Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, April 26th, 2025
Saturday in Easter Week
Attention!
Take your personal ministry to the Next Level by helping StudyLight build churches and supporting pastors in Uganda.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

King James Version

Job 12:11

Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat?

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Atheism;   Design;   God;   Philosophy;   Religion;   Wisdom;   The Topic Concordance - God;   Government;   Nations;   Strength;   Wisdom;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Ear, the;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Ear;   Job, the Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Mouth;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Ear;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Poetry, Hebrew;   Taste;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Doesn’t the ear test wordsas the palate tastes food?
Hebrew Names Version
Doesn't the ear try words, Even as the palate tastes its food?
English Standard Version
Does not the ear test words as the palate tastes food?
New Century Version
The ear tests words as the tongue tastes food.
New English Translation
Does not the ear test words, as the tongue tastes food?
Amplified Bible
"Does the ear not put words to the test, Just as the palate tastes its food [distinguishing between the desirable and the undesirable]?
New American Standard Bible
"Does the ear not put words to the test, As the palate tastes its food?
World English Bible
Doesn't the ear try words, Even as the palate tastes its food?
Geneva Bible (1587)
Doeth not the eares discerne the words? and the mouth taste meate for it selfe?
Legacy Standard Bible
Does not the ear test words,As the palate tastes its food?
Berean Standard Bible
Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes its food?
Contemporary English Version
We hear with our ears, taste with our tongues,
Complete Jewish Bible
Shouldn't the ear test words, just as the palate tastes food?
Darby Translation
Doth not the ear try words, as the palate tasteth food?
Easy-to-Read Version
But just as the tongue tastes food, the ears test the words they hear.
George Lamsa Translation
The ear hears the words, and the palate tastes food.
Good News Translation
But just as your tongue enjoys tasting food, your ears enjoy hearing words.
Lexham English Bible
Does not the ear test words and the palate taste food for itself?
Literal Translation
Does the ear not try words, and the mouth taste food for itself?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Haue not the eares pleasure in hearinge, and the mouth in tastinge the thinge that it eateth?
American Standard Version
Doth not the ear try words, Even as the palate tasteth its food?
Bible in Basic English
Are not words tested by the ear, even as food is tasted by the mouth?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Doth not the ear try words, even as the palate tasteth its food?
King James Version (1611)
Doeth not the eare trie wordes? And the mouth taste his meate?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Haue not the eares pleasure in hearing? and the mouth in tasting the thing that it eateth?
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For the ear tries words, and the palate tastes meats.
English Revised Version
Doth not the ear try words, even as the palate tasteth its meat?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whether the eere demeth not wordis, and the chekis of the etere demen sauour?
Update Bible Version
Does not the ear try words, Even as the palate tastes its food?
Webster's Bible Translation
Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste its food?
New King James Version
Does not the ear test words And the mouth taste its food?
New Living Translation
The ear tests the words it hears just as the mouth distinguishes between foods.
New Life Bible
Does not the ear test words as the mouth tastes food?
New Revised Standard
Does not the ear test words as the palate tastes food?
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Doth not, the ear, try, words? even as, the palate, tasteth for itself, food?
Douay-Rheims Bible
Doth not the ear discern words, and the palate of him that eateth, the taste?
Revised Standard Version
Does not the ear try words as the palate tastes food?
Young's Literal Translation
Doth not the ear try words? And the palate taste food for itself?
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Does not the ear test words, As the palate tastes its food?

Contextual Overview

6 The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly. 7 But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, 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 the Lord 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? and the mouth taste his meat?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Doth: Job 34:3, 1 Corinthians 10:15, Philippians 1:10, *marg. Hebrews 5:14, 1 Peter 2:3

mouth: Heb. palate, Job 6:30

Reciprocal: 2 Samuel 19:35 - can I discern Job 6:6 - taste Isaiah 11:3 - understanding

Cross-References

Genesis 12:6
And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
Genesis 12:7
And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord , who appeared unto him.
Genesis 12:14
And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
Genesis 26:7
And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.
Genesis 29:17
Leah was tender eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and well favoured.
2 Samuel 11:2
And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
Proverbs 21:30
There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord .
Song of Solomon 1:14
My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Doth not the ear try words?.... Articulate sounds; and the mind by them judges whether what is expressed and designed by them is right or wrong, true or false, to be received or rejected; so such that have spiritual ears to hear, try the words of God and men, the wholesome words of Christ, and those of false teachers, which eat as a canker; and by their spiritual judgment can distinguish between the one and the other, discern those that differ, and approve those that are excellent, by bringing them to the standard of the word, the balance of the sanctuary, the Scriptures of truth:

and the mouth taste his meat? and judge of it, whether good or bad, or savoury or unsavoury, and so receive or reject it: thus such who have their taste changed, and relish spiritual things, can distinguish between the meat that perishes, and that which endures to everlasting life, even Christ, whose flesh is meat indeed; and those that have tasted that the Lord is gracious, and to whose taste the fruits of Christ and the doctrines of grace are sweet; these will desire the sincere milk of the word, and that strong meat in it, which belongs to discerning and experienced souls; and will feed by faith upon the pure word of the Gospel, and mix it with it, and reject all others. Job by this would signify, that the things his friends had been discoursing of, and which they thought were such deep and wonderful things, were as easy to be searched and found out, tried and judged of, as sounds by the ear, or food by the taste; and it may be also that hereby he suggests, that his doctrine, if it was impartially examined and tried by proper judges, it would appear as plain as anything tried by the ear, or tasted by the mouth. Some think that Job intends by this, that from the senses of hearing and tasting in men might be inferred the omniscience of God, his knowledge of all things, and his quick discernment of men, and their actions, since "he that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall not he see?" Psalms 94:9. Some versions read the whole, "doth not the ear try words, as the mouth tastes his meat" q? as in Job 34:3. Saadiah Gaon connects these words "as the ear tries words", c. with Job 12:12, "so with the ancient is wisdom".

q Vatablus, Drusius, Junius et Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus, Cocceius, Schultens so Broughton.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Doth not the ear try words? - The literal meaning of this, which is evidently a proverbial expression, is plain; but about its bearing here there is more difficulty. The literal sense is, that it is the office of the ear to mark the distinction of sounds, and to convey the sense to the soul. But in regard to the exact bearing of this proverb on the case in hand, commentators have not been agreed. Probably the sense is, that there ought to be a diligent attention to the signification of words, and to the meaning of a speaker, as one carefully tastes his food; and Job, perhaps, may be disposed to complain that his friends had not given that attention which they ought to have done to the true design and signification of his remarks. Or it may mean that man is endowed with the faculty of attending to the nature and qualities of objects, and that he ought to exercise that faculty in judging of the lessons which are taught respecting God or his works.

And the mouth - Margin, as in the Hebrew חך chêk - “palate.” The word means not merely the palate, but the lower part of the mouth (Gesenius), and is especially used to designate the organ or the seat of taste; Psalms 119:103; Job 6:30.

His meat - Its food - the word “meat” being used in Old English to denote all kinds of food. The sense is, man is endowed with the faculty of distinguishing what is wholesome from what is unwholesome, and he should, in like manner, exercise the faculty which God has given him of distinguishing the true from the false on moral subjects. He should not suppose that all that had been said, or that could be said, must necessarily be true. He should not suppose that merely to string together proverbs, and to utter common-place suggestions, was a mark of true wisdom. He should separate the valuable from the worthless, the true from the false, and the wholesome from the injurious. Job complains that his friends had not done this. They had shown no power of discrimination or selection. They had uttered common place apothegms, and they gathered adages of former times, without any discrimination, and had urged them in their arguments against him, whether pertinent or not. It was by this kind of irrelevant and miscellaneous remark that he felt that he had been mocked by his friends, Job 12:4.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 12:11. Doth not the ear try words? — All these are common-place sayings. Ye have advanced nothing new; ye have cast no light upon the dispensations of Providence.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile