Job 12

Job's Reply to Zophar

1 Then Job answered:

2 No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you!^[a]

3 But I also have a mind; I am not inferior to you. Who doesn't know the things you are talking about?^[b][c]

4 I am a laughingstock to my^[d] friends, by calling on God, who answers me.^[e] The righteous and upright man is a laughingstock.^[f]

5 The one who is at ease holds calamity in contempt [and thinks] it is prepared for those whose feet are slipping.^[g]

6 The tents of robbers are safe, and those who provoke God are secure; God's power provides this.^[h]

7 But ask the animals, and they will instruct you; [ask] the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.^[i]

8 Or speak to the earth, and it will instruct you; let the fish of the sea inform you.

9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?^[j]

10 The life of every living thing is in His hand, as well as the breath of all mankind.^[k]

11 Doesn't the ear test words as the palate tastes food?

12 Wisdom is found with the elderly, and understanding comes with long life.^[l]

13 Wisdom and strength belong to God; counsel and understanding are His.^[m]

14 Whatever He tears down cannot be rebuilt; whoever He imprisons cannot be released.^[n]

15 When He withholds the waters, everything dries up, and when He releases them, they destroy the land.^[o]

16 True wisdom and power belong to Him. The deceived and the deceiver are His.

17 He leads counselors away barefoot and makes judges go mad.^[p]

18 He releases the bonds^[q] put on by kings^[r] and ties a cloth around their waists.

19 He leads priests away barefoot and overthrows established leaders.^[s]

20 He deprives trusted advisers of speech and takes away the elders' good judgment.^[t]

21 He pours out contempt on nobles and disarms^[u] the strong.

22 He reveals mysteries from the darkness and brings the deepest darkness into the light.^[v]

23 He makes nations great, then destroys them; He enlarges nations, then leads them away.^[w]

24 He deprives the world's leaders of reason, and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.^[x]

25 They grope around in darkness without light; He makes them stagger like drunken men.^[y]

Job 12 Commentary

Chapter 12

Job reproves his friends. (1-5) The wicked often prosper.(6-11) Job speaks of the wisdom and power of God. (12-25)

Verses 1-5 Job upbraids his friends with the good opinion they had of their own wisdom compared with his. We are apt to call reproofs reproaches, and to think ourselves mocked when advised and admonished; this is our folly; yet here was colour for this charge. He suspected the true cause of their conduct to be, that they despised him who was fallen into poverty. It is the way of the world. Even the just, upright man, if he comes under a cloud, is looked upon with contempt.

Verses 6-11 Job appeals to facts. The most audacious robbers, oppressors, and impious wretches, often prosper. Yet this is not by fortune or chance; the Lord orders these things. Worldly prosperity is of small value in his sight: he has better things for his children. Job resolves all into the absolute proprietorship which God has in all the creatures. He demands from his friends liberty to judge of what they had said; he appeals to any fair judgment.

Verses 12-25 This is a noble discourse of Job concerning the wisdom, power, and sovereignty of God, in ordering all the affairs of the children of men, according to the counsel of His own will, which none can resist. It were well if wise and good men, who differ about lesser things, would see how it is for their honour and comfort, and the good of others, to dwell most upon the great things in which they agree. Here are no complaints, or reflections. He gives many instances of God's powerful management of the children of men, overruling all their counsels, and overcoming all their oppositions. Having all strength and wisdom, God knows how to make use, even of those who are foolish and bad; otherwise there is so little wisdom and so little honesty in the world, that all had been in confusion and ruin long ago. These important truths were suited to convince the disputants that they were out of their depth in attempting to assign the Lord's reasons for afflicting Job; his ways are unsearchable, and his judgments past finding out. Let us remark what beautiful illustrations there are in the word of God, confirming his sovereignty, and wisdom in that sovereignty: but the highest and infinitely the most important is, that the Lord Jesus was crucified by the malice of the Jews; and who but the Lord could have known that this one event was the salvation of the world?

Footnotes

• [a]. Jb 15:8
• [b]. Lit With whom are not such things as these
• [c]. Jb 13:2; 15:9
• [d]. Lit his
• [e]. Lit him
• [f]. Jb 6:14-15; Jr 20:7; Lm 3:14
• [g]. Jb 31:29; Ps 123:4; Pr 24:22
• [h]. Ps 73:11; Jr 12:1; Mt 5:45
• [i]. Jb 35:11; Mt 6:26
• [j]. Jb 9:24; Isa 1:3; 41:20
• [k]. Gn 2:7
• [l]. Jb 12:20; 15:10; 29:8
• [m]. Jb 12:16; Isa 9:6; 11:2
• [n]. Jb 19:10; Isa 22:22
• [o]. Jb 28:25-26; Ps 33:7; Isa 40:12
• [p]. Jb 19:9; Isa 44:25; 1 Co 1:20
• [q]. Text emended; MT reads discipline
• [r]. Ps 116:16; Isa 58:6
• [s]. Isa 40:23; Lk 1:52
• [t]. Dn 4:31-33; Ob 8
• [u]. Lit and loosens the belt of
• [v]. Ps 90:8; Isa 45:3; Dn 2:22
• [w]. Ex 34:24; Jr 18:7-9; Dn 2:21
• [x]. Ps 107:40; Dn 4:31-33
• [y]. Jb 5:14; Ps 107:27; Isa 19:13-14

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 12

In this and the two following chapter Job makes answer to Zophar's discourse in the former; who having represented him as an ignorant man, he resents it, and begins his defence with a biting sarcasm on him and his friends, as being self-conceited, and having an high opinion of their own wisdom, as if none had any but themselves, Job 12:1,2; and puts in his claim for a share with them, as being not at all inferior to them, Job 12:3; and then refutes their notions, that it always goes well with good men, and ill with bad men; whereas the reverse is the truth, Job 12:4-6; and which they might learn from the brute creatures; or he sends them to them, to observe to them, that the best things they had knowledge of concerning God and his providence, and of his wisdom therein, were common notions that everyone had, and might be learned from beasts, birds, and fishes; particularly, that all things in the whole universe are made by God, and sustained by him, and are under his direction, and at his disposal, Job 12:7-10; and such things might as easily be searched, examined, and judged of, as sounds are tried by the ear, and food by the mouth, Job 12:11; and seeing it is usual among men, at least it may be expected that men in years should have a considerable share of wisdom and knowledge, it might be strongly inferred from thence, without any difficulty, that the most perfect and consummate wisdom was in God, Job 12:12,13; whence he passes on to discourse most admirably and excellently of the wisdom and power of God in the dispensations of his providence, in a variety of instances; which shows his knowledge of his perfections, ways, and works, was not inferior to that of his friends, Job 12:14-25.