Answering the accusations of his friends, Job himself resorts to irony on the edge of sarcasm...
Answering the accusations of his friends, Job himself resorts to irony on the edge of sarcasm (vv. 1-3). His reply begins with a glorification of the greatness, power, and wisdom of God, for whom nothing is impossible (vv. 7-25). Such a hymn to God would be close and understandable to any religious person. But the magnificence of this hymn is nullified by the mention of the righteous man who has become a laughingstock to people, and of the triumph of robbers who prosper and do not fear God (vv. 4-6). Of course, no one would argue that world harmony is beautiful. And the world created by God is beautiful too. But what is the price of this beauty? Is it not too high? Following the picture Job paints, one must admit that the suffering of the righteous person and the prosperity of the robber are integral elements of world harmony.
It must be noted that such a view has been characteristic of religious consciousness in every age. In fact, Zophar, when he asserts that God knows better whom, when, and how to judge, expresses the same thought. Indeed, if the day of judgment for the wicked person has not yet come, if God delays for now, then this delay belongs to His design for the destinies of the world. But then one will inevitably have to admit that evil too belongs within them, so that God, even if He is not Himself the source of evil, nevertheless permits it into His creation and gives it a place in His world. And this at once devalues all righteousness and makes the life of all righteous people meaningless. If the paths of good and evil are not mutually exclusive, if evil is not the antipode of good but its alternative, even if only a temporary one, righteousness becomes both impossible and unnecessary.
Job, it appears, understands this perfectly well. He sees the beauty of God's world no worse than his friends do, but he cannot accept that this beauty should be achieved at the price of allowing evil into the world. If God is like this, if He is ready to put up with the sufferings of the righteous and the prosperity of robbers, even temporarily, then He is not the God of the righteous. Of course, one could, like Job's friends, rely on the hope that the suffering of the righteous, like the triumph of the wicked, is temporary. But God has no time, and if evil has any meaning at all for Him, then it also becomes part of His eternity. That is why Job experiences so deeply this triumph of robbers and the humiliation of the righteous, even if temporary. His time on earth is coming to an end, and he wants an answer to the main question.
12 Job blames his friends for their self - conceit and unkind behaviour, Job 12:1-5.
Shews that the wicked often prosper, Job 12:6-11.
Confirms and enlarges upon what had been said, of the wisdom, power and providence of God, Job 12:12-25.
12:2 Ye - You have engrossed all the reason of mankind; and each of you has as much wisdom as an whole people put together. All the wisdom which is in the world, lives in you, and will be utterly lost when you die.When wise and good men die, it is a comfort to think that wisdom and goodness do not die with them: it is folly to think, that there will be a great, irreparable loss of us when we are gone, since God has the residue of the spirit, and can raise up others more fit to do his work.
12:3 But - In these things, which he speaks not in a way of boasting, but for the just vindication both of himself, and of that cause of God, which for the substance of it he maintained rightly, as God himself attests, chap.Job 42:7.Such things - The truth is, neither you nor I have any reason to be puffed up with our knowledge of these things: for the most barbarous nations know that God is infinite in wisdom, and power, and justice. But this is not the question between you and me.
12:4 Upon God - Even by my religious neighbours, by those who call upon God, and not in vain; whose prayers therefore I covet, not their reproaches. The just - I, who, notwithstanding all their hard censures dare still own it, that through God's grace I am an upright man.
12:5 Slip with his feet - And fall into trouble; tho' he had formerly shone as a lamp, he is then looked upon as a lamp going out, as the snuff of a candle, which we throw to the ground and tread upon; and accordingly is despised in the thought of him that is at ease.
12:6 Are secure - Job's friends had all supposed, that wicked men cannot prosper long in the world. This Job opposes, and maintains, that God herein acts as sovereign, and reserves that exact distribution of rewards and punishments for the other world.
12:7 But - If thou observest the beasts, and their properties and actions, and events, from them thou mayst learn this lesson: that which Zophar had uttered with so much pomp and gravity, chap.Job 11:7-9, concerning God's infinite wisdom, saith Job, thou needest not go into heaven or hell to know. but thou mayst learn it even from the beasts.
12:9 Lord - This is the only time that we meet with the name Jehovah in all the discourses between Job and his friends. For God in that age was more known by the name of Shaddai, the Almighty.
12:11 Doth not - This may be a preface to his following discourse; whereby he invites them to hear and judge of his words candidly and impartially; that they and he too might agree in disallowing what should appear to be false, and owning of every truth.
12:12 Wisdom - These words contain a concession of what Bildad had said, chap.Job 8:8-9, and a joining with him in that appeal; but withal, an intimation that this wisdom was but imperfect, and liable to many mistakes; and indeed mere ignorance and folly, if compared with the Divine wisdom, and therefore that antiquity ought not to be received against the truths of the most wise God.
12:14 No opening - Without God's permission. Yea, he shuts up in the grave, and none can break open those sealed doors. He shuts up in hell, in chains of darkness, and none can pass that great gulf.
12:15 The waters - Which are reserved its the clouds, that they may not fall upon the earth. They - The waters upon the earth, springs, and brooks, and rivers. As at the time of the general deluge, to which here is a manifest allusion.
12:16 With him - The same thing he had said before, ver. Job 12:13, but he repeats it here to prepare the way for the following events, which are eminent instances, both of his power and wisdom.Are his - Wholly subject to his disposal. He governs the deceiver and sets bounds to his deceits, how far they shall extend; he also over - rules all this to his own glory, and the accomplishment of his righteous designs of trying the good, and punishing wicked men, by giving them up to believe lies. Yet God is not the author of any error or sin, but only the wise and holy governor of it.
12:17 Spoiled - The wise counsellors or statesmen, by whom the affairs of kings and kingdoms are ordered, he leadeth away as captives in triumph, being spoiled either of that wisdom which they had, or seemed to have; or of that power and dignity which they had enjoyed. Fools - By discovering their folly, and by infatuating their minds, and turning their own counsels to their ruin.
12:18 Looseth - He freeth them from that wherewith they bind their subjects to obedience, their power and authority, and that majesty which God stamps upon kings, to keep their people in awe. Girdeth - He reduces them to a mean and servile condition; which is thus expressed, because servants did use to gird up their garments (that after the manner of those parts were loose and long) that they might be fitter for attendance upon their masters: he not only deposes them from their thrones, but brings them into slavery.
12:20 The speech - By taking away or restraining the gift of utterance from them. Or, by taking away their understanding which should direct their speech. Trusty - Of those wise and experienced counsellors, that were trusted by the greatest princes.
12:22 Darkness - The most secret counsels of princes, which are contrived and carried on in the dark.
12:23 Nations - What hitherto he said of princes, he now applies to nations, whom God does either increase or diminish as he pleases.
12:25 Grope - Thus are the revolutions of kingdoms brought about by an overruling providence. Heaven and earth are shaken: but the Lord remaineth a king forever.