Job 11:2

Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man full of talk be justified?

Ver. 2. Should not the multitude of words be answered?] Should not he who speaketh what he will, hear what he would not? Nunquid qui multa loquitur, non et audiet? (Vulg.) Yes, Job shall now, or you will want of your will; but if Job have talked more than his part came to (the truth is, his speeches are longer than any of those of his three friends, which are all, except that first made by Eliphaz, Job 4:1-21 Job 5:1,27, comprehended in one chapter, whereas his take up by two, three, or more), he may well be excused, considering the sharpness of his disease, the ungentleness of his friends, and the sense of God's displeasure, which his soul laboured under. Zophar and the rest looked upon him as a wretched hypocrite, and were angry that he would not yield himself so; they accused his former conversation as wicked; what way he had therefore to defend and assert his own integrity, but by words? And must he yet pass for a prattling fellow, a man of lips, a very wordy man, one that loveth to hear himself talk, because he will not be by them outtalked, and overly borne by their false charges? Most sure it is, that profane and profuse babblings are to be avoided, and to bring fulness of matter in fewness of words it is very commendable. Quam multa quam paucis! said Cicero of Brutus's laconical epistle; how much is here in a little! but, 1. Every man cannot be a short spoken Spartan. It is reported that in Luther's house was found written, Melancthon hath both matter and words; Luther hath matter, but wants words; Erasmus hath words at will, but wants matter. Every one hath his own share: all are not alike gifted. 2. He is to be accounted talkative who uttereth unprofitable words, and far from the purpose, beside the point; and so Zophar himself was to be blamed in this whole discourse of his, wherein he talketh much, but speaketh little. Concerning the infinite and unsearchable wisdom of God, he argueth truly and gravely, but yet nothing fitly to convince Job, who himself had said as much and more of the same subject. The counsel also that therehence he giveth Job doth little or nothing concern him; it being the same in effect that Eliphaz and Bildad had said before him: Zophar therefore was the locutuleius, the talkative man here mentioned, rather than Job, the lips man, adversus sua ipsius vitia facundus satis; and as Bion was wont to say, that the grammarians of his time could discourse well about the errors of Ulysses, but not at all see their own; so it befell Zophar.

And should a man full of talk be justified?] Heb. A man of lips, so called, as if he were made all of lips, and had no other members. Shall such a one be ever a whit the better thought of? Not among wise men surely, whatever he may amongst his fellow fools; for in multiloquio stultiloquium: in much speaking is much foolishness, some gravel and mud passeth away with much water; some vanity with much talk; it is no wisdom for a man to lay on more words than the matter will well bear. A good orator, saith Plutarch, will see that his words and his matter be matches. And Hesiod saith, that words, as a precious treasure, should be thriftily husbanded and warily wasted: especially since an account is to be rendered, as our Saviour assureth us, Matthew 12:36; yea, by thy words (he saith not, for thy words) thou shalt be justified, and by thy words (if superfluous and sinful, waste and wicked) thou shalt be condemned, Matthew 12:37 .