His strength shall be hunger-bitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.
Read Chapter 18
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
17. After the manner of Holy Scripture, he has the appearance of wishing that which he foresees will be, not surely in the spirit of one uttering curses, but of one pronouncing prophesies. Thus every man, in that he consists of soul and flesh, is as it were made up of strength and weakness. For by virtue of that part, by which he was created a reasoning spirit, he is not improperly called ‘strong,’ but in respect of that, by which he is of a fleshly substance, he is weak. And so ‘the strength’ of man is the reasoning soul, which is able to resist by reason the tendencies to evil that assail it. And hence it is said again by blessed Job, Thou hast strengthened him for a while, that he might pass through for evermore. [Job 14, 20] Since from a reasoning soul man derives it, that he should live for evermore. And so this wicked man’s ‘strength is hungerbitten,’ in that his soul is not fed by any refreshment of the interior food. Of which same hunger God saith by the Prophet; I will...
These words are appropriate to the impious but not at all to Job, because “pains have not destroyed him” but have made him appear to be a powerful fighter, have made him appear doubly just. Many have come, and “the soles of their feet have been devoured”; therefore, those who have come must complain about themselves and not about the righteous, because Job, thanks to his patience, deserves crowns and happiness. - "Homilies on Job 21.18.12"
