[Ant 1]
In all these things Job sinned not * with his lips, nor charged God with foolishness.

[Versum 1]
V. Let the evening prayer ascend unto thee, O Lord.
R. And let there descend upon us thy mercy.

[Lectio1]
Lesson from the book of Job
!Job 9:1-5
1 And Job answered, and said:
2 Indeed I know it is so, and that man cannot be justified compared with
3 If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one for a thousand.
4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath resisted him, and hath had peace
5 Who hath removed mountains, and they whom he overthrew in his wrath, knew it not.

[Responsory1]
@Tempora/091-0:Responsory1

[Lectio2]
!Job 9:6-10
6 Who shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.
7 Who commandeth tile sun and it riseth not: and shutteth up the stars as it were under a seal:
8 Who alone spreadeth out the heavens, and walketh upon the waves of the sea.
9 Who maketh Arcturus, and Orion, and Hyades, and the inner parts of the south.
10 Who doth things great and incomprehensible, and wonderful, of which there is no number.

[Responsory2]
@Tempora/091-0:Responsory2

[Lectio3]
!Job 9:11-17
11 If he come to me, I shall not see him: if he depart I shall not understand.
12 If he examine on a sudden, who shall answer him? or who can say: Why dost thou so?
13 God, whose wrath no mall can resist, and under whom they stoop that bear up the world.
14 What am I then, that I should answer him, and have words with him?
15 I, who although I should have any just thing, would not answer, but would make supplication to my judge.
16 And if he should hear me when I call, I should not believe that he had heard my voice.
17 For he shall crush me in a whirlwind, and multiply my wounds even without cause.

[Responsory3]
@Tempora/091-0:Responsory3

[Lectio4]
From the Book of Moral (Reflections upon Job) written by Pope St Gregory (the Great.)
!Bk. ix. ch. 2.
We know that it is so of a truth, and that a man cannot be justified as against God. When God is put out of the consideration, a man may be considered to be just, but considered as against God, his righteousness vanisheth away. When a man measureth himself by his relation to Him, Who is the Author of all good, he doth thereby acknowledge that of himself he hath no good in him, but hath received from God whatsoever he hath. He that glorifieth himself because of good which hath been given him, fighteth against God with God's own gifts. It is just therefore that the grounds upon which he ought to have been humbled, but upon which he hath puffed himself up, should be used to humble his vain-glory. But an holy man, because he perceiveth that the worth of our own good deeds falleth short, when he considereth his own spiritual man, justly saith If He will contend with him, he cannot answer Him one of a thousand.

[Responsory4]
@Tempora/091-0:Responsory4

[Lectio5]
In the Holy Scriptures the numeral a thousand is used to be taken as signifying a generalization. Thus, the Psalmist saith The word which He commanded to a~
thousand generations (Ps. civ. 8), whereas it is notorious that the Evangelist doth not reckon more then seventy-and-seven generations between the very~
beginning of the world and the coming of our Redeemer. What therefore is to be understood here by a thousand The general ripeness of the old generation to bring forth a new offspring. Hence also it is said by John And shall reign with Him a thousand years (Apoc. xx. 6,) because the reign of the Holy Church will be over all mankind made perfect.

[Responsory5]
@Tempora/091-0:Responsory5

[Lectio6]
When times one is ten, and ten times ten is an hundred, and ten times an hundred is a thousand. Observing therefore this connection between one and a thousand, what are we to understand by the one (in the text, connected as it is with the thousand whereby we understand perfection)? Is it not the beginning of a good life, even as the thousand representeth perfection? The contending with God (which is spoken of in the text) is the nonacknowledgment of that which is owed to Him, and the vain-glorying instead in our own strength. But an holy man should see, that even if one had received the gifts of perfection, and were to make them the grounds of self-glorifying, such an one would thereby lose all that he had received.

[Responsory6]
@Tempora/091-0:Responsory6

[Responsory7]
@Tempora/091-0:Responsory7

[Responsory8]
@Tempora/Pent01-0:Responsory8
