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1 Then Job answered and said, 2 I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all. 3 Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest? 4 I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you. 5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief. 6 Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased? 7 But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company. 8 And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face. 9 He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me. 10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me. 11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. 12 I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark. 13 His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground. 14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant. 15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust. 16 My face is foul with weeping, and my eyelids is the shadow of death; 17 Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure. 18 O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place. 19 Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high. 20 My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God. 21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour! 22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
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[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Job 16:1-2
Since Eliphaz speaks so, as if the matter were of extraordinary importance, and talks as if his speech derived from the wisdom of the ancestors, Job also resumes the argument he had used at the beginning. Is what you say not evident, he says? Therefore, since you speak superficially and utter what comes to your mind without checking your words, do not be annoyed with me if I express the thoughts of my mind.

Source: COMMENTARY ON JOB 16:1-2
[AD 450] Hesychius of Jerusalem on Job 16:1-2
You are “comforters” but very wicked ones. No word of yours is for the good, but they are all for the bad. You teach, you give advice, and you propose not how ordeals must be avoided, but how [new] ordeals will be obtained from affliction! [You do not teach] how a storm must be abated but how harmful agitations can be raised from peace.

Source: HOMILIES ON JOB 19.16.2B
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:1
1. This is found to be a peculiar way with the wicked, viz. to urge their own bad points slanderously against the good, before they are themselves truly accused of them; and while they dread to be reproached for the things which they do, they testify that the righteous who withstand their wickednesses commit the same. Now holy men hear with forbearance, even what they never remember to have done, although those wrong things which they see to be urged against themselves, they know to be committed by their very accusers; and when they cannot correct them by preaching, they suffer them by submitting to the evil, that if they cannot attain the fruit of their conversion, they may at least-win by those very persons the reward of long endurance. Hence Holy Church says in the words of the Prophet David, sinners have plowed upon my back, in that whilst she puts up with heretics, or lost persons of any kind, whom she is not able to correct, she bears upon her back the deeds of those that commit iniquity. Thus blessed Job, seeing Eliphaz his friend making much complaint against him out of hypocrisy, in that from words of comfort he had broken out into bitterness of upbraiding, and showed himself a feigned comforter, does by his own patience maintain a type of the Church, which is wont to endure such things in hearing them, and when her discourse is received, by reasoning to bring them to nought.
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:2
2. For the Elect often hear the wrong things of others, as if they belonged to themselves, and guilt is charged upon them by those, by whom the charges so fastened on them are done. Now by this reply, blessed Job denotes that season of the Church, when, under oppression from her adversaries, she is looked upon as cast to the ground by their temporal power. Whence it follows; burthensome comforters are ye all. Whether they be heretics, or whether any of the wicked, when they see the good travailing in adversity, herein that they aim to console them, they endeavour to prompt wrong things to their minds. Whence not without reason their consoling is rendered burthensome to the mind of good men, in that amongst words of sweetness, they are bent to proffer the poison of error, and whilst in seeming they lighten their griefs by soothing words, they are in haste to put upon them a load of sin. But Elect persons, even when they are bereft of temporal glory, do not lose the forcibleness of interior judgment. For they are taught both to endure crosses without, and yet unimpaired within to uphold what is right without being daunted.
[AD 450] Hesychius of Jerusalem on Job 16:3-4
Job has phrased this in the form of a question and not in order to look for an argument. This means “Will I really join words together against you? Or will I really shake my head at you? Not at all! It is convenient for the righteous to take upon himself the afflictions of others and not to trample underfoot or to exaggeratedly insist wickedly, as you do concerning my torments.”

Source: HOMILIES ON JOB 19.16.4C-D
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:3
3. For those are ‘windy words,’ which serve the end of temporal inflating, rather than the end of righteousness. Now oftentimes the wicked speak even good things, but because they do not say them well, they are putting forth ‘windy words:’ for their words, even if they be at any time sound in the sentence, are yet blown out in self-elation. But in this that is said, viz. burthensome comforters are ye all; what else are we taught by the tutorage of blessed Job, but that everyone should learn to look to it heedfully, that in the season of sorrow he never urge words of upbraiding? For if there be some points which might be justly found fault with in time of distress, they ought to be put aside, lest the comforter by rebuking heighten the sorrow, which he had it in view to alleviate. It goes on;
Or is there any thing troublesome to thee, if Thou speakest?
4. When bad men utter abusive words to those that are like to themselves, they are the more quickly silenced, in proportion as they in a moment hear concerning themselves the like to what they say to their hearers. But when they assail good men by words of contumely, nought of annoyance is occasioned them by their abuse, in, that they speak against those that hold their peace, nor are made to hear what they are, seeing that the righteous never return abuse, even when they are made to bear what they are not. And so it is well said, Or is there any thing troublesome to thee if thou speakest? As if it were said in plain words to him; ‘Thou speakest the more, that thou hearest not from me any thing unpleasant concerning the conduct.’ Hence it is added, I also could speak as ye do. The just man tells what he had the power to do, but lest he should depart from righteousness, he forbears what he might have done.
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:5-6
It is sometimes necessary that wicked minds, which are incapable of being corrected by human preaching, should have the comfort of God desired for them in a spirit of kindness; and while this is done with great earnestness in love, plainly not the punishment but the correction of the guilty person is the thing aimed at, and it is shown to be a prayer rather than a curse. In these words blessed Job is shown to aim at this, that the friends, who didn’t know how to sympathize with his grief through charity, might learn by experience how they ought to have pitied the affliction of another. Those subdued by grief may learn to draw from their own suffering a better way to minister consolation to others. They would then live ever more healthfully within as they are made more sensitive to frailty without.

Source: MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 13.5
[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Job 16:7-10
Your words cruelly pierce me, because you endeavor to present me as a false witness before God, whose wrath “has torn me.” Even in the middle of my mourning, where the loss of the children and cattle had dragged me, bodily pains invaded me. And I certainly remained silent, but he struck me with ominous reports and harsh news.

Source: COMMENTARY ON JOB 16:9
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:7
8. How this accords with the person of blessed Job, there is no one that is ignorant; but if it be drawn into a type of Holy Church, she both when she speaks ‘has not her grief assuaged,’ since she does not see the wicked amended by her speaking; and ‘when she holds her peace, her grief does not depart from her;’ in that though she turns away and holds her peace, this very circumstance of her being silent she laments the more, in that while she is silent, she sees the sin of the wicked grow to a height.
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:8
9. Holy Church is oppressed by her grief, when she beholds the wicked grow to a height in their wickedness; and whereas while the wicked increase, the weak too that are in her are set on to follow the bents of wickedness, it is rightly added, And all my limbs are brought to nought. For as the strong by ‘bones,’ so by ‘limbs’ the weak sort are wont to be denoted, and so ‘the members of the Church are brought to nought,’ when by the imitating of the wicked that are increased in this world, all the weak are worse weakened. For on seeing the prosperity of the wicked, they often slide away from their very stand in faith itself, they seek after temporal good things, and are in a manner ‘brought to nought;’ in that while they abandon the Being of God that is lasting, loving things that are transitory, they are, as it were, on their way to be not. And it is well said, But now my grief has oppressed me; in that the season of the grief of the Church is now, and the time of her joy shall follow hereafter. Now it often happens that Holy Church not only meets with unbelievers and those without her borders as her adversaries, but with difficulty bears with the plots and opposition of those too, whom she has within her.
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:9
10. What is denoted by ‘wrinkles,’ but doubledealing? and so all they are wrinkles of Holy Church, who therein live in doubledealing, who avouch the faith with their voices, disown it by their works. These persons doubtless in time of peace, because they see that with the powers of this world that faith is an honour, falsely feign themselves of the number of believers; but when a sudden storm of adversity disquiets Holy Church, they thereupon show what they are going after in their heart of unbelief. Now these ‘wrinkles’ Holy Church has not in her Elect, in that they have not the art to show one thing in themselves on the outside, and to hold another withinside. Whence the great Preacher says truly, That He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle. [Eph. 5, 27] For she ‘has not spot or wrinkle,’ in that she is without both foulness of practice, and doubleness of tongue; but because now she holds within the bosom of the faith numbers even of the children of perdition, when the time of persecution blazes out, she bears those very persons for her enemies, whom she seemed before to be nourishing with words of preaching. Therefore let her say, My wrinkles speak a testimony against me; i.e. those very persons, while they persecute, inveigh against me, who now, being fixed in my body, do not mind in themselves the wickedness of their doubledealing. Whence it is rightly added yet further;
And the liar is lifted up against my face, gainsaying me.
11. Even in her time of peace Holy Church is subject to the ‘liar,’ in that there are numbers in her, who disbelieve in the promise of eternal life, and yet falsely feign themselves to be of the faithful. And as they do not dare openly to gainsay her preaching, she is exposed to the liar, not, as it were, ‘before her face,’ but behind her back; but when the time of wickedness breaks out, he who now disparages being full of apprehension, comes ‘before the face to gainsay,’ in that he withstands by open sentences of the voice the words of true faith. But it is to be known that when we meet with such things at the hands of carnal men, it is not so much they individually that rage cruelly in our death, as the evil spirit who rules their minds, as it is said by Paul, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood; but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world. [Eph. 6, 12] Whence, whereas here also he is speaking of lying [A.B.D. ‘the liar’], with propriety he turns his words directly to tell of the prince of that lying.
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:10
12. What else are all wicked men but members of the devil? Therefore he himself does by them, whatever he puts it into their hearts that they ought to do. For the devil even now entertains fury against Holy Church, but his fury is scattered, in that he sets afoot his secret temptations through the agency of individuals; but when he bursts out against her in open persecution, ‘he gathers his fury against her,’ in that in the afflicting of her he knits up himself with the entire bent of his efforts. But his members in this time of peace have not ‘fury gathered’ against the Elect in this way, because they feel that they have less power to fulfil their wickedness than they have will; but when they see full range of wickedness at their command, they smite at her the more boldly, in proportion as they are drawn to a head against her in unanimity. And so it is rightly said now; He gathered up his fury against me. And that his fury might be still more fully set forth, it is said, And threatening me, he gnashed upon me with his teeth. Of whom too it is added, mine enemy looked on me with terrible eyes. For that ancient enemy of the Church ‘gnashes against her with the teeth,’ and ‘looks on her with terrible eyes,’ in that he executes cruelties by one set, and by another provides cruelties to execute.
13. For ‘the teeth’ of this enemy are the persecutors and executioners of the good who mangle her members, while they distress her elect ones by their persecutions. But the ‘eyes’ of this enemy are those, that provide measures to her hurt, which they may put in practice, and by their counsels light up the cruelties of her persecutors. Thus her old enemy ‘gnashes upon her with his teeth,’ so long as by the cruel children of perdition in her he hunts down the life of good men within her. He ‘looks on her with terrible eyes;’ in that, by the counsels of bad men, he never ceases to make out schemes of mischief, by which he may torment her even worse and worse; for as Incarnate ‘Truth’ in His preaching chose poor common persons and simple men, so on the other hand that accursed man, whom the Apostate Angel will take on him at the end of the world, shall choose for the preaching of his falsity, the cunning and doubleminded, and such as have this world’s knowledge. Hence it is said by Isaiah, Woe to the land, the cymbal of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. Which sendeth ambassadors by the sea even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters. For the land, that has woe pronounced against it, is principally that accursed man, who is called a ‘cymbal of wings,’ in that they who in pride soar up into the height of imagination, by preaching sound forth that man of iniquity. Which same land is rightly described as being ‘beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,’ for Ethiopia sends forth a black people, and whereas this world brings forth every man a sinner, Ethiopia as it were bears a black people. And the land that has woe pronounced against it, is described as being ‘beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,’ in that that accursed man is so exceedingly and beyond all measure bad, that he goes beyond the sins of all that commit iniquity; and he ‘sends ambassadors by the sea,’ in that he spreads his preachers over the world; and it is rightly told of them how they are sent, when it said, in vessels of papyrus upon the waters, for from the ‘papyrus’ paper is made. What then is denoted by the ‘papyrus’ but secular knowledge? and so the vessels of papyrus are the hearts of the learned of the world. Therefore ‘to send ambassadors upon the waters in vessels of papyrus,’ is to put the preaching of him in the brains of the carnally wise, and to call the people running out into sin. Those very persons then who are there denoted by ‘vessels of papyrus,’ here, in that they see with a carnal sight, are denoted by ‘eyes.’
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:11
14. Lost sinners open their mouths ‘in reproaching,’ when they at once do not fear to proclaim the mischiefs of their errors, and laugh to scorn the announcements of the right faith: with regard to whom be it known that they chiefly prosecute those in Holy Church, whom they see likely to be of service to many, who bruise the life of the carnal by the word of correction, and change them spiritually into the body of the Church. Hence it is added;
They have smitten me upon the cheek; they have taken their fill of my punishments.
15. For ‘the cheek’ of the Church, are the holy preachers, as where it is said under the figure of Judaea, by Jeremiah, She weepeth sore in the night, and the tears are on her cheeks. [Lam. 1, 2] For in the adversities of the Church those mourn the most, who are used to crush the life of the carnal by preaching; for by these very persons Holy Church breaks and bruises the wicked to bad habits, and as it were swallowing them converts them into members of herself. Hence it is said to the first preacher himself too, as to a ‘cheek’ of the Church, Kill and eat [Acts 10, 13]. It is hence too that Samson laid hold of the jawbone of an ass, and destroyed his enemies [Judges 15, 16]; in that our Redeemer, with the Hand of His power laying hold of the simplicity and submissiveness of these that preach, killed the carnal to their bad habits. And the jawbone thrown down upon the earth, afterwards poured out water, in that the bodies of the preachers given over to death, showed great miracles to the people. So the wicked ‘smite the cheek’ of Holy Church, when they persecute good preachers; and whereas lost sinners thus reckon themselves to have done something great, when they do put an end to the life of the preachers; after the striking of ‘the cheek,’ it is properly added, They have taken their fill of my punishments, for that punishment does fill them to satisfaction, which chastises the mind of the Church in an especial manner.
[AD 850] Ishodad of Merv on Job 16:11
“God has given me up to an iniquitous angel.” These words are said because it is believed that an angel accompanies each human being. Job calls his angel iniquitous because of the effects of Job’s misfortunes that he observes, just as David calls the angel evil who kills the firstborn of the Egyptians.

Source: COMMENTARY ON JOB 16:11
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:12
16. The people of the Elect is ‘shut up with the ungodly man,’ when its flesh is given up in this present time to the persecutions of our old adversary; and it is ‘turned over,’ not to the spirit, but ‘the hands of the wicked;’ in that in proportion as they cannot take it captive in mind, they are the more pitilessly inflamed against the flesh thereof. But the People of Holy Church, when it begins to suffer adversities to an extreme degree, and sees the weak ones in her going off to worse and worse, recalls to mind the times of her peace, when she fed her faithful children with the richness of her preaching.
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:13
17. Herein, viz. that he declared himself to be ‘crushed on a sudden,’ he denoted the unguarded mind of weak persons: who, whilst they are not skilled to foresee the evils which are destined to come, find them more severe in proportion as they also undergo them contrary to expectation. But to stedfast minds adversities do not come on a sudden, in that they are foreseen before they come. And this Holy Church too does now undergo in certain backsliding people, who, after the richness of instruction, are sometimes so crushed by sudden assaults of evil, that they fall as deeply in certain wicked practices, as if they had never been vouchsafed the food of the word. It proceeds;
He hath held my neck, and broken me in two, and set me up for His mark.
18. As in evil the ‘neck’ denotes pride, so in good it denotes the lifting up in freedom; whence it is sometimes the case that ‘pride’ itself is also put for the authority belonging to that lifting up; as when the Lord says by way of promise to Holy Church by the Prophet, I will set thee for the pride of ages. [Is. 60, 15] And because in time of persecution some that are weak do not dare to preach with freedom the truths they have a sense of, it is rightly said of this enemy, He hath held my neck, and broken me in two. But perchance those are denoted by the appellation of ‘neck,’ who, in the season of her peace, are lifted up more than befits, and by occasion of defending the cause of right minister to the evil of self-exalting; which same in time of persecution feel adversity the more sensibly on this account, that they are elevated by prosperity. Concerning whom it is rightly said, He hath held my neck, and broken me in two; i.e. the pride which she had in her weak members, He bowed down by the severity of His smiting. And set me up for His mark. It is known that ‘a mark’ is for this reason ‘set up,’ that it may be hit by the sending of the arrow. And so the faithful people is ‘set as a mark’ to its enemy, in that he is ever assaulting it with his blows and afflicting it with his persecutions: for he that undergoes perpetual ills in this life, as if set for a mark, receives blows from one striking him; and hence the great Preacher, when he was suffering the ills of persecution, and groaning beneath the persecuting efforts of his enemies, to comfort the tender soul of the disciples touching his troubles, says, For yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. [1 Thess. 3, 3] As if be said to them in plain words; ‘Wherefore at this season do ye wonder at my wounds, when, if we seek the joys of the eternal world, we have come hither for this, even to be stricken?’
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:14
19. These particulars would seem to accord with blessed Job after the letter, in that it is said, He hath compassed me with His lances, He hath wounded my loins together, He hath not spared; if that were not added, which is not read as written about him, he hath poured out my bowels upon the ground. From which circumstance it follows, that whereas we cannot find this after the letter, we should investigate after the spirit those points, which in his words sound as of the fact of history. Holy Church is ‘beset with lances’ by her enemy, whensoever she is in her members assaulted by the cunning assailant with the darts of temptation; and it is well said that we are ‘encompassed with lances,’ in that our old enemy assails us on every side with the wounding of temptation. Thus oftentimes whilst the appetite is restrained, that lust may be brought under, the dart of vainglory strikes the mind; but if the body is not worn down by the infliction of abstinence, the flame of lust kindles itself against the soul: often whilst we strive to observe economy, we fall into stinginess; and often whilst we give profusely the things we possess, we are led into avarice, in that we seek to make up again what we may have to give. Whereas then the darts of the old enemy assail us in every direction, it is rightly said now, he hath compassed me about with his lances. And because, in the case of every sin, the crafty enemy indeed recommends it, but we by consenting to his recommendations execute it, it is fitly subjoined, he hath wounded my loins together, for in the loins lust is seated. Hence he who desired to eradicate the delight of lust from the heart, preached the words, Gird up the loins of your mind. [1 Pet. 1, 13] And so when our old enemy draws the faithful people into lust, surely he smites that people ‘in the loins;’ in which place it is deserving of observation, that he does not say ‘he has wounded [‘vulneravit’ ‘convulneravit’],’ but, he hath wounded my loins together. For as to talk is sometimes an act of one person, but to ‘talk together’ of two or perhaps of many, so our old enemy, in that he does not hurry us into sin without our own will, is never said ‘to wound our loins,’ but, ‘to wound our loins together:’ in that what he prompts us amiss we fulfil by following of our own will; and, as it were, ‘wound ourselves together’ in unity with him, because we are at the same time led to commit the evil deed of free will. It goes on; he hath not spared; as if he said, ‘he hath not ceased;’ and he hath poured out my bowels upon the ground. What else are we to understand by ‘the bowels’ of Holy Church, save the minds of those who contain in themselves certain of her mysteries, who are devoted to the interior Sacraments? But our old adversary, when he draws over to secular concerns any of the faithful, who appeared to be devoted to the interior sacraments, does, surely, ‘pour out her bowels upon the ground;’ in that he treads those down in things below, who were before buried from sight in secret and spiritual practices.
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:15
20. In her weak members Holy Church is ‘broken with breach upon breach,’ when sin is added to sin, that transgression should be brought to a more dreadful pitch. Thus for him, whom avarice forces to robbery and robbery leads into deceit, so that the sin committed is further defended by falsehood, how else is it with this man, but that he is broken with breach upon breach? When too it is well said by the Prophet; Cursing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, adultery, have overflowed, and blood toucheth blood. [Hos. 4, 2] For by the title of ‘blood’ sin is used to be denoted; whence one who longs to be set free from sin exclaims in penitence, Deliver me from blood [sanguinibus]. [Ps. 51, 14] So ‘blood toucheth blood,’ when sin has heaped on sin; and whereas when breach is added to breach, the powers of our old enemy are the more terribly increased against us, it is rightly added;
He runneth upon me like a giant.
21. The enemy is easy to be resisted, if he is not consented to, whether in many backslidings, or in one for a continuance. But if the soul has been accustomed to submit to his persuasions, the oftener it subjects itself to him, it makes him the harder to itself to bear, so that it has not the power to struggle against him; in that our wicked adversary, ‘like a giant,’ fights against it, when it is vanquished by bad habit: yet very often Holy Church, even after sins have been committed, brings back the minds of the faithful to penitence, and cleanses away the sins of practice by the efficacy of a voluntary self-chastening.
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:15
22. What ought to be understood by ‘sackcloth and ashes,’ but penance; what by ‘the skin’ and ‘the flesh,’ but sin of the flesh? And so whereas there are persons who after the backsliding of the flesh are brought back to penance, it is as if ‘sackcloth were sewn upon the skin,’ and ‘the flesh covered with ashes;’ because the guilt of the flesh is ‘covered with ashes’ by penance, that it should not be seen for its avenging in the inquest of the strict Judge. But Holy Church, when she withdraws her weak members from sins, and conducts them to the remedy of penance, these she surely aids with her tears, that they may recover strength to receive the grace of their Maker, and in the strong she bewails what she has not done, which yet in her weak members she has as it were done herself.
[AD 455] Julian of Eclanum on Job 16:16-19
“I have suffered this without committing iniquity.” You have a good reason to be upset, because there was no cause for such a torment. “I have suffered this.” Job is knowingly in pain against his merits. Therefore, he does not want the fact that he has been given to torments to remain hidden, but he desires what he suffers to be under the light. Job has no desire for the memory of his passion to be buried in oblivion but wants what he suffers to reach everybody’s ears, because he is certain of the innocence of his life.… Therefore it is especially reserved for the righteous that their passions and their deaths not be hidden in the course of their struggles.

Source: EXPOSITION ON THE BOOK OF JOB 16:18-19
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:16
23. For ‘the face’ of Holy Church are those, who being set in posts or governorships appear the foremost, that in their goodly appearance should be the honour of the faithful people, even if there were aught deformed in the body hidden from sight. Which same persons that are set over the people bewail the sins of those that go weakly, and so chasten themselves for the downfall of others as if for their own. And often when they see some returning to pardon after sin, and others persisting in wickedness, they marvel at the secret counsels of Almighty God, but cannot fathom them. For they are dumb at the things which they do not understand. And hence it is fitly added;
And mine eyelids have become darkened.

[xxi]

24. For they are rightly entitled ‘eyelids,’ who are on their watch for the fore-ensuring the paths of the feet; but when not even the rulers on the watch can understand the secret judgments of God, ‘the eyelids’ of Holy Church are ‘darkened;’ but, as I remember that I have already often said, blessed Job, while bearing a type of Holy Church, uses at one time the voice of the body, and at another time the voice of the Head; and while he is speaking of her members, he is raised on a sudden to speak the words of her Head.
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:17
25. He suffered without the wickedness of His hand; Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth, [1 Pet. 2, 22] and yet endured the pain of the Cross for our redemption. Who only above all others ‘made pure prayers to God,’ in that even in the very anguish of His Passion He prayed in behalf of His persecutors, saying, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. [Luke 23, 24] For what can be described, what can be conceived more pure in prayer, than when the mercifulness of intercession is vouchsafed even those, from whose hands pain is undergone? Whence it was brought to pass, that that Blood of our Redeemer, which His persecutors in raging had spilt, afterwards in believing they drank, and proclaimed Him to be the Son of God.
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:18
26. It was said to man on his committing sin, Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return; [Gen. 3, 19] and this ‘earth’ does not ‘cover the blood’ of our Redeemer: in that each several sinner taking to himself the price of his redemption makes confession and sings praise, and publishes it to all of his neighbours that he is able. Moreover, ‘earth did not cover His blood,’ in that Holy Church has now preached the mystery of His redemption in all parts of the world. And observe what is added: And let my cry find no place to lie hid in thee. For the very blood of redemption that is taken is itself ‘the cry’ of our Redeemer. Hence Paul too says, And to the Blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better than that of Abel. [Heb. 12, 24] It had been said of the blood of Abel; The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground. [Gen. 4, 10] But ‘the Blood of Jesus speaketh better things than the blood of Abel,’ because the blood of Abel brought the death of his fratricidal brother, but the blood of the Lord won life for His persecutors. So then that the Sacraments of our Lord’s Passion may not be ineffectual in us, we are bound to imitate that which we take, and to preach to others what we adore. For ‘His cry does find a place to lie hid in us,’ if what the mind has been brought to believe the tongue is silent about. But that His cry may not lie hid in us, it remains that each one of us according to his small measure should make known to his neighbours the mystery of his own quickening. It is good to recall the eyes of the interior to the hour of the Lord’s Passion, when the Jews raged against Him in persecution, and the Disciples fled from Him in alarm. For He that appeared to die in the flesh was not in any wise believed to be God.
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:19
27. For when the Son was brought to His downfall on earth, there was a witness to Him in heaven. Since the Father is the witness of the Son; concerning Whom He Himself saith in the Gospel, And the Father Himself, Which hath sent Me, hath borne witness of Me. [John 5, 37] Who is also rightly called ‘mine heart’s associate,’ in that with one will, and with one counsel, the Father acts always in union with the Son. Whose witness too He is, in that no man knoweth the Son but the Father. [Matt. 11, 27] Thus He had then ‘a witness in heaven,’ and His ‘heart’s associate’ on high, when they, who saw Him dying in the flesh, had their eyes closed to see the power of His Divine nature; and whereas men did not know, yet in the hour of death the Mediator between God and man did know, that the Father was working together with Himself. Which perhaps may be likewise applied to the voice of His Body. For Holy Church for this reason undergoes the miseries of this life, that the grace above may lead her on her way to the rewards of eternity. She slights the death of her flesh, because she is intent on the glory of the resurrection; and what she suffers is transitory, what she expects everlasting, concerning which same everlasting blessings she has no misgiving, in that she has already a faithful testimony in the glory of her Redeemer. For she sees with the mind the resurrection of His flesh, and is strongly fortified to have hope, in that what she sees already brought to pass in her Head, she hopes without doubting will also follow in His Body, which is herself. Which same Church the Psalmist seeing destined to continue in everlasting perfection, describes her under the title of the moon. A perfect moon for everlasting. [Ps. 89, 37] And whereas the Resurrection of the Lord heartens her to entertain the hope of a Resurrection, he properly added, And a faithful witness in heaven. Forasmuch as that she may not tremble for her own resurrection, she has Him in heaven for a witness, Who rose again from the dead; and so let the faithful People when it suffers adversity, when it is harassed with sore tribulations, lift up the mind to the hope of the glory to follow, and trusting in the resurrection of the Redeemer, let it say, Also now behold my witness is in heaven, and mine associate on high. Who is also rightly called ‘an associate,’ in that He was acquainted with our nature, not only by creating, but by taking it upon Himself. For His knowing is His having undertaken what belongs to us. Whence too it is said by the Psalmist, For He knoweth our frame. [Ps. 103, 14] For what wonder is it if He is said emphatically ‘to know our frame,’ when it is plain that there is nothing that He does not know? But His ‘knowing our frame,’ is His having taken it upon Himself out of pitifulness.
28. Yet this voice may together with blessed Job suitably apply to each one of ourselves as well; for every man who in what he does aims at human praises, seeks a ‘witness’ on earth: but he that is eager to please Almighty God by his deeds, takes thought that he has a ‘witness in heaven.’ And it often happens that the very good things themselves in us are found fault with by inconsiderate men; but he that ‘has a witness in heaven,’ has no need to fear men’s reproofs.
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:20-22
Yet this voice may together with blessed Job suitably apply to each one of us as well; for every person who aims at human praises in what he does, seeks a “witness” on earth. But he that is eager to please almighty God by his deeds takes into account that he has a “witness in heaven.” It often happens that inconsiderate people find fault with even the very best things in us; but one who “has a witness in heaven” has no need to fear human reproofs. Hence it is further added, “My friends are full of words; my eye pours out tears to God.” For what is denoted by the eye but the intent of the heart? As it is written, “If your eye is good, your whole body shall be full of light.” For when anything is done with a good intention, the enacting of that intention gains no favor in the sight of God. And so when friends are full of words, that is, when the very same persons deny they are joined with us in faith, “the eye” must “pour out tears to God,” so that the whole bent of our heart may run out into the piercing of interior love and lift itself up to the things of the interior. Being forced back by external reproaches, it is driven to turn back within, lest it should vanish.… As if it were expressed in plain words, “As in all that I say, I am heard, so would that I heard all that is said concerning me.” But this can never be brought about in this life, because there is a great obstruction before the eyes of our heart, blocking from our sight the subtle nature of God, even our mere frailty by itself. But we shall then see him with clarity by whom we are now searchingly beheld. When this frailty is laid aside, we will receive that grace of inward contemplation of which Paul says, “For then shall I know, as also I am known.” Hence blessed Job, seeing that that knowledge can never be in the fullest way perfected here, groans indeed over the blindness of the present life, yet consoles himself by life’s brevity, saying, “For when a few years have come, I shall go the way from which I shall not return.” Everything that passes is short, even though it should seem slow in being finished, but in the way of death we “go and do not return by it,” not because we are not brought back by rising again to the life of the flesh but because we do not come again to the labors of this mortal life or to earn rewards by our labors.

Source: MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 13.28-31
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:20
29. For what is denoted by the eye, but the intent of the heart? as it is written, if thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. [Matt. 6, 22] For when any thing is done with a good intention, the enacting of that intention contracts no soil in the sight of God; and so when friends are full of words, i.e. when the very same persons detract that are joined with us in faith, ‘the eye’ must needs ‘pour out tears to God,’ that so the whole bent of our heart may run out in the piercing of interior love, and lift itself up to the things of the interior, the more exactly that being forced back by external reproaches, it is driven to turn back within, lest it should vanish away without.
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:21
30. We acknowledge indeed always that we are sinners, yet often, when laid under the rod, we do not know for what sin in particular we are stricken, and we sift ourselves with minute examining, that if we might in any way be able we might trace out the cause of our being struck; and whereas this is for the most part hidden from us, our blindness becomes a load upon us, and we are the more pained at what we are suffering. But anyone that ‘comes to judgment with his neighbour,’ both says what he thinks, and knows what answer is made in return, and strikes a blow where he will, and knows from what quarter he is struck. But he that is smitten with the visitation of God, while he knows indeed that he is beaten, but knows not why he is beaten, as it were himself says what he thinks, but does not know what may be said against him; seeing that he himself indeed groans under the rod, but God does not declare openly for what cause of vengeance He strikes him. Therefore it is said now, Oh! that a man were so judged with God, as a son of man is judged with his neighbour! As if it were expressed in plain words; ‘As in all, that I say, I am heard, so would that I heard all that is said concerning me.’ Which, nevertheless, can never be brought about in this life, in that there is a great obstruction before the eyes of our heart, against our beholding the subtle nature of God, even our mere frailty by itself; but we shall then see Him with clearness by Whom we are now searchingly beheld, when this frailty laid aside, we attain to the grace of the interior contemplation, of which Paul saith, For then shall I know, as also I am known. [1 Cor. 13, 12] Hence blessed Job, seeing that that knowledge can never be in the fullest way perfected here, groans indeed over the blindness of the present life; yet consoles himself by the shortness thereof.
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Job 16:22
31. Every thing that passes is short, even though it should seem slow in being finished, but in the way of death we ‘go, and do not return by it,’ not because we are not brought back by rising again to the life of the flesh, but because we do not come again to the labours of this mortal life, or to earn rewards by our labours.