The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searches after every green thing.
All Commentaries on Job 39:8 Go To Job 39
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
78. Mountains we understand to be all the lofty ones of this world, who were swollen in their hearts with earthly loftiness. But since the Lord engrains [‘inviscerat’] even such, when converted, into the body of His Church, and, turning them from their former pride, transforms them into His own members, these are mountains of His pasture; doubtless, because He is satisfied with the conversion of the wandering, and the humility of the proud. As He Himself says, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me. [John 4, 34] And as He commanded the Apostles, when sent forth to preach, saying, Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto eternal life. [John 6, 27] Of these mountains it is said by the Prophet, The Lord will not reject His people, for in His hand are all the ends of the earth, and the heights of the hills He beholdeth. [Ps. 95, 4. LXX.] For the heights of the mountains are surely the loftinesses of the proud. Which the Lord is said to behold, that is, to change from their iniquity for the better. For the Lord converts the person whom He looks on. Whence it is written, The Lord turned, and looked upon Peter; and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said, Before the cock crow thou shalt deny Me thrice; and he went out, and wept bitterly. [Luke 22, 61. 62.] And as Solomon says, A King that sitteth on the throne of judgment, scattereth away all evil with His look. [Prov. 20, 8] Of this looking at the mountains it is said again by the Prophet, The mountains melted like wax from the face of the Lord; [Ps. 97, 5] because, after the hardness of their perversity, they were melted by the Divine fear, and subsided from their former rigid swelling.
79. But we must observe, that He does not say, ‘beholdeth,’ but looketh round on the mountains of His pasture. For the Lord was in truth Incarnate in Judaea, which was placed in the midst of the nations. And He therefore looked round on the mountains, because He gathered together, from the whole body of the Gentiles, the proud of this world situated every where around. He feeds therefore in these mountains; because He is satiated with the good works of the converted, as if with green herbs. Hence is it that it is said to Him by the voice of the Bride in the Song of Songs, Shew me where Thou feedest, where Thou liest at noon. [Cant. 1, 7] For the Lord is fed, when He is delighted with our good deeds. But He lies down at noon, when, after the heart of the reprobate burning with carnal desires, He finds the cool refreshment of holy thought in the breasts of His Elect. For Matthew had been a kind of mountain, when he was swelling with the profits of the custom house; of whom it is also written, that after he believed, he invited our Lord into his house, and made a great feast. [Luke 5, 29] This mountain therefore produced for this wild ass the herbs of green pasture, because he fed Him outwardly with a feast, and inwardly with banquets of virtues. And this is set forth still more fully, when it is subjoined;
He searcheth after every green thing.
80. For He deserts the parched places, and searches for every green thing. For parched are those hearts of men, which, planted in the perishing hope of this world, have no assurance of eternity. But those flourish, which cling to that inheritance of which the Apostle Peter says; To an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. [1 Pet. 1, 4] For they are more truly green, the more they plant the root of thought in the portion of an inheritance that fadeth not away. Let every one therefore, who dreads being parched within, fly from the barren desires of this world without. Let every one who longs to be sought for by the Lord, seek for his eternal home, and become verdant in the inward plantation of his heart.
81. Let this twofold exposition of the wild ass he sufficient. But it must he left to the judgment of the reader, which he thinks best to select. But if he chance to scorn the meaning of either exposition, I will willingly myself follow my reader, as a pupil his master, if he thinks more accurately and truly. Because whatever I find he knows better than myself, I believe it to be vouchsafed as a special gift to myself. For all we, who endeavour, full of faith, to utter something concerning God, are organs of truth: and it is in the power of this same Truth, whether It utters Its voice through me to another, or through another to me. For dwelling in the midst of us it deals alike with all, even though they live not alike, and often touches one person to hear plainly what It has spoken by another, but often touches another, to utter something clearly to be heard by others.
82. Power of speech is often given to a teacher, for the sake of his hearer, and skill in speaking is often taken away from a teacher, on account of the guilt of his hearer. Let not the teacher then be puffed up with pride in these cases in which he preaches copiously, lest his tongue be perchance filled, not for his own, but for his hearers’ sake; and let not a hearer be angry, in cases in which a teacher speaks barrenly, lest the tongue of the teacher perchance be dumb, not for his own, but his hearers’ rejection. For power of speech is given even to bad teachers for the sake of a good hearer, just as words of preaching were able to abound to the Pharisees, though it was written of them, All therefore whatsoever they have said to you, observe and do: but do not after their works. [Matt. 23, 3] But skill in speaking is taken away even from good teachers, for the rejection of their hearers. As is said to Ezekiel against Israel; I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, and thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be as a man reproving, for it is a provoking house. [Ez. 3, 26]
83. But the word of preaching is sometimes granted on account of both, sometimes withdrawn on account of both. For it is given on account of both, as is said by the voice of God to Paul amongst the Corinthians; Be not afraid, but speak. [Acts 18, 9] And a little after, For I have much people in this city. [ibid. 10] But it is withdrawn on account of both, as Eli the priest both knew the wicked conduct of his children, and exercised not the fitting language of reproof, when these the guilt of their sin, and him the punishment of his silence, was plainly about to mulct with the suffering of death. When we know not therefore, amongst these cases, either for whom the fervour of speech is given, or on whose account it is withdrawn, the one safe remedy is, neither to pride ourselves on those gifts which we have received beyond others, nor yet to make jest of another for having received less: but to walk gravely and steadily, with the firm-fixed foot of humility. Because we are in this life the more truly learned, the more we know that our learning cannot be supplied to us from ourselves. Why should therefore any one be proud of his learning, who knows not either when it is given to any one by a secret sentence, or when it is withdrawn? For though fear seems to be always far removed from security; yet there is nothing safer for us than ever to feel fear, under the prevalence of hope, lest our mind should from want of caution plunge itself into sin through desperation, or fall headlong through boasting of its gifts. For the more humbly a man trembles for himself, together with hope, before the eyes of the strict and merciful Judge, the more firmly does he stand in Him.
