I will not conceal his limbs, nor his power, nor his graceful proportion.
All Commentaries on Job 41:12 Go To Job 41
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
42. Who can think this, which he knows he has never read, that the devil is about to ask pardon for his faults? But perhaps that man, whom this Leviathan in the end of the world makes his peculiar vessel, (whom, as Paul attests, the Lord Jesus shall slay with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming,) [2 Thess, 2, 8] alarmed at the presence of such great majesty, because he is unable to exercise his strength, bends himself [‘inclinatur’] to prayer. But this can be more fitly understood of his body, that is of all the wicked, who have recourse at last to words of supplication, because they now scorn to perform its deeds. Whence the Truth says in the Gospel, Last of all come also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. [Matt. 25, 11] To whom it is immediately replied, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. [ib. 12] But when he is said to compose words mighty for entreaty, he urges us the more to understand at this time that which we have said of his body in time to come.
43. For there are some within Holy Church who offer to God long prayers, but have not the conduct of those who entreat. For they follow after heavenly promises in their petitions, but avoid them in their deeds. These sometimes feel even tears in their prayer, but when after the seasons of prayer pride has struck their mind, they immediately swell up with the haughtiness of high-mindedness; when avarice urges them, they frequently glow with the heat of covetous thought; when lust has tempted, they pant at once with unlawful desires; when anger has persuaded them, the flame of madness soon consumes their gentleness of mind. As we have said then, they both experience tears in prayer, and yet at the close of their prayers, when they are assaulted with the suggestions of sins, they remember not that they had wept for desire of the heavenly kingdom. Which Balaam openly stated concerning himself, who says, on beholding the tabernacles of the just, Let my soul die with the death of the just, and let my last end be like theirs. [Numb. 23, 10] But when the time of compunction passed, he gave counsel against the life of those, to whom he had asked to be made like even in death; and when he found an occasion of avarice, he immediately forgot whatever he had wished for himself in the way of innocence. A prayer, then, which the perseverance of continual love does not hold fast, has not the weight of virtue. And, as the contrary of this, it is well said of Hannah when weeping, And her countenance was no more changed to a different form; [1 Sam. 1, 18] namely, because her mind lost not after her prayers, by wantoning in foolish joy, that which at the season of its prayer, it sought for with hardness of groans. But by some the labour of prayer is turned to the purpose of traffic. Of whom the Truth says in the Gospel, Which devour widows houses under the pretence of long prayers. These shall receive greater judgment. [Mark 12, 40] Because therefore the prayers of the wicked, who are the body of this Leviathan, are in no way spared, when their prayers are destroyed by their conduct, it is now rightly said, I will not spare him, nor his mighty words, and framed for entreaty. Although from the words being said to be mighty, and framed for entreaty, the emptiness of their prayer is plainly pointed out. For truly to pray is to utter bitter groans in compunction, and not well arranged words. But because the more severely the ancient enemy is crushed, the more does he expand in wickedness by manifold arguments; and because the Lord manifests his snares the more mercifully, the more artfully He observes them to be concealed.
