Job 12:2-12

2 “You people really know everything, don’t you? And when you die, wisdom will die with you!

3 Well, I know a few things myself— and you’re no better than I am. Who doesn’t know these things you’ve been saying?

4 Yet my friends laugh at me, for I call on God and expect an answer. I am a just and blameless man, yet they laugh at me.

5 People who are at ease mock those in trouble. They give a push to people who are stumbling.

6 But robbers are left in peace, and those who provoke God live in safety— though God keeps them in his power.

7 “Just ask the animals, and they will teach you. Ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.

8 Speak to the earth, and it will instruct you. Let the fish in the sea speak to you.

9 For they all know that my disaster has come from the hand of the LORD .

10 For the life of every living thing is in his hand, and the breath of every human being.

11 The ear tests the words it hears just as the mouth distinguishes between foods.

12 Wisdom belongs to the aged, and understanding to the old.

Job 12:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or safety—those who try to manipulate God. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
• [b]. Hebrew that this.