Job — Chapter 16

Audivi frequenter talia consolatores onerosi

On Job's reproof of the comforters: "I have heard many such things before. You are all troublesome comforters" (v. 2). Corderius expounds what a true consoler should be, drawing on Gregory (Moral. XIV.1) and Chrysostom. The friends have become "consolatores onerosi" — burdensome consolers — because they compound the sufferer's misery with their accusations. The LXX renders "consolers of evils"; Aquila and Theodotion: "consolers of hardships." On vv. 4-5: "I also could speak as you do if your soul were in my soul's stead; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you. But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should assuage your grief" — Job explicitly contrasts what he would do in their place with what they are doing. Corderius develops the pastoral principle: the true consoler identifies with the sufferer, uses words that build up and soothe, and refrains from accusation and moralizing.

Sed quid agam si locutus fuero

On the double bind of silence and speech: "If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?" Corderius develops the existential paradox of the sufferer's speech: speaking provides some relief (it externalizes the inner pressure) but cannot ultimately assuage genuine pain; silence is unendurable but provides no cure either. Gregory (Moral. XIV.9): the holy man in affliction must balance between the two extremes — excessive lamentation, which can become murmuring against God, and excessive silence, which can suppress the grace of authentic communication. The middle path: speaking to God, not about God; directing the complaint upward rather than outward. On vv. 7-11: the extended description of Job's physical and social affliction — God as the direct agent of his destitution, adversaries mocking him, the ungodly insulting him — Corderius notes that attributing suffering to God (rather than purely to secondary causes) is theologically more profound: it acknowledges the ultimate Cause and opens the possibility of direct appeal to that Cause.

Conclusit me Deus apud iniquum

On Job's sufferings as a figure of Christ's Passion: Corderius develops a rich Christological commentary on vv. 12-18: "He set me up as his target; his archers surround me. He cleaves my kidneys asunder and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground. He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior... My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness, although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure." Corderius, following Gregory (Moral. XIV.17-19), sees in these verses a detailed pre-figuration of the Passion of Christ: the target pierced by arrows (the body of Christ torn by whips and nails), the kidneys and gall (the suffering of Christ's inmost being), breach upon breach (the repeated wounds of his Passion), the warrior rushing upon him (the soldiers and crowd). On v. 18: "O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place" — analogous to Abel's blood crying from the ground (Gen. 4:10), this is interpreted as a prophetic anticipation of the blood of Christ crying for mercy rather than vengeance (Heb. 12:24).

Ecce enim in caelo testis meus

On the heavenly witness: "Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high" (v. 19). Corderius identifies this witness (testis meus in caelo) with God himself or, in the Christian interpretation, with Christ as the heavenly advocate. Gregory (Moral. XIV.25-26): Job appeals to God against God — to the merciful God against the apparently harsh God of his afflictions; or rather, to the eternal divine plan against the partial view of human observers. Chrysostom: the witness in heaven is "conscience supported by truth." On v. 21: "For the words of my friends are garrulous; my eye pours out tears to God" — while the friends talk, Job prays. Corderius draws the lesson: when arguments fail, tears before God are the most powerful advocacy. On v. 22: "When a few years are past, I shall go the way whence I shall not return" — the imminence of death intensifies the appeal; Job needs vindication not in the distant future but soon.