Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Job 12:2

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Job 12:2. No doubt but ye are the people — Doubtless ye are the wisest men in the world; all wisdom is concentrated in you; and when ye die, there will no more be found on the face of the earth! This is a strong irony.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Job’s reply to Zophar (12:1-14:22)

The reply from Job opens with a sarcastic comment on the supposed wisdom of the three friends. They have merely been repeating general truths that everybody knows (12:1-3). They do not have the troubles Job has, and they make no attempt to understand how Job feels. A good person suffers while wicked people live in peace and security (4-6).
Job does not argue with the fact that all life is in God’s hands. What worries him is the interpretation of that fact (7-10). As a person tastes food before swallowing it, so Job will test the old interpretations before accepting them (11-12).
Being well taught himself, Job then quotes at length from the traditional teaching. God is perfect in wisdom and his power is irresistible (13-16). He humbles the mighty (17-22) and overthrows nations (23-25). Job knows all this as well as his friends do. What he wants to know is why God does these things (13:1-3). The three friends think they are speaking for God in accusing Job, but Job points out that this cannot be so, because God does not use deceit. They would be wiser to keep quiet (4-8). They themselves should fear God, because he will one day examine and judge them as they believe he has examined and judged Job (9-12).

The friends are now asked to be silent and listen as Job presents his case before God (13). He knows he is risking his life in being so bold, for an ungodly person could not survive in God’s presence. Job, however, believes he is innocent. If God or anyone else can prove him guilty, he will willingly accept the death sentence (14-19). Job makes just two requests of God. First, he asks God to give him some relief from pain so that he can present his case. Second, he asks that God will not cause him to be overcome with fear as he comes into the divine presence. He wants to ask God questions, and he promises to answer any questions God asks him (20-22).
To begin with, Job asks what accusations God has against him. Why is he forced to suffer (23-25)? Is he, for example, reaping the fruits of sins done in his youth? Whatever the answer, he feels completely helpless in his present plight (26-28).
Life is short and a certain amount of trouble and wrongdoing is to be expected (14:1-5). Why then, asks Job, does God not leave people alone so that they can enjoy their short lives without unnecessary suffering (6)? Even trees are better off than people. A tree that is cut down may sprout again, but a person who is ‘cut down’ is dead for ever (7-10). He is (to use another picture) like a river or lake that has dried up (11-12).
Job wishes that Sheol, the place of the dead, were only a temporary dwelling place. Then, after a period when he gains relief from suffering and cleansing from sin, he could continue life in a new and more meaningful fellowship with God. If he knew this to be true, he would be able to endure his present sufferings more patiently (13-17). Instead, the only feeling that accompanies his pain is the feeling of hopelessness. He knows he will be cut off from those he loves most, never to see them or hear of them again. Like soil washed away by a river he will disappear, never to return (18-22).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

JOB DENIES THAT HIS COMFORTERS HAD
ANY KNOWLEDGE THAT HE HIMSELF DID NOT POSSESS

"Then Job answered and said, No doubt but ye are the people, And wisdom shall die with you. But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: Yea, who knoweth not such things as these? I am 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. In the thought of him that is at ease, there is contempt for misfortune; It is ready for him whose foot slippeth. The tents of robbers prosper, And they that provoke God are secure; Into whose hand God bringeth abundantly."

"And wisdom shall die with you" It is amazing that anyone could suppose that these words were intended as a compliment; but Blair wrote, "Job gives them the benefit of the doubt, saying, `Wisdom shall die with you.' He inferred that they were wise."Blair, p. 89. We agree with Barnes that, "This is evidently the language of severe sarcasm; and it shows a spirit fretted and chafed by their reproaches."Barnes' Notes on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, a 1987 reprint of the 1878 edition), Job, p. 244.

"(For) him that is at ease, there is a contempt for misfortune" Job, who had been the greatest man in the East, who had been the special object of God's blessings, who had called upon God, and whom God had answered, - even that man, who, at the moment, had been reduced by the most superlative misfortunes, was experiencing the contemptuous laughter of his neighbors; and in these words he truly spoke of a universal trait of our fallen human nature, namely, that of despising the unfortunate.

"In sheer exasperation, Job here bewails the situation. He knows that he is a godly man of great wisdom and understanding; but here he is treated like a criminal and a simpleton, solely upon the basis of his friends' theory, a theory that is flatly contradicted by the fact that known robbers are prospering while he is reduced to mockery."Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 472.

In these words, Job is thoroughly contemptuous of the conceited and arrogant ignorance of his `comforters'; and in this great response, he blistered them with devastating and unanswerable criticisms.

"The tents of robbers prosper" This is the dramatic and unanswerable contradiction of the false theory of his `comforters.' "This was Job's original proposition; and he clung to it throughout the whole encounter, i.e., that God does not deal with men in this life according to their character."Barnes' Notes on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, a 1987 reprint of the 1878 edition), Job, p. 246.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

No doubt but ye are the people - That is, the only wise people. You have engrossed all the wisdom of the world, and all else are to be regarded as fools. This is evidently the language of severe sarcasm; and it shows a spirit fretted and chafed by their reproaches. Job felt contempt for their reasoning. and meant to intimate that their maxims, on which they placed so much reliance, were common-place, and such as every one was familar with.

And wisdom shall die with you - This is ironical, but it is language such as is common perhaps every where. “The people of the East,” says Roberts, “take great pleasure in irony, and some of their satirical sayings are very cutting. When a sage intimates that he has superior wisdom or when he is disposed to rally another for his meagrc attainments, he says, ‘Yes, yes, you are the man! ‘ ‘Your wisdom is like the sea.’ ‘When you die, whither will wisdom go?’” In a serious sense, language like this is used by the Classical writers to describe the death of eminently great or good men. They speak of wisdom, bravery, piety, or music, as dying with them. Thus, Moschus, Idyll. iii. 12.

Ὅττι βίων τέθνηκεν ὁ βώκολος, ἔττι σὺν αὐτῷ

Καὶ τὸ μέλος τέθνακε, καὶ ὤλετο Δωρίς ἀειδός.

Hotti biōn tethnēken ho bōkolos, esti sun autō

Kai to melos tethnake, kai ōleto Dōris aeidos.

“Bion the swain is dead, and with him song

Has died, and the Doric muse has perished.”

Expressions like these are common. Thus, in the “Pleasures of Hope” it is said:

And Freedom shrieked when Kosciusko fell.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 12

So Job answered him and said, No doubt but you are the people, and wisdom is going to die with you ( Job 12:1-2 ).

He's about had it with these guys who think they know all the answers, and they're not really ministering or reaching him at all. Now, it's very frustrating to try to explain yourself to people and have people in a mindset where they are determined they know all the answers about you, and yet they don't understand it at all. Oh, how frustrating that is. To talk with people who are of that mind bent. "Oh yes, I understand completely what's going on." "Hey, man, you don't understand a thing." And all of these words of wisdom. "Well, yes, you're the people; wisdom is going to die with you."

But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: who doesn't know these things you're talking about? ( Job 12:3 )

I know all of these things. You're not teaching me anything new.

I am as one who is mocked of his neighbor, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn ( Job 12:4 ).

You guys are mocking me. You're laughing me to scorn.

He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease ( Job 12:5 ).

You guys have it easy. All right. So you can despise me because I'm about ready to slip in the pit. Just because you're at ease, you can say these things. But if things were reversed, you wouldn't find these words so easy on your lips.

Now Job points out a fallacy of their whole arguments. Because their arguments have been predicated upon, "Surely if you are righteous, you're going to be blessed of God. And that the blessings of God are more or less proof of your righteousness. Or the plague that you're experiencing is the proof of your sinfulness." So you've got the converse. If a man is plagued because he is sinful, then he would be blessed because he is righteous. And so Job now points to the fallacy of their whole argument, and here it is:

The tents of the robbers prosper, and they who provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly ( Job 12:6 ).

So, you tell me that it's because I'm so wicked that I've lost everything. But look, the tents of the robbers prosper.

But ask now the beasts, and they'll teach you; fowls of the air, they will tell thee: Speak to the earth, it'll teach you: the fish of the sea shall declare it unto you. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind ( Job 12:7-10 ).

He said, "Nature will testify that God has wrought all of these things. Because the soul of every living thing is in the hand of God. And the breath of all mankind." Did you realize how totally you are dependent upon God for the sustaining of your life? There is a weird disease that some people have, or it's a weird something, malfunction of their body. They have to think to breathe. Now wouldn't that be horrible to have to think to breathe? But they don't breathe in a reflex way, but they have actually have to think to breathe, and they almost die when they go to sleep. In fact, when they go to sleep they quit breathing, and then they wake up for a few seconds and think, "Oh, I'd better breathe," they take a breath and then they drop back to sleep again. And they follow their sleep patterns. It must be miserable to have to think to breathe. I'm glad I don't have to think to breathe; it's just automatic. But the Bible teaches that your breath is in the hand of God.

You remember when Belshazzar was having his great feast for one thousand of his lords, and the handwriting came on the wall and he began to shake. And they called for the wise men and the counselors. None of them could tell him what the writing said, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin." And so finally the queen said, "During the time of your grandfather's reign, there was a man of great wisdom, who was one of the counselors to your grandfather. He's of the Hebrews who were brought here into captivity." So they ordered Daniel to come into the room. And here Daniel saw the whole scene of debauchery, drunkenness. The golden vessels that had been in the temple that had been sanctified for the service of the house of God, and they were drinking their wine out of them and praising the gods of gold and silver. And so Daniel began. This old, stately, beautiful man of God began to rebuke that pagan king, Belshazzar. And he said, "God has brought you into the kingdom and given you glory and honor and power, and you've ruled over the great kingdom of Babylon that God had given to your grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar; established in him, but it has been given into your hands. And yet you did not regard God, but you've exalted the gods of gold and silver. And the God in whose hand your very breath is, you've not glorified." These people realized how totally dependent man is upon God for his very existence.

Paul said concerning God, "In Him we live, we move, we have our being." We are dependent upon God. Our very breath. And yet, with that very breath, how many times we're cursing God. God gives us the very breath we use to curse Him. It's unreal.

Do not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat? With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding. With him is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding. Behold, he breaks down, and it cannot be built again: he shuts up a man, and there can be no opening. Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up: also he sends them out, and they overturn the earth. With him is strength and wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver are his. He leadeth counselors away spoiled, and makes the judges fools. He looses the bond of kings, and girds their loins with a girdle. He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthrows the mighty. He removes away the speech of the trusty, and takes away the understanding of the aged. He pours contempt upon the princes, and weakens the strength of the mighty. He discovers deep things out of the darkness, he brings out to light the shadow of death. He increases the nations, and destroys them: he enlarges the nations, and straitens them again. He takes away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them to stagger as a drunken man ( Job 12:11-25 ).

God is sovereign. He rules over all. Man's soul, man's breath, is in His hand. And who can withstand God? Who can withstand the purpose or the work of God? "

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

No doubt but ye [are] the people,.... Which is said not seriously, meaning that they were but of the common people, that are generally ignorant, and have but little knowledge, at least of things sublime, especially in matters of religion; wherefore, though they took upon them to be his teachers and dictators to him, and censors of him, they were not above the rank, but in the class of people of low and mean understandings; see John 7:49; this sense indeed agrees with what is after said, "who knoweth not such things as these?" but since Job compares himself with them, and asserts he is not inferior to them, it supposes them to have a degree of knowledge and understanding of things somewhat above the common people; wherefore these words are to be taken ironically, exposing their vanity and self-conceit: "ye are the people"; the only, and all the people in the world of importance and consequence for good sense and wisdom; the only wise and knowing folk, the men of reason and understanding; all the rest are but fools and asses, or like the wild ass's colt, as Zophar had said, and which Job took as pointing to him; so the word in the Arabic language c signifies the more excellent and better sort of people; or, ye are the only people of God, his covenant people, his servants; that are made acquainted with the secrets of wisdom, as none else are:

and wisdom shall die with you; you have all the wisdom of the world, and when you die it will be all gone; there will be none left in the world: thus he represents them as monopolizers and engrossers of wisdom and knowledge, full of it in their conceit, allowing none to have any share with them: and by all this he not only upbraids them with their vanity and self-conceit, but puts them in mind, that, as wise as they were, they must die; and that, though their wisdom with respect to them, or any use they could make of it in the grave, where there is none, would die too; or that their wisdom was but the wisdom of the world, which comes to nought; yet there would be wisdom still in the world, and that which is true, which God makes known to men, even the wisdom of God in a mystery, the wisdom hid in himself; and who has the residue of the Spirit and his gifts to instruct men in it, and qualify them to be teachers of others; by which means, though men, even the best of men, die, yet the word of God, the means of true wisdom and knowledge, will always abide.

c Golii Lex. Ar. Col. 1743. Vid. Lud. Capell. in loc.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 And 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 mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn.   5 He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.

      The reproofs Job here gives to his friends, whether they were just or no, were very sharp, and may serve for a rebuke to all that are proud and scornful, and an exposure of their folly.

      I. He upbraids them with their conceitedness of themselves, and the good opinion they seemed to have of their own wisdom in comparison with him, than which nothing is more weak and unbecoming, nor better deserves to be ridiculed, as it is here. 1. He represents them as claiming the monopoly of wisdom, Job 12:2; Job 12:2. He speaks ironically: "No doubt you are the people; you think yourselves fit to dictate and give law to all mankind, and your own judgment to be the standard by which every man's opinion must be measured and tried, as if nobody could discern between truth and falsehood, good and evil, but you only; and therefore every top-sail must lower to you, and, right or wrong, we must all say as you say, and you three must be the people, the majority, to have the casting vote." Note, It is a very foolish and sinful thing for any to think themselves wiser than all mankind besides, or to speak and act confidently and imperiously, as if they thought so. Nay, he goes further: "You not only think there are none, but that there will be none, as wise as you, and therefore that wisdom must die with you, that all the world must be fools when you are gone, and in the dark when your sun has set." Note, It is folly for us to think that there will be any great irreparable loss of us when we are gone, or that we can be ill spared, since God has the residue of the Spirit, and can raise up others, more fit than we are, to do his work. When wise men and good men die it is a comfort to think that wisdom and goodness shall not die with them. Some think Job here reflects upon Zophar's comparing him (as he thought) and others to the wild ass's colt, Job 11:12; Job 11:12. "Yes," says he, "we must be asses; you are the only men." 2. He does himself the justice to put in his claim as a sharer in the gifts of wisdom (Job 12:3; Job 12:3): "But I have understanding (a heart) as well as you; nay, I fall not lower than you;" as it is in the margin. "I am as well able to judge of the methods and meanings of the divine providence, and to construe the hard chapters of it, as you are." He says not this to magnify himself. It was no great applause of himself to say, I have understanding as well as you; no, nor to say, "I understand this matter as well as you;" for what reason had either he or they to be proud of understanding that which was obvious and level to the capacity of the meanest? "Yea, who knows not such things as these? What things you have said that are true are plain truths, and common themes, which there are many that can talk as excellently of as either you or I." But he says it to humble them, and check the value they had for themselves as doctors of the chair. Note, (1.) It may justly keep us from being proud of our knowledge to consider how many there are that know as much as we do, and perhaps much more and to better purpose. (2.) When we are tempted to be harsh in our censures of those we differ from and dispute with we ought to consider that they also have understanding as well as we, a capacity of judging, and a right of judging for themselves; nay, perhaps they are not inferior to us, but superior, and it is possible that they may be in the right and we in the wrong; and therefore we ought not to judge or despise them (Romans 14:3), nor pretend to be masters (James 3:1), while all we are brethren,Matthew 23:8. It is a very reasonable allowance to be made to all we converse with, all we contend with, that they are rational creatures as well as we.

      II. He complains of the great contempt with which they had treated him. Those that are haughty and think too well of themselves are commonly scornful and ready to trample upon all about them. Job found it so, at least he thought he did (Job 12:4; Job 12:4): I am as one mocked. I cannot say there was cause for this charge; we will not think Job's friends designed him any abuse, nor aimed at any thing but to convince him, and so, in the right method, to comfort him; yet he cries out, I am as one mocked. Note, We are apt to call reproofs reproaches, and to think ourselves mocked when we are but advised and admonished; this peevishness is our folly, and a great wrong to ourselves and to our friends. Yet we cannot but say there was colour for this charge; they came to comfort him, but they vexed him, gave him counsels and encouragements, but with no great opinion that either the one or the other would take effect; and therefore he thought they mocked him, and this added much to his grief. Nothing is more grievous to those that have fallen from the height of prosperity into the depth of adversity than to be trodden on, and insulted over, when they are down; and on this head they are too apt to be suspicious. Observe,

      1. What aggravated this grievance to him. Two things:-- (1.) That they were his neighbours, his friends, his companions (so the word signifies), and the scoffs of such are often most spitefully given, and always most indignantly received. Psalms 55:12; Psalms 55:13, It was not an enemy that reproached me; then I would have slighted it, and so borne it; but it was thou, a man, my equal. (2.) That they were professors of religion, such as called upon God, and said that he answered them: for some understand that of the persons mocking. "They are such as have a regard to heaven, and an interest in heaven, whose prayers I would therefore be glad of and thankful for, whose good opinion I cannot but covet, and therefore whose censures are the more grievous." Note, It is sad that any who call upon God should mock their brethren (James 3:9; James 3:10), and it cannot but lie heavily on a good man to be thought ill of by those whom he thinks well of, yet this is no new thing.

      2. What supported him under it. (1.) That he had a God to go to, with whom he could lodge his appeal; for some understand those words of the person mocked, that he calls upon God and he answers him; and so it agrees with Job 16:20; Job 16:20. My friends scorn me, but my eye poureth out tears to God. If our friends be deaf to our complaints, God is not; if they condemn us, God knows our integrity; if they make the worst of us, he will make the best of us; if they give us cross answers, he will give us kind ones. (2.) That his case was not singular, but very common: The just upright man is laughed to scorn. By many he is laughed at even for his justice and his uprightness, his honesty towards men and his piety towards God; these are derided as foolish things, which silly people needlessly hamper themselves with, as if religion were a jest and therefore to be made a jest of. By most he is laughed at for any little infirmity or weakness, notwithstanding his justice and uprightness, without any consideration had of that which is so much his honour. Note, It was of old the lot of honest good people to be despised and derided; we are not therefore to think it strange (1 Peter 4:12), no, nor to think it hard, if it be our lot; so persecuted they not only the prophets, but even the saints of the patriarchal age (Matthew 5:12), and can we expect to fare better than they?

      3. What he suspected to be the true cause of it, and that was, in short, this: they were themselves rich and at ease, and therefore they despised him who had fallen into poverty. It is the way of the world; we see instances of it daily. Those that prosper are praised, but of those that are going down it is said, "Down with them." He that is ready to slip with his feet and fall into trouble, though he has formerly shone as a lamp, is then looked upon as a lamp going out like the snuff of a candle, which we throw to the ground and tread upon, and is accordingly despised in the thought of him that is at ease,Job 12:5; Job 12:5. Even the just upright man, that is in his generation as a burning and shining light, if he enter into temptation (Psalms 73:2) or come under a cloud, is looked upon with contempt. See here, (1.) What is the common fault of those that live in prosperity. Being full, and easy, and merry themselves, they look scornfully upon those that are in want, pain, and sorrow; they overlook them, take no notice of them, and study to forget them. See Psalms 123:4. The chief butler drinks wine in bowls, but makes nothing of the afflictions of Joseph. Wealth without grace often makes men thus haughty, thus careless of their poor neighbours. (2.) What is the common fate of those that fall into adversity. Poverty serves to eclipse all their lustre; though they are lamps, yet, if taken out of golden candlesticks, and put, like Gideon's, into earthen pitchers, nobody values them as formerly, but those that live at ease despise them.