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but they turned the powerless out of the way of righteousness. 6 It was likely that the friends would contradict what Job had said, saying: You suffer these things not because you are pure, as you say, but because you are paying the penalty for your transgressions. Forcefully, therefore, resolving the objection, he added, saying: How is it that the impious take away the things of their neighbors, moving boundaries and harming those who live nearby, and mercilessly seizing the shepherd along with the flocks, and taking away from orphans and widows the means of living—I mean the ox and any other beast of burden— and they condemn the weak, perverting the votes of justice against them, while God, as if forgetting the times, postpones the punishments? For by 'hours' he means 'times'. And this is the meaning: if punishments always follow sins, it would have been opportune to inflict the punishment at the same time as the transgression. But now some do irreparable things, while God, as if having forgotten the times, holds back the retributions. The 'why', therefore, is not said as an accusation, but problematically toward his friends. 24, 45 But the meek of the earth were hidden with one accord; and they went away like asses in the field. Seeing these deeds of the unjust, he says, the most gentle embrace the solitary and quiet life, preferring to spend their time with wild animals rather than with such men. 24, 5 Going out on my behalf, their own action. 7 And concealing their manifest wickedness, they work their insidious deceptions, seeming to act on my behalf, but plotting against me. 24, 5 Their bread was sweet to the younger ones. The impious did these things, delighting in youthful desires as in bread, or even raising up certain young men in order to be able to work their outrages through them. 24, 6 They reaped a field that was not theirs before its time. They sinned in two ways at once, by cutting the crops before their time, and these being the crops of others; for those who pursue the life of a robber are accustomed to do this, because at the time of the harvest the crops are guarded. 24, 6 But the powerless worked the vineyards of the impious without pay and without food. This too is a very great transgression, for the poor to work for the rich without pay. 24, 7 They made many sleep naked without clothing, and they took away the covering of their soul. 'They made them sleep naked' instead of: 'having stripped them, they made them be quiet'; for out of fear those who were being stripped did not speak against it. By 'covering of the soul' he means the last tunic; for when the body is frozen by the cold, the soul suffers along with it. 24, 8 They are wet from the drops of the mountains, and because they have no shelter, they embrace a rock. 8 He describes the life of a robber; for such men, occupying the wilderness, mostly spend the night and day in the open air. And if ever they need to be sheltered, their shelter is dens and rocks and ravines. 24, 9 They snatched an orphan from the breast. Pitiably and unmercifully, while he was still drawing at his mother's nipple, in order to sell him to others. 24, 9 And they humbled one who had fallen. They humbled another who had fallen from his possessions, by taking away what he had. 24, 10 And they unjustly made them sleep naked. And having unjustly stripped others who owed them nothing, they made them love quietness. 24, 10 And they took away the morsel of the hungry. Having brought them to extreme poverty and lack of food. 24, 11 They laid an ambush unjustly in narrow places. Lying in ambush around precipitous places; for in the open spaces it was perhaps possible for the one being ambushed by them to escape. 24, 11 But they did not know the way of righteousness. In general, all the impious. 24, 12 Who were cast out from the city and their own houses. 9 This refers to 'And they unjustly made them sleep naked'; for these have suffered these things at the hands of the lawless, being driven out from city and homes. 24, 12 And the soul of infants groaned greatly. From the depths of the heart, as their parents were not able to share food with them. 24, 1213 But why has he not made an investigation of these things while they are on earth and they have not known? He says this in perplexity to his friends, that: if

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ἐξέκλιναν δὲ ἀδυνάτους ἐξ ὁδοῦ δικαίας. 6 τὰ προρρηθέντα τοῦ Ἰὼβ λέγοντος εἰκὸς ἦν τοὺς φίλους ἀντερεῖν ὡς· ταῦτα πάσχεις οὐ καθαρὸς ὤν, ὡς σὺ φής, ἀλλὰ τῶν πλημμελημάτων ἐκτίνων τὰς δίκας. γοργῶς οὖν ἐπιλύων τὸ ἀντιπῖπτον ἐπήγαγε λέγων· πῶς οἱ μὲν ἀσεβεῖς τὰ τῶν πλησίον ἀφαιροῦνται παρορίζοντες καὶ λυμαινόμενοι τοὺς ἀγχιτέρμονας καὶ ἀνηλεῶς σὺν τοῖς ποιμνίοις τὸν ποιμένα συναρπάζοντες καὶ ὀρφανῶν καὶ χήρας τὰς τοῦ ζῆν ἀφορμὰς παραιρούμενοιτὸν βοῦν δή φημι καὶ εἴ τι ἕτερον ὑποζύγιον, καὶ τοὺς ἀσθενεῖς καταδικάζουσι τὰς τοῦ δικαίου παρατρέποντες ψήφους ἐπ' αὐτοῖς, ὁ δὲ θεὸς ὥσπερ τῶν καιρῶν ἐπιλαθόμενος ὑπερτίθεται τὰς τιμωρίας; ὥρας γὰρ τοὺς καιρούς φησιν. ὁ δὲ νοῦς οὗτος· εἰ τοῖς ἁμαρτήμασι πάντως ἕπονται κολάσεις, εὔκαιρον ἦν ὁμοῦ τῷ πλημμελήματι τὴν τιμωρίαν ἐπάγεσθαι. νῦν δὲ οἱ μὲν ἀνήκεστα πράττουσιν, ὁ δὲ θεὸς ὥσπερ τῶν καιρῶν ἐκλελησμένος ἀνέχει τὰς ἀνταποδόσεις. τὸ διὰ τί οὖν οὐκ αἰτιατικῶς, ἀλλὰ προβληματικῶς ὡς πρὸς τοὺς φίλους εἴρηται. 24, 45 ὁμοθυμαδὸν δὲ ἐκρύβησαν πραεῖς γῆς· ἀπέβησαν δὲ ὥσπερ ὄνοι ἐν ἀγρῷ. ταύτας, φησίν, τῶν ἀδίκων τὰς πράξεις ὁρῶντες οἱ ἐπιεικέστατοι τὸν ἐρημικόν τε καὶ ἡσύχιον ἀσπάζονται βίον τὴν μετὰ τῶν ἀγρίων ζῴων ἢ μετὰ τοιούτων ἀνδρῶν διατριβὴν περιπτυσσόμενοι. 24, 5 ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ ἐξελθόντες τὴν ἑαυτῶν πρᾶξιν. 7 καὶ ἐπικρύπτοντες τὴν φανερὰν πονηρίαν ἐγκαθέτους τοὺς δόλους ἐργάζονται δοκοῦντες μὲν ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ πράττειν, κατ' ἐμοῦ δὲ βουλευόμενοι. 24, 5 ἡδύνθη αὐτῶν ἄρτος εἰς νεωτέρους. ταῦτα δὲ ἔπραττον οἱ ἀσεβεῖς ὥσπερ ἄρτῳ ταῖς νεωτερικαῖς ἐπιθυμίαις ἡδόμενοι, ἢ καὶ νεανίσκους τινὰς ἐκτρέφοντες ἐφ' ᾧ δύνασθαι δι' αὐτῶν τὰς ἐπηρείας ἐργάζεσθαι. 24, 6 ἀγρὸν πρὸ ὥρας οὐκ αὐτῶν ὄντα ἐθέρισαν. δύο κατὰ ταὐτὸν ἥμαρτον πρὸ ὥρας τοὺς καρποὺς τέμνοντες καὶ ταῦτα τοὺς ἀλλοτρίους· πεφύκασι δὲ τοῦτο ποιεῖν οἱ τὸν ληστρικὸν μετιόντες βίον διὰ τὸ τῷ καιρῷ τοῦ θερισμοῦ φυλάττεσθαι τοὺς καρπούς. 24, 6 ἀδύνατοι δὲ ἀμπελῶνας ἀσεβῶν ἀμισθὶ καὶ ἀσιτὶ εἰργάσαντο. μεγίστη καὶ αὕτη παρανομία τὸ τοὺς πένητας ἀμισθὶ τοῖς πλουσίοις ἐργάζεσθαι. 24, 7 γυμνοὺς πολλοὺς ἐκοίμισαν ἄνευ ἱματίων, ἀμφίασιν δὲ ψυχῆς αὐτῶν ἀφείλαντο. γυμνοὺς ἐκοίμισαν ἀντὶ τοῦ· γυμνώσαντες ἡσυχάσαι παρεσκεύασαν· ὑπὸ γὰρ τοῦ δέους οὐκ ἀντέλεγον οἱ γυμνούμενοι. ἀμφίασιν δὲ ψυχῆς λέγει τὸν ἔσχατον χιτῶνα· ὑπὸ γὰρ τοῦ κρύους πηγνυμένου τοῦ σώματος συμπάσχει καὶ ἡ ψυχή. 24, 8 ἀπὸ ψεκάδων ὀρέων ὑγραίνονται, καὶ παρὰ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν αὐτοὺς σκέπην πέτραν περιεβάλλοντο. 8 ληστρικὸν ὑπογράφει βίον· οἱ γὰρ τοιοῦτοι τὴν ἐρημίαν καταλαμβάνοντες αἴθριοι μὲν τὰ πολλὰ διανυκτερεύουσι καὶ διημερεύουσιν. εἰ δὲ καί ποτε σκεπάζεσθαι δέοι, φωλεοὶ τούτοις ἡ σκέπη καὶ πέτραι καὶ φάραγγες. 24, 9 ἥρπασαν ὀρφανὸν ἀπὸ μαστοῦ. ἐλεεινῶς καὶ ἀνοικτιρμόνως ἔτι τὴν μητρῴαν ἕλκοντα θηλὴν ἐφ' ᾧ τοῦτον ἑτέροις ἀπεμπολῆσαι. 24, 9 ἐκπεπτωκότα δὲ ἐταπείνωσαν. ἕτερον δὲ ἐταπείνωσαν ἐκπεπτωκότα τῶν ὑπαρχόντων αὐτοῦ τὰ προσόντα ἀφελόμενοι. 24, 10 γυμνοὺς δὲ ἐκοίμισαν ἀδίκως. ἄλλους δὲ ἀδίκως ἀπογυμνώσαντες οὐδὲν αὐτοῖς ἐποφείλαντας τὴν ἡσυχίαν ἀγαπᾶν παρεσκεύασαν. 24, 10 πεινώντων δὲ τὸν ψωμὸν ἀφείλαντο. εἰς ἐσχάτην αὐτοὺς καταστήσαντες πενίαν τε καὶ τροφῆς ἔνδειαν. 24, 11 ἐν στενοῖς ἀδίκως ἐνήδρευσαν. περὶ τοὺς ἀμφικρήμνους ἐνεδρεύοντες τόπους· ἐν γὰρ ταῖς πλατείαις ἴσως που ἦν καὶ διαδρᾶναι τὸν ὑπ' αὐτῶν ἐνεδρευόμενον. 24, 11 ὁδὸν δὲ δικαίαν οὐκ ᾔδεισαν. καθόλου πάντες οἱ ἀσεβεῖς. 24, 12 οἳ ἐκ πόλεως καὶ οἴκων ἰδίων ἐξεβάλλοντο. 9 τοῦτο πρὸς τὸ γυμνοὺς δὲ ἐκοίμισαν ἀδίκως· οὗτοι γὰρ ὑπὸ τῶν παρανόμων ταῦτα πεπόνθασιν ἀπὸ πόλεως καὶ οἴκων ἐξελαυνόμενοι. 24, 12 ψυχὴ δὲ νηπίων ἐστέναξε μέγα. κάτωθεν ἐκ τοῦ τῆς καρδίας βάθους οὐκ εὐπορούντων αὐτοῖς τῶν γονέων μεταδοῦναι τροφῆς. 24, 1213 αὐτὸς δὲ διὰ τί τούτων ἐπισκοπὴν οὐ πεποίηται ἐπὶ γῆς ὄντων αὐτῶν καὶ οὐκ ἐπέγνωσαν; τοῦτο ὡς πρὸς τοὺς φίλους ἀπορῶν λέγει ὅτι· εἰ