72. Whereas the murderer in the killing of his neighbours is wont to come upon them chiefly in the silence of the night, why is it that he is said in this place to ‘rise with the light’ in order to ‘kill the poor and needy,’ whilst ‘in the night’ he is described ‘to be as a thief?’ Now forasmuch as the letter in the bare words alone is not consistent with itself, we are called back for the investigating the hidden meanings of the Spirit. In Holy Scripture the ‘morning’ is sometimes used to be put for the coming of the Lord’s Incarnation, sometimes for the coming of the henceforth dreadful and searching Judge, sometimes for the prosperity of the present life. Thus the coming of the Lord’s Incarnation proved a ‘morning,’ as the Prophet saith, The morning cometh, and also the night; [Is. 21, 12] in that both the beginnings of the new light shone forth in the appearing of our Redeemer, and yet the shades of their misbelief were not cleared off from the hearts of the persecutors. Again...
He says this again to his friends with a bit of hesitation, If afflictions entirely derive from sins, why did he who observes all that happens on earth allow them to go without being visited by him? “And they took no notice,” that is, the iniquitous took no notice of the fact that they were not visited. Indeed it is believed and taught about divine visitation, “The Lord reproves the one he loves, as a father checks a well-loved son.” - "Commentary on Job 24.12–13"
