43

and just as a river that has dried up, so a man who has died disappears. But the phrase *until the heaven be not sewn together*, that is: until the consummation. Therefore, read it thus: *until the heaven*, and make a pause, so that it says: as long as the world has stood, the man who has died shall not be sewn together, instead of: shall not be joined together. And by "sewing together" he means the connection of the joining of the limbs. And he said this, so that no one might suppose that the resurrection happens at different times, but once at the consummation of the ages. And note that he clearly taught the mystery of the resurrection. And these things are regarding the literal text. But according to allegory, *for a tree there is hope*, instead of: for a man. For even if he falls into transgression, but repents and comes to be in the land of piety and on the rock, that is, in pious faith, from the water of regeneration or even from the tear of repentance he will sprout again. But he who has died in his transgression and sin has no good hope. And in time sin, tropically called a sea, vanishes, and the devil and his temptations are dried up, but those who have died do not disappear, awaiting the resurrection. 14, 1314 For would that you had guarded me in Hades, and hidden me, until your wrath should cease; and appoint for me a time, in which you will remember me. For if a man should die, he will live, having completed the days of his life. Theodotion, instead of *he will live*, said *he will not live*. 132 And this is the meaning: Would that, he says, for this time in which you are angry with me, you had guarded me in Hades—for the custody there is blameless—and had not forgotten me completely, but had appointed for me a time for the custody there. And he has given the reason for desiring death: for without torments, he says, being guarded there I await the resurrection. For if, he says, a man dies having completed the days of this life, he does not go into non-existence, but lives in his soul, awaiting the resurrection. But according to Theodotion: if, he says, a man dies, *he will not live*, so that it might say that he is delivered from torments. 14, 1415 I will wait, until I be made again. Then you will call me, and I will obey you. For if, he says, I am guarded in Hades, I await the regeneration and resurrection, when you will command the dead to rise, and I will obey you. It signifies the swiftness of nature for the resurrection. For at a command, at the voice of an archangel, with no one opposing, in the twinkling of an eye the resurrection happens, as the holy apostle also taught us. And having announced these things prophetically, the blessed Job again turns to supplication and says: 14, 1517 And do not reject the works of your hands, but you have numbered my deeds, and none of my sins shall escape you. You have sealed 133 up my iniquities in a bag, and have marked if I have transgressed anything unwillingly. Again he beseeches God as his maker and says: O Master, do not make me, your own creation, an outcast, nor in this way minutely count and track our affairs as if sealing everything in a bag, so that not even one, as it were, of our sins might be lost, but that penalties be demanded for all of them. And why, O Master, do you thus mark and, as it were, register even our unwilling sins? And he says these things, on the one hand beseeching God not to examine our affairs precisely, and on the other hand teaching us that nothing of ours escapes the unerring perception of God, whether we do anything voluntarily or involuntarily. And that we shall also render an account for involuntary things, you have also heard the word of Ecclesiastes saying at the end, that: *God will bring every work into judgment, concerning everything overlooked, whether it be good or whether it be evil.* 14, 1819 And moreover a falling mountain shall fall, and a rock shall be worn away from its place. Waters have worn away stones, and waters have washed away the supine parts of the soil of the earth; and you have destroyed the patience of man. The wise Job speaks riddles, since he himself, being wise, also understood many things spoken by his friends in riddles, his mind nowhere distracted by the pains, but philosophizing in the very midst of his sufferings. He seems, therefore, in these words to beseech God not to

43

καὶ ὥσπερ ποταμὸς ξηρανθείς, οὕτως ἄνθρωπος ἀποθανὼν ἀφανὴς γίνεται. τὸ δὲ ἕως ἂν ὁ οὐρανός, οὐ μὴ συρραφῇ, τουτέστιν· ἕως συντελείας. οὕτως οὖν ἀνάγνωθι· ἕως ἂν ὁ οὐρανός, καὶ ὑπόστιξον, ἵνα εἴπῃ· ἕως συνέστηκεν ὁ κόσμος, ὁ ἀποθανὼν ἄνθρωπος οὐ μὴ συρραφῇ, ἀντὶ τοῦ· οὐ μὴ συναρμοσθῇ. συρραφὴν δὲ λέγει τὸν εἱρμὸν τῶν ζεύξεων τῶν μελῶν. τοῦτο δὲ εἶπεν, ἵνα μή τις ὑπολάβῃ κατὰ καιρὸν ἀνάστασιν γίνεσθαι, ἀλλ' ἅπαξ ἐπὶ συντελείᾳ τῶν αἰώνων. καὶ σημείωσαι, ὅτι σαφῶς τὸ τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἐδίδαξε μυστήριον. καὶ ταῦτα μὲν πρὸς τὸ ῥητόν. ἔστι δὲ κατὰ ἀλληγορίαν δένδρῳ ἐλπίς, ἀντὶ τοῦ· ἀνθρώπῳ. κἂν γὰρ ἐν παραπτώματι γένηται, μετανοήσῃ δὲ καὶ γένηται ἐν τῇ γῇ τῆς εὐσεβείας καὶ ἐν τῇ πέτρᾳ ἤγουν τῇ εὐσεβεῖ πίστει, ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος τῆς παλιγγενεσίας ἢ καὶ ἐκ τοῦ δακρύου τῆς μετανοίας ἀναβλαστήσει. ὁ δὲ τῇ παρατροπῇ καὶ τῇ ἁμαρτία ἐναποθανὼν οὐδεμίαν ἔχει χρηστὴν ἐλπίδα. καὶ χρόνῳ μὲν ἀφανίζεται ἡ ἁμαρτία, θάλασσα τροπικῶς ὀνομαζομένη, ὁ δὲ διάβολος καὶ οἱ αὐτοῦ πειρασμοὶ ξηραίνονται, οἱ δὲ τελευτήσαντες οὐκ ἐξαφανίζονται περιμένοντες τὴν ἀνάστασιν. 14, 1314 εἰ γὰρ ὄφελον ἐν ἅδῃ με ἐφύλαξας, ἔκρυψας δέ με, ἕως ἂν παύσηταί σου ἡ ὀργή· καὶ τάξῃ μοι χρόνον, ἐν ᾧ μνείαν μοι ποιήσῃ. ἐὰν γὰρ ἀποθάνῃ ἄνθρωπος, ζήσεται συντελέσας τὰς ἡμέρας τοῦ βίου αὐτοῦ. ὁ Θεοδοτίων ἀντὶ τοῦ ζήσεται· _μ_ὴ_ _ζ_ή_σ_ε_τ_α_ι_ _ἔ_φ_η_. 132 ὁ δὲ νοῦς οὗτος· εἴθε, φησίν, τὸν χρόνον τοῦτον, ὃν ὀργίζει μοι, ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ με ἐφύλαξαςἀνέγκλητος γὰρ ἡ ἐκεῖ φυλακήκαὶ μὴ παντελῶς ἐπελάθου μου, ἀλλ' ἔταξάς μοι χρόνον τῆς ἐκεῖ φυλακῆς. αἰτίαν δὲ ἀποδέδωκε τοῦ ποθεῖν τὸν θάνατον· δίχα γὰρ βασάνων, φησίν, ἐκεῖ φυλαττόμενος προσδοκῶ τὴν ἀνάστασιν. ἐὰν γάρ, φησίν, ἀποθάνῃ ἄνθρωπος συντελέσας τὰς ἡμέρας τοῦδε τοῦ βίου, οὐκ εἰς ἀνυπαρξίαν χωρεῖ, ἀλλὰ ζῇ τῇ ψυχῇ περιμένων τὴν ἀνάστασιν. κατὰ δὲ Θεοδοτίωνα· ἐάν, φησίν, ἀποθάνῃ ἄνθρωπος, οὐ ζήσεται, ἵνα εἴπῃ, ὅτι τῶν βασάνων ἀπαλλάττεται. 14, 1415 ὑπομενῶ, ἕως ἂν πάλιν γένωμαι. εἶτα καλέσεις με, ἐγὼ δέ σοι ὑπακούσομαι. ἐὰν γάρ, φησίν, ἐν ᾅδου φυλαχθῶ, προσδοκῶ τὴν παλιγγενεσίαν καὶ ἀνάστασιν, ὅτε σὺ μὲν ἐντέλλῃ τοῖς νεκροῖς ἀναστῆναι, ἐγὼ δέ σοι ὑπακούσομαι. σημαίνει τὸ γοργὸν τῆς φύσεως εἰς τὴν ἀνάστασιν. ἐν γὰρ κελεύσματι, ἐν φωνῇ ἀρχαγγέλου, οὐδενὸς ἀντιπράττοντος ἐν ῥιπῇ ὀφθαλμοῦ ἡ ἀνάστασις γίνεται, ὡς καὶ ὁ ἱερὸς ἡμᾶς ἀπόστολος ἐδίδαξε. ταῦτα δὲ προφητικῶς ἐξαγγείλας ὁ μακάριος Ἰὼβ πάλιν ἐπὶ τὴν ἱκεσίαν προτρέπεται καί φησιν· 14, 1517 τὰ δὲ ἔργα τῶν χειρῶν σου μὴ ἀποποιοῦ, ἠρίθμησας δέ μου τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα, καὶ οὐ μὴ παρέλθῃ σε οὐδὲν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν μου. ἐσφρά 133 γισας δέ μου τὰς ἀνομίας ἐν βαλλαντίῳ, ἐπεσημήνω δέ, εἴ τι ἄκων παρέβην. πάλιν ὡς ποιητὴν ἱκετεύει τὸν θεὸν καί φησιν· μὴ ἀπόβλητόν με, δέσποτα, τὸ σὸν ποιήσῃ δημιούργημα, μηδὲ οὕτω τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς λεπτῶς ἐξαρίθμει καὶ ἐξιχνίαζε ὥσπερ ἐν βαλλαντίῳ πάντα κατακλείων, ἐφ' ᾧ μηδεμίαν οἱονεὶ παραπολέσθαι τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν, ἀλλὰ πασῶν ἀπαιτεῖσθαι τὰς δίκας. διὰ τί δέ, δέσποτα, καὶ τὰς ἀκουσίους ἡμῶν ἁμαρτίας οὕτως ἐπισημαίνει καὶ οἱονεὶ ἀπογράφεις; ταῦτα δέ φησι θεὸν μὲν ἱκετεύων, μὴ ἀκριβῶς ἐξετάζειν τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς, ἡμᾶς δὲ διδάσκων, ὡς οὐδὲν διαλανθάνει τὴν ἀπλανῆ τοῦ θεοῦ κατανόησιν τῶν ἡμετέρων, εἴτε προαιρετικῶς, εἴτε ἀκουσίως τι πράξομεν. ὅτι δὲ καὶ τῶν ἀκουσίων ὑφέξομεν τοὺς λόγους, ἤκουσας καὶ τοῦ λόγου τοῦ Ἐκκλησιαστικοῦ πρὸς τῷ τέλει λέγοντος, ὅτι· σύμπαν τὸ ποίημα ὁ θεὸς ἄξει ἐν κρίσει ἐν παντὶ παρεωραμένῳ, ἐὰν ἀγαθὸν καὶ ἐὰν πονηρόν. 14, 1819 καὶ πλὴν ὄρος πῖπτον πεσεῖται καὶ πέτρα παλαιωθήσεται ἐκ τοῦ τόπου αὐτῆς. λίθους ἐλέαναν ὕδατα, καὶ κατέκλυσεν ὕδατα ὑπτία τοῦ χώματος τῆς γῆς καὶ ὑπομονὴν ἀνθρώπου ἀπώλεσας. ὁ σοφὸς Ἰὼβ αἰνίγματα λαλεῖ, ἐπειδὴ καὶ πολλὰ τῶν φίλων δι' αἰνιγμάτων ῥηθέντα συνῆκεν αὐτὸς ὡς σοφός, οὐδαμοῦ τὸν νοῦν ἐκ τῶν ἀλγηδόνων περισπασθείς, ἀλλ' ἐν μέσοις αὐτοῖς τοῖς πάθεσι φιλοσοφῶν. ἔοικεν οὖν ἐν τούτοις τὸν θεὸν ἱκετεύειν μὴ ἐπὶ