Job 1:8
And the Lord said to him: Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a simple and upright man, and fearing God, and avoiding evil?
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Dixitque Dominus ad eum : Numquid considerasti servum meum Job, quod non sit ei similis in terra, homo simplex et rectus, ac timens Deum, et recedens a malo ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ κύριος Προσέσχες τῇ διανοίᾳ σου κατὰ τοῦ παιδός μου Ἰώβ; ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν κατ᾽ αὐτὸν τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ἄνθρωπος ἄμεμπτος, ἀληθινός, θεοσεβής, ἀπεχόμενος ἀπὸ παντὸς πονηροῦ πράγματος.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֶל הַשָּׂטָ֔ן הֲשַׂ֥מְתָּ לִבְּךָ֖ עַל עַבְדִּ֣י אִיּ֑וֹב כִּ֣י אֵ֤ין כָּמֹ֨הוּ֙ בָּאָ֔רֶץ אִ֣ישׁ תָּ֧ם וְיָשָׁ֛ר יְרֵ֥א אֱלֹהִ֖ים וְסָ֥ר מֵרָֽע
The Fathers on this verse
St Cyprian Treatise VII
10. Thus Job, after the loss of his wealth, after the death of his children, grievously afflicted, moreover, with sores and worms, was not overcome, but proved; since in his very struggles and anguish, showing forth the patience of a religious mind, he says, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, naked also I shall go under the earth: the Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as it seemed fit to the Lord, so it hath been done. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” And when his wife also urged him, in his impatience at the acuteness of his pain, to speak something against God with a complaining and envious voice, he answered and said, “Thou speakest as one of the foolish women. …
St Cyprian Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews, Testimony XIV
In Job: “Say some word against the Lord, and die. But he, looking upon her, said, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women. If we have received good things from the Lord’s hand, why shall we not endure evil things? In all these things which happened unto him, Job sinned not with his lips in the sight of the Lord.” Also in the same place: “Hast thou regarded my servant Job? for there is none like unto him in the earth: a man without complaint: a true worshipper of God, restraining himself from all evil.” Of the same thing in the thirty-third Psalm: “I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall ever be in my mouth.” Of this same thing in Numbers: “Let their murmuring cease from me, and they shall not die.” Of this same thing in the Acts of the Apostles: “But about the middle of the night Paul and Silas prayed and gave thanks to God, and the prisoners heard them.” Also in the Epist …
St Augustine On the Good of Marriage, Section 25
25. Forsooth continence is a virtue, not of the body, but of the soul. But the virtues of the soul are sometimes shown in work, sometimes lie hid in habit, as the virtue of martyrdom shone forth and appeared by enduring sufferings; but how many are there of the same virtue of mind, unto whom trial is wanting, whereby what is within, in the sight of God, may go forth also into the sight of men, and not to men begin to exist, but only become known? For there was already in Job patience, which God knew, and to which He bore witness: but it became known unto men by test of trial: and what lay hid within was not produced, but shown, by the things that were brought on him from without. …
St Augustine A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants, No One Righteous in All Things
That illustrious testimony of God, therefore, in which Job is commended, is not contrary to the passage in which it is said, “In Thy sight shall no man living be justified;” for it does not lead us to suppose that in him there was nothing at all which might either by himself truly or by the Lord God rightly be blamed, although at the same time he might with no untruth be said to be a righteous man, and a sincere worshipper of God, and one who keeps himself from every evil work. For these are God’s words concerning him: “Hast thou diligently considered my servant Job? For there is none like him on the earth, blameless, righteous, a true worshipper of God, who keeps himself from every evil work.” First, he is here praised for his excellence in comparison with all men on earth. …
St Augustine A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness, The Sixth Passage
He has also adduced this passage of Scripture, which is very commonly quoted against his party: “For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” And he makes a pretence of answering it by other passages, how, “the Lord says concerning holy Job, ‘Hast thou considered my servant Job? For there is none like him upon earth, a man who is blameless, true, a worshipper of God, and abstaining from every evil thing.’” On this passage we have already made some remarks. But he has not even attempted to show us how, on the one hand, Job was absolutely sinless upon earth, if the words are to bear such a sense; and, on the other hand, how that can be true which he has admitted to be in the Scripture, “There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.”
St Leo the Great Sermons, On the Feast of the Nativity, VII
This objectionable practice must be given up therefore by the faithful, and the honour due to God alone must not be mixed up with those men’s rites who serve their fellow-creatures. For the divine Scripture says: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God , and Him only shalt thou serve.” And the blessed Job, “a man without complaint,” as the Lord says, “and one that eschews every evil,” said, “Have I seen the sun when it shone or the moon walking brightly, and my heart hath rejoiced in secret, and I have kissed my hand: what is my great iniquity and denial against the most High God ?” But what is the sun or what is the moon but elements of visible creation and material light: one of which is of greater brightness and the other of lesser light? For as it is now day time and now night time, so the Creator has constituted divers kinds of luminaries, although even before they were made there had …