1Then Job answered and said: 2Truly you are the people, and wisdom will die with you! 3But I have a heart as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Indeed, who does not know such things as these? 4I am one as a laughingstock to his friends; one who called upon God, and He answered him; the just and whole one is a laughingstock. 5A lamp is despised in the thoughts of one who is at ease; it is made ready for those whose feet slip. 6The tents of plunderers prosper, and those who provoke the Mighty God are secure, as God brings into his hand. 7But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; and the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; 8or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea shall recount to you. 9Who among all these does not know that the hand of Jehovah has done this, 10in whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all the flesh of mankind? 11Does not the ear test words and the mouth taste its food? 12Wisdom is with old men, and with length of days is understanding. 13With Him are wisdom and strength, He has counsel and understanding. 14Behold, He breaks down, and it cannot be rebuilt; He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. 15Behold, He withholds the waters, and they dry up; He sends them out, and they transform the earth. 16With Him are strength and wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are His. 17He causes counselors to walk away barefoot, and makes fools of the judges. 18He loosens the bonds of kings, and binds their loins with a waistband. 19He causes the priests to walk away barefoot, and overthrows the mighty. 20He removes the lips of the trusted ones, and takes away the discretion of the elders. 21He pours contempt upon nobles, and drops the girdle off hollow bones. 22He reveals deep dark mysteries, and brings out the deep darkness into the light of day. 23He makes nations great, and destroys them; He spreads out nations, and guides them. 24He takes away the heart of the heads of the people of the earth, and makes them wander in a wilderness with no path. 25They grope in the darkness without light, and He makes them stagger like a drunkard.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 2 JOB'S REPLY TO ZOPHAR (Job 12:1-14:22)
wisdom shall die with you--Ironical, as if all the wisdom in the world was concentrated in them and would expire when they expired. Wisdom makes "a people:" a foolish nation is "not a people" (
Ρωμ. 10:19).
3 not inferior--not vanquished in argument and "wisdom" (
Ιώβ 13:2).
such things as these--such commonplace maxims as you so pompously adduce.
4 The unfounded accusations of Job's friends were a "mockery" of him. He alludes to Zophar's word, "mockest" (
Ιώβ 11:3).
neighbour, who calleth, &c.--rather, "I who call upon God that he may answer me favorably" [UMBREIT].
5 Rather, "a torch" (lamp) is an object of contempt in the thoughts of him who rests securely (is at ease), though it was prepared for the falterings of the feet [UMBREIT] (
Παρ. 25:19). "Thoughts" and "feet" are in contrast; also rests "securely," and "falterings." The wanderer, arrived at his night-quarters, contemptuously throws aside the torch which had guided his uncertain steps through the darkness. As the torch is to the wanderer, so Job to his friends. Once they gladly used his aid in their need; now they in prosperity mock him in his need.
6 Job shows that the matter of fact opposes Zophar's theory (
Ιώβ 11:14,
Ιώβ 11:19-
Ιώβ 11:20) that wickedness causes insecurity in men's "tabernacles." On the contrary, they who rob the "tabernacles" ("dwellings") of others "prosper securely" in their own.
into whose hand, &c.--rather, "who make a god of their own hand," that is, who regard their might as their only ruling principle [UMBREIT].
7 Beasts, birds, fishes, and plants, reasons Job, teach that the violent live the most securely (
Ιώβ 12:6). The vulture lives more securely than the dove, the lion than the ox, the shark than the dolphin, the rose than the thorn which tears it.
8 speak to the earth--rather, "the shrubs of the earth" [UMBREIT].
9 In all these cases, says Job, the agency must be referred to Jehovah, though they may seem to man to imply imperfection (
Ιώβ 12:6;
Ιώβ 9:24). This is the only undisputed passage of the poetical part in which the name "Jehovah" occurs; in the historical parts it occurs frequently.
10 the soul--that is, the animal life. Man, reasons Job, is subjected to the same laws as the lower animals.
11 As the mouth by tasting meats selects what pleases it, so the ear tries the words of others and retains what is convincing. Each chooses according to his taste. The connection with
Ιώβ 12:12 is in reference to Bildad's appeal to the "ancients" (
Ιώβ 8:8). You are right in appealing to them, since "with them was wisdom," &c. But you select such proverbs of theirs as suit your views; so I may borrow from the same such as suit mine.
12 ancient--aged (
Ιώβ 15:10).
13 In contrast to, "with the ancient is wisdom" (
Ιώβ 12:12), Job quotes a saying of the ancients which suits his argument, "with Him (God) is (the true) wisdom" (
Παρ. 8:14); and by that "wisdom and strength" "He breaketh down," &c., as an absolute Sovereign, not allowing man to penetrate His mysteries; man's part is to bow to His unchangeable decrees (
Ιώβ 1:21). The Mohammedan saying is, "if God will, and how God will."
14 shutteth up-- (
Ησ. 22:22). Job refers to Zophar's "shut up" (
Ιώβ 11:10).
15 Probably alluding to the flood.
16 (
Ιεζ. 14:9).
18 He looseth the bond of kings--He looseth the authority of kings--the "bond" with which they bind their subjects (
Ησ. 45:1;
Γέν. 14:4;
Δαν. 2:21).
a girdle--the cord, with which they are bound as captives, instead of the royal "girdle" they once wore (
Ησ. 22:21), and the bond they once bound others with. So "gird"--put on one the bonds of a prisoner instead of the ordinary girdle (
Ιωάν. 21:18).
19 princes--rather, "priests," as the Hebrew is rendered (
Ψαλ. 99:6). Even the sacred ministers of religion are not exempt from reverses and captivity.
the mighty--rather, "the firm-rooted in power"; the Arabic root expresses ever-flowing water [UMBREIT].
20 the trusty--rather, "those secure in their eloquence"; for example, the speakers in the gate (
Ησ. 3:3) [BEZA].
understanding--literally, "taste," that is, insight or spiritual discernment, which experience gives the aged. The same Hebrew word is applied to Daniel's wisdom in interpretation (
Δαν. 2:14).
21 Ψαλ. 107:40 quotes, in its first clause, this verse and, in its second,
Ιώβ 12:24.
weakeneth the strength--literally, "looseth the girdle"; Orientals wear flowing garments; when active strength is to be put forth, they gird up their garments with a girdle. Hence here--"He destroyeth their power" in the eyes of the people.
22 (
Δαν. 2:22).
23 Ησ. 9:3;
Ψαλ. 107:38-
Ψαλ. 107:39, which Psalm quotes this chapter elsewhere. (See on
Ιώβ 12:21).
straiteneth--literally, "leadeth in," that is, "reduces."
24 heart--intelligence.
wander in a wilderness--figurative; not referring to any actual fact. This cannot be quoted to prove Job lived after Israel's wanderings in the desert.
Ψαλ. 107:4,
Ψαλ. 107:40 quotes this passage.
25 Δευτ. 28:29;
Ψαλ. 107:27 again quote Job, but in a different connection.