Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.
All Commentaries on Job 30:12 Go To Job 30
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
48. For ‘calamities’ would ‘rise to the left,’ if at the hand of any persons set without the pale of Religion, and openly denying Christ, she met with the adverse dealings of persecution. But when she undergoes from persons seemingly believers the trial of tormentings, it is as if calamities arose to her at the right hand, because they who are enlisted under Christ’s name, assail Christ’s name in her. For by the very usage of speech we speak of having as ‘on the right’ what we account as great, and as on the left that which we look down upon, which Zechariah openly teaches, saying, And he shewed me Jesus the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. [Zech. 3, 1. 2.] Who that he might the more plainly shew this that he set before, added going on; And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Jesus was clothed with filthy garments. ‘Jesus was [al. ‘is spoken of as’] clothed with filthy garments,’ because though He was a stranger to all sin, yet He came into the likeness of the flesh of sin. And to Him on His coming Satan stood on His right hand. For the Lord appeared to hold the Jewish People as great, and the Gentiles as nought. But after that He appeared Incarnate, the Gentile world, which had been held as ‘on the left’ believed, whilst the Jewish People swerved aside to unbelief. Thus ‘Satan stood on the right hand to Him’; because he carried off from Him that People, which had been for a long while beloved. But because that same Jewish people, being now lost, shall in the end one day believe, as the Prophet testifies, who says, The remnant shall be saved; [Is. 10, 21] the Lord removes Satan from His right hand, saying, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. And betokening the deliverance of that same people, he adds, because He hath chosen Jerusalem. Which same people because under the guidance of unbelief it let itself run down to the burnings of hell, but whilst it is brought back to faith, is set free from that same burning of everlasting fire, has it directly added there concerning it, Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
49. So then as there for ‘the right hand’ the Jewish people is denoted, so in this place by the term of ‘the right hand,’ the faithful people of Holy Church is denoted. And hence the Judge that is to come ‘shall set the goats on His left Hand, and the sheep on His right Hand.’ But when these very persons too fret Holy Church in the time of adversity, who seemed to be of the faithful, surely ‘calamities arise to her on the right hand.’ Now rightly is this same called ‘the right hand of the East’; since it is written of the Head itself of the same, The East is His Name. [Zech. 6, 12 Vul.] For seeing that the light springs from the East, He is rightly called ‘the East,’ by the light of whose righteousness the night of our unrighteousness is enlightened. So ‘calamities arise to the right hand of the East’; because these likewise leap forth to persecution, who were supposed to be Elect Members of our Redeemer. Which same calamities he rightly declares ‘arise on the spot,’ because whereas they who persecute were not persons without her pale, evils are brought about by them suddenly and on the spot. But if ‘the right hand’ is a designation of those who are truly believers, ‘calamities arise to the right of the East,’ because on the crisis of persecution breaking forth, the righteous undergo the cruel assaults of the wicked.
