Job — Chapter 36

Addens quoque Eliu haec locutus est

On Elihu's defense of divine justice: "And Elihu continued and said: Bear with me a little, and I will show you, for I have yet something to say on God's behalf. I will get my knowledge from afar and ascribe righteousness to my Maker. For truly my words are not false; one who is perfect in knowledge is with you." Corderius credits Elihu with this speech being much superior to those of the three friends: he speaks as a prophet, his words are closer to the truth, and his approach to Job is more respectful. On vv. 5-7: "Behold, God is mighty, and does not despise any; he is mighty in strength of understanding. He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives the afflicted their right. He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne he sets them forever, and they are exalted." Corderius develops this as a statement of divine Providence: God cares for the righteous with constant attention; their afflictions are not signs of divine neglect but instruments of divine correction and purification. Gregory (Moral. XXVII.3): God keeps his eyes on the just even when he seems to have withdrawn them.

Et si fuerint in catenis vinciantur

On divine discipline through suffering: "And if they are bound in chains and caught in the cords of affliction, then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly. He opens their ears to instruction and commands that they return from iniquity. If they listen and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness." Corderius presents this as the mature theology of suffering in the book: afflictions are divine communications, teaching the afflicted about their hidden faults, calling them to conversion. He cites Gregory (Moral. XXVII.11): "Not all afflictions are punishments for sin, but all afflictions are invitations to greater perfection." The key pastoral distinction: punishment (poena) is backward-looking, a consequence of past sin; discipline (disciplina) is forward-looking, a preparation for future good. Elihu here speaks of the second, which more accurately describes Job's case. Those who hear and serve God will complete their days in prosperity; those who do not will perish by the sword.

Eripiet de angustia sua pauperem

On God's liberation of the afflicted poor: "He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity. He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was no cramping, and what was set on your table was full of fatness." Corderius interprets "opens their ear by adversity" as the central pedagogical principle of divine affliction. The word "opens" (revel) literally means "uncovers the ear" — a Hebraism for divine revelation; God literally discloses to the sufferer what could not be communicated through prosperity. He cites Bernard (De Consid. II.6): "Prosperity blinds; adversity opens the inner eye." The "broad place" to which God brings the afflicted — spacious, free, generous — is the interior freedom of the soul liberated from all attachment to temporal goods by purifying suffering. On v. 21: "Be careful not to turn to iniquity, for this you have chosen rather than affliction" — Elihu warns that suffering's purpose can be thwarted if the sufferer responds with bitterness or sin rather than faith. The choice remains: one can either be ennobled by affliction or embittered by it.

Ecce Deus excelsus in fortitudine sua

On the incomprehensibility of God's greatness: "Behold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him? Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say 'You have done wrong'?" Corderius develops the via negativa: God's greatness cannot be contained in any human category of judgment. He draws on Dionysius (Div. Nom. ch. 1) and Aquinas (ST I, q. 12-13) on the analogy of being: human language can speak of God analogically but never adequately; every affirmation about God must be accompanied by a negation of all creatureliness. On vv. 27-30: the meteorological hymn — rain drops, overflowing rivers, lightning that illumines — is treated as a natural analogy for the way divine grace overflows in apparently chaotic ways that are in fact divinely ordered. On v. 31: "For by these he judges peoples; he gives food in abundance" — the same providential power that governs cosmic meteorology governs human history: Corderius develops the principle of divine Providence operating through secondary causes.