Job 11:5-10

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Job 11:1-6

It is sad to see what intemperate passions even wise and good men are sometimes betrayed into by the heat of disputation, of which Zophar here is an instance. Eliphaz began with a very modest preface, Job 4:2. Bildad was a little more rough upon Job, Job 8:2. But Zophar falls upon him without mercy, and gives him very bad language: Should a man full of talk be justified? And should thy lies make men hold their peace? Isa. this the way to comfort Job? No, nor to convince him neither. Does this... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Job 11:7-12

Zophar here speaks very good things concerning God and his greatness and glory, concerning man and his vanity and folly: these two compared together, and duly considered, will have a powerful influence upon our submission to all the dispensations of the divine Providence. I. See here what God is, and let him be adored. 1. He is an incomprehensible Being, infinite and immense, whose nature and perfections our finite understandings cannot possibly form any adequate conceptions of, and whose... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 11:5

But O that God would speak ,.... To Job, and stop his mouth, so full of words; convict him of his lies, reprove him for his mocks and scoffs, and make him ashamed of them; refute his false doctrine and oppose it, and show him his folly and vanity in imagining it to be pure, and in conceit thinking himself to be free from sin, and even in the sight of God himself: Zophar seems by this wish to suggest, that what his friends had as yet spoke had had no effect upon Job, and signified nothing;... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 11:6

And that he would show thee the secrets of wisdom ,.... Either of sound doctrine, in opposition to his own doctrine he had such a vain opinion of; and then he would see, as he thought, that it was not so pure as he imagined it to be: the Gospel, and the doctrines of it, are the wisdom of God, the produce of it, and in which it is displayed; as in the doctrines of election to grace and glory, of redemption by Christ, of justification by his righteousness, and pardon by his blood; by which all... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 11:7

Canst thou by searching find out God ?.... God is not to be found out by human search; that there is a God may be found out by inquiring into the book of nature, by considering the creatures that are made, who all proclaim some first cause or maker of them, who is God; but then it cannot be found out what God is, his nature, being, and perfections: an Heathen philosopher F9 Simonides, apud Cicero, de Nat. Deor. l. 1. , being asked by a certain king what God was, required a day to give... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 11:8

It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do ?.... Or, "is higher than the heavens" F9 גבהי שמים "altior est altissimis coelis", Junius & Tremellius. ; either the wisdom of God and the secrets of it; the perfection of his wisdom, by which he has made the heavens; or evangelical wisdom, hid in his heart, and which the highest of creatures, the angels, come at the knowledge of only by revelation; and therefore, what can man do to find it out, unless God reveals it? or wisdom... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 11:9

The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. Length is generally ascribed to the earth, and width to the sea; the ends of the earth are used for a great distance, and the sea is called the great and wide sea; see F11 "Quid oceano longius inveriri potest", Cicero. Orat. 36. Psalm 72:1 ; but God and his perfections, particularly his wisdom and understanding, are infinite, Psalm 147:5 ; and will admit of no dimensions; as his love, so his wisdom, has an... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 11:10

If he cut off ,.... The horns, power, dominion, and authority of the wicked; or the spirits of princes, or kingdoms and states, whole nations, as he did the seven nations of Canaan; or families, as Job's, his servants, and his children; or particular persons, by diseases, or by judgments, by famine, sword, and pestilence; there is none can hinder him; he will do what he pleases: or, as others render it, "if he changes" F12 אם יחלוף "si permutet proprie", Mercerus, Heb. "si mutabit... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 11:5

But O that God would speak - How little feeling, humanity, and charity is there in this prayer! read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 11:6

The secrets of wisdom - All the depths of his own counsels; the heights, lengths, and breadths, of holiness. That they are double to that which is, תושיה tushiyah , which we translate that which is, is a word frequent in Job and in the Book of Proverbs, and is one of the evidences brought in favor of Solomon as the author of this book. It signifies substance or essence, and is translated by a great variety of terms; enterprise, completeness, substance, the whole constitution, wisdom,... read more

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