21

for the sake of daily food, she who possessed such a supply of good things. As if to say: Not only have we lost our children, the substance of our memory, and you yourself are held by so many terrible things, but we have also endured the most extreme poverty, gathering food for ourselves like hired hands, we who provided abundant supply to those in need; I, at least, have not even found servitude, nor is it possible to conceal the shame of my poverty in a single house, but I go about serving, and begging miserably, I who was formerly brought up in freedom. See how she weaves her own things with his; your things, she says, are not strong enough, let mine prevail. But having said what is most pitiable of all, that is, to change from house to house, she did not even stop her laments there, but added, saying: "Waiting for when the sun will set, that I may rest from my toils, and from the pains which possess me." For what is pleasant to others, she says, to see the sun's ray, this is burdensome to me; but darkness is longed for. And the night, for this alone gives me rest from my sweats, this becomes a comfort to me from my evils; it comforts me and makes me cease from my labors, the day, escorting the sun to its setting; for night knows how to cure wickedness, having darkness as its habitation. Yet, despairing at the misfortunes, and filled with diabolical energy, she suggests to the just man, that this solution to his evils was left for him, the release of the body; and it is possible for this to happen to him, if he should provoke God through blasphemy, and incite Him to his own destruction; and she maliciously introduces such counsel, constructing her argument from both her husband's and her own misfortunes. The pains of childbirth, she says, I endured, I toiled raising children, so that after you, you might leave your children as your memorial; the hope of these things has been cut off, all have perished, males and females alike; to whom then shall I look? To you, their father, full of worms, the poor man, the outcast? To me, the wretched one, the wanderer, who from great good fortune serve for a wage, and until evening am tried in pains and toils, but if you listen to me at all, speak some word to God, provoking him, that he might take you away; for this is the only solution to your evils left for you; wherefore she adds: "But say some word to the Lord, and die." Did you see here too the malice, how not even in the counsel itself did she immediately introduce the deadly 64.565 advice, but after first recounting pitiably the misfortunes, and drawing out the tragedy, she puts the advice in brief; and she does not even show it clearly, but having obscured it, she proposes to him the release, which is most desired, and promises an end, which he most desired. And consider from this also the malice of the devil; for since he knew Job's longing for God, he does not let the woman accuse God, so that he might not immediately turn away from her as an enemy; for this reason he makes no mention of him anywhere, but turns the events upside down and downside up. You then, along with what has been said, add that it was also a woman who was advising these things, a formidable orator to bewitch those who do not pay attention; many, at least, even without misfortunes, have been brought down by the counsel of women alone; and here too, as a stronger device than the preceding ones, he later brings the woman to the just man; as in, would that you had taken this one too, O wicked one, would that you had buried her with the children. But some say that the words are not even the woman's, but that he himself, having taken her form, speaks these things; for it was not likely that the wife of Job was such a person; unless one might say, that having been turned by misfortune she became such; and it is likely that this was not the first counsel, but that many times the just man heard things much harder than these from his wife. And see the devil's wickedness; he thought of Eve; a woman

21

ἐφημέρου ἕνεκεν τροφῆς, ἡ τοσαύτην χορηγίαν τῶν ἀγαθῶν κεκτημένη. Ἵνα εἴπῃ· Οὐ μόνον τοὺς παῖδας ἀπολελώκαμεν, τῆς ἡμετέρας μνήμης τὴν ὑπόθεσιν, καὶ αὐτὸς δὲ σὺ ὑπὸ τοσούτων κατέχῃ δεινῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ἐσχάτην πενίαν ὑπέστημεν, μισθωτῶν δίκην τὴν τροφὴν ἑαυτοῖς ἐκλέγοντες, οἱ ἄφθονον τοῖς δεομένοις τὴν χορηγίαν παρέχοντες· ἐγὼ γοῦν οὐδὲ δουλείας εὐπόρησα, οὐδὲ ἐν οἰκίᾳ μιᾷ καταστεῖλαι τῆς πενίας τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ περίειμι δουλεύουσα, καὶ προσαιτοῦσα ἀθλίως, ἡ πρὶν ἐλευθερίως τραφεῖσα. Ὅρα, πῶς πλέκει τοῖς ἐκείνου τὰ ἑαυτῆς· οὐκ ἰσχύει, φησὶ, τὰ σὰ, κρατείτω τὰ ἐμά. Εἰποῦσα δὲ ὃ πάντων ἐστὶν ἐλεεινότατον, τὸ, οἰκίαν ἐξ οἰκίας ἀμείβειν, οὐδὲ ἐνταῦθα ἔστη τῶν θρήνων, ἀλλ' ἐπήγαγε, λέγουσα· «Προσδεχομένη τὸν ἥλιον πότε δύσεται, ἵνα ἀναπαύσωμαι τῶν μόχθων μου, καὶ τῶν ὀδυνῶν αἵ με συνέχουσι.» Ὃ γὰρ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐστὶν ἡδὺ, φησὶ, τὸ τὴν ἀκτῖνα ὁρᾷν, τοῦτο ἐμοὶ βαρύ· ποθεινὸν δὲ τὸ σκότος. Καὶ ἡ νὺξ, αὕτη γάρ με ἀναπαύει τῶν ἱδρώτων μόνη, αὕτη μοι παραμύθιον γίνεται τῶν κακῶν· παρακαλεῖ με καὶ ἵστησι τῶν πόνων, ἡμέρα, τὸν ἥλιον πρὸς τὰς δυσμὰς παραπέμπουσα· νὺξ γὰρ θεραπεύειν οἶδε τὴν κακίαν, τὸ σκότος ἔχουσα ἐνδιαίτημα. Ἀπειποῦσα μέντοι πρὸς τὰς συμφορὰς, καὶ διαβολικῆς ἐνεργείας πεπληρωμένη, ὑποτίθεται τῷ δικαίῳ, ταύτην αὐτῷ τῶν κακῶν λύσιν ἀπολελείφθαι, τὴν τοῦ σώματος ἀπαλλαγήν· δυνατὸν δὲ ταύτην αὐτῷ προσγενέσθαι, εἰ παροργίσοι διὰ τῆς βλασφημίας τὸν Θεὸν, καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἀναίρεσιν ὑπερεθίσοι καθ' ἑαυτοῦ· κακοτέχνως δὲ τὴν τοιαύτην εἰσηγεῖται βουλὴν, ἔκ τε τῶν τοῦ ἀνδρὸς, καὶ τῶν ἑαυτῆς συμφορῶν, τὸν λόγον κατασκευάζουσα. Τὰς τῶν ὠδίνων, φησὶ, ἀλγηδόνας ὑπέμεινα, ἐμόχθησα παιδοτροφοῦσα, ἵνα μετὰ σὲ τὸ μνημόσυνόν σου, τοὺς παῖδας καταλίπῃς· ἐξεκόπη τούτων ἡ ἐλπὶς, πάντες ἀπώλοντο, ἄῤῥενες ὁμοῦ, καὶ θήλειαι· εἰς τίνα λοιπὸν ἀναβλέψω; εἰς σὲ, τὸν τούτων πατέρα, τῶν σκωλήκων πλήρη, τὸν πένητα, τὸν ἀπεῤῥιμμένον; εἰς ἐμὲ, τὴν ἀθλίαν, τὴν πλανῆτιν, τὴν ἐκ τῆς πολλῆς εὐδαιμονίας ἐπὶ μισθῷ θητεύουσαν, καὶ μέχρις ἑσπέρας ἐν ὀδύναις καὶ μόχθοις ἐξεταζομένην, ἀλλ' εἴ τι μοι πείθῃ, φθέγξαι τι ῥῆμα πρὸς Θεὸν, παροργίζων αὐτὸν, ἵνα σε ἀνέλῃ· αὕτη γάρ σοι μόνη τῶν κακῶν ὑπολέλειπται λύσις· διὸ ἐπάγει· «Ἀλλὰ εἰπόν τι ῥῆμα εἰς Κύριον, καὶ τελεύτα.» Εἶδες κἀνταῦθα τὴν κακουργίαν, πῶς οὐδὲ ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ συμβουλῇ εὐθέως εἰσήγαγε τὴν ὀλεθρίαν 64.565 παραίνεσιν, ἀλλὰ διηγησαμένη πρῶτον ἐλεεινῶς τὰς συμφορὰς, καὶ ἐκτείνασα τὴν τραγῳδίαν, ἐν βραχεῖ τίθησι τὴν παραίνεσιν· καὶ οὐδὲ ἐμφαίνει σαφῶς αὐτὴν, ἀλλὰ συσκιάσασα ἐκείνην, τὴν ἀπαλλαγὴν αὐτῷ προτείνει, τὴν μάλιστα ποθεινὴν, καὶ ἐπαγγέλλεται τελευτὴν, ὃ μάλιστα ἐπεθύμει. Καὶ σκόπει κἀντεῦθεν τοῦ διαβόλου τὴν κακουργίαν· ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ᾔδει τὸν πόθον τοῦ Ἰὼβ τὸν περὶ τὸν Θεὸν, οὐκ ἀφίησι τὴν γυναῖκα κατηγορῆσαι τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἵνα μὴ ὡς ἐχθρὰν εὐθέως ἀποστραφῇ· διὰ τοῦτο αὐτοῦ μὲν οὐδαμοῦ μέμνηται, τὰ δὲ συμβάντα, ἄνω καὶ κάτω στρέφει. Σὺ δὲ, μετὰ τῶν εἰρημένων, ὅτι καὶ γυνὴ ἦν ἡ ταῦτα συμβουλεύουσα, προστίθει, δεινὸς καταγοητεῦσαι ῥήτωρ τοὺς μὴ προσέχοντας· πολλοὶ γοῦν, καὶ χωρὶς συμφορῶν, ἀπὸ γυναικῶν συμβουλῆς κατηνέχθησαν μόνης· κἀνταῦθα δὲ ὡς ἰσχυρώτερον τῶν προλαβόντων μηχανημάτων, ὕστερον τὴν γυναῖκα τῷ δικαίῳ προσάγει· ὡς εἶθε καὶ ταύτην ἔλαβες, ὦ πονηρὲ, εἶθε μετὰ τῶν παίδων κατέχωσας. Τινὲς δέ φασιν οὐδὲ τῆς γυναικὸς εἶναι τὰ ῥήματα, ἀλλ' αὐτὸν εἰς αὐτὴν τυπωθέντα, ταῦτα φθέγγεσθαι· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἦν εἰκὸς τὴν γυναῖκα τοῦ Ἰὼβ τοιαύτην εἶναι· πλὴν εἰ μή τις εἴποι, τῇ συμφορᾷ περιτραπεῖσαν τοιαύτην γεγενῆσθαι· εἰκὸς δὲ, μὴ ταύτην πρώτην γεγενῆσθαι τὴν συμβουλὴν, ἀλλὰ πολλάκις πολλῷ τούτων χαλεπώτερα παρὰ τῆς γυναικὸς ἀκοῦσαι τὸν δίκαιον. Καὶ ὅρα διαβόλου πονηρίαν· ἐνενόησε τὴν Εὔαν· γυνὴ