happiness in the present life. He asks that we save it in order to enjoy it.

7. "The tree is not without hope. It is necessary to pronounce in an ironic tone, because it is the man especially who must hope, but the carnal men can not believe it.

10. "The man dies and does not return:" new irony.

11. "The sea diminishes for a time and fills up soon. In speaking of the ebb and flow of the sea, it means, or on all the shores, when this phenomenon takes place, the water decreases and increases imperceptibly, at moments fixed by the motion of the moon, or that for us, or for other regions, the water rises until the middle of the day, then goes down again.

12. "As long as heaven remains, another will not be created," will not be added to the first.

13. "What have you kept me in the tomb? Such are my hopes of resurrection, that I wish I were no longer prey to the uncertainties of this life. "Why did you not hide me until your anger was appeased? Hence this word: "Hide yourself until the wrath of God is past." That is to say, until this mortal life ends, and the resurrection arrives.

14. "For if man dies, he shall live:" This life is not the true life. "When all his days are over," then he will live.

15. "If you call me, I will answer you," I will obey you, without being stopped by death.

17. "You sealed in a sack my iniquities," to restore them to me. "You have taken note of those which ignorance has made me commit:" yes, even of those. These involuntary errors are the punishment of sin.

18. "The mountain sinks, and disappears. Thus man falls, so high up, so firm as he is. "And the rock is getting old, at the very place it occupies. Like the man in his family, in the rank where he is.

19. "By the overflowing of its many abysses. Thus man is reduced to misery when he is undermined by the continual overflowing of his desires. "You have confused the hopes of man. Here there is a gradation of the mountain to the rock, rock to stones, stones to grain of sand; carnal men undergo all these vicissitudes; and it is rightly said, "You have confused. "

20. "You have shaken it forever," so that it will perish. to annihilate those hopes which delight the carnal man. "You changed his face and moved him away from you. The image of God was destroyed in him.

21. "His sons are many, but he does not know. He dies while his posterity increases.

22. "His flesh shuddered with pain. The slave of the flesh deplores his fate; he groans like the animal; the spiritual man, on the contrary, knows well that if the exterior is destroyed, the interior is renewed from day to day (2): it experiences it in itself.

CHAPTER 15

2. "He multiplied the pains in my bowels. The spirit of science, by means of its consolations, lends itself rather to the weight of sorrow, but you who fill the entrails with soreness, it is not the spirit of science that inspires you.

4. "Have you not rejected fear? You did not have the fear of God, by addressing these reproaches to him.

5. "And you preferred the language of the wicked; That of the curse.

7. "What! would you be the first one called to life? Because you are so beautiful. "Have you been trained before the hills? By the hills, we must also hear the mountains: that is to say, before all the Virtues and Powers.

10. "We also have old men, men full of years. There are some of us who know what we do not know.

12. "What was not the pride of your heart, the boldness of your look? What did not he expect? 14. "What is man to be innocent? You said it yourself.

15. "If fidelity is not in his saints himself. The future is so uncertain! he deceives us, and we announce many projects without accomplishing them. "The sky is not pure before him," he wants to speak of those who live in heaven, or of the saints themselves, because God lives in them.

18. "What wise men said, and what they taught their fathers. Because the Apostles announced the truth to the Jews themselves.

19. "The land alone has been given," so that they dwell in it. "Among them came no stranger," no saint, or even no angel; they will be in deep security.

21. "When they believe themselves in peace. It seems as if Job thought he was in this state.

22. "He does not hope to come out of darkness;" he does not hope to come out of sin.

23. "It was given to the vultures. To the air powers who feed on the death of sinners.

24. "Like the general who succumbs to the first shock. He is daring, but he succumbs to temptation.

25. "This is where he raised his arm against God. Qua elevavit. Is not it rather "Quia elavit, because he has risen? "

26. "He pursued him with his outrages:" doing the opposite of what he had commanded him. "Confident in the thickness of his shield:" Believing himself strong enough to defend himself.

27. "He hid the face of God in his fat. Fat is that triumphant pride that has diverted God from him. "He placed a muzzle on his thigh. His passions chained him and dragged him like a captive to death.

28. "For others will take away what they have amassed. The sovereign power itself, like all other temporal hopes, will be with the whole world the sharing of the just.

29. "He can not get rich, or even keep what he has. That is to say, the impious. "He will not shed any shadow. He will not prosper.

30. "The wind will dry up its root," The wind of temptation.

32. "He shall be cut off before the hour, and perish," before he can hope.

33. "Let him fall like the flower of the olive tree. Let him lose peace; or else: a better situation will be established after them, like the fruit after the flower.

34. "The testimony of the wicked is death. The sign of his impiety. "And fire will consume the dwelling of those who receive presents. It is the wicked who prefer to justice temporal favors.

35. "She will conceive within her groans. The object of his hopes will be the instrument of his torture.

CHAPTER 16

2. "Already I have heard many of these speeches; Even more than those you hold. "Consolers of the wicked. You can console the wicked, since they are your imitators, but not the righteous. I have heard no wise word from you.

3. "What! is the beauty of the speeches the spirit? Of pride. "And who will be able to trouble you?" Although you do not like what you have said.

4. "I too speak like you. I hold a language worthy of you. "If your soul took the place of mine; If you suffer the torments that I endure, I will speak to you without reproaching you; that his words contradict actions?

7. "If I raise my voice, I do not complain of my wound. You have been careful neither in your speeches nor in your silence. Indeed, if the wise man wishes to speak, it is to take pity on the unfortunate and console him; if he speaks of himself, it is to cry over his wounds; and if he is silent, he is quiet about it.

8. "He exhausted me from fatigue, he misplaced my spirit and reduced me to dust. So that I do not raise my voice against you, God has broken my pride; he wants my madness to become wisdom.

9. "You seized me, and I testified. You have convinced me of my sins, and I have become my accuser. "And my lie arose against me; When I thought myself right. "I will rise against myself. From there the words: "I will expose you to your own eyes." "

10. "He has taken anger to reject me. It is well said, "He has taken anger," for he does not suffer the excesses. He rejected, as he rejects the proud. "He gritted his teeth against me. He overwhelmed me with his reproaches; the teeth, these are the words. "The arrows of his pirates came to hit me. These are the powers of the air: instruments to which God permits the testing of the righteous and chastising the wicked they are called pirates, because they harass us in our race on the sea of ​​this world.

11. "He pierced me with his eyes. Far from mitigating my sins, he ordered me to chastise myself. It is like the line of light which discovers to the ministers of its vengeance those whom they must punish; his gaze was my condemnation. Here is another meaning: He made me see my sin before I had not felt so strongly. "He violently hit me on my knees, and all ran to me. As soon as God struck him, near him came the angels of Satan.

13. "When I was at peace, he broke me. He delighted me in my repose, or in myself; I was torn by my. enemies, even those who tore themselves apart. "He seized and ripped off my hair; Because of my sins, he put division in me. "He chose me as the goal of their arrows," for them to throw at me. As we place a goal to which must aim the archer who throws his arrows.

14. "They assaulted me with their spears, pierced my loins, and were for me without mercy. In punishment of the carnal desires of which he sees himself all penetrated, and that suggest to him the temptations of the bad angels. They poured my gall on the ground, that the sight of temporal goods might excite my envy against those who possess them.

15. "They dragged me to enormous falls:" here we do not hear the falls of his body.

16. "They sewed a hair shirt on my skin. It is the inner sins that remind him of his former happiness.

17. "And on my eyelid came the shadow of death. I want to get to the light, and I feel arrested by the guilty habits.

19. "Let the earth not cover the blood of my veins. That is to say, if my prayer was not pure, because of my carnal desires, that the heaped earth does not cover the link of my mortality; this is what he calls the word "blood," as if he were saying that a misfortune greater than these guilty desires, that of a voluntary sin, does not fall on me: this sin brings us the nature condemned to death. "And let my cries be muffled. May my prayer remain without merit.

20. "And now I have a witness in heaven. He seems to speak of Our Lord, who had not yet come down to earth. "And in the highest heaven he who knows my" heart, "because he must share my mortal condition.

22. "Let man come to judgment with his God. Let the Lord come, and let man be compared to him, as Saint John with Christ. Such a comparison will make clear the whole difference between the most perfect man and the God made man. "As the son of man to his neighbor," as the Lord in his humanity to him who had fallen into the hands of the thieves (1).

23. "The years that had been counted for me happened to me. And Christ will help me in the fullness of time (2). "And I enter a path by which I will never return. That of renouncing the world.

CHAPTER 17

1. "Defeci agitatus spiritu. Here is the order of this sentence: the spirit in me has been extinguished: Defeci spiritu; broken that I was talking about work, laboribus concussus. "I desire to be put to the grave, and I am not heard; So that death may be destroyed by life. We groan under the weight of this body, not wanting to be stripped of it, but receive over a new garment (3): that is to say, we prefer to change rather than to die; but in vain the man feels this desire, death is for him a debt to which sin has condemned him.

2. "I unite prayer at work, and what have I done? I did something because I was answered. "The foreigners have stripped me of my property. The immortality from which he was robbed is represented by the one whom the thieves left half dead.

3. "What is it? The one who must rescue me; he wants to speak of our Lord, and he says, "What is it? Because he will be so confused with other men that he can scarcely be recognized. "May it be attached to my hand," by the bond of charity; let him protect me and lead me where he pleases.

4. "You have closed their hearts to wisdom; You prevented them from recognizing him. "Therefore you will not glorify them. They have not humbled themselves, it is the cause of their blindness, and they may have been exalted in the humility of Christ.

5. "A party has received the evils shared. Part of Israel has been blinded (1); it is. or because they regarded it as evil what Christ had announced to them, to the point of saying, "He seduces the multitude;" 2 or because the prophecies, which predicted Israel's blindness, were not fulfilled. in all the people, but only in one part. "And the eyes of his children are darkened. Those whom prodigies confounded, and to whom it was said, "If it be in the name of Beelzebud that I cast out demons, in whose name do your children drive them out?" "

6. "You have made me famous among the nations," the man whom you have redeemed, that is to say the Church, of which the nations were to speak, or who was to speak to them. "I became their whip; Or that of the Gentiles who were to insult him; or that of the Jews who spoke to the Gentiles.

7. "Anger darkens my eyes. The eyes of the Church, that is to say, the Apostles, are as obscured when they are not understood by those who have deserved this punishment. "And I am in a hurry on all sides. Indeed, both Jews and Gentiles have made war on the Church.

8. "The friends of truth have been stupefied; Or that the impious have been able to attack the Church, or that they have not known the Gospel. "But let the righteous rise above his enemy:" If he succumbs for a time under the blows of persecution, he will then rule the infidels.

9. "And let the man whose hands are pure arm himself with boldness," and the man who gives hope to confess Jesus Christ, even in persecution.

10. "For he hath not found the truth in you. To all grace is necessary not only to the Jews, but also to other peoples.

11. "All the fibers of my soul have been violently shaken," because I do not hide my sins.

12. "They took the night for the day," the wicked. This is why it is said, "Woe to those who call evil what is good, and what is evil; which turn light into darkness, and darkness into light (1). "

13. "If I still support, hell will be my home. If I bear the burden of my sins, so as not to confess them.

14. "I called death my father. I will not be the son of life. The Lord yet called him so. "Rot, my mother and my sister. Between death and decay, there is the union of close kinship.

15. "What is my hope now? It must be understood: If I continue to bear the burden of my sins. "Will I be able to enjoy my past possessions? Of the happiness which seduced him, which kept him in his sin, and which delayed his conversion.

CHAPTER 18

"And the torch of the wicked will be extinguished. So do not be surprised if your torch goes out like that of the ungodly.

6. "The darkness has lighted his house. She was enlightened by the devil or the antichrist. "And his torch was extinguished on him; It was the faint glare of a terrestrial light.

7. "Let his fortune be given to the last of men," Let the humble possess what he wanted to possess.

8. "His foot is caught in the trap. He himself was seized in making war on the Lord.

9. "He who is thirsty has become strong against him. He is conquered by those who are hungry and thirsty for justice.

10. "His inheritance was hidden on the earth," to lose it. His inheritance is what is bestowed upon him. "And he was seized in the way," which he followed,

11. "Let sorrows surround him and lose him," that they come to him from all sides. "That many are throwing themselves on him,"

12. "In the anxieties of hunger. Either those who follow him or those who obey him.

13. "Let the marks of his feet be devoured," those of his teachings, wherever he goes.

14. "Let it be with you that health is forever ruined; The tranquility of life. "And that he supports the weight of a royal accusation. "Chastised in due time, he procures the glory of God; that is why he is abandoned for some time to his desires. He said: a royal accusation, lèse-majesté, because he boasted of being the Christ.

15. "Let him be in his tent surrounded by the night. The torment of this accusation will agitate his conscience; his desire to dominate the devour. "Of the night," of the torment of his blindness, after his condemnation. "May his beauty be covered with sulfur. He took pleasure in it; let it be the prey of an impure flame.

16. "Be it from on high, suddenly reaped:" by God.

17. "And that his name be forgotten in public squares where he was known. Let the people keep no memory of it.

19. "Let him not be recognized among his people." Let him descend to such a degree of abjection that his people can not recognize him. "And let not his house again appear on the earth," for there will be reappeared.

20. "Let others live among his people. That his people undergo foreign domination.

CHAPTER 19

2. "You annihilate me by your speeches:" you discourage me, you who should console me. "Know that God has treated me so. It is in his presence that I must be convinced of sin, and not before men.

6. "And he shut up his wall around me. This is the moat surrounding the walls. So I am forced to admit guilty.

7. "I rid myself of reproaches and I remain silent. ". He recognizes the usefulness of his confessions; for if he wanted to laugh at his sin and not admit it, he would pray without being heard.

8. "He darkened my face. He has taken away the splendor of my face: it is the fate of those who turn away from him.

9. "He has stripped my head of his crown; Of the supernatural brilliance that wisdom gives him.

10. "He destroyed me right through, and I disappeared. I possessed everything, he delighted me. His pain is that he could have kept everything.

11. "He treated me as his enemy. He thought I could hurt him, as if I were his equal. "And they have surrounded my house; My heart and my conscience.

13. "My brothers have gone away. It was to correct me, because they are my brothers. However, they scorned at first to take me back, like those who have followed foreign advice, bad advice. "And my friends have been for. me without guts. In spiritual afflictions they do not console their friends, they only know how to make fun of them; he would never do it for carnal afflictions.

14. "Those who repeated my name forgot me. They do not know me anymore, so much have I changed.

15. "My neighbors, my maids themselves. Those to whom I confided my secrets, that is to say, the flatterers who abandon the one who humbles himself before God; because they say flatterers that they are servile

16. "I called my servant; he did not answer me. It's his body, or those who wanted to hurt him. "My voice was begging for him.

17. "And I conjured my wife; As if he were saying, "Why be sad, O my soul, and why trouble me? Because he wanted his assent. "I have sent tender prayers to my own children. Those whom he had engendered by inspiring them with the hopes of this world.

19. "And those whom I had loved, rose up against me," in my past life.

20. "My flesh in my skin has become corrupted. ". The attachment to external objects has corrupted the inside of my soul. It would be too little to hear this passage to the letter of a skin disease. "And in my mouth are nothing but my bones. My firmness and my courage are more in my words than in my actions.

21. "Have pity on me, have pity on me, oh my friends. He seems to invoke the angels, so that they ask for grace for him, or assuredly the saints to unite their prayer to his penance. "For the hand of the Lord has touched me. He says he is touched by the hand of the Lord, who wants to make him feel a wound that he did not feel at first.

22. "Why do you persecute me as the Lord? You hate me: I am for you, as for God, an object of horror; or you are reproaching me, though I admit to being guilty. "And are you not satisfied with my flesh? You would not rejoice if I lived according to the flesh.

24. "With an iron stylet, and on the lead. Just as the lead is engraved with the iron pen, so the heart of the man must be impressed by my speeches. "Or as a souvenir they are carved on the stone," so that they may be known to those who announce the truth without ever faltering.

25. "For I know it, it is eternal, who must deliver my deliverance. He can repair my nature.

27. "They are present to my thoughts," because I deserved them. "It's my eye and not someone else's who saw them. That is to say, "No one knows what happens in man, except the spirit that is in him" (1). And all these things are fulfilled in my heart, in the secret of my soul, where no one can see in my conscience.

28. "Perhaps you will say what accusation against him? It is in this sense that it is said to the spiritual ones: "Reflecting on yourself, for fear of being so tempted" (2). - We will find in him the principle of his speeches. For him it showed temerity.

29. "For anger will come on the wicked. He calls wicked, those who rise above sinners, and believe themselves incapable of becoming sinners themselves.

CHAPTER 20

2. "You do not understand better than me. He turns to those others who, with him, sought to comfort Job.

3. "I will listen to the teachings that must confound me. He wants to lead Job indirectly to listen to what must confuse him: for he could thus acquire the spirit of wisdom. It is a distinguished phrase, analogous to this: It is good that I should be on my guard, that no evil should come to me; when, we speak so that others put themselves on their guard.

4. "Did you know this from the beginning? Do you know him from the beginning of the centuries? He believes that Job ignores him, as unholy.

9. "The eye will see, and will not seek" to see. We will not see him anymore.

10. "The ungodly scatter his children. Those who followed him, or those he seduced. "And let the fire of pain consume his hands. That they suffer from his works.

11. "The fire of youth has penetrated his bones. He is proud of his strength.

12. "He will hide you under his tongue. In his cunning, he will know how not to make it appear, in order to better enjoy it secretly.

13. "He cleans and keeps tasting it. Full of attachment to her, and unwilling to be deprived of it, he does not torment her in him. Or the Lord will spare him, and strong in this impunity, he will not want to part with it. "And he held her in the back of her mouth:" because she is happy.

14. "But he can not be safe from danger. He will not fulfill his deliverance. "It's the gall of aspic in his bowels. In his interior, in the secret of his heart, he hides his guilty plans.

15. "You must vomit riches unjustly acquired," with worry in the depths of the soul, torment in the heart. "The angel will lead him out of his house," when the tribulations will make known what he had concealed.

16. "He will burst into him the fury of the dragon. He knew how to hide first; but now, betrayed by tribulation, he will make the dragon's fury appear to everyone. "Let the tongue of the viper make him die. That the demoule seduces.

17. "Let him never gather the milk of his flocks. The product of herds is the acts of justice; let him not fulfill them, so that he may better appreciate the benefit of redemption. "Neither honey nor butter:" good works conceived in charity and in the joy of the heart and generously accomplished because butter is like milk fat.

18. "In vain did he get tired. By doing so he did not wish to do works of mercy; so it is said that the Lord feeds on butter and honey (1), and these foods are given to him by his humble followers. "They did something hard; Something that can not be chewed or eaten. What does this represent? Iniquity, perhaps, or pride.

20. "His desires did not save him; because they were unfair.

21. "He left nothing of his food. His lusts have only passed.

22. "He will think he is full and will be in hugs. His satisfied passions gave him less satisfaction than anxiety,

23. "Can he even satisfy his appetite? He will fall into such misery that he will no longer know whether he will be able to satisfy his appetite. and yet these foods are only sought to appease hunger. This language means that the more man possesses, the more he desires. "And he will bring down upon him the fire of his wrath," because he did not see him perform good works.

24. "Let him be wounded with an arrow of brass. Who still remains in the wound.

25. "Let the line pierce it through and through. May temptation penetrate him so that he is wounded and in what he hopes, and in what he loses and as pierced from front to back. "Let the lightnings be in his tent. That terror comes suddenly to disturb; his thoughts.

26. "Let the stranger shake his house. The demon coming from outside to tempt us; because everyone also has his own temptations.

27. "And let the heaven discover its iniquities; The judgment that comes from heaven.

29. "And let him keep his goods from the One who watches over his actions. That's what God has for him.

CHAPTER 21

2. "I have no consolation from you," which makes you happy in temporal goods, common to the ungodly and the righteous, and say that if anyone were wicked, he would be punished. Job, on the contrary, says that the wicked preserve these temporal goods until death, and that consequently they are not punished in this world.

4, "Hey what! Is my punishment inflicted upon me by men? It is God who chastises me, he too can. comfort me and not you. "Why should not I be irritated? Do not give me these consolations, for I see in them the happiness of the wicked.

5. "Cast your eyes on me and be astonished," vain souls speech.

6. "For if I remember my memories, I am in trouble. Here he confesses the miseries of human life by comparing his present dispositions with those of the past. "And my flesh is seized by pain. I grieve in a carnal way.

7. "Why live the ungodly? He does this because others say that the wicked are punished here.

11. "And their flocks subsist as far as old age permits. As much as old age allows, because they will not always be.

16. "And they possessed great possessions. He did not take away their possessions when they spoke thus.

17. "And even the torch of the wicked shall go out. Their celebrity acquired in the world, although it is not in the same sense that they understood it.

19. "Let his sons never gather his goods. Those whom he has made them love, the goods of this world, those of the antichrist or the devil.

20. "Let his eyes be dying. He means that this prosperity is not appreciated even by those whose happiness it is, and that in the future it will make the ungodly suffer.

21. "After him no one will command in his house. For in the midst of tribulation they have not found the Lord in their conscience. "Even though half of his months have been cut off. Although he recognized the presence of God, he did not hope for future happiness, which would have been for him the fullness of years.

22. "Himself judges homicides. Because the impious ones excite to impiety by the carnal joys it procures, they kill for eternal life. It is not men who judge such murders; it is God alone.

23. "This one will die in the strength of his simplicity. Here he seems to designate the secret homicides, recalling that one is prodigal, the other miser; for men in abundance are reputed to be good and generous.

24. "His bowels are laden with fat," he is glad. "And the spinal cord is superabundantly spread in the bowels. It retains and does not hide in glittering treasures, but it makes them useful either to itself or to others.

27. "So I know, you have daringly raised against me. You do not speak with measure.

28. "For you say, What has become of the prince's house? That of the impious or that of the proud. They thought that the goods were removed here below, though most die with all their property, and must find their own punishment. "Where is the veil lying on the tent of the ungodly? Their honor.

29. "Ask those who pass on the way. Those who do not enjoy it, but cross it without stopping. "And you will know what signs to recognize them. These are the traits of impiety, which are signaled by those who pass by predicting to the ungodly their destiny, or the signs to which these impious ones are recognized.

31. "Who, in His presence, will reveal His ways?" No one but God dares before the ungodly to repeat the ungodliness of their ways, for these may answer.

32. "And yet the Lord Himself is brought to the tomb," so true is it that there is no reward here to hope for piety. "And he will awaken on the mass of corpses. He is indeed resurrected before all those whom he must bring out of the tomb.

32. "The stones of the torrent have been sweet to him; Those which the world has not made roll; his disciples. "After him every man follows him and many walked before him:" or else, in this passage, every man has the same meaning as a man, the first man, and "many" refers to those who have since taken rank among the men. Or again, after him the crowd of believers, before him the Patriarchs and the Prophets.

34. "How then do you give me such vain consolations? By directing my thoughts on the goods or the evils present.

CHAPTER 22

"Is it not the Lord who gives intelligence and wisdom? As if Job had said that his judgments were not right: assuredly he can only be judged by the intelligence, and in this respect he prevails over the man who holds what he has from him.

4. "And let him go into judgment with you. For you to compare him.

11. "Your light has changed into darkness; Your dignity. "And during your sleep the waters covered you. The tribulation, which floods the one who is at peace.

13. "Where can he distinguish in the midst of fog? As if he could not see through the fogs.

14. "The cloud is his retiree, no one can discover it. He does not do anything on earth. "And its course embraces the orbit of heaven; And not the earth; figurative style.

15. "Do you want to follow the way of the centuries?" As if Job believed that God does not take care of the things of this world?

16. "They were swept away before the time. Before time, according to their way of seeing, because they believed to remain forever. Or better, before reaching true wisdom. Job's friends had heard this, but they did not think so.

18. "Far from him is the thought of the ungodly: he has filled their house with good things. The thought of the impious is far from him; for he does not act according to the hopes of the wicked, who would like God to worship his ungodliness, or to be able to see it.

19. "Those who see will be more just. Those who understand: they had none; including ; they believed that justice is done here to the ungodly. "And the unblemished man will laugh at them; Impious people.

21. "Be hard, if you can bear patiently," the bitterness.

23. "And you will depart from your house of iniquity:" your conduct or your guilty life. However they say this with their carnal views.

24. "You shall lay it on the stone, at the top of the wall. This is the opposite of what he said: "A river flowing at the foot of their walls. "

26. "For he humbled himself. The light itself humbled itself. "And you will say; he has risen against pride, against the proud.

30. "Deliver the innocent, and the purity of your hands shall be your salvation; Does not cease doing good works, for God deals with our actions.

CHAPTER 23

2 "I know it, on my hands falls the reproached; On "my sins. My hand fell under the weight of my moans. You hit me so that I repent.

3. "And reach his throne. May I be holy enough to take his place among his thrones. Then I will be able to tell the truth and hear it. So the heavens are called saints.

5. "In order that I may know what he might answer me," that they prove he would give me equity in his judgments. "And let me understand all his words," being near him.

6. "Would he come to talk to me with much force? To overwhelm me with his power? Not at all. "Nevertheless, let him not abuse me with my terrors. Because of my sins which inspire me with these terrors, let him not treat me with pity. "And when I come to him; "In possession of this liberty which will associate me with the glory of his throne, I will love everything, and his power will not resist me any more, though now he can treat me without mercy because of my sins. That is to say, that he should act on me, according to his will, even if he punished me, that's right.

7. "The truth accompanies the reproach of his mouth. He never condemns unfairly. "And he judges my case entirely. If he punishes now, he will make all things known later.

8. "If I want to walk first, soon I will not be. That I hope without presumption, that despair does not render me unfaithful; that is to say, I do not deviate to the right or to the left. Hence this word: "If I ascend to heaven, you are there (1). Who will be able to drive me away? etc.

9. "What is he doing? on the left, I can not know it. He takes again what he said above. He can not know anything by staying left attached to the things of this world. "He will turn to the right, and I will not see him. So I do not have to go to the left. It is said "He will turn," because with him are the spiritual goods from which I departed by placing myself on the left.

10. "He himself knows the way that I am," to make me walk after him, when he leads me through tribulations. "He tested me like gold," within these tribulations.

11. "I will go out in his commandments. I will come out of my darkness, but faithful to His commandments.

13. "If he so resolved," to experience me as gold through tribulation.

14. "So I hurried to come to him; Because he afflicted me, I neglected all my temporal interests, to run to him. "And his warnings have brought my thoughts back to him. These punishments, tested in my flesh, made me avoid eternal torments.

15. "Therefore I will be troubled in his presence. It does not matter if I am troubled, provided my thoughts warn me against the coming judgment, where everything will be manifested before him.

16. "The Lord softens my heart. And this fear itself, which makes him avoid the penalties to come, is in his eyes a blessing of divine mercy: the evils he endures could not make him feel the pain and darkness of the other life, if the Lord did not soften his heart by the tribulations of the present life: in another sense it is said that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh.

CHAPTER 24

1. "Why did the Lord know the hours? " Why? or, that's why.

2. "They have crossed the limit:" Christ.

4. "They turn away the poor from the right way," that they may walk in their footsteps, or that they no longer believe in the judgment of God, seeing unpunished the malice of those who persecute them in defiance of the justice. "And they made the sweet men of the earth disappear. These were confounded with those who had departed from the right path so that no help would be given to me. For there are three kinds of men in the Church, in the day of persecution. Some authorize it, others flee it, and others endure its rigors. Job is the figure of these.

5. "They rushed on me in the country, like asses in fury. Fools and rebels, whom their vices make proud, rushed upon me while I confessed your name, that is to say, on the Church. "They were doing their work. It's their job to rush on me; that is to say, they have received from God the mission. "The bread was sweet to him against young people. He calls a sweet bread for the impious and the persecutor, that persecution to which he is more willing when he directs it against the young men. Let us hear here by young people or those who love carnal pleasures, because the youth is more easily abandoned, or those who, in the Church, just out of spiritual childhood, do not yet have this strength virile brave the persecutor.

6. "They have prematurely harvested the field which is not theirs. Or he designates that kind of persecution which threatens the confiscation of property; or by this field we must understand the Church, that the persecution wants to harvest before time, that is to say before the tares grew to be separated at the time of the harvest (1).

8. "They will be wet from the rain of the mountains; When, stripped of their clothes, they will shelter in the caves where the water flows through the rock.

9. "They robbed the orphan with the udder. Orphans and widows usually designate the Church: it is the persecuted people. - "And they humbled him who had fallen"; or that God has abandoned him, that all other help has failed him: it is an extreme hardship not to spare such misfortunes.

11. "They unfairly laid their snares on those who were in distress; ", in need.

12. "They were driven out of the city and their houses. Others were driven out by them. "The soul of the little ones had a lot to moan.

13. "God has not had pity on them," impious ones in abandoning them today, he exposes them to despair of divine judgments; for they committed evil with impunity.

14. "Therefore he delivered them to darkness. He let them ignore the judgment of God. "And suddenly like a thief:" this day will seize them.

15. "The eyes of adultery spy on darkness. Here he wishes to show in what darkness impurity throws the wicked: it is not in those that adulterers and all other sinners, those of the night, seek, not to be seen during the day but in this darkness that the morning has not dissipated.

16. "He pierces the houses in darkness. Here he recalls other guilty actions. "During the day they sailed," to hide themselves. "They did not know the light. "

17. "Because the shadow of death always lives in them. When night recedes, the shadow of death does not abandon them.

18. "It is light on the surface of the water:" it is, here, to oppose to the purely terrestrial men, the spiritual men who penetrates the light and a celestial agility, and on whom death, to which they are condemned by the flawed nature of their bodies, relaxes only light shadows. One could also say that these words, "He is light on the surface of the water," are understood by those who confess the faith by receiving baptism. "May their share be cursed; That what they have sought is forever sterile.

19. "They delighted what was deposited in the orphan's womb. By guilty insinuations they took from the heart of the weak the word that sustained him.

20. "Soon their sin was searched," when they thought it completely forgotten. "Let the wicked be broken like the tree that is wasting away," and can not be rejuvenated.

21. "He mistreated the sterile woman; That which children will not console.

22. "He has risen, not trusting himself in his own life." This life does not reassure him, for he knows that for him it is bad. That's why he had to get up.

23. "Let him not heal in his diseases; In his afflictions. "Let him go weaker every day. The impious one in the midst of adversity seeks among consolations, those which overwhelm him more.

24. "Her greatness has sunk like mauve under the weight of heat. He could not bear the weight of the tribulation: the mauve indicates his weakness. "Or like the ear falling without shaking the stalk." In the morning, he was at the height of greatness: he chose the consolations that made his fall more shameful.

25. "Otherwise who can accuse me of lies? If they are otherwise.

CHAPTER 25

2. "What other beginning than the fear of his name? This interpellation seems to refer to the following words of Job: "I will be troubled in his presence, I will consider, and I will be seized with fear." "

3. "Let no one think of delaying the pirates. When God permits, they attack without delay. "Against those who have not laid their snares? When he allowed it. In pitfalls he hears the temptations.

4. "How can man before the Lord be righteous? He therefore allows without temptation the temptation against him. "How can one who is born of a woman be purified? He will be unclean, so much so that God will not have cleansed him.

5. "If he commands it, the moon is without light. If the order established by his Divine Providence requires that the moon not shine, he will command it, and it will be without light. And why? Is it only to say that the moon is without clarity before him, as soon as he forbids her to shine? Or could we not see here a figure of the reasonable soul, enlightened by that sun of intelligence which enlightens all men? The moon spreads on the earth a light all the greater, that it is further away from the sun: as soon as it gets closer, it disappears completely to our eyes. Let us understand by this that God wills for our soul: that it rises above our earthly and mortal nature, where its beauty reveals itself only to the impressions of the flesh, that it seeks wisdom, that she approaches it and accepts her yoke; then filled with a secret joy in the face of this light, she will avoid performing the works of justice before men, so as not to be seen by them (2). If she boast, let it be in the Lord (3). For in showing herself to men, she seeks only the gift of the Creator. "Neither are the stars pure before him; Compared to him.

CHAPTER 26

2. "Who do you come to, and who do you want to help? Believing them unjust, he was indignant against them and wanted God to punish them; but reflecting in himself, he returns to better thoughts and leaves it to God to judge them. He does not pretend to help or help him, as if he were too weak to stop punishing the guilty; He does not wish to trace his conduct to him, nor to follow him, and to inquire why he allows the deceivers to live; for the secrets of his power are impenetrable to all the pursuits of our intelligence. He wishes even less to teach him what these men are, for it is from him that man holds his breath, when he expresses some thought.

5. "Will the giants be annihilated? Let us not be surprised if God spares them, since He has not destroyed the giants. And so that it is not objected that they are 'thrown into hell, he adds that God sees the underworld. Nevertheless he has assigned to them that place which they occupy according to their merits; He knows who he is, and where they are today, or where they should be. But he never removes them from his presence, because in his eyes everything is exposed. We must here hear in the same sense, and the giants of whom he has just spoken, and the proud consolers. "Under the waters also those who are like them; After these words, "under the waters," must we imply: are they retained, or some other analogous expression?

6. "And perdition is not veiled to him. Even what is lost does not escape his gaze.

7. "He launches the aquilon in a vacuum. The aquilon may mean here the devil, and the earth the sinner, for neither of them there is any solid, hope. "He suspends the earth on nothingness; " in the air.

8. "He holds back the waters in his clouds. These are the obscurities of the prophecies. "And the clouds were not divided under his hand. The truth contained in the cloud has not escaped those who understand the Scriptures. There is in them no contradiction, as those who do not understand it claim.

9. "He keeps the face of the sun hidden (1). That the wicked do not know the sun of righteousness. "And he spreads on him his cloud; The flesh which Our Lord has clothed.

10. "He has spread his law everywhere on the surface of the waters. Among the peoples. "How far does the light end; Until the end of this life, that is to say, until the end of the world, or until consummated, that is to say, perfected those to whom it has been said "You were once darkness, you are now light in the Lord (2). "

11. "The pillars of heaven trembled; they were shaken by the sound of his threats. What happened to Peter by the voice of Paul (3).

12. "His power has calmed the fury of the waves. He has put an end in the world to the perseverance of the persecutors against the Church. These words, "The pillars of heaven trembled at the sound of his threats," may mean: The most courageous in the Church trembled for the weakest, when God permitted the trials of the persecution. One of these columns exclaimed: "Who is weak, without being weak with him? Who is scandalized, without my burning (1)? - His clever hand hurt the whale. It is the pain that hurts the demon when the righteous have resisted it.

13. "And the secrets of heaven the dreaded art. These are the angels, or those who hold the keys of the kingdom of heaven. "He ordered, and suddenly fell on it. apostate dragon. He has said as much of the whale, but here he shows how he was wounded; it is when we abandon it and accept the divine commandments.

14. "All this is only part of the road," which leads to God. "And who will know the power of his thunder, when he will make him growl? His thunder is the voice that will sound in the day of the manifestations, or again this word that he has revealed to us by the son of thunder "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was in God and the Word was God" (2 ); so that the order of the sentence would be this: "When he hears thunder, will anyone be able to know its power? "

CHAPTER 27

3. "And in my nostrils the breath of God. He shows here that all his words are inspired from above, and that this divine light reveals to him the bad faith of his comforters.

5. "May God preserve me until my last breath to believe in your justice! Even if you persecute me to death, because of my freedom to condemn you. "And I will never stop supporting my innocence. I will not support yours.

6. "For I feel no reproach in me for any crime. Ordinarily, others are forgiven much when they fear for themselves some well-deserved reproach.

8. "What are the expectations of the ungodly? He is waiting. "For fear that he will be accused, of making his enemies guilty of imprecations, he discovers to us the intention which makes him speak here. He wants their impiety to be confounded, and their pride annihilated, what happens when a soul chained, by its crime is at last delivered from the bonds of impiety: these bonds are broken by the confession of the repentant man and the grace of the forgiving God. So, he asks, "what are the expectations of the ungodly? He answers: "He is waiting: He puts his trust in God, to be delivered. "

9. "And let the Lord hear his prayer. We can give another meaning to these words; but he accorded less with the whole of the book and the principles of faith. It consists in saying that despair is the only one, cause that the impious one saw without hope; but the opposite is written dance passage: "If anyone believes in Him who justifies the sinner, his faith is imputed to him for justice (1). Therefore the following seems to apply to the divine grace "Where he is pressed by necessity. We must therefore wait for the grace of the One who forgives. In necessity, that is to say, in temptation, he put his trust in merits acquired before God.

10. "Or if he invokes it, will it be granted? Since he has put his trust in his works which are nothing.

11. "Therefore I will tell you what God holds in his hands; What he prepares.

12. "As you all know from now on, you have needlessly made vain speeches. That's why you must beg your forgiveness. How will he be able to present the merits of his actions, the one that says nothing but vain things

13. "And by the will of the Almighty, they became the division of the strong; To be in power of the strong, the devil and his angels. He calls them the strong, because by following vanity, the others have weakened and allowed to be dominated by the leaders and princes of vanity: the Lord also speaks of the armed strong (2), only because he holds the weak chained.

14. "If his sons are many, they will be put to death. He calls his sons those who imitate him, and seek to seduce, propagating the false teachings of perdition. "And if they grow up, it will be in misery," that is to say, if they strengthen themselves in error, they will be unhappy; and their vanity will not be able to satisfy them.

15. "And all who are around him will have death to share. His most faithful imitators in the path of seduction. "No one will have pity on their widows. These are the seduced populations like themselves, and left without help, like the women who have lost their husbands; for they had cemented between them, in these promises of error, a fidelity similar to that of the spouses.

16. "If he amasses money like dust. If the prudent and the wise, still like the earth and the mud, because of their senseless reveries, follow his counsels, later enlightened by their punishment, they will turn to the righteous.

18. "Their house will be like that of the worm, or the spider that has kept. It is their heart or their conscience; or he calls. their house the entrenchments behind which they shelter; they are cleverly elevated and full of detours, but exceedingly fragile, like the envelope in which the silkworm hides, in the hole where the spider is shut up, after having closed it on all sides. "Who knew how to preserve; "; to preserve herself in this retreat, for all the spiders do not do it. Allusion is made here to the sudden and profound corruption of guilty thoughts, and to the useless works which the impious person is pleased to preserve in his house.

19. "The rich man will sleep without adding anything. After his death, he can not add riches to his impiety. "He opened his eyes and he is gone. At the resurrection he will no longer see himself in the midst of wealth, as he had promised himself. "This wind will prevail and it will disappear. This word refers to the agitation of the waves of the sea, that is to say, the worries of this world, or the burning wind that dries up the grasses devoid of deep roots. "He will throw him away from his place; Far from his hopes, or God will boast, so that he no longer occupies his place among the people where God has deigned to dwell.

22. "God will strike him redoubled and without pity. All evils will fall on him.

23, "He will applaud his torment," as it is written, "And I will laugh at their ruin; For he will not deplore the loss of the wicked.

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1. "There is a place that produces money. These are the cautious ones, those of active life: "There is another where the gold is purified. These are the wise, more adept at contemplation.

2. "For iron is the product of the earth." These different metals must be indistinctly taken in a favorable sense. If iron is here designated, it is immaterial whether it has been higher; though he may be your strong ones. The wisdom is the same in all men; it is there only at different degrees. "The brass is extracted like stone," because it is purified of all mixture with the earth. He wants to show that the good are only mixed with the wicked for a time: they are separated from it, they are even purified by their contact, like the metals necessary for the arts to build. They need to be confused and formed with the earth, from which they must then be separated; then the earth, thus disengaged, occupies the place and rank assigned to it; the ungodly are reprobate also according to the evil of their deeds.

3. "He himself discovered the end of all things:" the term in which he was to lead each of them. "He discovered," is set for he established. "The stone of darkness, and the shadow of

death. The stone, that is to say, the Old Testament was given to the darkness and shadows of death, to the people who sought the carnal goods, while hoping for them from the true God. So these superb ones did not divide the waters of the torrent, they could not reach anything lasting by leaping beyond temporal goods; but they were driven by the waves.

4. "And the torrent has been separated by ashes:" by him who confesses his sins, and confides in the merit of his actions. This is the effect produced by the grace of the New Testament. "The torrent separated by ashes," separated by men. "They were shaken by men, by flatterers, without God taking them back, while for those temporal goods which were promised to them, they lost the first rank.

5. The land from which the bread came. As if there were: I say that those who are in the midst of whom the bread of the Lord came out, as of a fertile ground, will be shaken. ". And he must deliver it to the flames; To deliver the unbeliever to the day of judgment.

6. "Among its stones is sapphire; He is there, and he designates those pure souls which are necessary to form the edifice of the holy city. "And the gold for him has piled up. He is not small for him, he has real heaps of them.

7. "His path, which the bird has not known. This is the humility of our Lord. "That did not catch sight of the vulture; That of the devil.

8. "The lion does not pass there; He whom the force swelled with pride.

9. "He laid his hand on the hardest rock. Divine power can, even stones, raise up children to Abraham (1).

10. "He destroyed the shore of the. rivers, "to submerge everything. The rivers here are the preachers of his word. They wanted first to contain themselves in their banks and to preach only to the circumcised. "And my eyes have discovered all that is precious; My human gaze, that of the Word made flesh. "He discovered the depth of the rivers. The courage necessary to bear the sufferings of martyrdom is hidden in the depths of the soul, until the trial of the. persecution makes him known. "He makes his power appear in broad daylight; In those to whom it has been said, "You are the light of the world," 2 and whose ministry has served to convert many Jews themselves.

14. "The abyss said, It is not in me. That is why men immersed in the abyss can not find it, since it is not in it.

15. "She does not give herself in exchange for gold locked up with care; For treasures.

16. "It is not inferior to the gold of Ophir. As if he were saying, Seek her as the gold of Ophir, since she is not inferior to him.

17. "Gold and glass can not be compared to it. This must be understood from a glass of perfect beauty: either the author means that there are men who prefer the brilliance of glass to the beauty of wisdom. "And the vases of gold given in exchange. That is to say, they are not given in exchange. "

18 "For her we will forget Gabis and what is most exquisite. All this compared to wisdom will be put aside. Or again: the Gabis and all that is most exquisite, the image of the proud, are completely forgotten, in order to draw wisdom from obscurity, through humility.

20. "Where does wisdom come from? Man can only find it with the help of grace, so his heart must turn to God.

21. "She escapes everyone's gaze. It is not for the indifferent.

22. "The perdition and the death said:" men delivered to perdition and to death, living in delights.

23. "It is the Lord who has traced his way. Humility, which is hidden from the birds of the sky. "And he knows his stay. Where is the seat of wisdom, if not the Father? Because it is written

"I am in him, and he in me (1). They are for each other as a reciprocal dwelling.

24. "He has seen all that is under heaven. He knows everything, as he has created everything, in an invisible way.

25. "The movement of the winds and the measurement of the waters (2). He designates the entire creation in one of its aspects. Is it not written that everything has been done with number, weight and measure (3)? To these traits we recognize the Creator.

26. "In creating, he counted as he saw. To create, he did not look outward, but in himself, as the true architect. "And the way to the sound of storms. Storms here designate temptations and temptations, those which are experienced by them; as one would say the cries of shipwreck, for the shouts of shipwrecked people.

27. "Then he saw it, and manifested it. God predestinating men saw in what way they would engage at the moment of temptation. "He has prepared and searched for it; By predestinating and not by acting.

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2. "Who will bring me back to the months of my first days? This seems to apply to the Church united to Jesus Christ, its head; as if it were in the time when tribulation and trials abound, in these days announced by the Lord in these words: "The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Lord, and you will not see it (4). In fact, when the Savior was on earth, no anxiety came to pierce the nascent Christian people: he was composed of the first believers, among whom more than five hundred brothers, to whom, according to the testimony of the Apostle, the Lord deigned to appear after his resurrection (5). There was no reason then to fear seeing the Church badly governed, nor divided by the betrayals of heresy or schism. Nor did she suffer from external persecution: there was still no trial for her either inside or outside. Job speaks here in the name of humanity, that is to say, the people of the New Testament, desiring to see these days again, as the Savior had predicted. He calls them months, not years, because from the moment Christ chooses His disciples until His death, we can only count months, not years.

3. "When his light shone above my head. It is the Lord visible in his flesh, or his word made sensible by this bodily presence.

4. "While the word of God kept my house," to keep the way of it pure.

5. "And let my servants around me. Those who, humble and submissive, knew how to provide for all my needs,

6. "As butter ran down my ways. My morals broke through my faith and my good works. "And that for me milk flowed in abundance from the mountains. That the prophets were perfectly understood by the little ones.

7. "When in the morning I went around the city. Or when the light cast out the darkness of fear, or does it mean that in the cradle of his Church he was neither sufficiently hidden nor sufficiently known? "And on the public place a seat was prepared for me. The multitude gave me the authority to instruct.

8. "At my sight the young men hid themselves:" those who followed their evil desires. "But the old men were rising," the prudent ones.

9. "And the mighty ceased to speak," those who availed themselves of vain science.

11. "The ear that heard me proclaimed me blessed. A people I did not know, served me, listened attentively to my voice. "And the eye that saw me turned away. That of the Jews who did not wish to believe.

13. "And the language of the widow proclaimed my praise. The soul who renounced the alliance of the devil. Here was a dead person, the only son of a widowed mother.

14. "I am dressed in righteousness, as in a cloak. When you prefer to spiritual actions the spiritual works, that your left hand does not know what your right does (1), that it ignores the intention that directed you. The left hand remains closed under the mantle, the right remains open; so let us act, when we know to. who must report our actions.

16. "I meditated before judging what I did not know. We have left everything to follow you; what will there be for us (2)? He thinks he is happy to have been able to question someone about the coming judgment.

17 .. "I have broken the jaws of the wicked," that they may cease to devour the people that became their pasture.

18. "I will reach old age, and like the palm tree I will live many years. My life will be prolonged, I will always be in honor as the palm tree, justly admired for my righteousness and my elevation.

19. "And the dew will rest on my harvests. We call harvest what believes in one. field since it is sown.

20. "And my glory will be kept ever new to me; That of the New Testament. "And my bow in my hands will continue its work. I will fulfill what I command.

22. "They did not add anything to my speeches. Here he refers to the perfection of the Gospel. The Law given to the Synagogue had to be completed. "But they rejoiced to hear me. The old law inspired fear; the new law, love.

24. "If I smiled before them, they did not believe him. He spoke in parables of things which were not understood, and in which, however, more grandeur was perceived than it appeared. This is Sara's laughter (3); he indicated that everything that was happening had a prophetic meaning. So is it, when we speak in figures.

25. "I chose their ways, and I sat in the first place. Or making me man, or eating with publicans and sinners; but always I was in the forefront for their salvation. "And I was like a king surrounded by his valiant defenders; From those who have left everything to follow me. "And I comforted those who were sad. He speaks of those to whom hope gave joy, in the midst of the sadness of the present life, as it is written: "Blessed are those who weep (4)," and elsewhere: "We seem sad, but always we are in joy (1). They can not yet attain that high perfection of which it is said, "He who practices and teacheth, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." "

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1. "And now the weakest make fun of me; the youngest ones take me back from my mistakes. Afterwards, the Church had such children; they make little progress. "They take me back," he says; for, clothed with the honors of the Church, they have received the power of preaching to the people what they do not do themselves. "Those whose fathers I despised. He gives them for fathers those whose sons they are by imitation, and to whom it has been said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites."

2. "And the strength of their arm was nothing to me," the power of their fathers, who were able to crucify the Lord. "In them life was going away. For until the end they refused to convert.

8. "Constantly prey to hunger and misery," tormented by a crowd of insatiable desires. "Yesterday they were fleeing into the wilderness," constantly trying to avoid the Law which they did not want to hear with righteousness. "Fleeing yesterday in the desert," because they had received it in the desert. If today applies to the New Testament, yesterday applies to the Old. It is from the New that it is said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts (4); And elsewhere: "You are my son, I have beget you today (5). "

4. "They gnawed the bark of trees. They had for food the figures of the Law who veiled the realities. "The root of the plants was their food; The mysteries which they were to celebrate in a carnal way, which did not seem to rise from the earth: but a righteous mind could draw from it the fruits of salvation, and rise from the earth to true freedom, but they would not have succeeded. "Without honor, without consideration, and deprived of all good. The honor of the first rank was lost to them, with the hopes of the promise. By their own fault they have lost the temporal blessings, and the kingdom of heaven is not theirs. "Pressed by famine, they devoured the root of the trees. What is said of the root of the plants for the wheat, it is necessary to apply it to the root of the trees for the wine and the oil. Because these products are the spiritual goods of the Church. Their roots planted in the earth were the sacred rites that the Jews were to celebrate externally, such as the Sabbath, circumcision, sacrifices and all other acts destined to nourish piety.

5. "The thieves have risen against me. Those who by fraud and falsehood unjustly obtain the honors reserved for the just:

6. "Their dwellings were the dens of the rocks. They wanted to justify their guilty desires by the obscure passages of the Holy Books.

7. "They were screaming among the trees. Their sins were out in the open, despite their efforts to hide them under the darkness of the Scriptures, as under the foliage of the forests. So it is written, "The cries of the inhabitants of Sodom have gone up to me." In many places Scripture speaks of the clamor of sin, to signify its publicity. In this sense, the word is the guilty thought conceived in the depths of the heart, the cry is the external action. "They took shelter under the stalks in the earth:" Those who do the Fa in a carnal way, take shelter not only under the stems, but under the lowest stems. These stems are not the fruits themselves, but it is on them that the fruit-bearing branches grow, whether plants or trees, if they are fruit trees, since trees that do not bear fruit also have stems.

8. "Children of foolish and vulgar men. Of the Jews, whom above he has given them for fathers, because they have imitated them: for they also boast of the name of a God, whom they serve not. He calls the foolish and vulgar Jews, on the contrary, boast not only of being the guides of the blind, but also of being the sons of Abraham, and draw vanity from this noble origin. In these words: "They are blind, and guides of the blind," they see their foolishness unmasked; and these others: "If you are sons of Abraham, do the works of Abraham," show them degenerate and degraded. "Their name and their honor have disappeared from the earth. They existed, but they disappeared.

9. "And now I am the object of their songs," of the latter, of which the rest are the fathers; my voice resounded in their ears, it did not touch their hearts. "They make fun of me; If they leave me, if they hear my teachings, their speeches, their attention are useless and completely lost.

10. "They abhor me, and flee away from me. They have departed from holiness, by committing iniquity, and by repulsing from their corrupt hearts the precepts of wisdom. "They dared to spit in my face. They really curse the face of Christ, those who repel with contempt commands; or their depraved life prevented me from being well known.

11. "He opened his quiver to pierce me; The secrets of nature, sources of temptations. "And they put a brake on my mouth," so that in spite of myself I approve them, and carry them where they please to lead me, to the object of their shameful passions.

12. "They grew up on my right. To please their desires they came, kindness on the lips, sweetness in the words, without recourse to violence. "They restrained my feet by obstacles:" by the ecclesiastical dignities which prevented them from fleeing.

13. "My trails are broken; They are no longer known to the righteous who know how to walk without seeking their interests, but those of Jesus Christ. "He stripped me of my dress; From my old authority, before which everything must bend. This is what happens when sins have become too numerous and have become habit. "He has wounded me with his features," with his precepts which reveal to me iniquity, without my being able to stop it.

14. "He treated me according to his whims. God has served my misfortune and my misery to the triumph of justice, as he chose. "I am wrapped in sorrows:" I suffer in myself and in others; outside the fighting, the terrors inside (2); who languishes without my languishing myself (3)?

15. "My pains are without respite, and my hope has been carried away like breath. Only occupied with the hopes of time, they hold for nothing what I promise. "And my happiness has passed like a cloud. The attachment to present happiness has diverted them from the promises of the promise of eternity.

16. "My soul will spread over me," through prayer.

17. "At night my bones were broken. He teaches that his former strength has been thrilled. "And my nerves have weakened:" his past actions.

18. "He seized my robe with force:" to manifest his power, he afflicted me, then supported me. "He surrounded me like the edges of my clothes. He left me a little of my authority.

19. "My share is in dust and ashes. In penance, because it's the end of my life.

20. "They stopped, to better consider me. In front of my humiliation the proud ones stopped, trying to condemn me.

22. "And you have taken away all hope of salvation. He pities those who no longer hope to be regenerated.

23. "The earth is the home of what is mortal. He fears death, because his conversation would not be in heaven (1); like that of the wicked, who in the Church lead a carnal life.

24. "What can I not be killed? That I die to this world! "Or conjure another to kill me! An angel better than me, or God to make me better.

26. "I was hoping for goods. He grieves because these ills have come to him suddenly.

27. "A fire devours my bowels, and can not be extinguished:" the interior of his soul, or his memory that reminds him and his past and the affliction that makes him groan.

28. "I stopped screaming in the middle of the assembly. Because it was not heard in the crowd of those who did not want to become better.

30. "My skin has been blackened," because of my external troubles.

31. "My harp sang only mourning; The harp designates good works that made me praise God with joy.

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1. "I made a pact with my eyes. Have I ever hoped in this visible world? "Not to stop my thoughts on a virgin. As if he said: that this never happens to me. Here he begins to retrace the triumph of the Church, in those who persevere to the end, in spite of the greatest temptations, while iniquity abounds, and the charity of a great number cools. "And I will not stop my thoughts on a virgin," led by incorruptible wisdom and holiness.

2. "What else can I expect from the Most High? It must be understood that I will not think of it; or, what part, if not this?

5. "So if I have met with impious mockers. It is very difficult for the righteous in the Church not to live with them. "If I hastened my steps towards fraud. This is hypocrisy.

8. "Let me sow, and let others gather the fruits. As it happened to the Jews. They taught what others have done better. "Let me be without seed," that I be quickly withered. He is here firmly established on the stone, which makes his life conform to his speeches.

9. "If the attractions of a woman have seduced my heart. If he wanted to seek among the people of God, to whom alone is due all glory. "Or if I looked at his door; " if I have. cleverly exploited the desires of his people or his fears, to bring him to obey me rather than to God.

10. "Let my wife also be deceived by another," that my honor belongs to the devil, to whom we are agreeable in offending God, for he rejoices over our misfortune. "And let my children be despised by all; My actions or my imitators.

11. "There is in my heart an indomitable passion, which impels me to corrupt the wife of another," and to keep it close to me.

13. "If I refused to do justice to my servant or to my servant, when they were judged in my presence," according to this saying, "If you have lawsuits for the interests of this world." He calls his servants, those of the people still attached to temporal goods.

14. "If he comes to visit me, what shall I answer him? In the tribulation that my conscience will tell me, since I have despised these warnings?

15. "Have not they been conceived like me in the womb of a mother? "Sacraments-all have received the same teachings, it is the same faith for all. "All, have not we been trained in the same way? One does not renounce sin other than the other, when it is to serve God without sharing.

18. "And from the womb of my mother I was their guide. From its cradle the Church has worked these wonders.

19. "If I left without dressing, the naked man near to exhale. If I have not inspired confidence in the remission of sins, and I have not covered, as with a garment, the shameful nakedness of the sinner near perishing. For the multitude of his sins leads him to despair. Hence the saying, "And whose sins have been covered." "

20. "If the shoulders. the patient do not bless me. The hope of immortality has covered them like a cloak; but lest the confidence produced by the forgiveness of sins should make them forget past sorrows, and cause them to desire temporal goods, he adds: "The fleece of my sheep has warmed them. The hopes of the world will no longer seduce their soul, if these reflections lead them to despise temporal goods, like the ewes stripped of their fleece.

21. "If I raised my arm against the orphan," who no longer met his father, could follow a man or some creature. "Proud of the power with which I was surrounded; Wanting to rise above all.

22. "Let my shoulder fall apart from my body. So happens to those who separate themselves from the Church. While they want to impose themselves on the people, they are themselves cut off. The shoulder or arm here refers to the actions.

23. "Fear has restrained me," so as not to raise an arm against the orphan. "And I could not bear the weight," if I wanted to oppress the orphan. .

24. "If I have placed in gold my power have I presumed the science or the wisdom of God? "If I put my trust in my precious jewels," that is, in my works.

25. "If I was at the height of joy, seeing my income increase; As if everything came from me, for he who glorifies himself must boast in the Lord. "If I have rested the happiness of my soul in my innumerable riches; Because I was loved by all. After these four phrases, it must be understood that "my shoulder falls away from my body. "

27. "Secret disappointments have afflicted my heart. Here is the order of the sentence: "If I have rested the happiness of my soul in my innumerable riches, secret disappointments have also afflicted my heart. If I listened to the thoughts of so guilty a presumption. "If I put my hand to my mouth, to kiss her:" if I put all my complaisance into my own actions.

29. "If I triumphed over the ruin of my enemy. Thus the enemies of the Church rejoice over her misfortunes.

30. "Let my ear hear the curses spoken against me. May these curses penetrate me with pain. "May I be an object of contempt among my people," among the holy people, let it be separated with derision.

31. "If my maids have often repeated:" flatterers. "Who will satisfy us with his flesh? I was so good! They envied that temporal prosperity they saw in me. However, I must not be held responsible for their language; for it was not to inspire them that I showed myself good.

32. "The stranger did not remain wet at my door:" I received him who was a stranger in the world.

33. "If after to have. sin deliberately, I hid my sin. Our sins have been voluntary since we knew the truth (1).

34. "Or if I let the poor man go out empty-handed from my house:" if he came out of my house, because nothing was put in his hands.

35. "Who will give me someone: to hear me? Who can make me listen? "If I did not fear the hand of the Lord," she who wrote, "If you do not forgive, your Father will not forgive you (2). "If I have my written sentence," Here is the order: "If I have my written sentence;

36. "And if I do not tear it above my shoulders, it will be my crown, and I will read it by raising it above my spines:" I will be crowned and I will read it publicly, that is to say against myself. "I will expose you to your own eyes (3). I will be confounded by the people who surround me, adorned that I did not fulfill the precept of the Lord, as I had announced: I first refused to hear the sentence that has since been put under the eyes.

38. "If ever the earth has groaned under my steps:" the servants of the Church, because I am bad. "If with her weep the furrows," where the seed is shed, and where the harvest is born, because I am bad and I have spread bad seeds; that's why it says, "with her. "

39. "If I alone have exhausted the resources, without giving anything," without having the kindness with which the one who is instructed gives his goods to the one who instructs him (1). "Alone," that is, leaving nothing to the one who gives. "If I have by this contrasting hardness the Master of the earth:" by not making me worthy of the sufferings of Him who gave me his life for me. Do not contradict in you the Holy Spirit (2).

40. "Let it produce for me nettles instead of wheat. Instead of those doctors inspired by God, whom I have for teachers of unworthy flatterers, whose pernicious disputes reveal the corruption of their hearts, and their estrangement for the truth (3). "And thorns for barley. In the place of the carnal men who were submissive to me, I have to contend with stubborn sinners. "Job was right in his eyes; In his conscience.

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13. "It is God who has rejected him, and not man; I wish to indicate thus the true cause of their silence.

14. "And I will not answer him by repeating your speeches. What I am about to say will prevent him from answering you as you do.

16. "I waited, and they did not speak," he seems to turn to Job saying this.

19. "My breast is like the wine-filled wine. Scripture represents Eliu as prophesying. "Or like the smashed bellows of the blacksmith. To overcome his obstinacy, I speak with violence, so he seems irritated. I would not have had to speak if you had been able to answer him.

22. "Otherwise I will be eaten by worms; Like you, or like everyone who considers people.

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3. "My speeches left my pure heart:" without falsity.

4. "The Divine Spirit who created me:" imply, is that, as if there were ": The Divine Spirit is he who created me. "

12. "How dare you say: I am right, and you have not answered me? Job would have spoken to his enemy like this:

14. "God speaks once. God, it seems, has only once called all the just, and in time his Divine Providence renews for each one of them this vocation.

15. "During sleep, in the visions of the night. By ignorance, or at the time of tribulation. "When a terrible terror seizes the sleeping man on his bed," thinking himself safe.

17. "And let his body escape corruption," as his bones, in a figurative sense.

18. "He preserved his soul from death," when he converted, he forgives him. "The war is coming,"

19. "And in his weakness, on his bed, he still reproaches him; He experiences it again after his conversion, so that he does not trust in himself. "And all his bones withered," the confidence he had in himself.

20. "He can not take any food. No consolation in temporal goods.

24. "All his body will be renewed like the plaster of a wall:" in a metaphorical sense; this means a change of life, the people are compared to a building.

25. "He shall soften his flesh like a child's," so that pride will not harden his heart, as Eliu thinks he sees Job's, who is tested in his humility to perfect himself.

26. "He has announced himself, his face radiant with joy," ready to sustain temptation.

28. "Save my soul, that it may not fall into corruption," in the temptation that would kill it.

29. "Three times against man," conversion, trial, and death.

30. "But he preserved my soul from death. He has nothing left but the passage of death. "That in the midst of the light my soul may publish its praises; Then there will be no more supplications, because there will be no more miseries.

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1. "Eliu answered again," as it is said elsewhere: He continued.

2. "You who possess wisdom, give ear to my words:" the ear that hears supernatural truths.

3., "For the ear discerns discourse," the carnal ear.

4. "What is good?

5. "Car-Job said, I am right. What did he say good when he said that?

6. "The lie is in the sentence he has brought against me. That is why he said, "I was hoping for goods." But this hope was not founded; so there was a lie.

7. "Who is like Job? Here are always his words.

9. "He said, He who walks in the presence of God will not be visited. He believes him deceived, because he supposes that he fulfilled all his works in this hope; or that he thought that God does not try to reward him, he who walks in his presence.

10. "Far from God ungodliness," who would refuse reward to him who walks in his presence; and if he visited him by temptation, there would still be no impiety or injustice.

18. "He is ungodly, he who says to the king," You do wrongly. You do not have to speak so, because you are not an impious man. Notice, "he that saith," and not he that saith; it would not be enough, to be impious, to have said in passing; we are really responsible when we act. habitually. "And to princes: You act in the most impious manner. As if he were saying to the Angels: Except Michael your leader, you all act in the most impious way. And if we accuse of so much. impiety the princes, much more the king will be accused:

20. "They acted wickedly, when their weakness drove them away. Their exclusion strangely blinded them when, because of their weakness, they were deprived of this vision which discovers with what wisdom God leads everything, and disposes of everything. They went astray in their thoughts, to the point of believing that God was forgetting his creatures. So the emptiness was in their souls, when in the midst of their trials they implored the help of men instead of praying to God.

22. "No place, not even the shadow of death, will hide these guilty ones: the shadow of death is not made to hide them. It is as it is said: "The old men have no wisdom; Because old age does not necessarily bring wisdom. And elsewhere: "Do not greet the heretic (2):" that is not why he is heretical.

25. "They will lift up at night, and they will be humbled. "Above them be what was below; that is to say, they are overwhelmed because they were at their feet.

26. "He has destroyed the wicked who thought themselves brilliant with glory.

27. "They knew not the righteousness of his decrees. Here is the good that God has learned from their wickedness.

28. "That the complaints of the poor may go up to him.

29. "He will give rest; who will be able to disturb him? This rest is not like that which men seek, and which troubles affliction. "If God justifies, who can condemn (3). And at the same time against man against Jews and Gentiles.

30. "He lets the hypocrite dominate because of the wickedness of the people." It is to him that it is said, "You instruct others, and you do not instruct yourself (4). "

32. "I will not see what is happening in me, you will make me know it. In accusing you, perhaps I will not see what must be condemned in me? It's a question. "If I have committed iniquity, I will be silent," before your accusations.

33. "Will you ask for it, since you rejected it? Because you accused him.

31. "The wise man will hear my voice," he will know that God takes care of everything.

35. "Job did not speak wisely," when he said that God had unjustly experienced him.

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2. "Why did you want to establish this way in your judgments? Why did you so judge? "Who are you to say, I am right before God? In the presence of God, you said, I am right. In two ways man is guilty here: first, if he says it with pride, or without even having that vulgar justice in honor among men; then, man is never allowed to proclaim himself righteous before God, since in his presence all men are sinners.

3. "You say again, What is it for you, or what shall I do if I have sinned? He believes that Job has held this language, either to mark that his sin could be useful to God, as a way to carry him by the pain to the ungodliness of which he says: "Do not teach me to become ungodly: you would like you perhaps to see me sin (1)? Or to make it be understood that sin harms God, and that consequently God pursues Him and overwhelms Him as His enemy, to avoid His attacks; for before he had said also, "If I have sinned, what can I do against you? Whatever his thought, Eliu responds with the following:

4. "So I will answer you and my three friends.

5. "Look up to heaven, and look. See how much the clouds are above you. "

6. "If you sinned, what did you get? It is repeating what Job has already said: "If I have sinned, what can I do against you? And if you have committed a lot of iniquities, what can you do? If you have committed a great deal of iniquity, there is gradation here. Before he had said, "If you have sinned." What can you do against God, since you can not even touch the clouds?

7. "If you are right, what will you give him? If therefore your justice can not be useful to him, know it well, your sin can not reach it either. "Or what can he receive from your hand? Even so, you want to give it to him. So fools think that God seeks our sacrifices, as if they were necessary to him.

8. "Thy ungodliness be to the man like you, and let your righteousness be to the son of man. It is then that one is harmful, and the other useful. Far from refuting, he again confirms with these words this thought of Job: "If I have sinned, what can I do against you?" He must therefore show why in this life men are subject to the injustices of the wicked, among whom we must reckon the devil with his angels, the true author of all injustices and iniquities. Since sinners can not harm God, why does he suffer so much misery? The answer is in the following

9. "Their lamentations rise from the midst of their enemies, their heartrending cries, under the blows of their numerous persecutors.

10. "And no one said, Where is the God who created me? That is why they suffer, in order to seek God without uttering unnecessary complaints. These words, "He who created me," are proof that he does not abandon his creature, when it seeks it. "Who orders the watches of the night? The different epochs of this life are subject to powers which he has designated. He who has made man can not leave him without a guide in the night of error.

11. "He distinguished me from animals without reason, and gave me more wisdom than the birds of the sky. Thus we must seek the Lord in the afflictions of this life, not to ask him temporal goods, for before receiving them we are already superior to animals.

12. "There they will shout and you will not hear them. There, he says, in the multitude of those who cry in the midst of affliction, under the blows of their many enemies. Or this word: here, ibi, means: because of this, as in this passage, "There have fallen those who commit iniquity" (1). If he adds, "And you will not hear them," it is always from God that he wishes to speak. "Because of the insults of the wicked:" it must be understood: they will cry out.

13. "God can not see foolish vanities. He can not help those who ask him, and who do not cry in tribulation to obtain eternal lesbians. It is to enjoy these goods that they are distinguished from animals without reason, and that they have received more wisdom than the birds of the sky. They moan, on the contrary, because they do not find happiness in the iniquity of this world.

14. "The Almighty distinguishes those who perform justice; he will save me. If he sees the depths of hearts and thunders all our actions, he will also save us and put us in possession of this. only he can see; for the eye of man has not seen, his ear has not heard, and his heart has not understood what God is preparing for those who love him. So when all the hopes of salvation seem to be reversed in him, the Father, who sees everything in secret, knows how to help him in the tribulation (3). "So it is he who judges, if you can praise him according to his perfections. Job seemed to say it in this passage: "May he be our arbiter (4)! "

15. "Now he does not exert all his vengeance, and does not seek the crimes with severity. He nevertheless knows them to punish them; hence these words, "Because I know my iniquity. And further: "Turn away your eyes from my crimes (1). He knew our sins; such is the cause of our tribulations in this world; but they are not without limits. After we have been punished, there is still room for repentance.

16. "It is therefore in vain that Job raised his voice, and his ignorance multiplied his words. "

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2. "Listen to me for a moment, let me teach you; I still have to talk to you.

3. "And I will resume my speech from a distance. As long as we live in this body, we are separated from the Lord (2).

4. "I will speak according to the holiness of my works; So that they do not tell him, as God will say to the sinner. "Why do you announce my righteousness, and why does your mouth repeat my law? You hate true science (3). We must therefore speak here according to his works. Science learned from afar is only partially known, the rest is enigma; but when that which is perfect is come, that which is only partly will disappear (4); and God will not always speak from afar, for we will see him one day as he is (5). "This is the truth, and you will not unjustly hear from him unjust words. All the evils that Job endures, Eliu calls them words of God full of truth and justice; but it seems to him that Job thinks them unjust, since he complains of suffering without having deserved it, as if it were not said of the trials of the just: "This is the time when God will begin his judgment on his own. house (6). "

5. "Know that God does not reject the innocent; Though he chastises him whom he loves, and whips the child whom he receives in his mercy.

6. "He has a strong heart; and he does not make the ungodly live, though he appears to spare him for a time. He says with reason: "He has a strong heart; For he will not cause the ungodly to live, when the latter will seek, by weeping, but without finding it, a tardy penance, and that he will not be able to implore the mercy of an irritated judge, whose tenderness he once scorned. warnings. "He will give judgment to the poor; Themselves

will judge the perpetrators of the injustices they endured. Notice this word: the poor; it was thus that, above, it was impious to hear the rich, that is, the proud.

7. "He will not deprive the right of his eyes. Even when he is subjected to it, as in a furnace; the trial of the tribulation, 1 he does not deprive his mind of that light which makes him know God to adore him. It shows sufficiently that blindness is the punishment of the ungodly, even when God seems to spare it. "And with the kings on their throne:" here it is necessary to imply: "He makes them sit down," that is to say, the righteous; he calls kings those who know how to command the flesh; hence this saying: "Who is the king who wishes to fight another king? etc. He will make them sit forever, and they will be exalted. Here we must add the foregoing "with kings on their throne. They will be exalted, it is said, because they have been humiliated.

8. "They have their feet chained," by those bonds which St. Paul wishes to be delivered to be with Jesus Christ (3), that is to say, those shackles of the present life, where the body corrupt becomes a burden to the soul (4). "They will be surrounded by the bonds of poverty; Seized and restrained by the inveterate habit of sensual enjoyment, excited by the very poverty of the goods which sustain and lead man in this life.

9. "He makes known to them their works," not the good deeds. These are or those impressions of the concupiscence of which it is said: "I know that there is nothing good in my flesh (5)," and of which we are never exempt, even if we are not victims of their culpable demands: or the sadness produced in man by the sin of origin. "And their iniquities, when they are strengthened. These are the works of which we have just spoken. We can not easily make them known, that is, discover them to the weak; but to those who have already made enough progress in virtue to be no longer slaves to debauches and crimes that are too public.

10. "But he will hear the just," he who lives by faith (6); so that he attributes to grace, and not to his own merits, not only the degree of justice which he is now practicing, but still all. what remains to be practiced to be entirely delivered from all evil from sin; from this, which the truth teaches to the faithful established in the faith, when they are wrapped in the nets of misery; for they are held in these shackles, before being exalted and sitting for ever on their thrones with kings. "He said, They will turn away from unrighteousness. He said, we must imply, God.

11. "If they hear and observe my law, they will spend their days in joy and their years in glory. In man there will be no sin then, because there will be no more to fight against death. One will no longer be condemned to die because of sin, for it is written, "Where is, O death, your ardor to fight?" "

12. "He shall not save the ungodly, for they will not recognize the Lord. This seems to apply especially to the Gentiles. "They remained deaf to his warnings. These other words are understood by the Jews and all those who by their revolt have imitated them, even within the Church.

13. "Hypocrites hearts will lay their wickedness," which crucified Our Lord. "They shall not cry, for he hath bound them," by the glory of his name, which rises above all nations.

14. "Let their soul die from youth," with that pride with which they attributed to themselves the merit of their good deeds. "And let their lives be slain by the angels. These words can not be better applied than to the preachers of the truth, who are for some a smell of life for life, and for others a smell of death for death (2).

15. "They tormented the weak and infirm. What is weakness in God is stronger than men (3). But he will do justice to the peaceful ones. The Lord, to manifest his meekness, differs from avenging his imitators, but he will surely avenge them.

16. "And because the abyss has deceived you by the mouth of your enemy. The deep malice of this world has deceived Jesus Christ by the mouths of false witnesses; so believed his persecutors. It is indeed to Our Lord himself that he is addressing himself now. "Those who have fallen to the bottom; It must be understood that you have deceived; driven by the passions of the present life, they are. fallen to the bottom of the abyss. "And you have prepared an abundant feast on your table. The sacrament of his body and his blood, the true bread descended from heaven (1).

17. "Judgment will not deceive the righteous. Though the poor eat and are satisfied, and the fullness of charity prepares them to renew in them the sufferers of the Savior, it does not follow that God must soon render them justice.

18. "Anger will come down on the ungodly, because of the gifts that have been the price of iniquity for them. By these presents he designates all the temporal advantages for which they commit their injustices.

19. "Do not turn away your will. This is not a warning to the Lord, nor an order imposed upon him. It is a way of speaking to the imperative, used in the prophets to predict the future, as in this passage: "Gird yourself with your sword, O Almighty (2). - Of the prayer of the weak, who cry out to you from the bosom of their miseries: "Unhappy that I am! who will deliver me from the body of this death? And all who are clothed with strength, who trust in their works, strive to establish their own righteousness.

20. "Do not remove them during the night. Show that you separate from your people, either those proud ones who have detached themselves from the olive tree, or those branches cut off from the vine, which produce heresies and schisms. "In order to create new peoples in their place. In order to graft what is weakest in this world, by confounding what is strongest (5); for he who humbles himself will be lifted up, and he who raises himself will be humbled (6).

21. "Take care not to do anything unseemly; Lest the name and doctrine of the Lord be blasphemed, as they are, when those whose reasoning is logical say. "Let us do the wrong thing for good (7). - You preferred that to poverty. Not only have you chosen poverty, but you have also preferred a holy life, pure morals, so that all may profess the doctrine of salvation with honor.

22. "And God in his power will comfort himself, or strengthen himself. For if he has been crucified in his weakness, he is alive by the power of God (8).

23. "Who is equal in power, or who can discuss his works? To judge him, while he is the judge of the living and the dead? "Who will dare to say that he has committed injustice?

24. "Remember that his works are great, and that men have glorified them:" the Evangelists, the preachers of his word, who made their lives consistent with their mission.

25. "All have their eyes fixed on him," not forgetting their human weakness. "All men are in sorrow," overcome with regret, because of their sins.

26. "God is rich and we do not know him. Rich, multus, for where sin abounds, there has been superabundance of grace (1). "We do not know it. This word is understood to mean some of whom have fallen into blindness until the fullness of the nations has come in (2). "The number of his years is infinite. To say that he is eternal.

27. "He could count the drops of dew. In preaching his Gospel by the ministers, he has counted them to the consummation of the ages, when the imperfect science will end, and that which is perfect will see him face to face. "The rain spreads in its paths:" the machinations of the wicked can not surprise him.

28. "The clouds will flow, and their shadow will darken a great multitude. If the Gospel is dark, it is only for those who perish. "He gave his time to the animal, who knows the moment of his rest. The ox has known his master, the donkey his stable (4). In all this his mind was not troubled; The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (5). "And the flesh has not changed your heart," which must rise from the earth to the Lord.

29. "If he wanted to spread his cloud," so that those who see are blind (6). "He gives him the same measure as at his flag," he lives in his mortal flesh as in a tent: his executioners did not recognize him, when he abandoned them, and he extended on the cross.

30. "Behold, he hath poured out all his light on him." He hid it, and when part of Israel fell into blindness, he poured it out on all the nations. "He has covered the depths of the sea." He has confused the insatiability of this world, for the light shows itself, not to obscure, but to illuminate. He judged the nations, showing them their iniquities with the torch of truth.

31. "He gave much to their food," to those who acknowledge and confess their sins, to those who are hungry and thirsty for justice.

32. "He has in his hands, in manibus (1), hidden the light. If one wants to read immanibus, immanes, the cruel ones, that means those who do not forgive men, while they claim from God their pardon. If one wants to read in manibus, of manus, the hands, that means those who pride themselves in their hands, that is to say in their works, and want to find their justification. "He stole the light from them; To say that they will not see him, because their foolish heart has been hardened. "He commands her to reappear at the opposite point. Those who act according to the truth, either by forgiving to be forgiven, or by confessing their miseries, to be rescued by divine grace, they will come to the light, so that their coverings will be brought to light, because they have fulfilled them in God, 3 and not for themselves. For the opposite of heaven is the merciful man, the opposite of the proud is the humble heart.

33. "In order to make her known to her friend. This same light which he kept hidden to hide it from the sight of cruel men and without recognition, he announces it, shows it to him who is no longer a slave under the Law, but has reconciled himself to the grace . "To his friend:" to his imitator; for the son of man has not come to be served, but to serve. "Those who strive to rise in front of him will possess it. They will enjoy this light, those who rise above the goods of the earth. It is announced to them, while they still work to raise, because when they will be mounted they will see it face to face, without it being necessary to call them there. It is said that they endeavor to "rise up in front of him, contra eum," not to attack him, but to go to meet him, as the Apostle says: "In the presence of Jesus -Christ (1). "

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1 "And my heart was seized," of admiration. "He is as if he has come out of himself; "

earthly affections which charmed him, in order to rise to the Lord.

2. "Listen to his terrible accents, his voice of thunder. He is obviously inspired here. Indeed he explains why his heart went out of itself; it is that he is subject to the authority of the Gospel, shouting with force throughout the world: "Do penance; for the kingdom of God is near (2). The sound of his voice spreads everywhere, and goes to those who are outside, immersed in the sensualities of the present life.

3. "He goes through the expanse of heaven, and sends his light to the ends of the world," when the Church spread to all nations.

4. "After him we heard a shuddering voice. After his first advent, the trumpet of the last day will resound in the light of his second advent (3). "It will be the voice of his pride. By his pride he designates his greatness, for he was humble in his first advent. "And when that voice is heard, all will be finished without return. Now, then, let us seek the Lord while we can find him (4); that is to say, to possess it by a real and sincere faith. We will not be able to do it any more, when he comes to judge us, and we hear from him the words, "Go to eternal fire." The penance of the infidels will then be too late and fruitless.

5. "The Almighty will thus break forth his thunder. It was not his power, but our weakness communicated to his mortal life which was announced in his first advent. It is from him that it is written: "That which is weak in God is stronger than men." He has "performed wonders which we have ignored:" those of his first advent. Also to ask us for his gifts he will come to judge us. "That we ignored. This applies to those who have not known the divinity of Our Lord; they saw it only in the infirmity of the flesh.

6. "He said to the cloud, Go down to the earth. He has said it to his flesh, which we must receive in the Sacrament, in memory of Him, 1 to imitate his humility, and to establish in us his charity. "Heavy rains, and storms excited by its power. The cloud is indeed on the earth; but it is not for us, it is his omnipotence to bring out the dew and the rain of the word, which will give our hearts the intelligence of mysteries.

7. "He puts as a seal on the hands of men:" He makes them understand by their deeds how guilty they are, so that they recognize their weakness, and exclaim: "Unhappy that I am! who will deliver me from this body of death 2? "

8. "Wild beasts find shelter, and rest in their dens. Sinners led by grace found this shelter, and their conscience was at rest, after the forgiveness of their faults.

9. "The storm has risen from the depths of their retreat. The temptation came to him by quite mysterious ways. "The cold has come out of the heights. The judgment has secretly come upon those who have not persevered; their charity has cooled, because of the abundance of their iniquities. Punishment well deserved, since they put their hope not in God, but in man.

10. "The ice is formed by the breath of God. Not only does the abundance of iniquity beleaguer those who put in man their hopes, but good works themselves of those who have the spirit of God harden hearts frozen with envy: for them St. Paul is a smell of death for death (4). And who will understand how the ice is formed in the breath of the Lord? Just as carnal men, who praise their fellows, cool themselves down and give themselves up to despair, in the face of iniquity; likewise those who desire to be praised, harden themselves and surrender themselves to envy, if the justice of men refuses them this tribute of praise. "He leads the water as he pleases; Making rain fall on one city and not on the other (5); that which must be understood of the dew of grace, which it spreads in souls according to whether they are submissive or not.

11. "And the cloud has watered the wheat:" Let us be this wheat, if we want to be watered. "She shed the light. The good news of his Incarnation.

12. "She turns in the circle that is traced to her:" she travels the whole universe. "Ready to do what the Supreme Master commands him. These commandments; who direct the cloud, are the preachers who govern the Church to fulfill the divine precepts.

13. "So he has disposed on the earth:" Our Lord. "In his tribe or in his country. First in the tribe of Judah, from which he was born according to the flesh, to suffer, to rise again, and to ascend to heaven: of this tribe were the Apostles and many brothers whom he found near him, and who were then saved. Others were called by him before his passion, or after his ascension, by the Apostles, both in Jerusalem, and in the churches of Judea attached to the Savior, according to the words of the apostle St. Paul: "Because of the divine truth, to confirm the promises made to our fathers (1). "Either he wanted to find her in his mercy. He wanted mercy to bring this cloud to the Gentiles who would believe in him, for Saint Paul adds: "Let the Gentiles glorify God because of his mercy." "

14. "Listen and remember this, O Job. He wants to wake up, because he's going to talk about the calling of the Gentiles. "Stop to consider the power of God. Do not be anxious in your mind, and do not give yourself anything.

15. "We know how God does his works," condemning those who boast in their deeds "When He brought out light from darkness," when He justified the wicked. You were once darkness, you are now light in the Lord (3).

16. "He knows the different roads of the clouds:" the preachers of his Gospel; some believed him before his Passion, the others after. "And the huge falls of the wicked. It is not a question here of those who crucified him and who afterwards did penance, were baptized in his name: but of those who did not rise from their falls, and persevered in their hatred against 'Church. Their fall, in fact, was not slight, but enormous.

17. "Your garment is solid (4):" your pace proclaims pride; he speaks thus against the one who dares to boast of his acts.

18. "While the land of the south is at rest, will you strengthen the heavens with him, and will they spread the light everywhere to the same extent? The land of the south is perfectly understood here by those of the Jews who believed in Jesus Christ. The sun indeed seems more distant from the northern regions and closer to the southern countries. That is why those whom Saint Paul says are nearer, in the light of the Gospel, are here rightly called the land of the south. Moreover, if we call the Evangelists heaven, as in these words: "The heavens declare the glory of God," for it is from them that it is said, "Through all the universe have their accents sounded: their speech has gone to the ends of the earth (2); So may we denominate under the name of earth the multitudes to whom the good news was brought. Although the people of Judea who believed in Christ entered their rest on leaving this world, the authority of the preachers of the Gospel is no less solid in the churches of Gentility; it was therefore through divine mercy and not through the authority of the Christian Church of Judea. So we must see an interrogation in the passage that we explain, and hear it in this sense: When the earth of the south was at rest, that is to say when there was no more in this world of Christian society among the Jews, did you, with him, strengthen the preachers of the Gospel, establish the authority of the divine Scriptures, of which God in His mercy also spread the light among the Jews and among the Gentiles? He attributes this benefit to the grace and goodness of God, so that no one will boast of his merits and fall into that sad pride which lost the Jews.

19. "Tell me what to answer to finish our long speeches. What can be said to him by seeing that we are ourselves deprived of everything, deserve, and that we can do nothing without his goodness?

20. "Are you a book or a secretary for me? and is it I who imposes silence on the man? Why do not you say nothing, if you know what to say? You are not charged with gathering my word, without speaking for yourself. We are both conversing.

21. "All can not see the light that" shines. in the clouds. He takes again what he has said of the hope of forgiveness for the sinner and of the grace which divine mercy shines in his soul. It is the light that shines in the cloud. Clouds have not essentially this property; their brilliancy comes from elsewhere. Another thing is to shine with one's own light, something else to reflect the brilliance of a strange light: but not all of them make this distinction, and many imagine that souls shine with their own light, when wisdom is in they. So it is written that there are some who call themselves wise and have become insane (1). "The spirit passes and purifies them:" it is the spirit of which it is said: "To your threat, to the breath, of your anger (2); And elsewhere: "Where shall I go to escape your mind? The trial of temptations reveals to men what they are worth; it teaches them that by their sins they are only darkness, and need the glory of God (4). Let them therefore seek to reflect his light, and attribute to him all the honor, never to themselves; and henceforth, having laid all pride; they will be cleansed from the greatest sin; for the spirit of sanctification does not pass, but remains.

22. "From the aquilon comes the cloud with golden colors. It is by leaving the impiousness most culpable the farthest from God, that they arrive changed, purified, enlightened by wisdom. How are they, except by grace, which remits sins without weighing the merits? So when the Psalmist wanted to receive his pardon, he said: "I teach your ways to the wicked, and the wicked turn to you; Like the clouds coming from the East or from the aquilon, when their darkness has disappeared in the colors of the sun. "She publishes the glory and the honor of the Almighty. There is more love, where more sins are forgiven: for the Almighty can justify the ungodly.

23. "And no other man could equal his power:" he alone did not commit sin, and never was falsehood on his lips (6); for God alone is truth and every man is a liar (7). So the God made man was victorious, even when he was judged. "Since his judgments are righteous, do you think he will not answer the prayer? Let man not add sins to sins by despairing of his salvation, as if he were condemned helplessly, because God is just and can not let him go unpunished. He is righteous in his judgments, but without allowing the one who implores his forgiveness to answer; the more rigorous is his justice, the more generous he is in forgiving; for it would not be justice to confound humble repentance with pride that refuses to humble itself and to do penance.

24. "Therefore all men will fear it; If they remember that they are men. "And the wise themselves will fear it; Not to become foolish, boasting of what they have received and boasting of their wisdom: for the proud may be taken away from the humble. So that the wise, whose wisdom is an inner radiance of grace, and do not burst into vain speech, that kings who judge according to the lights of the mind and are judged by no one, serve God with fear and rejoice with trembling, lest they perish out of the right way (2); for it is God who works in them and willing and doing it, according to his good will (3).

CHAPTER 38

1. "And when Eliu had stopped speaking, God said to Job from the midst of a whirlwind. If this voice be heard then as before to Moses, or as to the three disciples on the day when the Lord appeared to them on the mountain (4); it is not said simply that it was from the middle of the cloud, but from the midst of a whirlwind of cloud. This means that Job was questioned, that is, tried, not in his healthy and vigorous flesh, but in the midst of the afflictions that overwhelmed that flesh.

2. "Who claims to rob me of the secret of his thoughts, to hide them in his heart, and to believe that I do not know them? Nobody must think himself struck by misfortune without having deserved it. If it is not in action, it is in words that he has sinned: if it is not in words, at least has there been too much presumption in his heart, in his thoughts too much temerity.; and since nothing escapes from God, let no one complain of the blows of adversity, as if it could not be profitable to him. Let us know it well, if at the beginning of this book God has praised Job for the devil, if in the end he renews it in the presence of his three friends, it is not because he does not know how much he lacks in his perfection, to that perfection to which men worthy of praise in this world and agreeable to the heart of God, are led by the blows of his paternal hand. The Apostle himself was not exempt from it, for it was said to him: "My grace is sufficient for you; virtue is strengthened in weakness." "

3. "Gird your kidneys like a valiant man. That is to say, that the servants of God bear heavy sorrows, of bitter sorrows, in order to detach their heart from all affection with sensual pleasures, and to repress all their errors. "I will question you, answer me.

4. "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Here we see that he exalts the sovereign perfection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is he who has come to heal all those whom the venom of the serpent had struck with death, and no one should wish to find in himself his salvation. This God is not like those of whom it is said: "You are Gods and the Sons of the Most High." "He has not usurped, proclaiming himself the equal of his Father." He is not the son of men like the children of men in whom there is no salvation, but he is above all those of whom he has become equal. He is not holy like Job, like Paul, like the Church; he sanctifies others, for he is the only begotten of the Father, filled with grace and truth (5). In order, then, to establish what distinguishes divine humanity from Him in whom the prince of this world has found nothing, 6 for he paid in his passion what he had not stolen; to teach also that the remission of sins operates the justification of the saints and that these gathered in one body form, the Church, of which Job, in the historical sense, is only a small part since it is justified, but it represents the whole in the prophetic sense; he begins with these words: "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Is it because he did not exist yet or because he was not founded by him as by the only-begotten Son? Is it the earth, or the Church itself? For it is the Church that has received the cornerstone that will be discussed (8). "Tell me if you have the intelligence. All that God has done for us in time is the object of our science.

5. "Do you know who made his measurements? Who distributed the spiritual gifts. "Grace has been given to each one of us, according to the measure of the gift of Jesus Christ. This is why it is said that in ascending to heaven he led a crowd of captives and poured out his gifts on men (1); For if the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing (2) be? According to the function proper to each member, the body takes its growth and develops in charity (3). "Or who has laid on it the cord? In order to make her share, separating her from those to whom it is said: "I did not ring you; " because. the Lord knows those who are his (5).

6. "Who retains his rings?" The sacred books which rest on God himself and which preserve the dissolution. Whoever, without the Lord, wants to understand them, is condemned to doubt and error. "Who has laid its cornerstone? This stone that builders have scrapped (6).

7. "When the stars were created at the same moment. So many thousands of men baptized with the word of life, and shining with glory among sinners as in the midst of darkness. "All my angels have published my praises aloud. The preachers of the gospel.

8. "I shut up the sea between its doors. The peoples whose fadedness is attached to the earth. Why: "In its doors? Is it first so that she can stop when she persecutes the righteous? Is it also so that the righteous can get out? "When she shuddered like the child who wants to escape the maternal womb. When, in the assemblies of this Babylon soiled by all the pleasures of life, she wished, in anguish, to persecute and annihilate those of whom it is written: "I do not ask you to remove them from this world, but from them. to preserve evil (7). "

9. "I have wrapped it with clouds like a garment. It is not only the good ones, but also a crowd of sinners attached to the goods of this world that holds the mystery of the body of Jesus Christ. His authority prevents them from persecuting the saints. "I surrounded her with fogs; Those of ignorance which makes them love the goods of this world, and fear their misery. So they fear the good ones, that they would persecute if it were not so. For it is not only written: "The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek the Lord will celebrate his praises; But again: "All the great ones of the earth will eat and worship (1). - I set her limits, I put gates and doors. His limits, to stop his fury; it will exert its ravages, but in a determined enclosure. "Barriers," to keep the bad guys from going further. "Gates," so that the righteous can part with them.

10. "And I said unto him, Thou shalt come unto this place, not beyond. The demon was told how far he was to strike Job. Thus it has been said to the sea how far it can persecute the Church. "And in your bosom will be broken the fury of your waves:" in the midst of civil discords or in the tumult of battle.

12. "Is it with you that I made the morning light appear? Have you helped me with your advice to fix the day of the resurrection in advance? "Or have I traced his route to the morning star? Implied: Is it with you? He gives to our Lord the name of morning star, Lucifer, because of the rising of the resurrection that took place in the morning. For it is to him alone that these words apply: "Until the morning star, Lucifer, rises in your hearts (2). He knew his way, to become the first fruits of those who sleep, the firstborn from the dead (3), the head of the Church, whose body is to follow him to the future resurrection of the saints.

13. "To seize the wings of the earth. Elsewhere it is written, "If I take my wings to lift myself," it is the supernatural virtues of the righteous who elevate them above the seductions of this world. "And shake the wicked. If he first rose, knowing in advance the way to go, it was to establish faith in his resurrection. Then it was announced everywhere by the wings of the Church, that is to say by its ministers, as fast as the bird in its flight. Finally he has charged them to judge the twelve tribes of Israel, when he comes to shake, to drive out the impious of his Church, where they find themselves confounded with the faithful until the day of judgment.

14. "Is it you who, with a little mud, created the living body? It is necessary to apply this or the creation of Adam on the sixth day, or what is happening now in the sixth age of the world, when drawn from the multitude of sinners, as from the silt of the earth, the man is formed in the image of the One who created it (1). This is not the work of the Church, but itself was created; to receive this grace by the One who created everything, by the Word incarnated in the favorable time (2). "And publish his name by all the earth. This character refers to the man of the sixth age rather than the man of the sixth day created before those of his race can make him known, unless it is said that it is especially at the sixth age that his name has spread.

15. "Have you given light to the ungodly? As one who has come, so that those who do not see see, and those who see become blind. "Have you broken the arm of the beautiful? "Their vain power, like the one who chose the weakest to confuse what was the strongest (4).

16. "Did you go to the sources of the sea? As he who comes back among us has discovered all the secrets of the heart of the ungodly; who, by confessing and believing in him, have been justified. What more exactly could we call the sources of the sea, than that secret malice from which a black impiety escapes, whose evil deeds roll in the world like the waters of an immense river? Men see the external malice, but they can not see the secret source that produces them. "Have you walked in the footsteps of abysses! "The abyss here designates the whole carnal life, immersed in evil, where the sinner once he is there, descended, surrenders himself to contempt" (5). For once returned to grace with God through the forgiveness of their sins, the most desperate sinners rose up above the abyss and received Christ; they received him not to plunge themselves back into the abyss into which they groaned, but to follow him himself, having as glorious host He who pressed them with his sting. "In the footsteps of abysses; Memories of their old sins: for by remembering what they have been, they are more fond of Him whom they have received and who has forgiven them all (6).

17. "Have the gates of death opened with terror before you? Before all those who die, the gates of death are opened; but it is not with fear, as before Him alone who died to destroy the empire of death: or does it mean that they will surely open for the resurrection? "At your sight did the keepers of hell shudder? As in the sight of Him in whom the prince of this world has found nothing to merit death. They had not asked for his death, they promptly restored him to life. By the guardians of hell one must hear some inferior powers charged with watching over death.

18. "Have you measured all that the heavens surround? As the One who spread His Church everywhere. "Tell me then what are all these things? Who can know it, if He did not teach it?

19. "In what regions does the light dwell? It is still He who teaches it, for his word spreads the light, and gives intelligence to the little children (1). "What is the abode of darkness?" We also know Him who said, "Come near him and you will be enlightened (2). It is to teach us that we become darkness when we go away from Him by refusing to be like little children. For the beginning of the pride of man is to separate from God (3). So those who did not glorify him, and did not give him thanks, lost themselves in the vanity of their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened; they became the habitation of darkness. Perhaps darkness is also the place where stubborn sinners fall: these would then be darkness and they would live a truly unknown place for all men. Likewise the dwelling of light would be this land of the living; the bliss given to those who persevere in faith, hope and charity; which were once darkness and are now light in the Lord (5).

20. "Will you lead me to their limits? Until the end of these sinners. What is there where does not penetrate the wisdom of God, who reaches with strength from one end to the other and disposes everything with gentleness (6)? So no man can be compared to him. "If you have known the traces of their passage; "

21. "Did you know that you had to be born? Did you know the number of your years? You have been able to know the road followed by the wicked who are darkness, or remain darkness, because those who have attached themselves to God have first followed these paths of ungodliness before receiving the divine grace, source of their justification: but have you been able to know what reason there was to call you to the perishable life of this world, when our first parents were already entering these paths by the impiety of their disobedience, and that with their hands and of their guilty lips, they called death which made us all die in Adam? It is not from our birth, therefore, that we must reckon the limited number of our years, but from the day when the first to die died. For example, when Abraham came into the world, all of the Hebrews were born to him. The number of our years is therefore great, if we start from the day when death began in the paths of ungodliness. But who remembers to have been at this moment? who remembers to have really existed in the blood of his ancestors? For no one remembers the very epoch of his own birth; and yet it is certain that then he had the being, the life and the feeling. But all these things are known to the eternal Wisdom, who created everything, not only what lives in heaven; but still what is subject to death. Now Christ is the Force of God and the Wisdom of God (1); he knows all these mysteries. He was born to die, not because he was condemned to it, but, free among the captives of death, he pitied him and broke their chains.

22. "Have you penetrated the treasures of the snow? Have you possessed the knowledge of Him who knew the secret and hidden but necessary causes of scandals of which the world was threatened? He calls them treasures, because they must experience the killer of the saints, exercise their patience. "Woe to the world, it is said, because of the scandals! It is necessary that there be scandals, but woe to the man by whom they arrive (2)! "Swollen with pride, they go like snow to congeal in the heights, whence they soon fall, and the abundance of their iniquities cools the charity of many. You who wait for the Lord with unshakable courage (3), and in the fervor of the spirit (4), persevere to the end and you will be saved (5). "Where did you see those of hail? Hail is sinners who, not content to languish far from fervor, pursue it relentlessly and seek to annihilate it.

23. "Which are reserved to you for the time of your enemies, for the days of war and battle. How can one not see what is the prophetic role of Job here? It is not in view of him alone that all this is kept in reserve for the time of the enemies, for the days of war and battle, but rather for the people of God. The time of the enemies is the time during which iniquity runs its course: the more it abounds, the stronger must be sustained the struggles and struggles against the devil, so that the charity of those who persevere does not cool down.

24. "Where does the frost of frost come from? How to know him, if not considering him as the beginning of pains? Because frost is an extremely fine species of hail. "How does the south wind spread under the sky? Whatever this wind holds our heavy bodies, there is, I believe, no passage from the holy books where it is the image of evil, as the aquilon is never the figure of good. The reason is that this one comes from the regions where the light appears, the latter from the countries from which it is farther away. "He is spreading under the sky; The image of the help that God gives us against all these calamities, as long as we live, not in heaven but under heaven.

25. "Who traced, with impetuous rains, the bed of a river, delivered passage to the cries of the storms? Let us see here with brevity the Lord enumerates in three words all that must be despised in temptation by those who build on the rock, which, on the contrary, those who build on the sand must fear. He names the rain, the riverbed, the voice of the storm or the wind. To be tempted by the rain is to expose oneself to sin, misunderstanding what is most pointed out in the holy Scriptures; if, for example, on the occasion of this passage: "The one to whom he is less pardoned loves less," 2 someone would say, "Let us do evil, so that good may come." ), and that he should remain in sin in order to make grace abound (4). There are a host of other passages in which the reckless misinterpret the word of God, and lose themselves by promising themselves impunity, under the pretext that the Scriptures continually exalt divine goodness. To be tempted by the river is to follow the authors of these fatal interpretations. He calls the river the torrent formed by the waters of the rain. "Who has traced," said he, "the bed of a raging river," that is to say, the bed where they gather and flow? There are, then, vessels of anger prepared for perdition, 1 which hear the Scriptures as we have just said. They give free rein to the floods of their pernicious teachings, which nevertheless the fertile fields know how to repel; they agitate overthrow and drag away all that is without consistency with all the more impetuosity, that they seem led by the authority of God. To be tempted by the winds is to listen to the voice of the proud, whose empty speeches have no other support than their feeble reason. When a man, by resisting divine precepts, has prepared his condemnation to the judgment of God, and built on the sand, he will not be able to resist the breath of these winds, and his fall delivers passage, to the voices of the storm. I believe that these words, "impetuous rains," designate passages difficult to fix, to understand.

26. "So that it rain where no man lives. Imply the above. By man is meant here the law given to the Jews; and on the Gentiles would have fallen the rain of the Gospel. "In the desert completely uninhabited. At the Gentiles, where no one possessed sufficient authority to make God known.

27. "To quench the arid and deserted lands, and to sprout the grass of the meadow. The abandoned wife has more children than the one who has a husband (2). In these four sentences, it must be understood. "Who prepared" etc.

28. "Who is the father of the rain? Like the Bridegroom who sent his sons to fertilize the countryside by preaching the Gospel. "And who gives birth to the dewy grèbes? Those who have received this preaching. They say dewy greebes, as vases of wine are called those who are destined to receive wine.

29. "From which breast did the ice leave? Must we take the word ice largely because of its solid consistency? then this sentence: "From which breast did the ice leave? Would be like this other: "who is the father of the rain? Does not the word breast mean what is secret? then it would be said that the ice came out of its bosom, as it is said that God delivered them to a reprobated meaning (3). Or rather, has not the ice come out of the bosom of the one who everywhere spreads the impiety which overflows in him, cools and hardens the hearts which no longer have the fervor of charity? And who knew him well, except He who said to the stubborn opponents of his Gospel, "Do you have the devil for your father?" "

30. "And who produces in the air the frost? It descends like the waters of a river. We must take the frozen word in the last sense we gave to the ice. It is rightly said, "in the air," for these words apply to the coryphics of ungodliness, who imitate the preachers of the truth, and turn themselves into ministers of justice (2). This is why he then says, "Who goes down like the waters of a river. Or who has dried the face of the ungodly? Covered him with confusion; what is he, except He who glorified those whom he justified?

31. "Did you know how to distinguish the links of the Pleiades, open the circle of stars of the Orion;

32. "To raise Mazuroth at the appointed time, and bring the evening star to the place prepared for it? To understand this passage, is it necessary to study, in astronomy, the properties of all these stars? I would be surprised if this were necessary: ​​it would be a long work, we will not stop there. Should we not rather, under the name of a few stars, understand all the stars, taking the part for the whole? I suppose that Mazuroth is a star, for there is no Greek word that corresponds to it; we see enough that it is a Hebrew expression. In the following passage: "I begot you before Lucifer (4)," the game is also taken for the whole. Lucifer was not the first of all creatures, and before Lucifer did not mean before any creature. But here Lucifer means all the stars; it is, I repeat, the part for the whole, and by all the stars, all the times must be heard; for it is the stars that are said: "They will serve as signs to mark the times" (5). Therefore the Lord was born before all times, not in time; so he is co-eternal with the Father. To name only the Pleiades, the Orion, Mazuroth, and the evening star, is therefore to name all the stars by the name of some. Since elsewhere with Lucifer we designate them all, even more so can we do it here, where so many stars are named. But why is it said of one: "to distinguish the links," of the others "to open, to disperse; Of this: "to raise at the appointed time; From that one: "to bring to the place prepared for it? Are these expressions exclusively specific to the stars they distinguish? Could we not say: Have you, before the circle of the Pleiades, distinguished the links of the stars of the Orlon? We can sometimes change the words of two sentences; for example, in this passage from the Psalms: "He who dwells in heaven will laugh at them, the Lordships will make a mockery," the thought would remain absolutely the same if it were said: He who dwells in heaven will make fun of them. the Lord will laugh at them; for the Lord is the same as he who dwells in heaven. For a similar reason the name of the Pleiades here has the same meaning as that of the Orlon, because both designate all the stars, and the stars that we have just named represent to us in the same relations the faithful of the Church whose conversation is in heaven (1). Their bonds consist in attaching themselves to each other and to God, so as not to fall. But charity never falls (2). Who would know it, if it had not been taught by the One who said: "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another (3); And again: "He who loved me is, beloved of my Father (4)? The circle which encloses them is that of the divine Scriptures, from which they do not go out. Who could open it if it is not the one who makes the veil fall when we attach to him? The time will come to open these books, that is, to manifest the truth, when the Lord will come to illuminate the secrets of darkness, to discover the innermost thoughts of the heart. Then everyone will receive from God the praise that is due to him (5). He alone will fulfill these mysteries in his time: when he appears, he who is our life, we will also appear with him in glory (6). He will lead them to the place that was prepared for them, when he will put them in possession of the house built by their merits. "Whoever builds on this foundation works that remain, will have the reward (7). "

33. "Do you know the changes of the sky? Must we take this passage in bad part, and apply it to those who have known God, and have not glorified Him as God? They did not wish to make him live in them; they have been changed, and vanished into the vanity of their thoughts. Will we give it a better meaning? For all we will be resurrected, but we will not all be changed. There will be some that will change, since it says, "And we will change (2). When the righteous will change, it will be the sky that will undergo a change. Heaven indeed is the throne of God (3); Moreover, Wisdom is the Word of God, and the Word was God; but the throne of wisdom is the soul of the righteous. Perhaps it is better to adopt the two explanations, because it is not said: the change, but the changes of the sky. "Or those who are fulfilled in the same way on the earth? As the changes of the heavens have their influence on all things below; thus the righteous, when they change either in evil or in good, produce on carnal men the same impression of good or evil.

34. "Shall you call the cloud? Either in your thought or in a loud voice, saying to him, "Follow Me;" Or "Saul, Saul, why persecute me?" - And the great waters of terror will "obey them?" The mighty peoples, when they hear this voice of God: "Make your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is "God who produces in us the will and the action according to his pleasure." "

35. "Will you give the rivers their impetuosity, and they will go? Rivers of living water will flow from her bosom (7). This impetuosity is the confidence with which they confronted the persecutors. Those who fight with this courage take the kingdom of heaven by storm (8). "And they will say to you, 'What is it? Will they seek to know how to carry out your orders, like Saul when he said: "Lord, what do you want me to do (9)? Or what a reward they have to hope from you, like others when they exclaimed: "We have abandoned everything to follow you, what will there be for us? "

36. "Who taught women the art of forming fabrics, the ability to enrich them with the most varied colors? Solomon also speaks of a woman who was able to weave clothes for her husband (11). This must be applied to the churches working for the glory of God. The weak are like the woof of a delicate wool: the bred brothers in grace are like the son of the chain intended to tighten the fabric. This is the most valuable work of the churches. They put the variety of colors of a rich embroidery, without this variety ever destroying the unity of work. The faithful, in spite of the variety of gifts given to each, know how to unite without having excited any desire: all support one another with charity, and work to preserve the unity of the same spirit in the bond of the peace (1).

37. "Who will be learned enough to count the clouds? The Lord knows those who are his, but what man has the same knowledge? "Who brings down the voices of heaven on the earth? The angels of heaven who announce the divine oracles. They were not rushed against the first of the rebels, but the attraction of obedience brought them down to us, especially in the days of the Savior: "The angels served him," says the Gospel (3) .

38. "Ashes are scattered like the earth; he tied it up like food to the stone. Everywhere in the distance has been preached humility. wherefore the Lord who resisteth the upright, and giveth his grace unto the lowly, 4 in making himself man, hath bound himself with men by the bond of charity; became a mediator between God and men (5), gave himself to them for food in the Sacrament of his body and blood, and chose as stone of the edifice what is foolish in the world, to confuse the wise (6). As the Word of God, dwelling in God, he is the food of angels; but to be the food of stones, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (7). He will thus unite himself closely with men, when penance has prepared them there, as if the ashes were poured out to chart his way. And when he cried out, "Do ye worthy fruits of penance, and say not, We have Abraham our father; "For God is strong enough to bring out, from these stones, the children of Abraham," he showed with what stones he wanted to unite as food. But if the humility of repentance does not prepare for it, this union can never be fulfilled, for it looks from a distance at those who rise.

39. "Will you find the lion's food, will you appease the hunger of the dragon? This applies to the demon. "You shall trample on the lion and the dragon," 1 because of his treachery and his rage. All his angels are thus compared to the lion and the dragon. This one finds their food and soothes their hunger, which delivers to their power all the men convinced of impiety. They would no doubt wish to be ignorant of their impious life; but appearing before God, they can no longer escape the power of the devil and his angels, whose pernicious counsel they have followed.

40. "They tremble in their caves," while they secretly prepare their ambushes: if they did not tremble, who could resist them? They dread the power of Him to whom they said, "Why did you come to lose us before the time"? And if it is true that never, without his permission, they had entered the body of swine, it is equally certain that without this permission they could not do us any harm. He who disposes of everything in his justice has given them this power, to test us, to avenge ourselves, to make us expiate our faults, or to subject us to eternal punishment. "They lie in wait for their prey, hidden in the depths of the forests. Never in them does the love of evil rest, even when God stops their malice. The carnal occasions are like the dark forest where their traps are stretched; they look for those who let themselves be caught by the law of God, those who can not deny their sins, and claim them as their pasture.

41. "Who hath prepared the raven for his food, while his little ones roam here and there, and they seek to eat, and cry unto the Lord? This is exactly the thought contained in these words of a Psalm: "The little ones of the raven cries out to him." 3 This passage can not be taken in a bad way, since they invoke the Lord. They are black, represent them. sinners who are not yet bleached by the remission of sins; small, because they are humble; wandering here and there, they do not yet know the truth they seek with piety since they cry out to the Lord. Food can be prepared for the raven itself, for the divine prescience can discover the future conversion of the one who. do not humble themselves yet; but it is the little ones, that is to say the humble ones, who cry to the Lord.

CHAPTER 39

1 "Do you know when the wild goats, Tragelaphi, are born on the rocks? This word comes from tragos, goat, and elaphos, deer. The tragedelaphe is therefore an animal which holds goat and deer: it represents the soul which obeys the law of God in his heart, but which under the impression of the passions of which the goat is the image, still feels in his another law which rises against the law of its spirit and holds it captive under the law of sin (1). He gives birth on the rocks at the appointed time, if he supports his acts of virtue on the holy Scriptures. It is thus that those whose flesh fights against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, live quietly in the midst of hope, until finally, with the rapidity of the stag, they escape the tricks of the snake, live of the spirit and obey its laws (2). Henceforth sin, of which the goat is the figure, no longer reigns in their mortal body, because they no longer follow the unregulated desires (3). "Have you observed the birth of hinds? These are the societies of truly spiritual men, who propose to us with maternal care the imitation of their virtues. They do not have to fear the captious doctrines of the serpent, because they lean to defend themselves against God and not on themselves.

2. "Have you counted the months they bear their fruit? If the churches give birth to grace, it is through the gospel that the Lord preached during the months destined for his mission as a doctor, from his baptism to his Passion and Ascension. "Have you put an end to their pains?" It was in sorrow that they exclaimed, "My beloved ones, let me again be born until Christ is formed in you." These pains are appeased after childbirth, that is to say when those who make themselves groan have received the truth by following the impulse given to their conscience by the word of God.

3. "Have you fed their young fawns without inspiring them with fear? Fed by the milk of the sacraments, the disciples exempt from the spirit of terror? For they have not received the spirit of servitude as secondary through fear (5). "Have you separated their little ones from them? To leave them free in the greasy pastures of the spiritual life.

4. "Their little ones escaped. They broke, the bonds of concupiscence. "They will grow by feeding on wheat; By receiving the lessons of a more perfect wisdom, after the milk of the first teachings. "They will go away and will not come back to them. They will come out of the narrow confines of the teaching given by men to those who begin. They will never return to their mothers because they will no longer need the milk of the teachings of their teachers. Obviously these three sentences should not be in the form of interrogation.

5. "Who is he who has given the wild donkey his liberty?" I would be astonished that the wild donkey did not represent here the small number of those who liberate themselves from the care of all business to serve God. "Who broke his shackles? The links of carnal and vulgar affections.

6. "I gave him for habitation the wilderness, and for retreat the arid plains. This is why he exclaims, "My soul is thirsty for you." "

7. "He disdains the tumult of the city," which Scripture calls Babylon, and which walks by the broad path of perdition (2). "And do not hear the cries of the exacter. " He owes nothing to anyone.

8. "He contemplates the mountains where his pastures are:" the beauties of Revelation. "And search the green hills:" all that lasts forever.

9. "Do you want the unicorn to serve? The one who is proud here below of his high rank? Christ has been able to subject such men to his power, he has established ministers of his Church. The Greek word used, monokeros, means well "Who has only one horn; He designates the proud. "Will he come to rest in his barn? As one relies on the humility of the One who was born in a barn (3). One is happy there for the forgiveness of one's sins, one forgets the worries of a disorderly conscience.

10. "Will he bind his yoke by straps? The yoke that is easy to wear is tied up by belts, that is to say, it is announced by those who tame and mortify the flesh. This is why John wore a leather belt (4), and not the bloody whip that sinners strike. "And will he trace the furrows in your field? He will open the heart of the docile people to put him in possession of the kingdom of God.

11. "Did you trust him because his strength was changed? Because he does not seek in the Church what he sought in the world, the vain honors and praises of men. "Will you entrust him with your work? As he confides him who the Apostle calls the ambassador, when he exhorts in the name of Christ to be reconciled with God (1).

12. "Do you think he will give you your seed? He does not claim anything for the benefit of his power. The word sowing here signifies the action of sowing. "And that he will bring them to your area? He will be among those whom the Lord commanded to pray to the harvester to send workers to his harvest (2). He will not want to build an area for himself as the leader of heresies and schisms, and all who do not seek the glory of God, but their own glory. It would be very difficult to drive the rhinoceros; but this wonder is fulfilled in the hearts of men by the author of all wonders, by the one who destroys all human reasoning, all height raised against the knowledge of God, by him who reduces all minds under the yoke of his obedience (4).

13. "The plumage of the ostrich mingles with the wings of the heron and the hawk. The ostrich, which can not fly, is the figure of slow spirits. These, however, have received enough graces from Him who has chosen the foolish of this world, so that they may walk with a speed equal to that of the most beautiful intelligences, represented by the other two species of birds. This is the meaning of this passage.

14. "She abandons her widowers on the earth. He begins with the ostrich, or rather he speaks of the one of which this bird is the figure. He could not with his heavy wings imitate the rapid flight of the most agile, if he left on earth the first hopes represented by the eggs. "They are heating up in the dust. Though he now despises what he once sought in the world, what he disdains flourishes often for the sake of the friends of the world, compared here with the dust.

15. "She forgets that the passer-by will disperse them; that the animal will trample them underfoot. If the envy of his rivals, or the malice of the age comes to disturb and confound his hopes, which are for him like the eggs left on the ground, he has no problem with them, and remains insensitive to the loss of what he forgot.

16. "She is tough on her little ones, as if they were not hers. If, instead of these hopes, designated by the eggs, he possesses the reality represented by the little hatches; that is to say, if temporal prosperity comes to him, he despises bravely and rejects this pretended happiness, wanting only the true. "And makes his work useless, without any anxiety. This takes place before his conversion: then he works with the hope of the century, without collecting anything, and what is more insane still, without fearing anything, by promising himself the uncertain.

17. "Because God denied him wisdom" and did not give him intelligence. What could be more foolish than to put your trust in vanity and work to acquire perishable goods, without fear of losing them? Such, however, is the vice of many men accustomed to favors of fortune, especially if this prosperity goes back several generations: it seems to them impossible to arrive suddenly at misery. They occupy a distinguished rank in the world; but as they can not go on the wings of their virtues to converse in the sky, one can not even compare them to an ostrich; but note the following

18. "At the appointed time, it will rise in the air, and will laugh at the horse and its rider. When the fullness of time comes, where the rich will be commanded not to be proud, not to put their trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, they will raise their hearts to the Lord. will scorn the superb tyrants that God has thrown into the sea. Then the feathers of the ostrich will mingle, rising to the sky, those of the more agile birds, and all that is said of this animal will have its fulfillment .

19. "Have you given strength to the horse? Here we have the portrait of the martyr, intrepid and ardent witness of the faith which saves us: his strength, however, does not come from him, it is the Lord who has clothed him with it. "Did you teach him to push his neighs? Put on all the arms of God, to defend you on the evil day (3).

20. "Boldness is the glory of his chest," The boldness that made Isaiah speak and act (1). Our glory is our conscience (2) when it finds our actions good, so that everyone has something to boast about in himself and not in another (3).

21. "He advances with pride in the plain. He walks on the torch of liberty; thrilled with joy, because your wide ways of charity have made it easy for him to do. "He walks full of courage in battle. Against the trials of adversity,

22. "He faces the enemy's features. Among his weapons is the shield of faith, in which all the inflamed features of the enemy are extinguished (4). "And do not avoid the sword. Or the visible death itself, or those men obstinate in repelling the truth, eager to persecute it. He does not turn away from it, because he is ordered to love them.

23. "On him the bow and the sword are in joy. His profession of faith announces the still invisible punishments of which God threatens the sinner from afar; it bears witness to the word that closely overturns all errors. There are, then, two very distinct ideas here: the threat which discovers in the future the punishment of the sinner is the line which the bow throws in the distance; the word that tames the passions of the moment is the sword with which one pushes away with one's hand. "Frightened at the sight of the spear and the javelin. How is it that, frightened by the spear and the javelin, the bow and the sword are in joy? Is it not because, if he does not tremble, if he does not fear the eternal death from which divine justice strikes, the martyr will not be able to face that of which he is threatened by the tyrant, nor to boldly confess his faith, nor to preach with confidence the truths that the enemies can not resist? It is thus that the word of God in him rejoices; he publishes it freely, and to announce to the ungodly the sad end with which they are threatened, and to condemn their present iniquities. If the joys of hope were not united in us with the fears of damnation, they would soon degenerate into a guilty security, into a reckless presumption, and we would not be told by the Psalmist, "Rejoice in him. with trembling (5). He is indignant with himself; he wants to destroy the ardor of concupiscence, and the fears of the flesh, which make us repel suffering and fighting. It is probably in this sense that it says, "Be angry and do not sin (1). It is with salutary indignation that he must condemn himself and say to himself: "Why are you sad, O my soul, and why do you trouble me? Hope in God, for I want to praise him again; Then one must confess with one's mouth to obtain salvation (2). Then the Psalmist adds: "He is my Savior, he is my God." He remains motionless on hearing the signal of the trumpet. Before which temptation comes, even when it has been strengthened against the failings of nature. he waits, for it is not necessary to engage easily, unless the day of the trial has said so.

25. "But when the trumpet sounded the charge, he said, Come on. When the time of temptation comes, he will be pleased with himself, if he glorifies himself in the midst of tribulation, because the tribulation produces patience, patience, purity, and hope (4). From now on he will no longer say to his soul, rejecting the evil: "Why do you trouble me? But happy with his victory. he will exclaim: "O my soul, praise the Lord (5). - From a distance he smells the fight. He does not have in view the persecutors; that he has before his eyes; but he scents away those whom his eye could not discover; for he knows it, "We have not to fight against the flesh and the blood, but against the principalities and the powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spirits of malice spread in the air (6) . This is the meaning given to these words "From afar. It is said, "He sniffs," a well chosen expression, because of the prince of power spread in the air. The sense of smell perceives all the good or bad smells. He then smells the fight, the one who realizes that the prince of the powers of the air acts on the sons of defiance. 7. If they pursue him with their hatred or want to make him fall into their traps, he expects these spirits wicked, fight with spiritual weapons, and not with the weapons that protect the body, because it does not fight against flesh and blood, that is to say against the wicked and corrupt men that his eye can see. "The thunder and clamor of the chiefs. It must be implied: "he smells. Thunder, I think, is here named because of the air in which the wicked spirits are spread. These spirits are not called the masters of the world, as if they governed heaven and earth; but in the sense indicated by the Apostle. So that we do not understand his thought in this way, he immediately explains in what way they are the masters of the world.

26. "Is it your wisdom that has given the hawk its plumage? As the wisdom of God, who is the Christ, gradually forms in us the new man who must have his conversation in heaven? "He remains motionless, his wings extended, and his eyes fixed on the south. Charity freed from all carnality, attaches itself to its double object: it remains unshakable in faith, and far from confiding in itself, it places in God all its hopes, relating everything to Him whose love burns his heart; In order to preserve all his courage in him, he exclaims, "Will not you be subject to the Lord, O my soul? It is my refuge, yes, the Lord is my refuge and I support it: I will not be shaken (6). "

21. "Is it at your command that the eagle will rise in the clouds? As He who commanded Him said, "And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everything to myself." He was going to die for us, and after his resurrection ascend to heaven: "Wherever the body will be," said he, "the eagles will gather there." For he has satiated with supernatural goods one whose youth will be renewed like that of the eagle. The elevation of the eagle may also be related to this passage of St. Paul: "If we are carried away as if outside ourselves, it is for God; As the following passage relating to the vulture relates to this other of the same Apostle "If we are more restrained, it is for you" (4). Here it is: "And that the vulture will wait near his nest perched on the rocks? He no longer expresses the state of a soul which rises in the contemplations of a holy rapture, but the devotion of the one who, in less elevated ways, patiently deals with the salvation of men and who wants the wicked dead to grace to be justified by the word, as devoured by it, to enter the body of the Church. We know that the vulture feeds on corpses. That is why he is near his nest where he lays down his widowers, a figure of works to be done in this life. He is on the rock; For after having said, "If we are more restrained," it is for you, "the Apostle adds immediately:" For the charity of Christ urges us. " "Now the stone was Christ (6). - He will wait motionless. This is the same thought as in this passage: "I feel pressed on both sides I would like to die and be with Jesus Christ, which is unquestionably the best," and relates to the elevation of the eagle. On the other hand, like the vulture waiting near his nest "I want to live again, which is necessary for you (7). Now, as the stone still designates the whole Church, the point of the rock is the head of the Church. This is why Simon was called Peter by Our Lord (8). The following expressions express this thought

28. "In the cavities, on the tip of the rocks. The point designates our leader, the hollow of the rock signifies the life hidden in God with Jesus Christ (9). "And there he seeks his prey," according to what was said to Peter: "Kill and eat (10); To incorporate into the Church those of the Gentiles who were to believe.

29. "His gaze plunges into the distance;

30. "And his little ones roll in the blood," The hope of an immortal life in the abode of eternity directs his intention to the day, although his external acts seem to be dragged into the failings of nature: Doubt comes sometimes shake it; ignorance, inherent in the human mind, prevents it from seeing the real merit that. God attaches to his devotion and his zeal; but as his eyes discover eternal salvation in the distance, he always knows how to act with an entirely disinterested charity. And if he has given his care, distribute his treasures to men who, by renouncing the devil, are completely dead to the world, he hastens around them by the ministry of the word and multiplying his speeches, he unites to the body of the Church these men so well disposed. So it is said again: "They suddenly appear, where corpses lie. "

31. "Then the Lord answered, and said. If the Lord seems to repeat himself by speaking, it is because Job, seized with fear at these speeches, has remained silent, and has not dared to answer anything. In the next two verses, God commits him to speak.

32. "Whoever discusses with the Most High will he be at rest? That is to say, why do you keep silent talking to the Almighty? "Whoever dared to take God will answer him thus? This is a questioning, and here is the meaning: Does it take God, the one who talks about it to answer him? We can discuss with the Almighty, addressing his questions, without attacking or refuting him. It is not because He is Almighty that we must avoid any discussion with Him. It is not accused either, if in this discussion it is questioned as truth itself. As for these words, "Whoever discusses with the Lord will he rest? Here is the meaning: since he who discusses with the Lord is not at rest, he must not enter into discussion with him to rest himself afterward. Usually the one who discusses proposes some objections: but he who makes it to God can not rest, he can find no rest, only by conforming his thoughts to the will of God, without contradicting anything. For "he who takes God will answer him thus:" that is to say, if he answers by talking with him, it is to take him back, and he can not rest. Whence this word: "O (641) man, who are you, to challenge God?" But had Job done this? God did not regard him as an opponent, as his friends did without understanding him, and he gives him this testimony at the beginning and at the end of the book. If, therefore, he addressed these words to him, is it not because of the very special role he plays here? He is the figure of the body of Jesus Christ, of his Church, of which a great number of members are weak, and although they do not despair, they are constantly exposed to falling. Scarcely do they dare to advance: their steps are not multiplied, and the tranquility of the sinner excites their desire. They say, "Does God see them? "Does the Most High know of it? Now these impious, happy-of-the-century people are increasing their wealth. It is therefore in vain that I purified my heart, and washed my hands in innocence: I was scourged during the whole day, and condemned in the morning (2). Hence this answer from Job in the next two verses.

33. "Job then answered,

34. "Why then be judged after hearing these warnings and reproaches of the Lord, since I am nothing? That is to say, why should I ask to be judged, since the Lord stops me and condemns me, if I want to contradict him? "After hearing these reproaches. That is to say, I understood how fair and merciful he was to me, since by myself I am nothing but nothingness. "What will I answer him? What can I oppose to the truth? "I will carry my hand to my mouth; I will be able to contain myself and prevent myself from speaking.

35. "I spoke only once; I will not add anything. If there is not one. Hidden meaning in this sentence, how can Job say that he has spoken only once, since he has spoken so many times? How does he say that he will not take it again, since he is going to talk again? The word here must be understood as the disposition of the soul who, seeking out external objects, abandons his God and dares to resist him. And when it rushes into it with more ardor, Scripture calls its action a cry. Thus the Lord says that the cry of Sodom ascended to him (1). To this word, to this cry is opposed the holy and pious silence of which it is said: He will be in silence, free from all fear, far from all sin. Job is therefore right to say that he spoke only once, always the same language in his whole life as an old man, whereas he was only a breath that goes and never comes back (2 ). Now that he puts his hand to his mouth to speak no more, he promises to add nothing to this language of the past, to no longer separate from God. Thus be it.