Elihu defends the proposition that God is just:
In his argument Eliud first proposes what he intends to prove, namely, that there cannot be injustice in divine judgment. For God is himself the one to whom the worship of piety is due, and through his omnipotence he governs all things, establishing for men the laws of justice. Therefore it would be against his divinity if he were to favor impiety, and so he says, “Let impiety be far from God.” It would also be against the rule of his omnipotence if he would stoop to injustice, and so he says, “and (let) evil (be far) from the Almighty.” After he rejects divine injustice, he shows the manner of divine justice saying, “For he will render the work of a man to him,” because he bestows good and evil on him according to his deeds. Since some of those who do good things do them better than others, and some of those who do evil deeds sin more than others, he then says, “and he will render to each one according to his ways,” to those who are better, better things; to those who are worse, worse things.
He proves there is no injustice in God first from the fact that if God were unjust, one would not find justice anywhere, since the universal judgment of all men pertains to him, and so he says, “What other has he constituted on the earth?” as if to say: Is it to be believed that someone was constituted by God to judge all the earth justly if he is evil? Thus he says that one should not believe there is someone else to judge the earth because the same person is the maker and the governor of the earth. So, just as he did not commit the making of the world to anyone else, so he did not give the governing of the world to anyone else, and he expresses this saying, “Or whom did he place over the world which he has fashioned?” as governor of the whole world. He implies the answer is “No one,” because just as he has fabricated the world by himself, so also he himself governs and judges the world by himself. True he has executors of his government like ministers, but he himself is the orderer of all. It is not possible for the governing of the whole world be unjust in any way.
Second, he shows by experience that there is no violence or evil in God. For so great is his power by which he conserves things in being, that if he should wish to use violence against his justice, he could immediately annihilate all men. So he says, “If he (God) should turn to him (to destroy man) his heart (his will) his spirit (his soul) and breath (the life of the body supported by the soul) he will draw to himself,” separating it from the body by his power. This agrees with the last chapter of Qoheleth, “And the Spirit will return to God who gave it.” (12:7) When the spirit has been taken away which was divinely given to man, the consequence is that the corporeal life fails, and so he says, “All flesh will be destroyed together,” for the species of flesh will cease, and will be resolved into its component parts. So he then says, “and man will return to ashes,” as Psalm 103 says, “You take back their spirit and they will fail and will return to dust.” (v. 29) He calls the dust into which flesh is dissolved ashes, either because among the ancients the bodies of the dead were dissolved to ashes by being burned with fire, or because those things into which the dead body is dissolved are a certain residue which springs from the natural heat in the human body. Since, then, it is so easy for God if he wills to reduce the whole of the human race into ashes, it appears from the conservation itself of man that he does not use unjust violence with them.
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