Job 16:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But during this peaceful time, his members do not ‘gather their fury’ against the chosen ones in the same manner, as they perceive their own lack of strength to carry out their wickedness. When the opportune moment arises and they see a broad expanse of iniquity at their disposal, they will assail her more boldly as they come closer to their leader, uniting against her. Thus it is accurately stated, He has gathered his fury against me. To further illustrate his fury, it is noted: and, threatening me, he gnashed his teeth at me. Following that, it was declared: my enemy looked at me with dreadful eyes. The ancient foe of the Church ‘gnashes his teeth against him’ and ‘regards her with frightful eyes’ as he prepares various means to fulfill atrocities and invents opportunities for further evil yet to come.

The ‘teeth’ symbolize those enemies who persecute and harm the righteous, afflicting their members and targeting the elect. The ‘eyes’ of this enemy represent those that devise the measures for her persecution, creating conditions for the enactment of cruelty, thus enabling her tormentors. The old foe continues to ‘gnash his teeth at her’ for as long as he prey upon virtuous lives through the cruel offspring of ruin. He observes with dreadful eyes as he incessantly contrives schemes of deception and malice to afflict her increasingly. The Incarnate Truth, in his teachings, has selected humble and ordinary men; therefore, conversely, the accursed man whom the Apostate Angel will claim for himself at the end of the age will choose for the dissemination of his lies, deceit, and hypocrisy those who possess worldly wisdom. Hence Isaiah proclaimed, Woe to the land that sends envoys with wings made of cymbals across the rivers of Ethiopia; who dispatches ambassadors over the waters in papyrus vessels (Isaiah 18:1-2). What does this land represent, that is, this accursed man, referred to as ‘the wings of the cymbals,’ for those who arrogantly rise to lofty imaginations proclaim the sound emanating from this man of wickedness. Is it not fitting to describe the land 'across the rivers of Ethiopia' because Ethiopia gives rise to dark-skinned people, just as this world begets every individual as a sinner? The land to which woe is prophesied is characterized as the territory ‘beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,’ for the accursed man is so extraordinarily and incomprehensibly wicked that he exceeds all sin and lawlessness; he dispatches ambassadors by sea, as he spreads his preachers throughout the world. It is aptly observed how they shall be sent, when it says, In papyrus vessels over the waters, for from ‘papyrus’ comes paper. What, then, is denoted by ‘papyrus’ if not secular knowledge? Thus, the papyrus vessels correspond to the hearts of worldly individuals. Therefore, he ‘sends ambassadors over the waters in vessels of papyrus,’ to instill his preaching in the minds of worldly wise men, leading people into sin. The individuals represented by ‘vessels of papyrus’ are further identified by ‘eyes,’ as they see only through a worldly lens.