Job 12

CHAPTER 12

Job (12:1–25)

1–6 Job's three friends had been growing impatient with Job; now Job gets impatient with them. He begins with sarcasm: “...you are the (wise) people,” he tells his friends, “and when you die, wisdom will die with you” (verse 2). Then he says that he is just as wise as they are, indeed wiser (verse 3). He knows, for example, that he has suffered—has become a laughingstock³³—even while being righteous and blameless (verse 4); this is something his “wise” friends do not accept. Because they live at ease,they have contempt for those who suffer misfortune (verse 5). Job knows that in this life the righteous often suffer and the wicked—he marauders and those who provoke God—often remain secure (verse 6). People's goodness or badness does not determine their earthly circumstances; morality is not the only basis of prosperity in this life. We cannot judge what is in a man's heart by what he has in his hand. A truly wise man, says Job, would know this.

7–12 Job then turns to the world of nature—animals, birds, fish—to prove his point. Even they will teach his friends that often the righteous suffer while the wicked remain secure (verses 7–8). Even the creatures “know” that their lives are in God's hands (verse 10). Surely Job's friends, who are among the aged (wise), should have the wisdom to understand these things (verse 12).

13–25 In these verses, Job continues his argument that God is completely in control of everything in the world; He is absolutely sovereign. All wisdom and power are His (verse 13). No one, not even counselors, judges, kings or priests can withstand Him³⁴ (verses 17–21). Nations and their leaders are in His hands and He does with them as He pleases. It is folly to “set up rules” for God, and say that He must always reward the righteous and punish the wicked; God has greater purposes than humans can understand, and He will surely carry them out.