Job 12:12

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹² With aged men is wisdom, In length of days understanding. ¹³ "With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding. ¹⁴ Behold, he breaks down, and it can't be built again; He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. ¹⁵ Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up; Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth. ¹⁶ With him is strength and wisdom; The deceived and the deceiver are his. ¹⁷ He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools. ¹⁸ He loosens the bond of kings, He binds their loins with a belt. ¹⁹ He leads priests away stripped, And overthrows the mighty. ²⁰ He removes the speech of those who are trusted, And takes away the understanding of the elders. ²¹ He pours contempt on princes, And loosens the belt of the strong.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Job 8:8, Job 15:10, Job 32:7

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 12:6 - consulted 2 Chronicles 10:6 - took counsel Job 15:7 - the first Psalms 119:100 - understand Joel 1:2 - ye old Titus 2:2 - the

Cross-References

Genesis 12:8
He left from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh, and called on the name of Yahweh.

Genesis 12:10
There was a famine in the land. Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was sore in the land.

Genesis 20:11
Abraham said, "Because I thought, 'Surely the fear of God is not in this place. They will kill me for my wife's sake.'

Genesis 26:7
The men of the place asked him about his wife. He said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say, "My wife," lest, he thought, the men of the place might kill me for Rebekah, because she was beautiful to look on.

1 Samuel 27:1
David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand.

Proverbs 29:25
The fear of man proves to be a snare, But whoever puts his trust in Yahweh is kept safe.

Matthew 10:28
Don't be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

With the ancient [is] wisdom,.... Meaning not himself, who was not very ancient; though some think Eliphaz so understood him; hence those words of his, in Job 15:9; rather, as others, Job tacitly wishes that some ancient man, with whom wisdom was, would undertake to examine the affair between him and his friends, and judge of it, and decide the point; or, as others, he has respect to Bildad's advice to search the fathers, and learn their sentiments, and be determined by them; to which he replies, that though it will be allowed that wisdom is with them, for the most part, yet their judgment of things is no further to be regarded than as it agrees with the wisdom of God, and the revelation he has made of his will; though it seems best of all to consider these words as an adage or proverbial sentence generally agreed to, that it often is, as it might be expected it should, though it is not always, that men well advanced in years are wise; that as they have lived long in the world, they have learned much by observation and experience, and have attained to a considerable share of wisdom and knowledge in things, natural, civil, and religious:

and in length of days is understanding; the understandings of men are improved and enriched, and well stored with useful science, having had the opportunity of much reading, hearing, and conversation; by this Job would suggest, that if his friends had more knowledge of hidden and recondite things, beyond common people, which yet they had not, it was not so wonderful, since they were aged men, and had lived long in the world; or rather it may be that this is mentioned, to observe that from hence, seeing it is so among men, that ancient men have, or it may be expected they should have, a considerable share of wisdom and understanding; it may be most easily and strongly concluded, that God, who is the Ancient of days, has the most perfect and consummate wisdom and knowledge, which is asserted in Job 12:13.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

With the ancient is wisdom - With the aged. The word ישׁישׁ yâshı̂ysh used here, means an old man, one gray-headed. It is used chiefly in poetry, and is commonly employed in the sense of one who is decrepit by age. It is rendered “very aged” in Job 15:10; “him that stooped for age.” 2 Chronicles 36:17; “very old,” Job 32:6; and “the aged,” Job 29:8 The Septuagint renders it, Ἐν πολλῷ χρόνῳ En pollō chronō “in much time.” The sense is, that wisdom might be expected to be found with the man who had had a long opportunity to observe the course of events; who had conversed with a former generation, and who had had time for personal reflection. This was in accordance with the ancient Oriental views, where knowledge was imparted mainly by tradition, and where wisdom depended much on the opportunity of personal observation; compare Job 32:7.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 12:12. With the ancient is wisdom — Men who have lived in those primitive times, when the great facts of nature were recent, such as the creation, fall, flood, confusion of tongues, migration of families, and consequent settlement of nations, had much knowledge from those facts; and their length of days-the many hundreds of years to which they lived, gave them such an opportunity of accumulating wisdom by experience, that they are deservedly considered as oracles.