This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroys the blameless and the wicked.
All Commentaries on Job 9:22 Go To Job 9
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
40. The ‘perfect man is destroyed’ by the Creator, in that whatever his pureness may have been, it is swallowed up by the pureness of the divine immensity. For though we take heed to preserve pureness, yet by consideration of the interior Perfection it is shewn, that this which we practise is not purity; ‘the wicked’ likewise is ‘destroyed’ by the Creator, in that whilst God ordereth all things marvellously, his wickedness is caught in the noose of his own artifices. For he is even unwittingly involving himself in punishment on the same grounds whereon he wittingly exults in doing any thing. Whereas therefore Almighty God at once surpasses the perfection of the righteous by pureness, and penetrating the craft of the wicked condemns it, it is rightly said, This is one thing, therefore I said it; He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. As if it were expressed in plain words; ‘I have spoken this word of reflection to myself, that neither being perfect, shall I appear perfect, if I be strictly examined; nor being wicked, if I would lie hid in myself, am I withdrawn from the piercings of heavenly probing, in that the strict Judge in comprehending all things, penetrates the subterfuges of wickedness in a marvellous way; and in ordering for the best, condemns the same by its ‘own devices.’ Or, indeed, He is Himself said to destroy both the perfect and the wicked, in that though they be separated in the life of the soul, yet in due of the first sin, they are alike dragged to the death of the flesh. And hence it is said by Solomon; The learned dieth equally as the unlearned. [Eccl. 2, 16] And again, All things are subject to vanity, and all go to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. [Eccl. 3, 20]
