Job 11:12

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Job 11:1-20

Zophar speaks (11:1-20)Angered at what he considers to be Job’s irreverent talk, Zophar can keep silent no longer (11:1-3). He rebukes Job for claiming to be an innocent victim of injustice, and asserts that if Job really suffered according to his sin, his suffering would be much worse (4-6). God’s wisdom is limitless and therefore his judgments must be true. People should neither oppose him nor expect to understand his ways (7-10). No one can deceive God, for he sees people as they really are.... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Job 11:12

vain man would be wise. Figure of speech Paronomasia. App-6 . "A man", nabub yillabeb = "a, man senseless [would become] sensible" if God did always punish immediately. read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Job 11:12

Job 11:12. For vain man would be wise— A man who hath understanding will become wise; but he who is as the wild ass hath no prudence. So Houbigant translates the verse; and he adds, that Zophar here means to say, that a man of a good disposition, if he sins at any time, will become wiser from thence; while, on the contrary, they who are like the wild ass in ferocity, will persevere in their blindness and folly: intending hereby to draw Job from that savageness which he supposes to be in him, to... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Job 11:12

12. vain—hollow. would be—"wants to consider himself wise"; opposed to God's "wisdom" (see on Job 11:1); refuses to see sin, where God sees it (Romans 1:22). wild ass's colt—a proverb for untamed wildness (Job 39:5; Job 39:8; Jeremiah 2:24; Genesis 16:12; Hebrew, "a wild-ass man"). Man wishes to appear wisely obedient to his Lord, whereas he is, from his birth, unsubdued in spirit. read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Job 11:1-20

5. Zophar’s first speech ch. 11Zophar took great offense at what Job had said. He responded viciously with an aggressiveness that outdid both Eliphaz and Bildad. Zophar was a dogmatist."He . . . attempted heavy handed shock treatment to get through to Job." [Note: Smick, "Job," p. 917.] "The Naamathite is the least engaging of Job’s three friends. There is not a breath of compassion in his speech. . . . His censorious chiding shows how little he has sensed Job’s hurt. Job’s bewilderment and his... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Job 11:7-12

Zophar’s praise of God’s Wisdom 11:7-12Eliphaz and Bildad had spoken mainly of God’s justice. Zophar extolled His wisdom. He rightly explained that God’s wisdom is unfathomable, but he inadvertently claimed to fathom it by saying Job deserved more punishment than he was getting. Job 11:12 may have been a proverb common in Job’s day. It means that it is harder for a fool (empty head) to learn wisdom than for a wild donkey, notorious for its stupidity, to give birth to a man. In Zophar’s view,... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Job 11:1-20

The First Speech of ZopharThe speech is short and unsympathetic.1-6. Zophar rebukes Job for daring to assert his innocence.3. Thy lies] RV ’thy boastings,’ viz. Job’s assertions of innocence (Job 11:4). 6. That they are double, etc.] RV ’That it is manifold in effectual working.’ God exacteth, etc.] RM ’God remitteth unto thee of thine iniquity’; He does not bring np all Job’s guilt, which is greater than he is aware of. So far from the penalty being excessive, Job has not received all that he... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Job 11:12

(12) For vain man would be wise, &c., is extremely difficult, because it is hard to distinguish subject and predicate. Literally, it runs, And hollow man is instructed, and the wild ass’s colt is born a man. Whether it means that if God did not thus conceal His observation of human actions, the very fool and the most obstinate would become instructed and disciplined, whereas now they are allowed to go on in their folly and obstinacy; or whether it is meant that, notwithstanding the dealings... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Job 11:1-20

Job 11:1 ; Job 11:16 In her journal, Marie Bashkirtseff observes, of one of her girlish sorrows: 'There is one thing that troubles me; to think that in a few years I shall laugh at it all and have forgotten'. Two years later there is another entry: 'It's two years now, and I don't laugh at it, and I have not forgotten'. Job 11:6 Every fresh region man breaks into reveals new wonders, and with them new enigmas, calling upon him to solve them or perish. There is a special complication, a... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - Job 11:1-20

XI.A FRESH ATTEMPT TO CONVICTJob 11:1-20ZOPHAR SPEAKSTHE third and presumably youngest of the three friends of Job now takes up the argument somewhat in the same strain as the others. With no wish to be unfair to Zophar we are somewhat prepossessed against him from the outset; and the writer must mean us to be so, since he makes him attack Job as an empty babbler:-"Shall not the multitude of words be answered? And shall a man of lips be justified? Shall thy boastings make people silent, So that... read more

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