Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest steals him away in the night.
All Commentaries on Job 27:20 Go To Job 27
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
30. Let us look now at the want of the rich man as burning, whose abundance was so great as feasting. For he says, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. [Luke 16, 24] By which same words it is not this that is made known to us, that there in that excessive burning a single drop of water is then asked for as a sufficiency of refreshment, but that he who has sinned by abundance should there be consumed by a want burning to excess. For we see in the words of the rich man, resulting from the exactest judgment of God, how proportionate a punishment answered such sin. For moved by want, he is there driven to beg for the very least, who here, moved by covetousness, went so far as to refuse the very least. What can be paid back more exactly, what more strictly? He begged a drop of water, who refused crumbs of bread; and so ‘want taketh hold of him like water.’ That want is then not unsuitably likened to water, because there is that tormenting in hell, which, as swallowing up those it receives in the depths below, is used to be denoted by the title of a’ lake.’ Whence it is delivered by the Prophet in the voice of mankind, My life is fallen into the lake. [Lam. 3, 53] But by the triumphing of those that are escaped it is sung, O Lord my God, I cried unto Thee and Thou hast healed me. O Lord, Thou hast b1’ough’t up my sold from the grave: Thou hast kept me from them that go down into the lake. [Ps. 30, 2. 3.]
31. A tempest shall overwhelm him in the flight. What in this place does he call’ the night,’ but the hidden time of sudden departing? And by the name of ‘tempest’ he represents the whirlwind of the Judgment. Which the Psalmist also testifies, in the words, Our God shall come in state, our God, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before Him, and round about Him a mighty tempest. [Ps. 50, 3] Of which same ‘tempest’ Wisdom also saith by Solomon; I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind. [Prov. 1, 26. 27.] And because the very ignorance of the coming departure is itself called ‘Night,’ ‘in the night a tempest shall overwhelm him,’ i.e. the whirlwind of Divine Judgment, whilst he is ignorant, shall seize upon Him. For it is hence that Truth saith by Itself, But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready. For in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh. [Mal. 24, 43. 44.] Hence also it is spoken against the ‘evil servant;’ But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth His coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken. The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of. Hence Paul says to the disciples, But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of the light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. [1 Thess. 5, 4. 5.] Hence to the rich man, ‘giving loose to pride, it is said by the voice of God, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? [Luke 12, 20] In the night he is described as giving up his soul, who whilst not seeing death beforehand is carried off in darkness of the heart. Thus then he saith, A tempest shall overwhelm him in the night. For because he is not minded to do the good things that he sees, he is caught by the tempest of his destruction which he seeth not.
