Job 12
OGCTODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION
Job
1-2 Yes, you are the voice of the people.
When you die, wisdom will die with you.
3 But I have as much sense as you have;
I am in no way inferior to you; everyone knows all that you have said.
4 Even my friends laugh at me now,
they laugh, although I am righteous and blameless; but there was a time when God answered my prayers.
5 You have no troubles, and yet you make fun of me;
you hit a man who is about to fall.
6 But thieves and godless men live in peace,
though their only god is their own strength.
7 Even birds and animals have a lot they could teach you; 8 ask the creatures of earth and sea for their wisdom. 9 All of them know that the Lord’s hand made them. 10 It is God who directs the lives of his creatures;
every man’s life is in his power.
11 But just as your tongue enjoys tasting food,
your ears enjoy listening to words.
1213 Old men have wisdom,
but God has wisdom and power.
Old men have insight;
God has insight and power to act.
14 When God tears down, who can rebuild,
and who can free the man God imprisons?
15 Drought comes when God withholds rain;
floods come when he turns water loose.
14 God is strong and always victorious,
both cheater and cheated are under God’s control.
17 He destroys the wisdom of rulers,
and makes leaders act like fools.
18 He dethrones kings and makes them prisoners; 19
he humbles priests and men of power.
20 He silences men who are trusted,
and takes the wisdom of old men away.
21 He disgraces those in power,
and puts an end to the strength of rulers.
22 He sends light to places dark as death. 23 He makes nations strong and great,
but then he defeats and destroys them.
24 He makes their leaders foolish,
and lets them wander, confused and lost;
25 they grope in the dark and stagger like drunkards.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 12:1-25
This is Job’s longest speech (i.e., Job 12:1, Job 14:22). What is the purpose of this speech?
Job and his friends all agreed on one truthwhat is it?
The attitude of Job is much like the present day Buddhist influence in America. What is it?
Name the three themes covered in this speech.
Job is bitingly sarcastic in verse two. Show how.
Why does Job assert his ability to understand? Cf. Job 11:20.
Job expected sympathy. What did he get? Why?
Job believed he was a just and blameless man. Wasn-’t this false pride on his part? Discuss.
Do we share the attitude today expressed in verse five?
Give your interpretation of verse six.
To whom does Job address the words of verses seven through 12?
Why does Job refer to the beasts and the birds? What do they teach us?
Only in verse nine do we have the name Jehovah. Why is it used?
In what sense is the soul or life of every man in the hand of God?
How does the reference to the palate and food relate to the words of Job’s friends?
How does Job 12:12 relate to the subject at hand?
Why does Job assert the absolute power and wisdom of God? Cf. Job 12:13.
Job cannot discern any moral dimension in the violence God manifests in this universe. What is missing in the understanding of Job?
Job 12:1-6
G. COURAGEOUS CONFRONTATIONJOB’S RESPONSE (Job 12:1, Job 14:22)
- He ridicules the wisdom and judgment of his friends. (Job 12:1-6)
TEXT 12:1-6
12 **Then Job answered and said,
2 No doubt but ye are the people,
And wisdom shall die with you.
3 But I have understanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to **you:
**Yea, who knoweth not such things as these?
4 I am **as **one that is a laughing-stock to his neighbor,
I who called upon God, and he answered: The just, the perfect man is a laughing-stock.
5 In the thought of him that is at ease there is contempt for misfortune;
It is ready for them whose foot slippeth.
6 The tents of robbers prosper,
And they that provoke God are secure; Into whose hand God bringeth **abundantly.
COMMENT 12:1-6
**Job 12:1**This is Job’s longest speech apart from his final soliloquy. Each of his three friends has spoken and has unanimously refused to accept Job’s claim to innocence. Now, after his attack on God, he turns with burning sarcasm on his three would-be counselors. In resume each has strongly asserted that a sovereign creator Lord governs the universe. In another doxology Job describes how God, in His own wisdom, guides the rise and fall of peoples, nations, and civilizations. Each participant in the drama has set forth God’s sovereignty as a theological truth but each generated a false deduction. In the concrete world of space-time, it is not often an easy task to decipher the presence of a holy, righteous God in human affairs. The friends reject the mystery explanations. But the empirical evidence does not always support the claims of God’s three would-be spokesmen. Job could endure this brief pitiful pilgrimage of pain if there could finally be happy reconciliation with God. But death is the end of everything (note this attitude is comparable to the contemporary Buddhist influence in American cultureLive it up today; today is all you may have). The speech hurtles us toward the same terminal despair as before in Chapter s 7 and 10. The speech falls neatly into three themes: (1) Job’s resentment of the assumed superiority of his friends and recognition of God’s power and wisdom (Job 12:2-25); (2) Rejection of the empty arguments of his friends and his determination to reason with God (Job 13:1-28); and (3) Painful acknowledgement of the brevity of life and the ultimacy of death (Job 14:1-22).
Job 12:2Job addresses his listeners as people of the land Cam), who represent the upper class male citizenry.[149] Only royalty and the priesthood rank above them. With biting sarcasm, Job suggests that wisdom will pass from the earth at their demise. They really have only a monopoly on ignorance.
[149] See for analysis J. Reider, Vetus Testamentum IV, 1954, pp. 289fF.
**Job 12:3**In view of Zophar’s comparison of Job with a wild ass in Job 11:20, Job asserts that he has -a heart,-’ here in the American Version is translated -understanding-’ (or comprehension). I am not inferior to you is repeated in Job 13:2.
**Job 12:4**Job expected sympathy, but received scorn. Instead of support, his friends make him an object of derision, (Job 8:21; Jeremiah 20:7). To Job his afflictions are not God’s answers, but his despotic response to his cry for help. The just and blameless man is a laughing stock (Genesis 6; Genesis 9; Ezekiel 14:14; Ezekiel 14:20).[150]
[150] Pope, Job, p. 90 remarks that Job 12:4-6 break the train of thought. This judgment is both critically unnecessary and gives no consideration to Job’s emotion-charged speech.
**Job 12:5**This could represent an adage expressing general attitude toward anyone fallen into difficulties. Job’s prosperous friends have nothing but contempt for him in his misfortune. Job is here attacking the theology of the prosperous. The second line means that the Mends not only withhold help, they even intensify Job’s misfortune.
**Job 12:6**There are a number of grammatical difficulties[151] in this verse, but the meaning is probably those who make a god of their own power (Moffatt) are secure; at least the empirical evidence often suggests this deduction. This is Job’s presentation of the anomalies of God’s providence.
[151] See Dhorme, Job, p. 170-1.
Job 12:7-12
- God is responsible for all that is. (Job 12:7-12)
TEXT 12:7-12
7 **But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee;
And the birds of the heavens, and they shall **tell **thee:
8 Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee;
And the **fishes of **the sea shall **declare unto **thee.
9 Who knoweth not in all these,
That the hand of Jehovah hath wrought this,
10 In whose **hand is the **soul of every **living thing,
**And the breath **of all mankind?
**11 Doth not the **ear try words,
Even as the palate tasteth its **food?
12 With aged men is **wisdom,
**And in **length **of days **understanding.
COMMENT 12:7-12
**Job 12:7**Job begins by addressing all three Mends. Here the pronoun is in the singular, so he is focusing on one, presumably the last speaker, Zophar.[152] The wisdom which is being exemplified by Job’s friends is common wisdom even to the lowest animals in God’s creation (Job 9:22-24). Job’s irony is resumed and concurs with the judgment of Oscar Wilde, that there is enough misery in one narrow London lane to disprove the notion that God is love.
[152] See the discussion by S. Terrien, Interpreters Bible, Job, Volume 3, pp. 999-1000.
**Job 12:8**Why should Job’s friends emphasize God’s sovereignty over the universe, even the birds of the air and beasts of the field know it. Nature is red in tooth and claw, and only by brute predatory power do they prevail within nature.
**Job 12:9**This is the only verse in the discourse which contains the sacred tetragrammaton (Yahweh). This is strange in that Job’s friends are Arabs, and not children of the covenant. But the root significance of Yahweh is probably at the heart of the discussion; i.e., the cause of everything is God. The phrase is a direct quotation of Isa 41:20 (or vice versa). See the quotation in Job 1:21 also. The pronoun this is obscure. To what does it refer? Perhaps to all that Zophar has said, or rather, all that Job has asserted in Job 12:4 ff concerning the amoral nature of the universe.
**Job 12:10**God is Lord of every human individualJer 32:27; Numbers 16:22; and Num. 17:16. The words translated life and breath are the same ones rendered soul and spirit in Job 7:11.
**Job 12:11**As the palate tastes food, so the intelligence of man evaluates available ideas. Job suggests that the ideas of his friends are not palatableJon 3:7; Daniel 3:10; Ezekiel 4:21; Proverbs 26:16; 1 Samuel 21:14.
**Job 12:12**Taken as an assertion the content does not seem to accord with Job’s other words. But taken as a question with a negative implication, it accords with his previous evaluation. The discourse clearly reveals the futility of dialogue between persons whose ultimate presuppositions are mutually exclusive. Fruitful discussion requires a clear definition and the public awareness of the assumptions on which the discussion stands. Job and his friends have different views of God and His transcendence and immanence within nature and history.
Job 12:13-25
**3. Arbitrarily he decrees what will be. (Job 12:13-25)
TEXT 12:13-25
13 With God is wisdom and might;
He hath counsel and understanding.
14 Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again;
He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.
15 Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up;
Again, he sendeth them oat, and they overturn the earth.
16 With him is strength and wisdom;
The deceived and the deceiver are his.
17 He leadeth counsellors away stripped,
And Judges maketh he fools.
18 He looseth the bond of kings,
And bindeth their loins with a girdle.
19 He leadeth priests away stripped,
And overthroweth the mighty.
20 He removeth the speech of the trusty,
And taketh away the understanding of the elders.
21 He poureth contempt upon princes,
And looseth the belt of the strong.
22 He uncovereth deep things out of darkness,
And bringeth out to light the shadow of death.
23 He increaseth the nations, and he destroyeth them:
He enlargeth the nations, and he leadeth them captive.
24 He taketh away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth,
And causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there Is no way.
25 They grope in the dark without light;
And he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.
COMMENT 12:13-25
Job 12:13**God only has power and wisdom (2 Kings 18:20). Though Job’s friends have not asserted that might and wisdom are possessions which only the old may receive, neither does Job assert that God keeps all of this wisdom and power to Himself. The universe reveals God’s absolute power, but does not expose His cosmic expression of justice. If God is the ultimate source of all things (Job 12:13-21), then He is responsible for pain and suffering.[153]
[153] See G. R. Driver, Die Welt des Orients, I, 1947-52, pp. 410f for discussion of import of God’s counsel.
**Job 12:14God’s sovereignty is cosmic. And man, especially Job, cannot discern any moral dimension in His violence. The victims of God’s violence are from both the wicked and the righteousPsalms 107; Isaiah 54:24-28. Compare the verbatim agreement of Psalms 107 and Job 12:21 a and 24b. Though God’s might may be applied with loving kindness and **beneficence, Job sees only destructive violence and human ruin. The imprisonment to which God shuts up the universe is to be taken both figuratively and literally.
**Job 12:15**Job presents an example of God’s amoral behavior by the extremes of flood and drought. God has the power to dominate the water systems of His creation, but He does so with complete disregard for man’s needs. God’s might is arbitrary and despotic.
Job 12:16God’s wisdom is always efficient, i.e., it is always victorious. All of mankind falls into one of the two categoriesdeceived or deceiver. Thus far God has been scrutinized under three categories: (1) wisdom and power, (2) counsel and understanding, and (3) might and prudencecompare with Job 11:7-10. But Job denies Zophar’s conclusion about evilJob 11:11.
Job 12:17God makes all human counselors go stripped or barefootMic 1:8. Perhaps the meaning is that God leads all would-be counselors into confusion or error.
**Job 12:18**Here we encounter imagery of the liberation of prisoners (Isaiah 52:2; Psalms 116:16). In Job 39:5, the words are applied to a wild ass’s release from restraint. This verse contrasts former glory with present humiliation. The binding of a king’s loins is an image of being reduced to the status of a menial laborer. They are stripped of their royal robes and sandals and made to work with their hands and backs. Theirs have been troubled economic times, too.
**Job 12:19**Even the established (-etanim means perpetual, Jeremiah 5:14) authorities in the cultural are humiliated. Priests are mentioned only here in Job. Honored and influential persons are as nothing in the face of God’s power.
**Job 12:20**The honored community leaders are baffled by a sudden turn from prosperity to ruin. Compare with persons who lost their fortunes in 1929 or since through bad investments. The spokesmen for the community are reduced to silence (deprived of speech, literally, removes the lip). Their discernment (taste-palate) is also removed.
Job 12:21Psalms 107:40 is identical with the first line of this verse and the second line of Job 12:24.[154] The beltPsa 109:19 referred to here was used to strengthen the back, especially during hard labor. The word aphik normally means -water-channels-’ but here -strong.-’ Streams are called aphikim because they follow rapidly or strongly.
[154] See A. Cohen, Psalms, Soncino, on Psalms 107:40.
**Job 12:22**God recovers plots and conspiracies out of the deepest darkness. Before Him, there is no hiding place. Nothing designed by men can be hidden from the sovereign Lord of creation. He exposes all secrets. Even Sheol cannot hide its prey from Him.
**Job 12:23**Another example of the amoral nature of the universe is seen in the rise and fall of nations and civilizations. God’s arbitrary exercise of power is visible in the rise and fall of world powers.[155]
[155] A. Toynbee’s multiple volumed work, A Study of History (Oxford); and the indispensable Cambridge History series; and on this verse, see J. Reider, Yetus Testamentum, IV, 1954, pp. 290f.
**Job 12:24**Where there is no intelligence (literally heart-rendered understanding in A. V.) no nation or civilization can long endure. When the organizing principle of any social group is either abandoned or forgotten, it does not have long to live. Compare the second part of this verse with Psalms 107:40 b, where the Hebrew is identical. The no way of A. V. is waste (Heb. tohuGenesis 1:2; Deuteronomy 32:10) or disordered. The formless of our translations makes no sense, as matter cannot be formless, but it can be disordered. Job is here setting forth a philosophy of history and culture.
**Job 12:25**Men grope in unrelieved darkness. They grope as blind men and stagger or wanderJob 12:24. When God removes understanding, men continue to move and function, but purposelessly (Psalms 107:27; Isaiah 19:14; Isaiah 24:20; Romans 1:18 ff; Proverbs 29:18; and John 1:18; Colossians 1:17; Ephesians 1:10). Life is meaningless to millions in our present world because nothing and no one organizes their lives meaningfully. But if the universe is purposeless and thus amoral, then what else could either Job or contemporaries expect? H. Thielicke says of our worldthat it is the first generation which has absolutized nothingness.[156]
[156] See my article Nihilism in Baker’s Dictionary of Christian Ethics, ed. by C.F.H. Henry, p. 461-62.