Job 38:1
Then the Lord answered Job out of a whirlwind, and said:
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Respondens autem Dominus Job de turbine, dixit :
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Μετὰ δὲ τὸ παύσασθαι Ἐλιοῦν τῆς λέξεως εἶπεν ὁ κύριος τῷ Ἰὼβ διὰ λαίλαπος καὶ νεφῶν
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיַּֽעַן יְהוָ֣ה אֶת אִ֭יּוֹב מנ הסערה וַיֹּאמַֽר
Haydock's commentary
Then. Septuagint, "After Eliu had ceased to speak." (Haydock)
Lord. That is, an angel speaking in the name of the Lord. (Challoner)
The name Jehova (Haydock) here occurs, though it never does in the speeches; whence many have inferred that the Lord spoke in person; which argument, however, is not conclusive; and that this work was written after the apparition in the burning bush. (Calmet)
The Hebrew edition would at least be given after that event.
Whirlwind, designed to strike the senses, (Haydock) and to represent the distressed condition of Job. (Pineda)
This awful appearance imposed silence upon all. (Haydock)
Some think that a time was allowed for reflection and repentance, before God passed sentence; but the Septuagint, &c., seem to suppose that the cause was decided as soon as Eliu had ended his discourse. (Calmet)
God discusses the controversy, and gives sentence in favour of Job. (Worthington)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Gregory Nazianzen On the Great Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria
18. Such was the lot of Job: such at first sight his history. In reality it was a contest between virtue and envy: the one straining every nerve to overcome the good, the other enduring everything, that it might abide unsubdued; the one striving to smooth the way for vice, by means of the chastisement of the upright, the other to retain its hold upon the good, even if they do exceed others in misfortunes. What then of Him who answered Job out of the whirlwind and cloud, Who is slow to chastise and swift to help, Who suffers not utterly the rod of the wicked to come into the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous should learn iniquity? At the end of the contests He declares the victory of the athlete in a splendid proclamation and lays bare the secret of his calamities, saying: “Thinkest thou that I have dealt with thee for any other purpose than the manifestation of thy righteousness?” …
St Gregory Nazianzen The First Theological Oration. A Preliminary Discourse Against the Eunomians
VIII. And yet, O talkative Dialectician, I will ask thee one small question, and answer thou me, as He saith to Job, Who through whirlwind and cloud giveth Divine admonitions. Are there many mansions in God’s House, as thou hast heard, or only one? Of course you will admit that there are many, and not only one. Now, are they all to be filled, or only some, and others not; so that some will be left empty, and will have been prepared to no purpose? Of course all will be filled, for nothing can be in vain which has been done by God. And can you tell me what you will consider this Mansion to be? Is it the rest and glory which is in store There for the Blessed, or something else? No, not anything else. Since then we are agreed upon this point, let us further examine another also. …