Lent With Job and Saint Thomas Aquinas: Chapter Twenty-One

In this chapter Job brings up the problem of why some who are evil prosper in this life:

In the preceding chapter Sophar had already consented to the opinion of Job, at least in part. He had affirmed that sins were punished after death, although he still retained in this his own opinion that sins were also punished temporally in this life. For this reason Job has some hope of converting them completely to the true opinion. So he first humbly invites his friends to pay attention when he says, “Listen, I beseech you, to my words.” Since up to this time they had heard his words with some mockery, he says then, “and do penance,” about the fact that you have jeered at my words or have contradicted the truth. As you have all spoken now twice, “Bear with me so that I may speak,” answering those things which were last proposed to me. So that they make no judgment of condemnation before they heard him he says, “and after my words, if it seems right to you, laugh,” as if to say: If you judge this my opinion to be laughable, first listen to my answer; and if that does not satisfy you, you will be able to laugh at me with more justice afterwards. Lest his words will be necessarily condemned, he shows that he is about to speak the great matters of divine judgment and not human judgments. Thus he says, “Is my debate against a man so that I should not be sad with merit?”, as if to say: If the intention of my argument was to question whether a man justly or unjustly afflicted me, in whatever way this happened, I would lack sadness with reason. But my intention is to inquire how this has happened by the just judgment of God. Since this disputation is about a great matter, one should listen attentively, and so he says, “Pay attention to me.” It should also not be listened to lightly or with scorn, but more with dignity and with amazement, and so he says, “Be astonished.” It should also be heard in silence and without murmuring, and so he says, “and put your finger over your mouth.” Lest it seem that he speaks boastfully as if giving honor to his own authority, he shows that he also is awed at the high nature of the question, and so he says, “When I call this to mind, even I am amazed,” lest I be unfaithful to the truth in any respect in such a great question, or should speak irreverently of divine judgments. That fear does not stop short in the mind, but goes even to the flesh, and so he says, “and trembling invades my flesh”: for even the flesh is affected by a violent passion of the soul.

Since these premises were sufficient to call the others to attention, he proceeds to the question. Since Sophar had said (20:5) that the prosperity of evil men, if it happens, ends in a brief time and is changed into evil for them, Job, therefore, disproves this immediately saying, “Why, then, do the wicked live,” a long time? As if he should say: If the evil man flies away like the bird or passes quickly like a vision in the night, (20:8) why is it that many evil men have a very long life? In the same way, if “the joy of the hypocrite is like a speck,” (20:5) and his ascent is quickly thrown down, why “are they lifted up,” that is, promoted to honors? In the same way, if he “vomits the riches which he devoured,” (20:15) why are “they comforted with riches,” why are their riches maintained for them? Also, against Sophar’s statement, “His sons will be reduced to poverty,” (20:10) he says, “Their seed endures in their presence,” that is, their sons endure, with them looking on. He then says the same thing about other persons related to them saying, “the crowd of their neighbors and descendants endure in their sight.” By this he shows a double prosperity, because those closest to him are not taken away in death, which is what he means when he says, “endures,” nor are they removed far from him by exile or something of this sort, which is what he means when he says, “in their presence,” and “in their sight.”

He then pursues in detail the prosperity of the evil men already treated. First, he does so as to themselves, and he begins with immunity from evil when he says, “Their homes,” their families, and the necessities of life, “are safe,” from the assault of the enemy,” and peaceful,” without internal dissension. They are also immune from the divine scourge, and with resepct to this he adds “the rod of God is not on them,” because they are not corrected for their sins in this life. He speaks then about the increase of their goods, since their goods are not barren, nor are they deprived of their fruit. He clearly shows this in the species “ox,” for the ancients were very partial to oxen for use in agriculture. Thus he says, “Their ox,” that is, their oxen, (bos) “breed,” because there is no sterility. Conception comes first in the fertilization of animals, the formation of the fetus conceived in the womb and its gestation to term which is hindered by abortion comes second, and as to this he says, “and has not aborted.” Third is birth, and as to this he says, “the cow has calved.” (The names ox and cow here mean the same thing, and he uses both, either because of the harmonious phrasing or for the sake of the meter in the verse.) Fourth comes the education of the offspring, and as to this he then says, “and she has not been deprived of her young,” by some premature death.

Go here to read the rest. Divine justice would seem like a bad joke but for the certainty that the evil will pay their debts in the next world.