The Reward of Patience and Gentle Correction

He makes the Word say: 'Behold the paths of the Bold, the ways of the Sabeans who see' (Job 20:5), which is: seeing with intellect, so that his whole mind might be such; but I became a stranger and was stripped of all.

Understand the paths of the Bold, judge the ways of the Sabeans, even if they are well-off; we think with minds that, trusting in wealth and glory, they do not have right paths or ways. And he was saying these things submissively and to those who seemed like friends, that he who falls into such evils is carried away, saying: even if you are kings and will not fall into misfortune, but understand the paths of the Bold and the Sabeans—their paths text gapped—that trusting in human things, you are incurring shame.

If you would also take the interpretations of the names, this thought would occur, that the 'Bold' are those falling away, while the 'Sabeans' are those returning. Therefore, he exhorts those falling away from virtue, who have trusted even in wealth, to observe them, but he also exhorts to understand those returning to the nature of things, because it does not always remain in prosperity, but also frequently turns back.

Therefore, there is shame in trusting in money or in cities, saying 'cities' meaning the human glories and as if they were in safety. If those falling away were to be praised, he exhorts: understand, how there are also others leaving evils and not always prospering in human things.

If you would wish to learn that things receive much change, those enjoying things frequently lose many of which they were deprived; you would not have placed them as if they were permanent. For 'he who has trusted in wealth will fall, but he who grasps what is just will rise' (cf. Luke 16:25), just as Lazarus was carried into the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16:22), but the rich man is delivered to the torment having fallen upon it (Luke 16:23), who through arrogance overlooked Lazarus. For indeed the word observed that...

Regarding 'he was set at the gate' and that he was very rich, so that he might not have an excuse saying that they did not know him or did not possess sufficiency. And 'rising' is also well used. For just as the sown things, having undergone decay, later bloom, so he who is pressed by circumstances and endures will have the rising as a reward for his patience, 'shining like the sun in the kingdom of the Father' (Job 23:10).

For he was persuaded in the Lord according to the things said: 'Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord' (Psalm 84:12); 'those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion' (Psalm 125:1)', and saying: 'I have trusted in the Lord', not 'in money or in human cities', but in the Divine Wealth and 'the city of the great King' (Psalm 127:1), whose 'foundations are in the holy mountains', calculating the words of the Lord as 'desirable things far above gold and precious stone'.

'Even you also have come to me compassionately.' And he who admonishes those who have fallen into false accusations with a gloomy countenance is not correcting them according to reason by being moved. For this is not the purpose, but rather to urge them toward manliness and to engage bravely. For to say: 'Why then did we sin?' is more heavy than to be light in toil.

For in truth, they approached him compassionately to rescue him from being tossed about concerning the cause of the indictment, and because they were trying to correct him by accusing one who was not submissive. 'So having seen my wound, you were afraid.' The saint is most pastoral and toward those who are not rightly disposed toward him, he approaches by correcting them from their own error and receiving from their own state the beginning of the exhortation; for every one who sins falls into gloom, and he who fell from sins suffered this, and you also be afraid, receiving fear from our wound. For it was clear to them that 'no one is clean from the filth of men'. And these things indeed the blessed one says as correcting regarding their error, but also useful toward...