1Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said: 2Should not the multitude of words be answered? And should a man giving lip be justified? 3Should your empty talk make men hold their peace? And when you mock, should no one make you ashamed? 4For you have said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in Your eyes. 5But oh that God would speak, and open His lips against you, 6that He would show you the secrets of wisdom! For they would double your wisdom. Know therefore that God forgets some of your iniquity. 7Can you search and find out God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? 8They are higher than the heavens; what can you do? Deeper than Sheol; what can you know? 9Their measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. 10If He passes by, imprisons, and gathers together, then who can repulse Him? 11For He knows the vanity of men; He sees wickedness also. Will He not then consider it? 12For an empty-headed man will be wise, when a wild ass's colt is born a man. 13If you have prepared your heart, and spread out your hands toward Him; 14if iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in your tents. 15Then surely you shall lift up your face without blemish; yea, you shall be steadfast, and not fear; 16because you shall forget your misery, and remember it as waters that have passed away, 17and your lifetime shall arise more than the brightness of the noonday. Though you were dark, you shall be like the morning. 18And you shall be secure, because there is hope; yea, you shall dig around you, and rest in safety. 19You shall also lie down, and no one shall cause you to tremble; yea, many shall entreat your favor. 20But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and their place of escape shall perish; and their hope, as the expiring of the soul!
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 2 FIRST SPEECH OF ZOPHAR. (Job 11:1-20)
Zophar assails Job for his empty words, and indirectly, the two friends, for their weak reply. Taciturnity is highly prized among Orientals (
Pro 10:8,
Pro 10:19).
3 lies--rather, "vain boasting" (
Isa 16:6;
Jer 48:30). The "men" is emphatic; men of sense; in antithesis to "vain boasting."
mockest--upbraidest God by complaints, "shall no man make thee ashamed?"
4 doctrine--purposely used of Job's speeches, which sounded like lessons of doctrine (
Deut 32:2;
Pro 4:2).
thine--addressed to God. Job had maintained his sincerity against his friends suspicions, not faultlessness.
6 to that which is!--Rather, "they are double to [man's] wisdom" [MICHAELIS]. So the Hebrew is rendered (
Pro 2:7). God's ways, which you arraign, if you were shown their secret wisdom, would be seen vastly to exceed that of men, including yours (
1Cor 1:25).
exacteth--Rather, "God consigns to oblivion in thy favor much of thy guilt."
7 Rather, "Penetrate to the perfections of the Almighty" (
Job 9:10;
Ps 139:6).
8 It--the "wisdom" of God (
Job 11:6). The abruptness of the Hebrew is forcible: "The heights of heaven! What canst thou do" (as to attaining to them with thy gaze,
Ps 139:8)?
know--namely, of His perfections.
10 cut off--Rather, as in
Job 9:11, "pass over," as a storm; namely, rush upon in anger.
shut up--in prison, with a view to trial.
gather together--the parties for judgment: hold a judicial assembly; to pass sentence on the prisoners.
11 (
Ps 94:11).
consider--so as to punish it. Rather, from the connection,
Job 11:6, "He seeth wickedness also, which man does not perceive"; literally, "But no (other, save He) perceiveth it" [UMBREIT]. God's "wisdom" (
Job 11:6), detects sin where Job's human eye cannot reach (
Job 11:8), so as to see any.
12 vain--hollow.
would be--"wants to consider himself wise"; opposed to God's "wisdom" (see on
Job 11:11); refuses to see sin, where God sees it (
Rom 1:22).
wild ass's colt--a proverb for untamed wildness (
Job 39:5,
Job 39:8;
Jer 2:24;
Gen 16:12; Hebrew, "a wild-ass man"). Man wishes to appear wisely obedient to his Lord, whereas he is, from his birth, unsubdued in spirit.
13 The apodosis to the "If" is at
Job 11:15. The preparation of the heart is to be obtained (
Pro 16:1) by stretching out the hands in prayer for it (
Ps 10:17;
1Chr 29:18).
14 Rather, "if thou wilt put far away the iniquity in thine hand" (as Zaccheus did,
Luke 19:8). The apodosis or conclusion is at
Job 11:15, "then shalt thou," &c.
15 Zophar refers to Job's own words (
Job 10:15), "yet will I not lift up my head," even though righteous. Zophar declares, if Job will follow his advice, he may "lift up his face."
spot-- (
Deut 32:5).
steadfast--literally, "run fast together," like metals which become firm and hard by fusion. The sinner on the contrary is wavering.
16 Just as when the stream runs dry (
Job 6:17), the danger threatened by its wild waves is forgotten (
Isa 65:16) [UMBREIT].
17 age--days of life.
the noon-day--namely, of thy former prosperity; which, in the poet's image, had gone on increasing, until it reached its height, as the sun rises higher and higher until it reaches the meridian (
Pro 4:18).
shine forth--rather, "though now in darkness, thou shall be as the morning"; or, "thy darkness (if any dark shade should arise on thee, it) shall be as the morning" (only the dullness of morning twilight, not nocturnal darkness) [UMBREIT].
18 The experience of thy life will teach thee there is hope for man in every trial.
dig--namely, wells; the chief necessity in the East. Better, "though now ashamed (
Rom 5:5, opposed to the previous 'hope'), thou shalt then rest safely" [GESENIUS];
19 (
Ps 4:8;
Pro 3:24;
Isa 14:30); oriental images of prosperity.
make suit--literally, "stroke thy face," "caress thee" (
Pro 19:6).
20 A warning to Job, if he would not turn to God.
The wicked--that is, obdurate sinners.
eyes . . . fail--that is, in vain look for relief (
Deut 28:65). Zophar implies Job's only hope of relief is in a change of heart.
they shall not escape--literally, "every refuge shall vanish from them."
giving up of the ghost--Their hope shall leave them as the breath does the body (
Pro 11:7).