Therefore does Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplies words without knowledge.
All Commentaries on Job 35:16 Go To Job 35
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
For God in truth bears a long while with him whom he condemns forever; and forebears now to bring on his wrath, because he reserves it to be poured forth, hereafter, without end. For suffering is here the portion of the elect, so they may be trained for the rewards of their heavenly inheritance. It is our portion to receive stripes here, for whom an eternity of joy is reserved. Hence it is written, “He scourges every son whom he receives.” It is also said to John, “I rebuke and chastise those whom I love.” Peter says, “It is time that judgment must begin at the house of God.” And then Peter immediately adds with astonishment, “But if it first begin at us, what shall be the end of them that believe not the gospel of God?” For the severity of God does not permit sins to remain unpunished; but the wrath of judgment commences with our punishment here, in order that it may cease to rage at the damnation of the reprobate. Let the reprobate proceed then and accomplish the desires of their pleasures, with unpunished iniquity, and let them feel no temporal scourges, since eternal punishments await them.… “Job opens his mouth in empty talk, he multiplies words without knowledge.” But this seems also to be a peculiar fault of the arrogant, that they believe much that they have said, to be little, and the little which is said to them, to be much. Because they always wish to speak their own words, they cannot hear the words of others. And they think that they suffer violence if they do not pour forth their own immoderate opinions more immoderately. Although blessed Job was silent at his words, Elihu finds cause for invective in the speech in which he had replied to his friends. In order to get himself a larger space of his silence, and that he himself might answer many things, he asserts that he had multiplied words. For he immediately begins the commencement of a tedious speech and endeavors to commence, as though he had as yet said nothing at all.
