Job 12:1-6

G. COURAGEOUS CONFRONTATIONJOB'S RESPONSE (Job 12:1, Job 14:22)

1. 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 12:1This 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 12:3In 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 12:4Job 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 12:5This 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 12:6There 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.