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you deprive yourself of eternal wealth. Has the devil grieved you by taking away your money? Grieve him yourself by giving thanks, and do not make him rejoice. If you go to soothsayers, you have made him rejoice; if you give thanks to God, you have given him a mortal wound. And see what happens: You will not find them by going to the soothsayers; for it is not for them to know; and if perchance they should speak by hitting the mark, you destroy your soul as well, and you will be laughed at by your brothers, and you will lose them again badly. For the demon, knowing that you do not bear loss, but for these things even deny your God, gives you money again, so that he may have an occasion to deceive you again and make you fall away. And just as we do those things to our enemies by which we grieve them; but if we see that they are not pained, we desist then, as having no way to sting them; so too the devil, if he sees you laughing at and despising his attempt, will depart from such a path, no longer approaching. It is possible, then, for you who endures these things to receive as great a reward as if you had willingly cast them away. And we rightly admire this man more, the one who bears insults thankfully, than the one who gives willingly. Why is that? Because the latter is nourished by praises and by his conscience, and has good hopes, and having first nobly endured the loss of his money, then he cast it away; but this one, while still attached to it, was deprived by force. For it is not the same thing to be first persuaded to part with money, and so to empty it out, and to be deprived of it while still desiring it; nor again to have practiced over a long time to despise money, and to endure a sudden loss that has occurred. For the one who has been prepared for terrible things would more easily bear their onset; but he who has relaxed and released his thoughts from cares, if something of the same kind as before should happen again, is doubly disturbed and becomes an easy captive, both by the unexpectedness and by the dissolution of all his zeal, and his preparation for those things. And it is no small matter for pain, but indeed the most intolerable of all, when someone, thinking he has been delivered, and has come to the very end, and has put aside all care and anxiety, again finds from the beginning another start of his troubles. For why did the devil not destroy Job's wife along with his children? Because he knew that she would contribute greatly to his plot against him. For if, he says, through her 63.709 I cast Adam out of paradise, much more will I be able to trip up Job on the dunghill. And behold his villainy; for he did not bring this contrivance forward when the oxen were perishing, nor the donkeys, nor the camels, nor when the house fell, nor when the children were buried, but for a time he is silent, and allows him to be quiet, seeing the athlete; but when the fount of worms gushed forth, and his rotting skin fell away, and his wasting flesh produced a discharge full of a great stench, and the hand of the devil consumed him more painfully than frying pans and furnaces and any flame, gnawing and devouring his body from all sides more cruelly than any wild beast, and a long time had passed in such a calamity, and because of these things he saw him thirsting for release, and desiring to die, so that he could not even breathe (For if I could, he says, lay hands on myself, or ask another, he would do this for me); then he brings her forward, and she says: How long will you hold out, saying, "Behold, I will wait yet a little while, expecting the hope of my salvation"? For he, always comforting and putting her off when she was troubling him, would utter such things as, "Wait a little longer, and the end of these things will come quickly." So reproaching him, she says: Will you say the same thing now too? for a long time has already passed, and an end to these things has not appeared; "But your memorial has perished from the earth, your sons and your daughters, the pangs and pains of my womb, for which I labored in vain with toils, and I, a wanderer and a servant, go about from place to place, and from house to house. For not only do I beg, but I also wander, and

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τὸν αἰώνιον πλοῦτον σαυτὸν ἀφαιρῇ. Ἐλύπησέ σε ὁ διάβολος ἀφελόμενος τὰ χρήματα; λύπησον αὐτὸν καὶ σὺ εὐχαριστήσας, καὶ μὴ εὐφράνῃς. Ἂν πρὸς μάντεις ἀπέλθῃς, εὔφρανας· ἂν εὐχαριστήσῃς τῷ Θεῷ, καιρίαν ἔδωκας αὐτῷ τὴν πληγήν. Καὶ ὅρα τί γίνεται· Οὔτε αὐτὰ εὑρήσεις, ἀπελθὼν πρὸς τοὺς μάντεις· οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ἐκείνων εἰδέναι· εἰ δέ που καὶ εἴποιεν ἐπιτυχόντες, καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν προσαπολλύεις, καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἀδελφῶν καταγελασθήσῃ τῶν σῶν, καὶ πάλιν αὐτὰ κακῶς ἀπολεῖς. Ὁ γὰρ δαίμων εἰδὼς ὅτι ζημίαν οὐ φέρεις, ἀλλὰ ὑπὲρ τούτων καὶ τὸν Θεόν σου ἀρνῇ, πάλιν χρήματα δίδωσιν, ἵνα ἀφορμὴν σχῇ τοῦ πάλιν σε ἀπατῆσαι καὶ ἀποστῆσαι. Καὶ καθάπερ ἡμεῖς ἐκεῖνα τοὺς ἐχθροὺς διατίθεμεν, οἷς λυποῦμεν αὐτούς· ἂν δὲ ἴδωμεν ὅτι οὐκ ἀλγοῦσιν, ἀφιστάμεθα λοιπὸν, ὡς οὐκ ἔχοντες αὐτοὺς δακεῖν· οὕτω καὶ ὁ διάβολος, ἂν ἴδῃ καταγελῶντα καὶ καταφρονοῦντά σε τῆς αὐτοῦ ἐγχειρήσεως, ἀποστήσεται τῆς τοιαύτης ὁδοῦ, προσεγγίζων οὐκέτι. Ἔξεστιν οὖν σοι ταῦτα ὑπομένοντα τοσοῦτον λαβεῖν μισθὸν, ὅσον ἂν εἰ ἑκὼν ἔῤῥιψας αὐτά. Καὶ εἰκότως τοῦτον μᾶλλον θαυμάζομεν, τὸν ἐπηρείας εὐχαρίστως φέροντα, ἢ τὸν ἑκόντα διδόντα. Τί δήποτε; Ὅτι ἐκεῖνος μὲν τοῖς ἐπαίνοις τρέφεται καὶ τῷ συνειδότι, καὶ χρηστὰς ἔχει τὰς ἐλπίδας, καὶ πρότερον γενναίως ἐνεγκὼν τὴν στέρησιν τῶν χρημάτων, τότε αὐτὰ ἔῤῥιψεν· οὗτος δὲ ἔτι προσδεδεμένος ἀφῃρέθη βία. Οὐκ ἔστι δὲ ἴσον, πρότερον πεισθέντα ἀποστῆναι χρημάτων, οὕτως αὐτὰ κενῶσαι, καὶ ἔτι αὐτῶν ποθοῦντα ἀποστερηθῆναι· οὐδὲ πάλιν ἐν πολλῷ χρόνῳ μελετῆσαι καταφρονῆσαι χρημάτων, καὶ ἀθρόον ζημίαν συμβᾶσαν ὑπενεγκεῖν. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἔτι παρεσκευασμένος πρὸς τὰ δεινὰ, ῥᾷον ἂν ἐνέγκοι τὴν τούτων ἐπαγωγήν· ὁ δὲ ἀναπεσὼν καὶ τῶν φροντίδων ἀπολύσας τοὺς λογισμοὺς, ἂν συμβῇ τι τοιοῦτον πάλιν οἷον καὶ πρότερον, διπλῇ ταράττεται καὶ εὐχείρωτος γίνεται, τῷ τε ἀπροσδοκήτῳ καὶ τῷ διαλελύσθαι τὴν σπουδὴν ἅπασαν αὐτῷ, καὶ τὴν πρὸς ἐκεῖνα παρασκευήν. Οὐ μικρὸν δὲ εἰς ὀδύνης λόγον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντων ἀφορητότερον, ὅταν τις ἀπηλλάχθαι νομίσας, καὶ πρὸς τὸ τέλος ἥκειν αὐτὸ, καὶ φροντίδα καὶ μέριμναν ἅπασαν ἀποθέμενος, πάλιν ἄνωθεν ἀρχὴν ἑτέραν εὕρῃ τῶν δυσχερῶν. ∆ιὰ τί γὰρ τὴν γυναῖκα τοῦ Ἰὼβ μετὰ τῶν τέκνων οὐκ ἠφάνισεν ὁ διάβολος; Ἐπειδὴ ᾔδει μεγάλα αὐτῷ συντελεῖν πρὸς τὴν ἐπιβουλὴν ἐκείνου. Εἰ γὰρ παραδείσου, φησὶ, δι' αὐτῆς 63.709 ἐξέβαλον τὸν Ἀδὰμ, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἐπὶ κοπρίας ὑποσκελίσαι δυνήσομαι τὸν Ἰώβ. Καὶ θέα τὴν κακουργίαν· οὐδὲ γὰρ τῶν βοῶν ἀπολλυμένων προσήγαγε τὸ μηχάνημα τοῦτο, οὐδὲ τῶν ὄνων, οὐδὲ τῶν καμήλων, οὐδὲ τῆς οἰκίας κατενεχθείσης, οὐδὲ τῶν παίδων καταχωσθέντων, ἀλλὰ σιγᾷ τέως, καὶ ἡσυχάζειν ἐᾷ, τὸν ἀθλητὴν ὁρῶν· ὅτε δὲ τῶν σκωλήκων ἀνέβλυσεν ἡ πηγὴ, καὶ σηπόμενον τὸ δέρμα κατέῤῥει, καὶ δαπανώμεναι αἱ σάρκες, ἰχῶρα πολλῆς γέμοντα δυσωδίας ἐποίουν, καὶ τηγάνων καὶ καμίνων καὶ πάσης φλογὸς ὀδυνηρότερον αὐτὸν ἡ διαβόλου κατανήλισκε χεὶρ, θηρίου παντὸς χαλεπώτερον διατρώγουσα πάντοθεν καὶ κατεσθίουσα τὸ σῶμα, καὶ πολὺς ἐν τῇ τοιαύτῃ συμφορᾷ προῆλθεν ὁ χρόνος, καὶ διὰ ταῦτα αὐτὸν εἶδε διψῶντα ἀπαλλαγῆς, καὶ ἀποθανεῖν ἐπιθυμοῦντα, ὡς οὐδὲ ἀναπνεῖν ἔχοντα (Εἰ γὰρ δυναίμην, φησὶν, ἐμαυτὸν χειρώσασθαι, ἢ δεηθῆναι ἑτέρου, καὶ ποιήσει μοι τοῦτο)· τότε αὐτὴν προσάγει, καί φησιν· Μέχρι τίνος καρτερεῖς λέγων, Ἰδοὺ ἀναμένω χρόνον τινὰ ἔτι μικρὸν, προσδεχόμενος τὴν ἐλπίδα τῆς σωτηρίας μου; Καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος ἐνοχλοῦσαν ἀεὶ παραμυθούμενος καὶ διακρουόμενος, τοιαῦτα ἐφθέγγετο· Ἀνάμεινον ἔτι μικρὸν, καὶ ταχέως ἔσται τούτων τὸ τέλος. Ὀνειδίζουσα τοίνυν αὐτῷ φησι· Μὴ καὶ νῦν τὸ αὐτὸ ἐρεῖς; πολὺς γὰρ ἤδη χρόνος παρέδραμε, καὶ τέλος τούτων οὐκ ἐφάνη· Ἀπώλετο δέ σου τὸ μνημόσυνον ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς, οἱ υἱοί σου καὶ αἱ θυγατέρες σου, τῆς ἐμῆς κοιλίας ὠδῖνες καὶ πόνοι, οὓς εἰς τὸ κενὸν ἐκοπίασα μετὰ μόχθων, κἀγὼ πλανῆτις καὶ λάτρις τόπον ἐκ τόπου, καὶ οἰκίαν ἐξ οἰκίας περιερχομένη. Οὐδὲ γὰρ προσαιτῶ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πλανῶμαι, καὶ