…when I have called upon him through prayer, of the things considered pleasant, he would hear; there is…

…when I have called upon him through prayer, of the things considered pleasant, he would hear; there is fear, lest through my not knowing the cause of the things given, covered by obscurity — for this the darkness signifies — he be wearing me away, which is sending me away from the […]. So one must fittingly make the entreaty to God. For if God grants the request, he does not grant altogether according to the manner of the request, but according to a reason which he knows to be beneficial.

That the darkness signifies obscurity can also be shown clearly from other scriptures: “Moses entered,” it says, “into the darkness where God was” (Exod 20:21). And the word concerning God is not easily detected nor clear nor known; but Moses entered into this as one able. But also in the seventeenth psalm it is said concerning the Savior: “And he bowed heaven and came down, and darkness was under his feet” (Psalm 18:9). For the course of the descent is clear only in this, that he visited; but the knowledge is not clear, why at this time.

What the blessed Job says in a hypothesis is this: that even if I boldly call and he hears, there is fear, lest by the obscurity of the circumstances I undergo crushing. “Many are the bruises he has made upon me without cause; for he does not let me breathe, but has filled me with bitterness” (Job 9:17–18). Again he says all these things against their apprehension. For if you say that I have received punishment for sins, but the punishment remains not permitting me to breathe, how can I escape the charge of having lived badly?

For in vain according to you have the things of the affliction come to be, if indeed, conscious of nothing in myself as having sinned, I am punished, and the things of correction are unaccomplished through having no time of yielding. “For that he prevails with might, who then shall oppose his judgment?” (Job 9:19). If “with might” is a noun, “prevails” is a verb: that he is strong in might. But if “strength” is a noun, it would be thus: “he prevails with strength”; for this is a verb. However it may be, the same thing is signified: for God being strong prevails, and prevailing is strong; reigning is strong, and being strong reigns.

For this reason it must not be said that he is strong so as to rule because of our sins; nor do you set forth this, even though not having sinned […] he has authority […] as knowing what is beneficial; for I know him as king. But it is not of a king to rule lawlessly, nor does he, proposing one thing, do another through weakness; for the Lord is “just, strong, and long-suffering” (Psalm 7:11), wherefore no one “shall oppose his judgment,” no one being able to say: “What have you done?” — as we set forth the apostolic saying in what went before: “Shall the thing formed say to him who formed it: Why did you make me thus?” (Rom 9:20).

“For even if I am righteous, my mouth will be ungodly” (Job 9:20). Being righteous, I ought not to say this very thing, that I am righteous; for the righteous man does not speak concerning himself as concerning another. Like this is the “I have become foolish; you compelled me” (2 Cor 12:11). For when the friends set forth that he suffers because of sin, in a way he was compelled to say that it is not because of sin, but “I am righteous.” For this form can be found in scripture, as Paul also writes to the Corinthians: “If the dead are not raised, neither is Christ raised” (1 Cor 15:16). For he does not say this from his own person, but with regard to their suspicion.

“Even if I am blameless, I shall turn out crooked” (Job 9:20). This also is of the same thought, signifying that if, conscious of nothing in myself, I am subjected to circumstances, you say this happens because of sin: being “blameless,” I “shall turn out crooked” according to you. But “blameless” and “righteous” differ in conception. The blameless is twofold: one by doing nothing, the other by doing righteousness; which is praiseworthy, as was also said to Abraham: “Be well-pleasing before me and become blameless” (Gen 17:1); but the blameless of the Hebrews is not from virtue. And this the scriptural spirit also testified to him from the beginning.

“For even if I was ungodly, I do not know it in my soul; yet my life is taken away” (Job 9:21). That is, having been ungodly in soul I do not know, or I do not know myself as having been ungodly, nor is my soul conscious of this; and Paul also says something like this: “I am conscious of nothing in myself” (1 Cor 4:4). “Yet even if I do not know,” he says, “having been ungodly, my life is taken away”; which is: he meets with sufferings unto death. And he said this fixing their attention, that it is possible even for one who has not sinned to fall into toils. And it is a great testimony to be conscious of nothing against oneself. Wherefore I said: wrath destroys the great and the mighty, because the base are in an extraordinary death. He wishes to teach that the toilsome things, which he calls wrath, or even death, are common […].