He tears himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for you? and shall the rock be removed out of its place?
Read Chapter 18
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Thou. Hebrew, "He teareth his soul in his fury! "(Haydock)
This is spoken with an air of contempt, as if Job were mad, chap. xiii. 14. (Calmet)
Place. We should expect to see such effects, as soon as we would allow that God punishes thee, without thy being guilty. Hitherto he has treated the wicked only with such rigour. Still thou wouldst assert that thou art a singular example of an innocent man under oppression! (Calmet)
4. Heretics esteem whether a strong feeling for the rule of right, or the spiritual grace of holy preaching, not as good weight of virtue, but as the madness of fury. By which same fury they believe that ‘the souls of the faithful are ruined,’ in that they imagine that the life of the Church is destroyed by the very same means whereby they see she is made to kindle against themselves. It goes on;
Shall the earth be forsaken for thee?
5. For they think that they themselves worship God every where, that they themselves have occupied the whole world. What is it then to say, Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? but what they often say to the faithful, viz. ‘that if this thing which you say be true, all the earth is forsaken by God, which we ourselves already occupy from the multitude of us.’ Now the holy Church universal proclaims that God cannot be truly worshipped saving within herself, asserting that all they that are without her shall never be saved. But conversely heretics, ...
Bildad speaks these words because Job did not refrain from complaining by saying that he wanted to die. What sort of consolation is this? How could he have disheartened him in another way? He said, in fact, that the “stretches under heaven would be desolate,” or did he mention his death as if it brought a great contribution to this life that is common to us? Actually Bildad says the opposite: a man is nothing and deserves no mention. Why do you say that? Then he also foolishly and haphazardly accuses the impious, in order to support his present argument. They cannot put the blame on [Job] for any evil action. But notice their perversity; by saying that great misfortunes will befall the impious, they mention those afflictions suffered by Job, naming his miseries in their words, as if they wanted to show that they alluded to him. Notice and observe that their remarks about others are addressed to him. - "Commentary on Job 18.4b–c"
