For he breaks me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds without cause.
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Ephrem The Syrian
AD 373
These words mean two different things, either that Job had not sinned, even though he was, nevertheless, undergoing a punishment; or that Christ, as if he were guilty of sin, would have suffered resolutely the temptation of blameless passions. - "Commentary on Job 9.17"
Without cause. That is, without my knowing the cause; or without any crime of mine. (Challoner)
To argue from my afflictions, that I am a criminal, is unjust, chap. ii. 3. "Notions mistaken, reasonings ill apply'd, And sophisms that conclude on either side. "(Pope, Pleasures)
31. In every case that sinner is ‘broken with a tempest,’ who seemed to be stablished in tranquillity, in that the man whom the long-suffering Above bears with for long, the last strict Judgment destroys. And this is rightly called ‘a tempest,’ because it is manifested in a commotion of the elements, as the Psalmist witnesses, when he says, God shall come manifest, and He shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before Him, and a mighty tempest round about Him. [Ps. 50, 3] And hence another Prophet also says, The Lord, His way is in the whirlwind and in the storm. [Nahum 1, 3] In which same whirlwind the righteous man is never broken, for this reason, because here he is ever in fear and anxiety, lest he should be broken. For whilst still set in the journey of the present life, he bethinks himself how severe towards the actions of men the Requirer of works will appear, Who then condemns even without works some that are only bound with the guilt of original sin. Whence the holy ...
