Then said his wife unto him, Do you still retain your integrity? curse God, and die.
All Commentaries on Job 2:9 Go To Job 2
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
36. For of what did that mispersuading woman bear the likeness, but of all the carnal that are settled in the bosom of Holy Church, who in proportion as by the words of the Faith they profess they are within the pale, press harder on all the good by their ill-regulated conduct. For they would perchance have done less mischief, if Holy Church had not admitted in and welcomed to the bed of faith those, whom, by receiving in a profession of faith, she doubtless puts it almost out of her power to eschew. It is hence that in the press of the crowd one woman touched our Redeemer, whereupon the same our Redeemer at once saith, Who touched Me? And when the disciples answered Him, The multitude throng Thee and press Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me? He therefore subjoined, Somebody hath touched Me, for I perceive that virtue is gone out of Me.
37. Thus many press the Lord, but one alone touches Him; in that all carnal men in the Church press Him, from Whom they are far removed, while they alone touch Him, who are really united to Him in humility. Therefore the crowd presses Him, in that the multitude of the carnally minded, as it is within the pale, so is it the more hardly borne with. It ‘presses,’ but it does not ‘touch,’ in that it is at once troublesome by its presence, and absent by its way of life. For sometimes they pursue us with bad discourse, and sometimes with evil practices alone, for so at one time they persuade to what they practise, and at another, though they use no persuasions, yet they cease not to afford examples of wickedness. They, then, that entice us to do evil either by word or by example, are surely our persecutors, to whom we owe the conflicts of temptation, which we have to conquer at least in the heart.
38. But we should know that carnal men in the Church set themselves to prompt wickedness at one time from a principle of fear, and at another of audacity, and when they themselves go wrong either from littleness of mind or pride of heart, they study to infuse these qualities, as if out of love, into the hearts of the righteous. So Peter, before the Death and Resurrection of our Lord, retained a carnal mind. It was with a carnal mind that the son of Zeruiah held to his leader David, whom he was joined to. Yet the one was led into sin by fear, the other by pride. For the first, when he heard of his Master's Death, said, Be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee. [Matt. 16, 22] But the latter, not enduring the wrongs offered to his leader, says, Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the Lord's anointed? [2 Sam. 19, 21] But to the first it is immediately replied, Get thee behind Me, Satan. [Matt. 16, 23] And the other with his brother immediately heard the words; What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah, that ye are this day turned into a Satan [So Vulg. E.V. Adversaries] unto me? [2 Sam. 19, 22] So that evil prompters are taken for apostate angels in express designation, who, as if in love, draw men to unlawful deeds by their enticing words. But they are much the worse, who give into this sin not from fear but from pride, of whom the wife of blessed Job bore the figure in a special manner, in that she sought to prompt high thoughts to her husband, saying, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die. She blames the simplicity in her husband, that in contempt of all things transitory, with a pure heart, he longs after the eternal only, As though she said, ‘Why dost thou in thy simplicity seek after the things of eternity, and in resignation groan under the weight of present ills? Transgress [Excedens], and contemn eternity, and even by dying escape from present woes.’ But when any of the Elect encounter evil within coming from carnal men, what a model [formam] of uprightness they exhibit in themselves, let us learn from the words of him, wounded and yet whole, seated yet erect,
