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*H Job also added, taking up his parable, and said:
Ver. 1. Parable: speaking in a figurative poetic style, Num. xxiii. 7. Job grants that God generally punishes the wicked, but he maintains that he also chastises the just; and hence admonishes all to revere his judgments and wisdom, and to decline from evil; which truths must always subsist, whatever my be the conduct of Providence. C. — Parables do not always imply similies, but sometimes pithy, and profound sentences, spoken by the wisest men.
*H As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment, and the Almighty, who hath brought my soul to bitterness,
Ver. 2. Judgment. Chal. "my rule of judging." Sept. "Live the Lord, who hath judged me thus." Sym. "hath despised my judgment." The expression seems very harsh, and may be one of those which God blames. C. xl. 3. E. C. — Yet we shall examine that point later. C. xlii. H. — He may only mean that he is so well convinced of his innocence, that he calls God to witness it, (C.) and adores his ways, (H.) in not permitting him to appear before his tribunal, (C.) to justify himself; (M.) so the he is abandoned to the rash judgments of others. C. xxxiv. 5. Isaias (xl. 27.) and Sophonias (iii. 15.) speak in similar terms. C. — God deferred passing sentence, for Job's greater trial. W.
*H As long as breath remaineth in me, and the spirit of God in my nostrils,
Ver. 3. Nostrils: while I live. H. — Gen. ii. 7. Ezec. xxxvii. 14. C.
*H God forbid that I should judge you to be just: till I die I will not depart from my innocence.
Ver. 5. Till. Never will I abandon this path, (H.) nor will I yield to your reasons, (C.) or cease to defend myself. M. — It would have been contrary to justice and charity, (H.) as well as to truth, to confess a false crime. W.
*H Let my enemy be as the ungodly, and my adversary as the wicked one.
Ver. 7. Enemy, or opponent. Heb. "my enemy shall be," &c. H. — In effect, those who maintained the contrary to what Job taught, favoured the cause of impiety, as they represented God never punishing his servants, &c. (C.) which is contrary to experience; (H.) though it was not so evident at that time. Houbigant. — Job is so far from thinking riches a proof of sanctity, that he rather would wish his enemy to have them, (M.) as they are too frequently an incentive to sin. H.
*H For what is the hope of the hypocrite if through covetousness he take by violence, and God deliver not his soul?
Ver. 8. Soul, in death: What will it profit? &c. Mat. xvi. 26. All this proves demonstratively another world. C.
* Summa
*S Part 3, Ques 111, Article 3
[II-II, Q. 111, Art. 3]
Whether Hypocrisy Is Contrary to the Virtue of Truth?
Objection 1: It seems that hypocrisy is not contrary to the virtue of truth. For in dissimulation or hypocrisy there is a sign and a thing signified. Now with regard to neither of these does it seem to be opposed to any special virtue: for a hypocrite simulates any virtue, and by means of any virtuous deeds, such as fasting, prayer and alms deeds, as stated in Matt. 6:1-18. Therefore hypocrisy is not specially opposed to the virtue of truth.
Obj. 2: Further, all dissimulation seems to proceed from guile, wherefore it is opposed to simplicity. Now guile is opposed to prudence as above stated (Q. 55, A. 4). Therefore, hypocrisy which is dissimulation is not opposed to truth, but rather to prudence or simplicity.
Obj. 3: Further, the species of moral acts is taken from their end. Now the end of hypocrisy is the acquisition of gain or vainglory: wherefore a gloss on Job 27:8, "What is the hope of the hypocrite, if through covetousness he take by violence," says: "A hypocrite or, as the Latin has it, a dissimulator, is a covetous thief: for through desire of being honored for holiness, though guilty of wickedness, he steals praise for a life which is not his." [*The quotation is from St. Gregory's _Moralia,_ Bk XVIII.] Therefore since covetousness or vainglory is not directly opposed to truth, it seems that neither is hypocrisy or dissimulation.
_On the contrary,_ All dissimulation is a lie, as stated above (A. 1). Now a lie is directly opposed to truth. Therefore dissimulation or hypocrisy is also.
_I answer that,_ According to the Philosopher (Metaph. text. 13, 24, x), "contrariety is opposition as regards form," i.e. the specific form. Accordingly we must reply that dissimulation or hypocrisy may be opposed to a virtue in two ways, in one way directly, in another way indirectly. Its direct opposition or contrariety is to be considered with regard to the very species of the act, and this species depends on that act's proper object. Wherefore since hypocrisy is a kind of dissimulation, whereby a man simulates a character which is not his, as stated in the preceding article, it follows that it is directly opposed to truth whereby a man shows himself in life and speech to be what he is, as stated in _Ethic._ iv, 7.
The indirect opposition or contrariety of hypocrisy may be considered in relation to any accident, for instance a remote end, or an instrument of action, or anything else of that kind.
Reply Obj. 1: The hypocrite in simulating a virtue regards it as his end, not in respect of its existence, as though he wished to have it, but in respect of appearance, since he wishes to seem to have it. Hence his hypocrisy is not opposed to that virtue, but to truth, inasmuch as he wishes to deceive men with regard to that virtue. And he performs acts of that virtue, not as intending them for their own sake, but instrumentally, as signs of that virtue, wherefore his hypocrisy has not, on that account, a direct opposition to that virtue.
Reply Obj. 2: As stated above (Q. 55, AA. 3, 4, 5), the vice directly opposed to prudence is cunning, to which it belongs to discover ways of achieving a purpose, that are apparent and not real: while it accomplishes that purpose, by guile in words, and by fraud in deeds: and it stands in relation to prudence, as guile and fraud to simplicity. Now guile and fraud are directed chiefly to deception, and sometimes secondarily to injury. Wherefore it belongs directly to simplicity to guard oneself from deception, and in this way the virtue of simplicity is the same as the virtue of truth as stated above (Q. 109, A. 2, ad 4). There is, however, a mere logical difference between them, because by truth we mean the concordance between sign and thing signified, while simplicity indicates that one does not tend to different things, by intending one thing inwardly, and pretending another outwardly.
Reply Obj. 3: Gain or glory is the remote end of the dissembler as also of the liar. Hence it does not take its species from this end, but from the proximate end, which is to show oneself other than one is. Wherefore it sometimes happens to a man to pretend great things of himself, for no further purpose than the mere lust of hypocrisy, as the Philosopher says (Ethic. iv, 7), and as also we have said above with regard to lying (Q. 110, A. 2). _______________________
FOURTH
*H Will God hear his cry, when distress shall come upon him?
Ver. 9. Him. Like Antiochus, the wicked pray only through fear of punishment, and their request is therefore rejected. 2 Mac. ix. 13. M.
*H I will teach you by the hand of God, what the Almighty hath, and I will not conceal it.
Ver. 11. Hand, or grace of God. — Hath, how he acts, and with what design. C. — Quid disponat Deus. S. Aug.
*H This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the inheritance of the violent, which they shall receive of the Almighty.
Ver. 13. Portion. This you have repeatedly asserted; and (H.) I acknowledge it is generally, but not always, the case. C.
*H If his sons be multiplied, they shall be for the sword, and his grandsons shall not be filled with bread.
Ver. 14. Bread. Sept. "if they grow up to manhood, they shall beg." Ps. xxxvi 25. H.
*H They that shall remain of him, shall be buried in death, and his widows shall not weep.
Ver. 15. In death; without honour. Sanctius. — Weep for him. Sept. "his widows no one shall lament, or pity." H. Ps. lxxvii. 63. M.
*H He hath built his house as a moth, and as a keeper he hath made a booth.
Ver. 18. Moth. Heb. "as the polar star." Jun. — But the Chal. &c. translate with the Vulg. which agrees better with the latter part of the verse. The moth devours another's property, like the wicked man, who lodges commodiously, though not at his own expense. — Keeper of a field, or of a vineyard. C. — Sept. "His house has slipt away like a moth, and what he has kept (or his riches) like a spider." H. — The moth demolishes its own house, and is then disturbed, (M.) or thrown with the rotten wood into the fire.
* Footnotes
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Psalms
48:18
For when he shall die he shall take nothing away; nor shall his glory descend with him.
*H The rich man when he shall sleep shall take away nothing with him: he shall open his eyes and find nothing.
Ver. 19. Nothing. His riches are all left behind! The men of riches have slept their sleep, and have found nothing in their hands. They awake as from a dream, (C. xx. 8. H.) and then they form a true estimate of things. M. — God chiefly punishes the wicked in death. Ps. lxxv. W.
*H Poverty like water shall take hold on him, a tempest shall oppress him in the night:
Ver. 20. Night. Darkness often denotes disgrace and misery.
*H And he shall cast upon him, and shall not spare: out of his hand he would willingly flee.
Ver. 22. And he (God) shall, or Sept. the wind, (C.) "shall fall upon him." H. — Flee. Yet he will not escape, (M.) though he flee with all expedition. H.
*H He shall clasp his hands upon him, and shall hiss at him, beholding his place.
Ver. 23. Place. God having waited patiently a long time, at last displays the effects of his indignation, with a sort of contempt. Prov. i. 26. Ezec. v. 13. C. Ps. ii. 4. M. Pineda. — Every passenger who shall witness his fall, and his now abandoned place, shall also testify his approbation. H.