2 “Shouldn’t the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified?
3 Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, will no man make you ashamed?
4 For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure. I am clean in your eyes.’
5 But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against you,
6 that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.
KJVKing James Version
1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
2 Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man full of talk be justified?
3 Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?
4 For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes.
5 But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee;
6 And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.
Show all 3 translations
JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said:
2 Should not the multitude of words be answered? And should a man full of talk be accounted right?
3 Thy boastings have made men hold their peace, and thou hast mocked, with none to make thee ashamed;
4 And thou hast said: 'My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in Thine eyes.'
5 But oh that God would speak, and open His lips against thee;
6 And that He would tell thee the secrets of wisdom, that sound wisdom is manifold! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.
Ezra 9:13(v6)“After all that has come on us for our evil deeds, and for our great guilt, since you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities…
Lamentations 3:22(v6)It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail.
Job 10:7(v4)Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand.
Job 17:2(v3)Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.
Daniel 2:28(v6)but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has made known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your…
Show all 56 cross-references
Matthew 13:35(v6)that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from…
Ephesians 3:5(v6)which in other generations was not made known to the children of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the…
Job 6:10(v4)Let still be my consolation, yes, let me exult in pain that doesn’t spare, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
Job 15:8(v6)Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
Deuteronomy 29:29(v6)The secret things belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all…
Job 2:11(v1)Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad…
Job 9:4(v6)God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him and prospered?
Job 15:5(v6)For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
Job 15:11(v6)Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?
Job 18:2(v2)“How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak.
Job 38:1-2(v5)Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Psalms 25:14(v6)The friendship of Yahweh is with those who fear him. He will show them his covenant.
Proverbs 10:19(v2)In the multitude of words there is no lack of disobedience, but he who restrains his lips does wisely.
Daniel 2:47(v6)The king answered to Daniel, and said, “Of a truth your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you…
James 1:19(v2)So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;
Job 6:29-30(v4)Please return. Let there be no injustice. Yes, return again. My cause is righteous. Is there injustice on my tongue? Can’t my taste discern…
Job 7:20(v4)If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?
Job 8:2(v2)“How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?
Job 9:2-3(v4)“Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God? If he is pleased to contend with him, he can’t answer him one time in a…
Job 12:4(v3)I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.
Job 13:4(v3)But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value.
Job 13:9(v3)Is it good that he should search you out? Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?
Job 14:4(v4)Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.
Job 15:2-3(v3)“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind? Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with…
Job 16:3(v2)Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?
Job 21:3(v3)Allow me, and I also will speak; After I have spoken, mock on.
Job 23:3-7(v5)Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat! I would set my cause in order before him, and fill my mouth with…
Job 24:25(v3)If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?”
Job 31:35(v5)oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment!
Job 33:6-18(v5)Behold, I am toward God even as you are. I am also formed out of the clay. Behold, my terror will not make you afraid, neither will my…
Job 34:5-6(v4)For Job has said, ‘I am righteous, God has taken away my right: Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar. My wound is incurable,…
Job 34:7(v3)What man is like Job, who drinks scorn like water,
Job 35:2(v4)“Do you think this to be your right, or do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s,’
Job 40:1-5(v5)Moreover Yahweh answered Job, “Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” Then Job answered…
Job 40:8(v5)Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?
Job 42:7(v5)It was so, that after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and…
Psalms 35:16(v3)Like the profane mockers in feasts, they gnashed their teeth at me.
Psalms 83:16(v3)Fill their faces with confusion, that they may seek your name, Yahweh.
Psalms 103:10(v6)He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us for our iniquities.
Psalms 106:43-46(v6)He rescued them many times, but they were rebellious in their counsel, and were brought low in their iniquity. Nevertheless he regarded…
Psalms 140:11(v2)An evil speaker won’t be established in the earth. Evil will hunt the violent man to overthrow him.
Jeremiah 15:17(v3)I didn’t sit in the assembly of those who make merry and rejoice. I sat alone because of your hand, for you have filled me with indignation.
Acts 17:18(v2)Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said,…
1 Corinthians 2:9-11(v6)But as it is written, “Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, which didn’t enter into the heart of man, these God has…
2 Thessalonians 3:14(v3)If any man doesn’t obey our word in this letter, note that man, that you have no company with him, to the end that he may be ashamed.
Titus 2:8(v3)and soundness of speech that can’t be condemned, that he who opposes you may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say about us.
1 Peter 3:15(v4)But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is…
Jude 1:18(v3)They said to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts.”
Job 28:28(v6)To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’ ”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (26 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv2, 4, 6Should he persuade by his great talk, that he…
Should he persuade by his great talk, that he is just?
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv1–6Job 11:1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
Job 11:1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
Ver. 1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite] With a most bitter invective, savouring more of passion than charity. Zophar rejoineth, or rather revileth innocent Job, misinterpreting his meaning, Job 11:4, and laying to his charge, 1. Loquacity, or talkativeness; 2. Lying; 3. Scoffing at God’s good providence, and men’s good counsel; 4. Self-conceitedness and arrogance, besides rashness, boldness, &c. For want of better arguments against him, he falls foul upon him in this sort. And if the adversaries of the truth do the like by us (as our Saviour saith they will, Mat 5:11, and as himself, after Job and many other of his members, had the experience of it), we must not be overly troubled. Zophar signifieth a watcher, he watched for Job’s halting, and took him up before he was down; he is styled the Naamathite from Naamah (a city in the land of Uz, eighteen miles from Job’s Pyramis, saith Adricomius), which signifieth fair. But he dealeth not so fair with his friend as had been fit, for he giveth him no honour or respect at all, but treateth him with singular sharpness and violence, or rather virulence, of speech: hear him else.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv2–6Dost thou think to carry thy cause by thy…
Dost thou think to carry thy cause by thy long and tedious discourses, consisting of empty words, without weight or reason? Shall we by our silence seem to approve of thy errors? or shall we think thy cause the better, because thou usest more words than we do?
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v1It is sad to see what intemperate passions even…
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? Is this the way to comfort Job? No, nor to convince him neither. Does this become one that appears as an advocate for God and his justice? Tantaene animis coelestibus irae? - In heavenly breasts can such resentment dwell? Those that engage in controversy will find it very hard to keep their temper. All the wisdom, caution, and resolution they have will be little enough to prevent their breaking out into such indecencies as we here find Zophar guilty of.
I. He represents Job otherwise than what he was, Job 11:2, Job 11:3. He would have him thought idle and impertinent in his discourse, and one that loved to hear himself talk; he gives him the lie, and calls him a mocker; and all this that it might be looked upon as a piece of justice to chastise him. Those that have a mind to fall out with their brethren, and to fall foul upon them, find it necessary to put the worst colours they can upon them and their performances, and, right or wrong, to make them odious. We have read and considered Job's discourses in the foregoing chapters, and have found them full of good sense and much to the purpose, that his principles are right, his reasonings strong, many of his expressions weighty and very considerable, and that what there is in them of heat and passion a little candour and charity will excuse and overlook; and yet Zophar here invidiously represents him, 1. As a man that never considered what he said, but uttered what came uppermost, only to make a noise with the multitude of words, hoping by that means to carry his cause and run down his reprovers: Should not the multitude of words be answered? Truly, sometimes it is no great matter whether it be or no; silence perhaps is the best confutation of impertinence and puts the greatest contempt upon it. Answer not a fool according to his folly. But, if it be answered, let reason and grace have the answering of it, not pride and passion. Should a man full of talk (margin, a man of lips, that is all tongue, vox et praeterea nihil - mere voice) be justified? Should he be justified in his loquacity, as in effect he is if he be not reproved for it? No, for in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin. Should he be justified by it? Shall many words pass for valid pleas? Shall he carry the day with the flourishes of language? No, he shall not be accepted with God, or any wise men, for his much speaking, Mat 6:7. 2. As a man that made no conscience of what he said - a liar, and one that hoped by the impudence of lies to silence his adversaries (should thy lies make men hold their peace?) - a mocker, one that bantered all mankind, and knew how to put false colours upon any thing, and was not ashamed to impose upon every one that talked with him: When thou mockest shall no man make thee ashamed? Is it not time to speak, to stem such a violent tide as this? Job was not mad, but spoke the words of truth and soberness, and yet was thus misrepresented. Eliphaz and Bildad had answered him, and said what they could to make him ashamed; it was therefore no instance of Zophar's generosity to set upon a man so violently who was already thus harassed. Here were three matched against one.
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II. He charges Job with saying that which he had not said (Job 11:4): Thou hast said, My doctrine is pure. And what if he had said so? It was true that Job was sound in the faith, and orthodox in his judgment, and spoke better of God than his friends did. If he had expressed himself unwarily, yet it did not therefore follow but that his doctrine was true. But he charges him with saying, I am clean in thy eyes. Job had not said so: he had indeed said, Thou knowest that I am not wicked (Job 10:7); but he had also said, I have sinned, and never pretended to a spotless perfection. He had indeed maintained that he was not a hypocrite as they charged him; but to infer thence that he would not own himself a sinner was an unfair insinuation. We ought to put the best construction on the words and actions of our brethren that they will bear; but contenders are tempted to put the worst.
III. He appeals to God, and wishes him to appear against Job. So very confident is he that Job is in the wrong that nothing will serve him but that God must immediately appear to silence and condemn him. We are commonly ready with too much assurance to interest God in our quarrels, and to conclude that, if he would but speak, he would take our part and speak for us, as Zophar here: O that God would speak! for he would certainly open his lips against thee; whereas, when God did speak, he opened his lips for Job against his three friends. We ought indeed to leave all controversies to be determined by the judgment of God, which we are sure is according to truth; but those are not always in the right who are most forward to appeal to that judgment and prejudge it against their antagonists. Zophar despairs to convince Job himself, and therefore desires God would convince him of two things which it is good for every one of us duly to consider, and under all our afflictions cheerfully to confess: -
1. The unsearchable depth of God's counsels. Zophar cannot pretend to do it, but he desires that God himself would show Job so much of the secrets of the divine wisdom as might convince him that they are at least double to that which is, Job 11:6. Note, (1.) There are secrets in the divine wisdom, arcana imperii - state-secrets. God's way is in the sea. Clouds and darkness are round about him. He has reasons of state which we cannot fathom and must not pry into. (2.) What we know of God is nothing to what we cannot know. What is hidden is more than double to what appears, Eph 3:9. (3.) By employing ourselves in adoring the depth of those divine counsels of which we cannot find the bottom we shall very much tranquilize our minds under the afflicting hand of God. (4.) God knows a great deal more evil of us than we do of ourselves; so some understand it. When God gave David a sight and sense of sin he said that he had in the hidden part made him to know wisdom, Psa 51:6.
2. The unexceptionable justice of his proceedings. "Know therefore that, how sore soever the correction is that thou art under, God exacteth of thee less than thy iniquity deserves," or (as some read it), "he remits thee part of thy iniquity, and does not deal with thee according to the full demerit of it." Note, (1.) When the debt of duty is not paid it is justice to insist upon the debt of punishment. (2.) Whatever punishment is inflicted upon us in this world we must own that it is less than our iniquities deserve, and therefore, instead of complaining of our troubles, we must be thankful that we are out of hell, Lam 3:39; Psa 103:10.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv1–6Then answered Zophar the Naamathite,.... The third of Job's…
Then answered Zophar the Naamathite,.... The third of Job's friends, that came to visit him; see Gill on Job 2:11; and who perhaps might be the youngest, since his turn was to speak last; and he appears to have less modesty and prudence, and more fire and heat in him; than his other friends; though he might be the more irritated by observing, that their arguments were baffled by Job, and had no manner of effect on him, to cause him to recede from his first sentiments and conduct:
and said; as follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv1–6Zophar charges Job with falsehood and pride, ver. 1-4.…
Zophar charges Job with falsehood and pride, ver. 1-4. Wishes that God would convince him of his wisdom, justice, and unsearchable perfections, ver. 5-9. Of his sovereignty, power and the cognisance he takes of men, ver. 10-12. He assures him, that on his repentance, God would restore him to prosperity, but that the wicked should perish, ver. 13-20.
Then answered - How hard is it, to preserve calmness, in the heat of disputation! Eliphaz began modestly: Bildad was a little rougher: But Zophar falls upon Job without mercy. "Those that have a mind to fall out with their brethren, and to fall foul upon them, find it necessary, to put the worst colours they can upon them and their performances, and right or wrong to make them odious."
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv1–6Zophar answers Job, and reproves him severely for his…
CHAPTER XI
Zophar answers Job, and reproves him severely for his attempts
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to justify himself; charges him with secret iniquity, and
contends that God inflicts less punishment on him than his
iniquities deserve, 1-6.
Shows the knowledge and perfections of God to be unsearchable,
and that none can resist his power, 7-11.
Warns him against vanity of mind, and exhorts him to repentance
on the ground that his acceptance with God is still a possible
case, and that his latter days may yet become happy and
prosperous, 12-20.
NOTES ON CHAP. XI
Verse 1. Zophar the Naamathite] Of this man and his friends, see Job 2:11. He is the most inveterate of Job's accusers, and generally speaks without feeling or pity. In sour godliness he excelled all the rest. This chapter and the twentieth comprehends all that he said. He was too crooked to speak much in measured verse.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv1–6Job 11:1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite — How…
Job 11:1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite — How hard is it to preserve calmness in the heat of disputation! Eliphaz began modestly: Bildad was a little rougher: but Zophar falls upon Job without mercy. “Those that have a mind to fall out with their brethren, and to fall foul upon them, find it necessary to put the worst colours they can upon them and their performances, and, right or wrong, to make them odious.” Zophar, highly provoked that Job should dare to call in question a maxim so universally assented to as that urged by his friends, immediately charges him home with secret wickedness. He tells him that he makes not the least doubt, were the real state of his heart laid open, that it would be found God had dealt very gently with him, Job 11:2-7. That he was highly blameworthy to pretend to fathom the depths of divine providence, a task to which he was utterly unequal: that, however his wickedness might be concealed from me, yet it was open and bare to God’s all-seeing eye; could he therefore imagine that God would not punish the wickedness he saw? Job 11:7-11. It would surely be far more becoming in him to submit, and give glory to God, by making an ample confession and full restitution. In that case, indeed, he might hope for a return of God’s goodness to him; but the way he was in at present was the common road of the wicked, whose only hope was annihilation, Job 11:12-20. — Heath and Dodd.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv2–6Should not the multitude of words be answered? -…
Should not the multitude of words be answered? - As if all that Job had said had been mere words; or as if he was remarkable for mere garrulity.
And should a man full of talk be justified - Margin, as in Hebrew “of lips.” The phrase is evidently a Hebraism, to denote a great talker - a man of mere lips, or empty sound. Zophar asks whether such a man could be justified or vindicated. It will be recollected that taciturnity was with the Orientals a much greater virtue than with us, and that it was regarded as one of the proofs of wisdom. The wise man with them was he who sat down at the feet of age, and desired to learn; who carefully collected the maxims of former times; who diligently observed the course of events; and who deliberated with care on what others had to say. Thus, Solomon says, “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise;” Pro 10:19; so Jam 1:19, “let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak.” It was supposed that a man who said much would say some foolish or improper things, and hence, it was regarded as a proof of prudence to be distinguished for silence. In Oriental countries, and it may be added also, in all countries that we regard as uncivilized, it is unusual and disrespectful to be hasty in offering counsel, to be forward to speak, or to be confident and bold in opinion; see the notes at Job 32:6-7. It was for reasons such as these that Zophar maintained that a man who was full of talk could not be justified in it; that there was presumptive proof that he was not a safe man, or a man who could be vindicated in all that he said.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6Naamathite. Septuagint, "the Minean," in Arabia Felix, or rather…
Naamathite. Septuagint, "the Minean," in Arabia Felix, or rather of the Meonim, not far from the Themanites, Judges x. 11. Sophar was probably a descendant of Sepho, styled by Septuagint Sophar, (Genesis xxxvi. 11., and 1 Paralipomenon i. 36.) brother of Thaman, and grandson of Eliphaz, the son of Esau. (Calmet) --- He speaks with greater insolence than the two others, (Pineda) and inveighs against Job, insisting that he can be punished thus only for his crimes. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v1III. Zophar and Job: Chaps. 11–14
III. Zophar and Job: Chaps. 11–14
A.—Zophar’s violent arraignment of Job, as one who needs in penitence to submit himself to the all-seeing and righteous God:
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Job 11
1. Expression of the desire that the Omniscient One would appear to convince Job of his guilt
Job_11:2-6
1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said:
2 Should not the multitude of words be answered?
and should a man full of talk be justified?
3 Should thy lies make men hold their peace?
and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?
4 For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure,
and I am clean in Thine eyes.
5 But oh that God would speak,
and open His lips against thee;
6 and that He would show thee the secrets of wisdom,
that they are double to that which is!
Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.
2. Admonitory description of the impossibility of contending against God’s omniscience, which charges every man with sin:
Job_11:7-12
7 Canst thou by searching find out God?
canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
8 It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do?
deeper than hell, what canst thou know?
9 The measure thereof is longer than the earth,
and broader than the sea.
10 If He cut off, and shut up,
or gather together, then who can hinder Him?
11 For He knoweth vain men;
He seeth wickedness also; will He not then consider it?
12 For vain man would be wise,
though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.
3. The truly penitent has in prospect the restoration of his prosperity; for the wicked, however, there remains no hope:
Job_11:13-20
13 If thou prepare thine heart,
and stretch out thine hands toward Him;
14 if iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away,
and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.
15 For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot;
yea, thou shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear.
16 Because thou shalt forget thy misery,
and remember it as waters that pass away;
17 and thine age shall be clearer than the noonday;
thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning.
18 And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope;
yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety.
19 Also thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid;
yea, many shall make suit unto thee.
20 But the eyes of the wicked shall fail,
and they shall not escape,
and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The comparative violence of this new arraignment of Job is to be explained by the fact that he in his last discourse had positively maintained his innocence, and had accused God quite openly and directly of injustice. Zophar, the youngest and the least considerate of the three friends, opposes him on this head with the declaration that God the All-wise and All-seeing, would observe in him, as in all men, enough of sin to justify the stern infliction of punishment on him (Job_11:6). He indeed gives direct expression to the thought that the suffering which Job endured was well-deserved punishment for sin (Job_11:11), that sincere repentance was required of him (Job_11:14), and that on condition of such repentance could he hope for restoration to his former prosperity, that in any other case the sad doom of the wicked would surely be before him (Job_11:20). [“In his first appearance he is hot, and eager, and peremptory, but widely more gentle and less coarse than hereafter. Eliphaz brings forward his earnest exhortation, overawed by its divine majesty, and trembling when he recollects how he received from heaven the truth which he utters for Job’s advantage. Bildad reposes not on revelation, but on the human consciousness. Zophar, the private dogmatist, and as such—having nothing to fall back on with dignity—the hottest and most intolerant, has only his own ‘of course,’ ‘it cannot but be,’ with which to silence his obstinate adversary.” Davidson.] His discourse falls into three divisions: 1. The expression of a desire for such a declaration from the All-wise God as would convince Job of his guilt (Job_11:2-6); 2. A description intended to warn Job of God’s exalted knowledge, by virtue of which He charges on every man his sins (Job_11:7-12); 3. An inculcation of the necessity of repentance as the only condition of recovering his former prosperity (Job_11:13-20). Parts 1 and 2 are Double Strophes, consisting of small strophes of three or two verses each. Part 3 contains three such shorter strophes or groups of verses.
2. First Division, or Double Strophe. The expression of the desire that the Omniscient One would appear to convince Job of his guilt (Job_11:2-6).
First Strophe: Job_11:2-4. A censure of the high-flown and impenitent discourse of Job.
Job_11:2. Shall the multitude of words (רֹב דְּבָרִים, as in Pro_10:19; Ecc_5:2) remain unanswered, or shall a babbler (lit. “man of lips,” אִישׁ שְׂכָתַיִם, to be distinguished from אִישׁ דְּבָרִים, “a man of words,” i.e., an eloquent speaker, Exo_4:10) be in the right?—יִצְדַּק, literally “to be justified, to be declared in the right,” to wit, by allowing him the last word. The beginning of the discourse resembles that of Bildad, Job_8:2. At the game time there may be detected a slight tone of apology, that the speaker undertakes to say any thing, notwithstanding his youth. [“If Zophar’s name, which signifies chirper or chatterer, was expressive of his character, these words might have been applied to himself.” Wordsworth.]
Job_11:3. Shall thy vain talk (בַּדִּים from בדד, βαττολογεῖν) [E. V.: too strong, “lies,” rather chatter, idle babbling] put men (מְתִים, archaic expression for אדם or אנשים [“like other archaisms, e.g., תֵּבֵל, always without the article.” Del.], comp. Job_11:11; Job_19:19; Job_22:15, etc.) to silence, so that thou mockest [“God (Hirzel); better Rosenmüller: nos et Deum.” Del.], without any one putting thee to shame?viz., by refuting thee.—The fut. consec.וַתִּלְעַג, as also ותאמר at the beginning of the following verse, denotes that into which Job might be betrayed by men’s silence. It bears, therefore, since the principal verb יַחֲרִישׁוּ continues the question of the preceding verse, a modal impress: “so that thou darest to mock and to say,” etc. (so correctly Umbreit, Hirzel, Vaihinger, Hahn, Delitzsch, etc., while Ewald, Stickel, Dillmann [Carey], etc. remove altogether the interrogative character of our verse, and make it to consist of two co-ordinate affirmative clauses.
Job_11:4. My doctrine is pure.—לֶקַח, in the Book of Job occurring only here, very common, however, in Proverbs (comp. also Deu_32:2; Isa_29:24), signifies not a mere “assumption,” or “opinion” (Hahn), but something appropriated from tradition, a truth taught in accordance with tradition, especially in respect to moral conduct, therefore, in brief, moral teaching, or doctrine in general. With regard, therefore, to this his doctrine, the substance of his moral axioms and rules of living, Zophar reproaches Job with maintaining (or rather he says that he would maintain, if encouraged by the silence of others): “it is pure,” i.e., it is immaculate and infallible (זַךְ as in Job_8:6; Job_33:9; Pro_16:2, etc.). And yet more than this: even against God would he maintain that “he was pure in His eyes” (comp. Job_9:21; Job_10:7). He would therefore, in addition to the purity of his principles, maintain also that of his life, a result which seems to Zophar the height of absurdity, and which seems to him to mock every holy ordinance of God.
Second Strophe: Job_11:5-6. Expression of the wish that God Himself might personally interpose to punish Job’s arrogant falsehoods.
Job_11:5. But oh that Eloah would speak and open His lips against thee.—After מי יִתֵּן here follows first the Infinitive (as in Exo_16:3); then, however, in b, and in the following verse Imperfects: comp. Gesen. § 136, 2. [The subject of the Inf. is emphatically placed before it. “Oh, that Eloah would speak!” See Ewald, § 329, c.] A forcible וְאוּלָם (verum enim vero) introduces the whole optative clause and puts it, in a measure, in opposition to the wish that God might come, previously uttered by Job himself (Job_9:34 seq.), thus: verily, would He but come, there would be an immediate end to thy boasting.
Job_11:6. And make known to thee the secrets of His wisdom, that it is twofold in true knowledge.—תּוּשִׁיָּה in a somewhat different sense from that found above in Job_5:12; Job_6:13; here in a more theoretic (scientific) sense. כִּפְלַיִם, lit. that which is doubled, i.e., in general that which is much greater than something else, which far surpasses it [hence “manifold” would, according to our mode of expression, be more exact than “twofold.” The explanation of some that the word is used here by way of comparison, as though the meaning were that “God’s wisdom is double thine,” or “twice as great as thou canst imagine,” is inadequate. The word is absolute, and although dual in form, is to us plural, or intensive in meaning=God’s wisdom is fold upon fold! how then canst thou presume to judge it, as though able to see through it? For this intensive use of the dual comp. צָחֳרַיִם, Job_11:17, lit. “double brightness,” i.e., the superlative brightness of noonday.—E.]. Comp. Isa_40:2. The subj. of כפלים, viz., היא referring back to חכמה, is here omitted, because it is identical with the obj. of the principal clause; comp. Gen_2:4; Isa_3:10 (Ewald, § 336, b). [E. V. here—“that they are double to that which is”—is scarcely intelligible.] So must thou know [וְרַע, Imperat. consec., presenting the necessary consequence of the fulfilment of that wish; comp. Ewald, § 347, a) [Delitzsch; “Instead of saying: then thou wouldst perceive, Zophar, realizing in his mind that which he has just wished, says imperiously וְדַע”] that Eloah remits to thee of thy guilt—i.e., leaves much of it out of the account against thee, lets it go unpunished. The מִן in מֵעֲוֹנְךָ is accordingly partitive, to be expressed by “somewhat of, much of,” הִשָּׁה, lit. to bring into forgetfulness, oblivioni dare, a causative Hiphil, occurring elsewhere in the O. T. only in Job_39:17.
3. Second Division, or Double Strophe: Describing, with an admonitory purpose, the impossibility of contending against God’s omniscience, which charges every man with sin, Job_11:7-12.
First Strophe: Job_11:7-9. [God’s wisdom unsearchable.]
Job_11:7. Canst thou reach the depths [in the Germ.: den Grund erreichen: lit. to reach the bottom] in Eloah, or penetrate to the uttermost parts [zum Aeussersten hinandringen] in the Almighty?—חֵקֶר, “search” (Job_8:8), is used here sensu objectivo=that which is to be searched, the ground of any thing (so in Job_38:16); here, therefore, the hidden depth [ground, basis] of the divine nature. תַּכְלִית, on the contrary, denotes “the finishing, the terminus,” i.e., the end, the extremity of the same divine nature [Wordsworth: “canst thou arrive at the limit of God? Canst thou attain to the horizon of the Almighty?”] (comp. Job_26:10; Job_28:3; Psa_139:22; Neh_3:21). The first question accordingly describes God as unfathomable, the second as illimitable or immeasurable; the former conveys the notion of absolute mystery, the latter that of absolute greatness and incomprehensibility. [“The nature of God may be sought after, but cannot be found out; and the end of God is unattainable, for He is both: the Perfect One, absolutus; and the Endless One, infinitus.” Del.] Many moderns, after Eichhorn (e.g., John Pye Smith: The Scripture Testimony of the Messiah, 6 Ed., Vol. I. 11; Vol. II. 240) [also E. V.] take חקר in the active sense of searching or discovering, and תכלית in the sense of perfection. This, however, yields for both members a less suitable sense, and assigns to תכלית a signification which it can nowhere be proved to have. [Conant and others (so also E. V.) regard the clause עד־תכלית as adverbial: “Canst thou find out the Almighty to a perfection?” i.e., to a perfect comprehension of Him. Neither of Conant’s reasons for this rendering is valid. (1) The parallelism does not favor it, but contrariwise. חֵקֶו אֱל׳ finds its parallel in תַּכְ׳ שַׁ׳; the former belonging to the category of depth, the latter to that of length, which accounts for the preposition עַד. (2) The accentuation does not favor it, but the reverse. Munach puts שַׁדַּי in precisely the same connection with the final verb in this member, as אֱלוֹהַּ in the former member.—E.]
Job_11:8. Heights of heaven: to wit, are the distances which lie between our perception and the “extremity” of the Almighty, the dimensions with which we seek to measure His infinitude. Hence the question, vividly annexed to this exclamation—what canst thou do?—emphasizing the helplessness and powerlessness of man over against that which is immeasurable. To this corresponds the second member:—deeper than the underworld (are the hidden depths, the grounds of the Godhead, or of the Divine Wisdom)—what knowest thou? what can thy knowledge do in view of such depths? In so far as the phrase “heights of heaven” points back to the idea of the תּכלית, while the phrase “deeper than the underworld” points to that of the חקר, the position of the two members of this verse seems to be inverted as regards those of the ver. preceding. It is to be observed that the ruling idea here, as well as in the following verse, is throughout that of the Divine wisdom (omniscience), or the Divine nature on the side of wisdom and intellectual perfection, as the connection of the passage with Job_11:6 clearly shows.
Job_11:9. Longer than the earth is its measure, and broader is it than the sea:viz. the Divine wisdom, the immeasurableness of which is here described according to all the four dimensions, according to the height and depth, and also according to the length and breadth, as in Eph_3:18 these same four dimensions are used in describing the absoluteness of the love of God in Christ. Our translation: “longer than the earth is its [lit. her] measure,” rests on the reading מִדָּחּ with He mappiq, which is to be regarded as an abbreviated feminine form for מִדָּתָהּ (comp. Job_5:13, עָרְמָם for עָרְמָתָם: also Zec_4:2, etc.). The Masorah, indeed, favors מִדָּה, with He raphatum, with which reading the word would be the Accus. of nearer definition (“according to its measure, in measure”). But the separation between the Accus. of relation and its ruling word produced by a word intervening, would give here, where היא is omitted, a somewhat harsh construction, to which the simpler rendering given above is to be preferred.
Second Strophe: Job_11:10-12. [The judicial intervention of God supposed.]
Job_11:10. If He passes by [יחלף, as in Job_9:11; E. V. incorrectly “cut off”], and arrests, and calls to judgment (lit. summons an assembly, implying that the process of a trial was public, and the verdict rendered and executed by the assembled people: comp. Eze_16:40; Eze_23:46; 1Ki_21:9). [“One might almost imagine that Zophar looks upon himself and the other two friends as forming such an ‘assembly:’ they cannot justify him in opposition to God, since He accounts him guilty.” Del.]—Who will oppose Him? present a protest in behalf of the accused as though he were not guilty. Comp. in general Job_9:11-12, which description of Job’s Zophar here reproduces in part word for word, but with quite another purpose, viz. to defend, not to condemn or assail God’s justice [“וּמִיvav apod. with fine effect—who, as you say (Job_9:12) would?” Dav.].
Job_11:11. For He [emphatic, הוּא; whether others know it, or not] knows evil men (מְתֵי שָׁוְא, lit. “men of vanity, of falsehood,” [“people who hypocritically disguise their moral nothingness.” Del.], as in Psa_26:4; comp. also Job_22:15), and sees wickedness without considering it:i.e. without watching it with strenuous and anxious strictness (comp. Job_34:23), the moral qualities of His creatures being at every moment unveiled to His omniscience. [“Finely magnifying the Divine Insight, which is omniscient, and is so without effort.” Dav.] This is the only rendering of וְלֹא יִתְבּוֹנָן which accords with the context (comp. already Aben Ezra; non opus habet, ut diu consideret; among moderns Hirzel, Dillm., Del., etc.). Far less natural are the explanations of Ewald: “without his (the wicked) observing it;” of Umbreit, Stickel, Hahn: “without his (the wicked) being observed;” of Schlottman: “and (sees) him who observes not, who is without understanding.”
Job_11:12. So must (even) a witless man acquire wisdom, and a wild ass’s foal be born over a man.—This interpretation, which is the one substantially adopted by Piscator, Umbreit, Ewald, Schlottm., Vaih., Heiligst., Dillmann [Renan, Hengst., Wordsworth], and generally by most moderns, is the most suitable among the numerous interpretations of this difficult verse. The connection by the וְ with the verse preceding, shows that this verse should indicate what effect the judicial intervention of the Omniscient God ought to have on man, even though he be a stubborn sinner and devoid of understanding.—אִישׁ נָבוּב, lit. a man bored through, i.e. a hollow man, hence one void of understanding, a man without intellectual and moral substance; comp. the phrase מְתֵי שָׁוְא.—Again, עַיִר פֶּרֶא (of which פֶּרֶא is in apposition, not in the genitive), signifies lit. “a foal, a wild ass, i.e., a wild-ass-foal (comp. the phrase פֶּרֶא אָדָם, used in almost the same sense of untamed wildness in Gen_16:12).—Both these expressions, as well as those of the preceding verse, are chosen not without reference to the conduct of Job, who seems to Zophar to be an obstinate fool (comp. Job_2:10); although not pointed directly at him, they inflict on him a sensible cut [see Job_12:3, where with evident reference to the יִלָּבֵב of this passage, Job with indignant scorn says גַּמ־לִי לֵבָב כּ׳—E.], and they at the same time facilitate the transition to the following admonitions. Observe also the intentional and witty paronomasia [both of sound and sense] between נָבוּב and יִלָּבֵב: the empty man is to be made a man of substance [der Hohlkopf soll beherzt gemacht), the void in his head is to be filled up as it were by a new heart. [Observe in addition the assonance of the closing words of each member, יִלָּבֵב and יִוּלֵד.—Davidson adopts essentially the same construction of terms and clauses as that given here, but gives to the verse a different tone. Instead of regarding it as a grave declaration of what should be the result of the judicial intervention of God, he regards it as a sarcastic denial of wisdom to man:—“But a witless man would be wise, and a wild ass colt be a born man! a man who is a fool would arrogate wisdom to himself, and though a wild ass colt, he would claim humanity.” This, however, would be a tone of remark entirely out of harmony with what precedes, and with what follows. Davidson characterizes the interpretation adopted above as “excessively artificial and unhebraistic in construction:” a strange charge surely to come from one who adopts the very same construction, except that he gives it a different coloring. Equally wide of the mark is the objection that Job himself did not exhibit the result which Zophar here says ought or might be expected to follow.—Hengstenberg remarks on the contents of the verse according to our interpretation: “We have here the first passage of Scripture which speaks of a regeneration.”—E.] The following varying explanations are to be rejected as being in part against the connection, in part too harsh, or grammatically inadmissible. 1. “An empty man is without heart,” i.e. without understanding, etc. (Gesenius, Olshausen), [Conant, Noyes, Merx, Rodwell.—Against this it may be argued that such a privative use of Niphal is unexampled in Hebrew, and especially as Dillmann urges, that the sentiment thus expressed is self-evident and trite, and takes away the whole force of the paronomasia].—2. “But man, like a hollow pate, has he understanding,” etc. (Hirzel). [“Violates the accentuation, and produces an affected witticism.” Del.]—3. “Man is—at his birth—as one empty furnished with a heart,” i.e. he receives an empty undiscerning heart (Hupfeld). [Opposed to the future verbs, and to the correlation of נבוב and ילבב].—4. “Ignorant man flares up, or becomes insolent, etc.” (Vulgate, Stickel, Welte [Carey], etc. [Does not bring out the proper antithesis between נבוב and ילבב. Why should the man of whom it is affirmed that he has a bold defiant heart, be described as נָבוּב? This meaning is, moreover, less suitable to the connection. See remarks below at the end of the verse.—The same objections apply to] 5. “An empty man becomes stubborn” (Böttcher).—6. “Before an empty head gains a heart (understanding), a wild ass’s foal will be born again a man” (Rosenm., Hahn, Del., Kamphausen, etc.)
[In determining the meaning of this difficult expression the following considerations should have controlling weight. (1) The evident antithesis of נבוב and ילבב. Now as נבוב can be referred only to man in his sinful hollowness, emptiness, ילבב must describe the opposite, or man as endowed with a heart to understand, appreciate, and profit by God’s dealings. (2) The assonance of יִלָּבֵב and יִוָּלֵד, as well as the striking homogeneousness of thought between the two terms, the one describing the process of endowing man with לֵב, the distinguishing characteristic of manhood, the other the process of becoming a man, being born, here being born again a man, suggests that the verse is most probably a synonymous parallelism, the same essential thought being repeated in both members. (3) The gravity of the connection forbids our regarding the verse as simply a piece of witty irony. The verses preceding are a solemn description of God’s procedure against man in judgment; the verses following a solemn appeal to Job to repent and return to God. This verse in like manner is far more likely to be a grave earnest affirmation of truth than the opposite. (4) The practical drift of the connection makes it probable that the verse is not a description of the sinner in his perversity, but in the possibilities of his restoration. As the result of God’s severe disciplinary processes “empty man may or should be filled with a heart, and a wild ass’s foal may or should be born over a man.” This being the case, if thou direct thine heart, etc., thou shalt lift up thy face without spot, etc. Thus understood, it will be seen that the verse furnishes a suitable sequel to Job_11:10-11, and a suitable preparation to Job_11:13 seq.—(5) It seems exceedingly probable to say the least, that Job’s language in Job_12:3 a is his direct reply to the implied reproach in this verse. There he claims that he hasלבב as well as the friends, a claim which is most satisfactorily explained by supposing that he was stung to make it by understanding Zophar’s language here to imply that he needed to be put in possession of לבב.—E.].
4. Third Division: An admonition to repentance and conversion as the only means by which Job can recover his former prosperity, and escape the terrible doom of the wicked: Job_11:13-20.
First Strophe: Job_11:13-15. A period, consisting of Job_11:13 as hypothetical antecedent, Job_11:15 as consequent, and Job_11:14 as a regularly constructed parenthesis.
Job_11:13. (But) if thou direct thy heart (prepare it, bring it into a proper condition, not: “give it the right direction towards God,” Del. and others; nor again: “establish it,” Hirzel [“not pertinent, because Zophar has not in his mind so much perseverance in godliness as a return to it,” Dav.]), and spread forth thy hands unto Him, viz., in prayer and penitent supplication for mercy; comp. Job_8:5, and for the same phrase פרשׂ כפים, manus supinas (palmas) extendere, comp. Exo_9:29; Exo_9:33; 1Ki_8:22; Isa_1:15.
Job_11:14. If iniquity is in thy hand, put it far away, and let not evil dwell in thy tents (comp. Job_5:24); this being the antecedent condition of the success of Job’s prayer according to Zophar’s mode of thinking, which indeed is not in itself a theory of legality or work-righteousness (comp. Psa_34:13(12) seq.; 1Pe_3:10; Isa_1:15 seq.), but which in the present case does nevertheless proceed from a narrow judgment, and is excessively offensive to Job.
Job_11:15. Surely, then thou shalt lift up thy face (comp. on Job_10:15) without spot:i.e., “without consciousness of guilt, and without any outward sign of the same cleaving to thee,” (Dillm.) מִן lit. “away from,” here equivalent to “without,” comp. Job_19:26; Job_21:9; 2Sa_1:22; Pro_20:3; and shalt be steadfast without fearing; shalt be firmly fixed in thy new prosperity, without having to fear any further judgments of God.—מֻצָּק, Part. Hoph. of יצק, lit. fused into solidity, quasi ex ære fusus (comp. 1Ki_7:16. [“We must not lose the fine idea of one state arising out of another, a state of fluidity מָם Job_6:14) passing over into solidity; playing on Job’s past and future.” Dav.].
Second Strophe: Job_11:16, Job_11:17. Continuation of the promise of well-being to the penitent.
Job_11:16. For thou shalt forget trouble, shalt remember it as waters that have passed away: as something therefore that is never to come back, that has disappeared forever. [“When we think of water that has flowed away, we think of it as something which does not return, or rather we think no more about it at all, for with its disappearance even the remembrance of it is gone.” Dillmann]. The pronoun here is emphatic: “for thou thyself wilt forget trouble, thou and none other, no stranger (comp. Job_19:27) [or, as Davidson: “thou, unlike others, who escape calamity, but are haunted by its memory;” or, as Hengst: “thou, who just now canst think no other thought than of thy suffering”]: giving “an emphasis to the personal application of this peroration,” which would be lost if, with the Pesh. and Hirzel, כּי אַתָּה were changed to כִּי עַתָּה.
Job_11:17. And brighter than the glory of noon (צהרים, as in Job_5:14 b) arises (for thee) the future. חֶלֶד, lit. that which creeps along slowly, which passes by unobserved (from חלד, to glide) hence time in general, either in the sense of the world, that which is temporal, αἰών (Psa_17:14; comp. Hupfeld on the passage, Psa_49:2); or in the sense of life, lifetime, future, as here and in Psa_39:6 (5); Psa_89:48 (47), etc. [“יָקּוּם, an exquisite image, lift itself up, disentangle itself from the accumulated, crushing darkness of the present, increasing in brilliancy ever as it disengages itself.” Dav.]. For מִן in מצהרים, (with “brighter” to be supplied) comp. Mic_7:4.—Should it be dark, it will be as the morning;i.e., if any darkness should come, if dark adversity should befall thee (תָּעֻפָה, 3d Pers. Fem., with neut. signification: not 2d Pers., “shouldest thou become dark,” as Schlottm. would explain) it will then ever be as bright as on a clear morning: evidently an intentional reversal of the gloomy picture of his future in Job_10:22, which Job had himself drawn. [“His climax there was that his daylight should be as darkness; Zophar’s promise is that his darkness shall he daylight.” Dav.—Gesenius (in Thes.) Ewald, Conant, etc., prefer taking תעפה as a noun, “darkness,” written תְּעֻפָה, or תְּעוּפָה, as found in a few MSS., and as read by the Syr. and Chald.—Bernard, Hengstenberg, and others render the verb—“thou shalt fly up,” i.e., soar out of the depths of thy misery to the heights of prosperity; a rendering which destroys the antithesis between this verse and Job_10:22.—E. V.: “thou shalt shine forth” seems to be a paraphrase of this last rendering, suggested perhaps by the frequent comparison of the beams of light to the wings of a bird.—E.]
Third Strophe: Job_11:18-20. Conclusion of the promise of prosperity, with an admonitory reference to the joyless end of the wicked.
Job_11:18. And thou hast (thou shalt have, Perf. consec.) confidence, because there is [יֵשׁ, “with the force of a real and lasting existence,” Del.] hope (for thee, comp. Job_14:7, also the opposite of this hopeful condition, described above in Job_7:6); and thou shalt search about (to ascertain, viz., whether all that pertains to thy household is in a state of order and security; comp. Job_5:24 b), shalt lie down securely, viz., for sleep; comp. Ps. 4:9 (Psa_4:8). חָפַר here certainly “to spy out,” as in Job_39:21; Job_39:29; not “to blush (חָפֵר), to be ashamed,” as though וְחָפַרְתָּ were a concessive antecedent clause: “and even shouldest thou be put to shame (in thy confidence), thou canst still lie down in peace,” Rosenm., Hirzel, [Carey], an unsuitable weakening of the sense, which is at variance with the remainder of the bright promises contained in these verses. [“Against this conditional sense is the affirmative use of the corresponding form in the parallel member.” Con. “It is inadmissible, since it introduces a sadness into the promise.” Del.]. The rendering of Hengstenberg is altogether too artificial: “and thou hast dug,” i.e., dug a trench for protection around thy house [and so E. V.—“thou shalt dig about thee”], a sense which the reference to Job_3:21; Job_39:21 is scarcely sufficient to justify.
Job_11:19. Thou liest down without any one making thee afraid; as peacefully and securely, that is, as the beast, or the cattle, which no foe terrifies; comp. Gen_49:9; Isa_17:2.—Yea, many shall seek thy favor, lit. stroke, or caress thy face (Del. “thy cheeks”) flatter thee; comp. Pro_19:6; Psa_45:13 (12). Instead of being despised, and covered with ignominy, (Job_10:15) thou shalt be highly honored, and greatly courted.
Job_11:20. But the eyes of the wicked waste away, in vainly looking for help, in unsatisfied yearning for good (comp. Job_17:5) and every refuge vanishes from them; lit. “away from them,” מִנְּהֶם poet. for מֵהֵם; and their hope is the breathing out of the soul;i.e., all that they have still to hope for is the breathing out of their soul (comp. נָפַח נֶפֶשׁ, Job_31:39; Jer_15:9), hence the giving up of the ghost, death (not a state where their desires will remain eternally unfulfilled, as Delitzsch explains.) [“Zophar here makes use of the choicest expressions of the style of the prophetic Psalms,” Delitzsch. “If we compare with each other the closing words of the three friends, Job_5:26 sq; Job_8:22 b; Job_11:20, the advance, which each makes beyond his predecessor, is unmistakable.” Dillmann.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. This first discourse of Zophar’s resembles that of Eliphaz, and still more that of Bildad, both in respect of the rebuke with which it begins (“who can hear such words in silence?” etc.) and in respect of the union of promise and warning at the close. It proceeds from the same theological and ethical premises as those of the two previous speakers, in so far as it puts God’s absolute perfection and exaltation (here more particularly on the intellectual side, the illimitability of His knowledge and His wisdom) in solemn and emphatic contrast with the short-sighted limitation of man, and thence derives man’s obligation in all circumstances to draw nigh to God as a penitent, and to confess himself before Him as guilty and deserving of punishment. Not less does it resemble those two preceding arraignments of Job in respect of form, in the strength of its expressions, in the poetic loftiness and figurative richness of its descriptions, qualities which shine forth with especial brilliancy in the passage where the Divine wisdom is described as being high as heaven, deep as hell, long as the earth, and broad as the sea (Job_11:7-9). Moreover the comparatively correct orthodoxy of its positions and arguments, the absence of everything that would decidedly contradict the doctrinal and ethical tradition of pious Old Testament worshippers of Jehovah (worshippers of Eloah), the circumstance that nowhere is there even any excessive work-righteousness and legal harshness visible (particularly not in Job_11:14)—all this exhibits Zophar to us as a kindred soul with Eliphaz and Bildad, and his stand-point as most intimately related to theirs.
2. That, however, which marks the difference between this discourse, as to its contents and tendency, and those of the two former speakers—a difference, too, which is not to the advantage of the speaker—is its tone, which is immeasurably more violent. Its attack on the sorely tried sufferer, who so greatly needed a merciful and tender treatment, is harsher, more pointed and personal. At the very beginning (Job_11:2-3) the bitter charge is hurled at his head that his speech was “a torrent of words” and “empty talk.” To the expression “an empty pate,” which is here applied to him, is added in Job_11:11-12 a description of vain, hollow-pated, stubborn people (who are like the wild ass), which points with unmistakable significance to Job. And in the closing passage (Job_11:20), which points out the hopeless destruction of the wicked, there is no trace of the delicacy and urbanity of his two predecessors, at the close of whose discourses, the tone of promise altogether predominates over that of threats and warnings. The discourse at this very point shows a decidedly perceptible advance beyond the two which precede towards inconsiderate harshness. “Eliphaz barely appended a slight warning; Bildad briefly blends it with his promise by way of contrast; Zophar adds a verse which already looks like the advanced picket of an army of similar harsh menaces in chs. 15, 18, 20” (Ewald). Again, the exceedingly personal and unqualified way in which Zophar in Job_11:6 reproaches Job with his guilt, and suggests that there must be not a little of it that is overlooked by God, as well as the not less personal and humiliating demand that he should repent and renounce all unrighteousness as a conditio sine qua non of his restoration to divine favor (Job_11:13 seq.) exhibit a certain advance on the part of this speaker beyond the stand-point of the two former. Instead of reckoning himself as belonging to those who need repentance and purification, as Eliphaz does very distinctly, and Bildad also, at least to some extent, Zophar, when he reminds Job of the duty of acknowledging his sins and repenting of them, speaks only in the second person. He thus sets himself up before him as a rigid censor and accuser, and assumes the character of an advocate of God, who himself needs no correction. As a consequence all that he says in the way of positive instruction, or produces out of the store of his monotheistic Chokmah-tradition, loses for Job its proper moral value and its determining power. Even the description of the abysmal vastness and unsearchableness of the Divine nature and intelligence in Job_11:7 seq., grand as it is in itself, must seem cold to Job, and pass away without leaving any impression on him; for no softening ray of heartfelt brotherly love, and of a humble realization of grace falls on this magnificent picture of the Divine omniscience and wisdom. That picture can and should in truth produce only terror and trembling; for in whichever of the four directions we turn, whether toward the heights of heaven, or the depths of hell, or the lengths of the earth, or the breadths of the sea, nowhere do we discover any bridge hospitably inviting and facilitating our advance. We find no experience, not even a presentiment of the love-power of Christ’s cross, which fills and pervades the abysmal depths of the divine nature. There is to be found as yet no trace of that knowledge of God, which Paul in Eph_3:18 describes as a “comprehending … what is the breadth and the length and the depth and the height:” a comprehension which indeed belongs only to the “saints” of the New Dispensation, which is produced only by the cross of the Redeemer as the solution of all contradictions (comp. also Eph_4:8-10), and which can be acquired and appropriated only at the feet of the Crucified One.1 The deficiency in this knowledge of God, which Zophar here exhibits is indeed on his part essentially not criminal, resting as it does on the fact that neither to him, nor to his associates, nor to Job himself, had the mystery of justification by faith been openly revealed as yet (comp. Brentius: “Zophar and the other friends of Job seem to be entirely ignorant of what the Gospel and faith in God’s promise can effect; they argue against Job as though no one could ever be justified before God by faith”), and that as to his general position he belonged to that immature and imperfect stage of development in the education of the human race, when it was impossible as yet to advance beyond a rigid contra-position of the Godhead and the creature. He must, however, be to the last charged with criminal and guilty conduct in this, that he uses his insight into that heavenly immeasurable superiority of the Divine knowledge over the human (or, which is the same thing: his doctrine that the divine wisdom represents all men as sinful and foolish) with merciless severity against Job, deeply wounding him with it as with a sword, without making even a single attempt to soften the application, or to use this two-edged weapon in a considerate and conciliatory spirit.
3. It is easy to see accordingly what in Zophar’s discourse must be censured as one-sided and unfriendly, and what on the other hand remains as really beautiful and valuable religious and moral truth. The latter is limited essentially to the inspired eulogy of the Divine wisdom and omniscience in Job_11:7 seq.,—a description which in power and beauty is not, indeed, equal to that presented in the introductory part of Psalms 139., but which furnishes nevertheless one of the most note-worthy Old Testament parallels of that passage. It is in the more detailed exhibition of the individual beauties and profound truths of this eulogy of Divine wisdom that we are principally to find the
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Suggestions of this Discourse.—It is neither necessary nor advisable to subdivide it in thus treating it. For as Job_11:2-5 are simply introductory to the main theme, so Job_11:13-20 show how the wisdom of the Most High, incomprehensible in itself, and His omniscience, can alone become comprehensible to man, thus furnishing the basis for the practical and hortatory part, in which every homily on such a theme as the present one must find its issue. The whole is to be left in its organic connection. The following hints however may serve for the treatment of particular passages.
Job_11:7. Œcolampadius: By the four greatest dimensions of the greatest things the idea of supreme perfection is conveyed.… Wisdom is higher than the heaven, deeper than hell, broader than the sea, and longer than the earth, for its greatness is not included within all of these. For the heaven of the heavens cannot contain Thee, says Solomon in his prayer (1Ki_8:27).—Cocceius: It is no longer necessary that we should wish for one who might either ascend to heaven, or descend to hell or depart beyond the sea. In Christ we have One who came from heaven, who returned from hell, who measures the earth and the sea with a span. In Him all things are open and clear to us.—Starke: If man is not capable of searching out so many things in nature, how much less can he with his narrow understanding comprehend God’s nature, and His wise government (Wis_9:16)!—Hengstenberg (on Job_11:10 seq ): It is here that we first see quite clearly in what respect Zophar asserts the claims of the Divine wisdom against Job, as being that, namely, by virtue of which God penetrates the depths of the human heart and life, which to man himself are utterly inaccessible and hidden. He in rendering His judgment has all facts and data at His control, whereas to man only a small part is accessible.
Job_11:13 seq. Cocceius: As there was impudence in the Pharisee’s lifting up of his hands (Luk_18:11 seq.), so there is deception in the hypocrite’s beating of the breast. These gestures easily degenerate. The best prayers are those which make the least noise, and which are poured out in the secret recesses of the heart to Him who seeth in secret, and rewardeth openly, who is the “Hearer of the heart, not of the voice,” as Cyprian says.—Starke: True penitence and believing prayer are the means by which calamity is warded off, and prosperity and blessing procured (Jdt_8:12 seq.) With true repentance, however, there must be associated (as in the case of Zacchæus, Luk_19:8) an earnest purpose to reform the life.
Job_11:15 seq. Brentius: What therefore shall be to the man who directs his own heart, who stretches out his hands toward God, and who purges his works of sin? He dares to lift up his face before God, without spot, without crime; for if conscience, sin, or Satan should accuse us it is God who justifies; it is Christ who died and rose again, and the Christian shall rise together with Him.… All these promises are fulfilled in the Church, in which by faith tears are wiped away, and mourning disappears (Rev_21:4); the body indeed suffers pain, but the inward man is renewed day by day (2Co_4:16).
Job_11:20. Starke: The Divine threatenings are to be applied to the soul that rests in careless security, but not to the soul that is tried with temptation and anguish (2 Thess. 5:14).—Hengstenberg; Job had spoken of death as his only hope. Very true, says Zophar, it is the only hope, if thou remainest as thou art! Zophar is quite right in making all Job’s hope, and all his salvation depend on his knowing himself as a sinner. His error begins only when he comes to determine more particularly the way and mode of recognizing sin, when—that is—he treats sinners and transgressors as convertible terms. In his sense Job could not acknowledge himself a sinner.
Footnotes:
[1]It is a favorite thought of many of the Church Fathers that the Cross of Christ is a power which mediates and reconciles the discords and oppositions between all parts of the universe (as though accordingly it sent its roots down into the under-world, its head up into heaven, while with both arms it lovingly embraced the broad expanse of earth and air). This thought is elaborated for the most part in connection with Eph_3:18 (Job_4:8-10), but occasionally also with reference to Job_11:8-9. So by Basil the Great (comm. on Isaiah 2); by Gregory of Nyssa (Catech. Magna, c. 32); by Rufinus (Expositio Symb. Apostolici); by Coel. Sedulius (Mirabilia Div. V. 297, 54); by John of Damascus (De fide orthod. iv. 12), etc. The same may be said of many modern mystics and theosophists, such as Baader, St. Martin. Görres, J. F. v. Meyer. Comp. especially the last named’s “Blütter f. hohere Wahrheit,” Vol. VIII., page 145 seq.: “The Cross points upward and downward, to the right and to the left; this fourfold direction designates the All, on which and from which its influence acts. Its head uplifts itself to the throne of God, and its root reaches down to hell. Its arms stretch out from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, from pole to pole. In it heaven and earth are united, in it appeased; in it things which are most strongly opposed are reconciled and made one.” Comp. also the remarks of Œcolampadius, Cocceius, etc., cited below [Homiletical and Practical].
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv3, 4, 6lies--rather, "vain boasting" (Isa 16:6; Jer 48:30). The "men"…
lies--rather, "vain boasting" (Isa 16:6; Jer 48:30). The "men" is emphatic; men of sense; in antithesis to "vain boasting."
mockest--upbraidest God by complaints, "shall no man make thee ashamed?"
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6ZOPHAR’S FIRST ADDRESS.1. Then answered Zophar — Eliphaz had…
ZOPHAR’S FIRST ADDRESS.1. Then answered Zophar — Eliphaz had modestly confirmed his views by an appeal to the revelation of a spirit; Bildad, by recourse to the wisdom of the ancients; Zophar, the youngest of the three, relies upon himself. “At first,” says Jahn, “his discourse is characterized by rusticity; his second address adds but little to the first; and in the third dialogue he has no reply to make.” The other two friends had looked upon Job’s sufferings as the chastenings of God, rather than punishments. Zophar, on the other hand, regards them as solely punitive. The address opens with painful vituperation, but proceeds in noble language to describe the infinite wisdom of God — a wisdom that comprehends and arraigns the human heart. In contrast man at best is, as Zophar says, but hollow-headed and perverse from his birth. With beautiful imagery he portrays the happiness and security of the just, and concludes, like Bildad, with the doom of the wicked.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv2–62. Should not the multitude of words] Or, shall…
2. Should not the multitude of words] Or, shall not …? Zophar probably did not demand the parole immediately on Job’s ceasing to speak. A pause was allowed to intervene, and the words with which he commences form his apology for speaking—he replies to Job only lest Job should fancy that by his much speaking he has shewn himself to be in the right, cf. Pro_10:19.
should a man full of talk] Or, shall a man full of talk, lit. a man of lips. Zophar insinuates that Job’s words come merely from his lips; they could not come, as the words of the ancients did, from the heart, ch. Job_8:10; they were mere empty phrases, cf. ch. Job_8:2; Isa_36:5. Job, it must be confessed, had made a long and in some parts vehement oration.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv1, 4, 6(1) Zophar, the third of Job’s friends, has a…
XI.
(1) Zophar, the third of Job’s friends, has a clearly defined character, distinct from that of the others; he is the ordinary and common-place moral man, who expresses the thoughts and instincts of the many. Eliphaz was the poet and spiritual man, who sees visions and dreams; Bildad was the man who rested on authority and appealed to tradition; Zophar is the man of worldly wisdom and common sense. In some respects he is the most offensive of the three. He is astonished that Job has not been silenced by the replies of the other two, and thinks he can do no less than help to silence him. Thus he at once begins with “a multitude of words,” and “full of talk,” and “lies,” and “mockery.” Zophar stands on a lower level, and drags Job down to it. He refracts his protestations of innocence against himself, and charges him with iniquity in making them. His longing also to come into judgment with God (Job_9:32) he turns back upon himself, being confident that it could not fail to convict him were he to do so.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv1–6Vers. 1-20. Zophar, the Naamathite, the third of Job"s…
Vers. 1-20. Zophar, the Naamathite, the third of Job"s comforters, (Job_2:11) and probably the youngest of them, now at last takes the word, and delivers an angry and violent speech. He begins by accusing Job of having spoken at undue length, and at the same time, boastfully and mockingly (vers. 2-4). He then expresses a wish that God would take Job at his word, and really answer him, since he is sure that the result would be to show that Job had been punished much less than he. deserved to be (vers. 5, 6). Job"s complaints against the justice of God"s dealings he meets by an assertion of God"s unsearchableness and perfect wisdom, which he contrasts with the folly of man (ver. 7-12). Finally, he suggests that a stricken man, being guilty, should humble himself, put away his iniquity, and turn to God, in which ease he may expect a restoration to favour. Otherwise, he has only to look for wretchedness, failure, and despair (vers. 18-20).
Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said. (see the comment on Job_2:11)
Read full note →
Vers. 1-6. Zophar to Job: 1. The opinions of a dogmatist.
I ZOPHAR"S OPINIONS CONCERNING JOB. A severe but wholly unfounded indictment.
1. Loquacity. Job"s previous orations, so full of lofty sentiment and fervent emotion, he characterizes as "a multitude of words," and Job himself as "a man full of talk literally, "a man of lips." Prolixity in speech, though not a violation of God"s Law, is certainly a breach of good taste. Words should never be employed except to represent thoughts, and should always be carefully selected and skilfully compacted. If brevity he the soul of wit, it is also the heart of wisdom. Mere talkativeness is a fool"s gift, (Ecc_5:3) and a frequent occasion of sin. (Pro_10:19) On the other hand, "even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise; and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding". (Pro_17:28) A wise man, also, is never so much in danger of being mistaken for a fool as when he forgets to put a bridle on his tongue. God"s people should be "swift to hear, slow to speak.
2. Boasting. Job"s vehement language Zophar describes as "big talk the noisy declamation of a loud-mouthed controversialist, who talks his opponents down by sheer force of clamour, foolishly supposing he has thereby overcome them in argument. Words of truth and soberness should be used by all. (Act_26:25) Religious men especially should be careful, particularly in the hearing of weak brethren, of extravagant assertions as to either their own piety or their thoughts about God. Job"s asseverations came near overstepping the limits of a just moderation; yet they appeared worse than they were because of Zophar"s failure to understand them. or sympathize with their speaker.
3. Mockery. Job"s sentiments Zophar pronounced to be wholly of an infidel tendency. But what Job scoffed at was only the representation of the Divine character and government which had been given by Eliphaz and Bildad. It may argue audacity and self-conceit to arraign the popular dogmas of the day; but one may do so, it is hoped"without being justly chargeable with impiety and unbelief.
4. Hypocrisy. Job"s steadfast assertion of personal integrity seemed to Zophar mere religious pretence. But if a man, who is at heart insincere, may yet be esteemed righteous by his fellows, (Mat_6:1-6) it is not impossible that one, who seems a hypocrite in man"s eyes, may in God"s sight be "perfect and entire.
II ZOPHAR"S OPINIONS CONCERNING GOD. Zophar suggests that, if God appeared to Job, he would be found:
1. Irresistible in teaching. "Oh that God would speak, and open his lips against or, "with thee" (ver. 5). Thy complaints would then be silenced by the convincing light of God"s revelations! What Zophar here desiderated for his friend has been practically granted to all. "God manifest in the flesh," "the Man Christ Jesus," who appeared in the fulness of the times, is God"s Answer to all preceding and subsequent centuries perplexed with the dark problem of existence. No solution of life"s enigma but God"s ever satisfies a soul. God can accomplish what no human teacher can; (Job_36:22) he can exhibit to the soul truth in its naked purity, causing it to commend itself to every man"s conscience, and, whether accepted or rejected, putting to silence all doubts and questionings as to its import. (1Co_2:4-13 2Co_4:2 1Th_1:5)
2. Unsearchable in wisdom. "And that he would show thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is or perhaps, that it is fold upon fold." True wisdom lies deep. Its secrets are seldom patent to superficial observation. Hidden fold over fold, their discovery is a work of labour, the fruit of profound reflection, the result of Heaven"s revelation. Even that wisdom which is purely mundane requires patient, painful, persevering study; (Pro_2:3, Pro_2:4) much more "that wisdom which cometh from above". (Jam_3:17) Most of all the wisdom of the Divine mind lies fold upon fold, deep, intricate, unfathomable, unsearchable, and therefore undiscoverable by man except through Divine revelation (see homiletics on next paragraph).
3. Merciful in judgment. "Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity literally, "forgets for thee of thy guilt" (ver. 6). Designed for Job"s humiliation, the exhortation, nevertheless, contains precious truths.
(1) That God can forget a man"s guilt, suffer it to drop out of his mind in such a way that it shall never plead against him for punishment. (Rom_3:26)
(2) That God, in point of fact, forgets a portion of every man"s guilt, since otherwise no man could stand before him. (Psa_130:3) Zophar failed to see
(3) that God can forget all a sinner"s trespass, and exact from him nothing of what he deserves.
Learn:
1. That all the opinions of a good man are not necessarily correct.
2. That it is sometimes harder to be just to one"s fellow-men than it is to be fair to God.
3. That man"s ideas of God and truth may be arraigned without incurring the charge of infidelity.
4. That men often behold sins in others which they cannot, though they should, see in themselves.
5. That good teaching should not be rejected, even though rudely proffered.
6. That even vulgar dogmatists may sometimes utter lofty truths.
7. That God is more merciful than even the best of men think.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-20. "Humble yourselves beneath the mighty hand of God.
Zophar, the youngest of the friends, now comes forward once more to beat down the complaint of Job with the old arguments and commonplaces. To support his words, he does not appeal to a vision like Eliphaz, nor rely on the wisdom of the ancients like Bildad, but depends on his own understanding and zealous though narrow instinct for God. His whole speech is an example of the beauty and, at the same time, the defect of religious zeal. In anxiety for God"s honour he forgets to be considerate of his fellow-man. The general contents of the speech may be characterized as the rebuke of human ignorance.
I INDIGNANT DENUNCIATION OF HUMAN COMPLIANT. (Vers. 1-4) He terms Job"s outpourings a "torrent of words," "vain talk," and impious "mockery," a scoffing; and Job himself is an idle "prater." Further, he stoutly sums up all Job"s speeches as meaning shortly this: "My teaching is pure, and I am guiltless in God"s eyes." Job, in fact, has stepped quite out of his place, in Zophar"s opinion, laying down principles and doctrines instead of meekly and penitently suffering in silence. It is an unjust view, manifestly; and we should be warned against the danger, in pleading for God, of being unjust and unfair, hard and uncharitable, to our fellow-man. To fetter the tongue, to attempt to lay fetters on the free course of the mind, especially in its moment of sorrow, may be to inflict a cruel injury on a sensitive heart.
II WISH FOR GOD"S APPEARANCE. (Vers. 5, 6) He desires that God in the fulness of his revelation, in the complete disclosure of knowledge and truth, may convince Job how "doubly strong" is Wisdom in her nature and penetrating power (ver. 6). Here would Job learn that, so far from being unjustly punished, God has rather passed by much of his guilt, and punishes him far less than he deserves. Here two defects are contrasted.
1. Half-knowledge of God. This according, to Zophar, is Job"s condition. He has but a partial understanding of God; and the little that he sees he misapplies, and so is led into perplexity and passion. Zophar, assuming guilt in Job, deems, and wrongly, that Job is tempted to think only of his innocence, and to overlook his great and hidden sins. In the end (ch. 38), when God does manifest himself, Job does recognize that he is but a half-knower, but not that he is a hypocrite.
2. But there is, on the other hand, the assumption of knowledge on the part of the rebuking speaker which is not less a fault. This is, indeed, the error of all the friends, and it awaits the Divine answer. In seeking to remove the mote from Job"s eye, they are unconscious of the beam in their own. These differences may be reconciled if we bear in mind the great saying of St. Paul, that we see but in part, and know but in part, and that all perplexities are solved by an absolute faith in the Divine love. We see again and again illustrated in Divine things the truth that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
III CHALLENGE TO HUMAN IGNORANCE: THE UNSEARCHABLENESS OF GOD. (Vers. 7-9) All measures of vastness, all ideas of infinity, are called in to impress this thought. The might and the wisdom of God are high as the unscalable heaven, deep as the dark lower world. (comp. Job_22:12 Job_26:6) The infinity of God embraces the whole earth, and reaches beyond; it is longer than the firm land, broader than the broad sea, so that before it there is nothing too lofty, too obscure, too remote. It is the fixed thought-embrace of the universe. Will mortal man, then, be guilty of the folly of quarrelling with God"s wisdom and power, and so incur the full weight of his judgment? Rather let him be dumb, and open not his mouth, and say, "Thou hast done it.
a. HUMAN IGNORANCE CONVICTED AND ABASHED BEFORE THE DIVINE JUDGMENT. (Vers. 10-12) If God holds judgment with this supreme wisdom and power, then plainly man, be he never so stupid and obstinately ignorant of his guilt, must forthwith become conscious of it; and though he were furious and wild as a wild ass, (comp. Job_39:5, Job_39:8) he must be subdued by that omnipotent power into tameness and docility. "The wild ass is now born as a man," converted by the terror of that moment of judgment. So speaks Zophar with caustic rebuke of what he considers the contumacy of Job. He seems to turn the language of Job, Job_9:11, et seq"to his own purpose. Thus the arrival of the Judge to execute judgment is in the rush of a rapid storm (ver. 10). He "passes bye" and thereupon follows the "shutting-up" or arrest of the accused, that he may not escape during the judgment; and then the "gathering together" of the people to hear the judgment.
b. WORDS OF HOPE AND PROMISE. (Vers. 13-20) Severe as are the speeches of the three friends, they yet have a clear apprehension of the eternal gospel of God"s mercy, and insist on the unfailing hope set before the true penitent in that gospel
1. Conditions.
a. (Ver. 13) The "direction," or "preparation," or setting straight, of the heart. This is the first thing. Crooked feelings, perverted principles, must be rectified. There must be sincere penitence. Happiness does not begin with the outward life to pass into the inward; the process is the reverse. And the restoration must be in the same order. If the inward life be purified, the outward will flow into peace.
b. Along with this there must be the "spreading forth of the hands to God;" in other words, true prayer. The symbol is put for the thing signified, the rite for the reality. Very significant and beautiful was the Hebrew attitude of prayer. It expressed longing, urgency, the effort of the soul to seize and hold fast the unseen power and grace in time of need.
c. (Ver. 14) There must be the removal of all previous iniquity from the home as well as the heart. Every vestige and association of it must be swept away all that might remind the soul of forbidden pleasures, and tempt it into renewal of its sin. It might be well for a man in the endeavour to make his repentance thorough and sincere, and might help his mind to form new associations, to renew the face of his dwelling from top to bottom, and cast out all articles of furniture, pictures, utensils, etc., that might bring up the thought of former evil. For some minds it would at least be a wholesome discipline. At all events, let nothing be left undone to cleanse the heart, the imagination, the inward chambers of the soul, in preparation for the coming of the gracious renewing, consecrating presence of the Divine Guest.
2. The consequences of return to God.
(1) Courage (ver. 15), fresh, calm, and strong. Referring to Job"s complaint (Job_10:15) that he is compelled to bow his head in ignominy before the unworthy, his friend declares that he will be enabled to lift it up in the face of day. How serene the face, how clear the glance, how assured the step of the man who has no coward secret of ill in his heart, who by confession and repentance has made the mighty God his Friend!
(2) Oblivion of sorrow. (Ver. 16) Is memory on the whole a greater blessing or torment? Alas! Job has lately found it to be the latter. The "remembering happier things" has proved his "crown of sorrow." Like a returning tide, it has cast his wrecked treasures at his feet. But on the turning of his heart to God these bitter memories shall be carried away, as on a flowing stream, till they pass out of sight and disappear. Thank God that we can remember; but thank God, too, that we can forget!
(3) A season of brightness. (Ver. 17) Even if the darkness come, it will be comparatively light like the morning-exactly opposite to Job_10:22. For there is no darkness to him who has God as the Guest of his soul.
(4) Rest unbroken by danger (vers. 18, 19); cheerful hope in toil; the respect and homage of friends and suitors. For there is something magnetic in piety and goodness; it seems a kind of amber which attracts to itself. Such will be, ever are, the fruits of a heart free from guile, and at peace with God. Zophar"s enthusiastic picture is fitted to kindle a love of virtue and piety; but its exclusion of the facts and relations of life renders it but partially true, like the maxims of his two friends. We must be content to feel that there is a truth, and a very deep and Divine truth, in this sequence, without denying that there are complications of this truth with others, as in the case of Job, which God and eternity can alone unravel.
VI DARK PICTURE, IN CONTRAST, OF THE WICKED. (Ver. 20)
1. The languor of vain longing. Their eyes waste and consume with watching and tears for a dawn that never comes. (comp. Psa_6:7)
2. Escape from the prima of their woe is denied.
3. Hope and life are together extinguished. J.
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN Vers. 1-6. Self-complacency condemned.
Even the lowly and humble are liable to over-estimate their own goodness, and the more so if roused to self-justification. All imperfect human judgments, given as Job"s were, under the influence of deep feeling, are liable to be coloured, to be overdrawn and extravagant. Job"s long speech in his own justification is likened by Zophar to a torrent. Zophar, like his companions, may judge Job harshly, wherein lies his error and theirs; but his words have a vein of truth in them. He is right in condemning the self-complacent, who can prate freely of his own goodness, whether he is judging Job rightly or wrongly.
I SELF-COMPLACENCY APT TO BURY ITSELF IN A MULTITUDE OF WORDS. It would almost seem that the mere abundance of Job"s answers to all the accusations raised against him excites his friend"s retort. Yet how true is it that the self-complacent one, willing to justify himself, finds arguments in abundance! And, being on his defence, he is liable to view things with a prejudiced eye. The man "fall of talk" is in danger of burying truth in "the multitude of words." The greater need for guarding against the perils of exaggeration by how much many words are used. A strict watch necessary when the tongue runneth over.
II SELF-COMPLACENCY SHOWN ESPECIALLY IN SELFJUSTIFICATION. This the point of Zophar"s accusation. This the constant danger. A man at peace with himself, rightly or wrongly believing in his own innocence, is most liable to justify himself. The lowly self-accused spirit is freed from this especial danger. Self-justification shows the standard by which life is judged to be a low one. As men rise in goodness, and so in their clearer discernment of the true nature of righteousness, they are bowed down in self-abasement. The self-justified has but a poor and very imperfect standard of right before his eyes. "Shall no man make thee ashamed?" Therefore
III SELF-COMPLACENCY HIDES THE JUDGMENT OF GOD FROM THE EYES. The man comes up to his standard. He is open to no more teaching. His "doctrine is pure;" he is "clean at least, in his own "eyes." Such a man in danger of perverting judgment. To close the eyes to the Divine judgment upon the life, even though that judgment be severe, is to do irreparable harm to the character. Let the true light shine, though it reveal faults of the gravest kind and bring down the pride of men to the very earth. Zophar may not intend to accuse Job of intentional lying, but he does accuse him of error. Men must err in their judgments if the standards by which they judge are false. The eye blinded by self-complacency cannot see that which, if clearly seen, would condemn.
IV SELF-COMPLACENCY REBUKED BY AN ACCURATE VIEW OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS. To this Job was ultimately brought. We see him in the process in the way. If God "speak," if he "open his lips," his words are sure to condemn. If he shows "the secrets of wisdom," then would appear his gracious forbearance, and, even in the case of the heavily afflicted, it would be revealed that he "exacteth less than iniquity deserveth." One day the clear light will shine, and not Job only, but every perplexed and suffering son of Adam, will see that the Lord is gracious and merciful, that he does not render to man the whole fruit of his evil doings. He remembers the frailty and error of men"s judgments, and is patient and forgiving. R.G.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY Ver. 1. Zophar, the man of the world.
After the seer and the pedant comes Zophar, who poses as the man of the world. He can pretend to no supernatural illumination, neither has he any claims to put forth on the score of learning; but he thinks he knows men, he prides himself on his common sense, the ways of the world are familiar to him. Even from his low standpoint he thinks he can detect enough to condemn Job. We may see in Zophar the characteristics of a man of the world in his treatment of moral and religious questions, when he presents himself as a devout man and friendly adviser.
I HE IS ORTHODOX Zophar entirely agrees with the main position of Eliphaz and Bildad. He accepts the doctrines of the visionary when they have been endorsed by conventional society, and he echoes the traditions of antiquity after he has ascertained that they are not regarded as obsolete in his time. He has not the spiritual individuality to be singular. He will always side with the majority. The fear of Mrs. Grundy is ever before his eyes. It is bad form to be a heretic. Conventionality is orthodoxy with this man, and conventionality is the rule of his life.
II HE IS A MAN OF THE TIMES. He would rather despise the dreams of the visionary and the sayings of the pedant. He thinks himself a modern man. But he is no power in his day, for he is but the creature of his age. It is the duty of Christians not to follow the age, but to rule it. When the worldly Christian follows it, he enslaves himself, and does his best to subject the kingdom of heaven to the prince of this world. We ought to understand our times, sympathize with their need, use their advantages, work for their progress, but never be their creatures and drudges.
III HE IS BLIND TO THE GREATEST TRUTH. The whole spiritual world is a nonentity to this man. Being religious and orthodox, he talks the language of Divine things; but his words are meaningless counters. The reality of those things is quite beyond his grasp. He thinks he knows men, but he only sees one side of the world. A whole hemisphere of human experience is turned away from his gaze. He is like a person on this world looking at the moon, seeing one side in varying phases, but never able to catch a glimpse of the other side of it. The truly spiritual, the generous, the mystical, are all obscure to him. We cannot know the best truth till we are liberated from the shackles of conventionality.
IV HE IS CENSORIOUS. Zophar joins his two friends in their condemnation of Job. The man of the world thinks himself broad-minded. Very often he is not over-scrupulous on moral questions that touch his own interest. But no one can be harder in condemning those who transgress the customs of the circle in which he moves. His religion has no softening, sweetening influence on him. It only seems to make him sour and disagreeable. So-called Christians of this stamp are the greatest possible hindrances to the progress of the gospel. It is their conduct that makes so many people hate the Christian religion. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn v1Then answered Zophar the Naamathite.
Job_11:1-6
Then answered Zophar the Naamathite.
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The attitude of Jobs friends
In this chapter Zophar gives his first speech, and it is sharper toned than those which went before. The three friends have now all spoken. Your sympathies perhaps are not wholly on their side. Yet do not let us misjudge them, or assail them with the invectives which Christian writers hurled against them for centuries. Do not say, as has been said by the great Gregory, that these three men are types of Gods worst enemies, or that they scarcely speak a word of good, except what they have learned from Job. Is it not rather true that their words, taken by themselves, are far more devout, far more fit for the lips of pious, we may even say, of Christian men, than those of Job? Do they not represent that large number of good and God-fearing men and women, who do not feel moved or disturbed by the perplexities of life; and who resent as shallow, or as mischievous, the doubts to which those perplexities give rise in the minds of others, of the much afflicted, or the perplexed, or of persons reared in another school than their own, or touched by influences which have never reached themselves? So Jobs friends try in their own way to justify the ways of God to man--a noble endeavour, and in doing this, they have already said much which is not only true, but also most valuable. They have pleaded on their behalf the teaching, if I may so speak, of their Church, the teaching handed down from antiquity, and the experiences of Gods people. They have a firm belief, not only in Gods power, but in His unerring righteousness. They hold also the precious truth that He is a God who will forgive the sinner, and take back to His favour him who bears rightly the teaching of affliction. Surely, so far, a very grand and simple creed. We shall watch their language narrowly, and we shall still find in it much to admire, much with which to sympathise, much to treasure and use as a storehouse of Christian thought. We shall see also where and how it is that they misapplied the most precious of truths, and the most edifying of doctrines; turned wholesome food to poison; pressed upon their friend half truths, which are sometimes the worst of untruths. We shall note also no less that want of true sympathy, of the faculty of entering into the feelings of men unlike themselves, and of the power of facing new views or new truths, which has so often in the history of the Church marred the character and impaired the usefulness of some of Gods truest servants. We shall see them, lastly, in the true spirit of the controversialist, grow more and more embittered by the persistency in error, as they hold it, of him who opposes them. The true subject of this sacred drama is unveiling itself before our eyes. Has he who serves God a right to claim exemption from pain and suffering? Is such pain a mark of Gods displeasure, or may it be something exceedingly different? Must Gods children in their hour of trial have their thoughts turned to the judgment that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah, or shall they fix them on the agony and bloody sweat of Him whose coming in the flesh we so soon commemorate? (Dean Bradley.)
Questionable reproving and necessary teaching
I. Questionable reproof. Reproof is often an urgent duty. It is the hardest act of friendship, for whilst there are but few men who do not at times merit reprehension, there are fewer still who will graciously receive, or even patiently endure a reproving word, and Considering, as John Foster has it, how many difficulties a friend has to surmount before he can bring, himself to reprove me, I ought to be much obliged to him for his chiding words. The reproof which Zophar, in the first four verses, addressed to Job suggests two remarks.
1. The charges he brings against Job, if true, justly deserve reproof. What does he charge him with?
(1) Loquacity. Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should not a man full of talk be justified? As the tree with the most luxuriant leafage is generally least fruitful, so the man full of talk is, as a rule, most empty. It is ever true that in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin, and every man should be swift to hear and slow to speak. He charges him
(2) With falsehood. Should thy lies make men hold their peace? For lies, in the margin we have devices. Zophar means to say that much of what Job said was not according to truth, not fact, but the ungrounded inventions or fancies of his own mind. He charges him
(3) With irreverence. And when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?
(4) With hypocrisy. But thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in mine eyes.
2. The charges, if true, could not justify the spirit and style of the reproof. Considering the high character and the trying circumstances of Job, and the professions of Zophar as his friend, there is a heartlessness and an insolence in his reproof most reprehensible and revolting. There is no real religion in rudeness; there is no Divine inspiration in insolence. Reproof, to be of any worth, should not merely be deserved, but should be given in a right spirit, a spirit of meekness, tenderness, and love. Reprehension is not an act of butchery, but an act of surgery, says Seeker. There are those who confound bluntness with honesty, insolence with straightforwardness. The true reprover is of a different metal, and his words fall, not like the rushing hailstorm, but like the gentle dew.
II. Necessary teaching. These words suggest that kind of teaching which is essential to the well-being of every man.
1. It is intercourse with the mind of God. Oh that God would speak, and open His lips against thee. The great need of the soul is direct communication with God. All teachers are utterly worthless unless they bring God in contact with the soul of the student. If this globe is to be warmed into life the sun must do it.
2. It is instruction in the wisdom of God. And that He would show thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Gods wisdom is profound; it has its secrets. Gods wisdom is double, it is many folded; fold within fold, without end.
3. It is faith in the forbearing love of God. Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth. (Homilist.)
Multitudinous words
I have always a suspicion of sonorous sentences. The full shell sounds little, but shows by that little what is within. A bladder swells out more with wind than with oil. (J. Landor.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible1887 · Public DomainOn v1Job 11
XI.
A FRESH ATTEMPT TO CONVICT
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Job 11
ZOPHAR SPEAKS
THE 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 thou mayest mock on, none putting thee to shame?"
True it was, Job had used vehement speech. Yet it is a most insulting suggestion that he meant little but irreligious bluster. The special note of Zophar comes out in his rebuke of Job for the mockery, that is, sceptical talk, in which he had indulged. Persons who merely rehearse opinions are usually the most dogmatic and take most upon them. Nobody reckons himself more able to detect error in doctrine, nobody denounces rationalism and infidelity with greater confidence, than the man whose creed is formal, who never applied his mind directly to the problems of faith, and has but a moderate amount of mind to apply. Zophar, indeed, is a man of considerable intelligence; but he betrays himself. To him Jobs words have been wearisome. He may have tried to understand the matter, but he has caught only a general impression that, in the face of what appears to him clearest evidence, Job denies being any way amenable to justice. He had dared to say to God, "Thou knowest that I am not wicked." What? God can afflict a man whom He knows to be righteous! It is a doctrine as profane as it is novel. Eliphaz and Bildad supposed that they had to deal with a man unwilling to humble himself in the way of acknowledging sins hitherto concealed. By pressure of one kind or another they hoped to get Job to realise his secret transgression. But Zophar has noted the whole tendency of his argument to be heretical. "Thou sayest, My doctrine is pure." And what is that doctrine? Why, that thou wast clean in the eyes of God, that God has smitten thee without cause. Dost thou mean, O Job! to accuse the Most High of acting in that manner? Oh that God would speak and open His lips against thee! Thou hast expressed a desire to state thy case to Him. The result would be very different from thy expectation.
Now, beneath any mistaken view held by sincere persons there is almost always a sort of foundation of truth; and they have at least as much logic as satisfies themselves. Jobs friends are religious men; they do not consciously build on lies. One and all they are convinced that God is invariable in His treatment of men, never afflicting the innocent, always dealing out judgment in the precise measure of a mans sin. That belief is the basis of their creed. They could not worship a God less than absolutely just. Beginning the religious life with this faith they have clung to it all along. After thirty or forty years experience they are still confident that their principle explains the prosperity and affliction, the circumstances of all human beings. But have they never seen anything that did not harmonise with this view of providence? Have they not seen the good die in youth, and those whose hearts are dry as summer dust burn to their sockets? Have they not seen vile schemes prosper, and the schemers enjoy their ill-gotten power for years? It is strange the old faith has not been shaken at least. But no! They come to the case of Job as firmly convinced as ever that the Ruler of the world shows His justice by dispensing joy and suffering in proportion to mens good and evil deeds, that whenever trouble falls on any one some sin must have been committed which deserved precisely this kind and quantity of suffering.
Trying to get at the source of the belief we must confess ourselves partly at a loss. One writer suggests that there may have been in the earlier and simpler conditions of society a closer correspondence between wrong doing and suffering than is to be seen nowadays. There may be something in this. But life is not governed differently at different epochs, and the theory is hardly proved by what we know of the ancient world. No doubt in the history of the Hebrews, which lies behind the faith attributed to the friends of Job, a connection may be traced between their wrong doing as a nation and their suffering as a nation. When they fell away from faith in God their obedience languished, their vigour failed, the end of their existence being lost sight of, and so they became the prey of enemies. But this did not apply to individuals. The good suffered along with the careless and wicked in seasons of national calamity. And the history of the people of Israel would support such a view of the Divine government so long only as national transgression and its punishment were alone taken into account. Now, however, the distinction between the nation and the individual has clearly emerged. The sin of a community can no longer explain satisfactorily the sufferings of a member of the community, faithful among the unbelieving.
But the theory seems to have been made out rather by the following course of argument. Always in the administration of law and the exercise of paternal authority, transgression has been visited with pain and deprivation of privilege. The father whose son has disobeyed him inflicts pain, and, if he is a judicious father, makes the pain proportionate to the offence. The ruler, through his judges and officers, punishes transgression according to some orderly code. Malefactors are deprived of liberty; they are fined or scourged, or, in the last resort, executed. Now, having in this way built up a system of law which inflicts punishment with more or less justice in proportion to the offence imputed, men take for granted that what they do imperfectly is done perfectly by God. They take for granted that the calamities and troubles He appoints are ordained according to the same principle, with precisely the same design, as penalty is inflicted by a father, a chief, or a king. The reasoning is contradicted in many ways, but they disregard the difficulties. If this is not the truth, what other explanation is to be found? The desire for happiness is keen; pain seems the worst of evils: and they fail to see that endurance can be the means of good. Feeling themselves bound to maintain the perfect righteousness of God they affirm the only theory of suffering that seems to agree with it.
Now, Zophar, like the others full of this theory, admits that Job may have failed to see his transgression. But in that case the sufferer is unable to distinguish right from wrong. Indeed, his whole contention seems to Zophar to show ignorance. If God were to speak and reveal the secrets of His holy wisdom, twice as deep, twice as penetrating as Job supposes, the sins he has denied would be brought home to him. He would know that God requires less of him than his iniquity deserves. Zophar hints, what is very true, that our judgment of our own conduct is imperfect. How can we trace the real nature of our actions, or know how they look to the sublime wisdom of the Most High? Job appears to have forgotten all this. He refuses to allow fault in himself. But God knows better.
Here is a cunning argument to fortify the general position. It could always be said of a case which presented difficulties that, while the sufferer seemed innocent, yet the wisdom of God, "twofold in understanding" (Job_11:6) as compared with that of man, perceived guilt and ordained the punishment. But the argument proved too much, for Zophars own health and comfort contradicted his dogma. He took for granted that the twofold wisdom of the Almighty found nothing wrong in him. It was a naive piece of forgetfulness. Could he assert that his life had no flaw? Hardly. But then, why is he in honour? How had he been able to come riding on his camel, attended by his servants, to sit in judgment on Job? Plainly, on an argument like his, no man could ever be in comfort or pleasure, for human nature is always defective, always in more or less of sin. Repentance never overtakes the future. Therefore God who deals with man on a broad basis could never treat him save as a sinner, to be kept in pain and deprivation. If suffering is the penalty of sin we ought all, notwithstanding the atonement of Christ, to be suffering the pain of the hour for the defect of the hour, since "all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." At this rate mans life-again despite the atonement-would be continued trial and sentence. From all which it is evident that the world is governed on another plan than that which satisfied Jobs friends.
Zophar rises to eloquence in declaring the unsearchableness of Divine wisdom.
"Canst thou find the depths of Eloah?
Canst thou reach to the end of Shaddai?
Heights of heaven!
What canst thou do?
Deeper than Sheol!
What canst thou know?
The measure thereof is longer than the earth,
Broader is it than the sea."
Here is fine poetry; but with an attempt at theology the speaker goes astray, for he conceives God as doing what he himself wishes to do, namely, prove Job a sinner. The Divine greatness is invoked that a narrow scheme of thought may be justified. If God pass by, if He arrest, if He hold assize, who can hinder Him? Supreme wisdom and infinite power admit no questioning, no resistance. God knoweth vain or wicked men at a glance. One look and all is plain to him. Empty man will be wise in these matters "when a wild asss colt is born a man."
Turning from this, as if in recollection that he has to treat Job with friendliness, Zophar closes like the other two with a promise. If Job will put away sin, his life shall be established again, his misery forgotten or remembered as a torrent of spring when the heat of summer comes.
Thou shalt forget thy misery;
Remember it as waters that have passed by;
And thy life shall rise brighter than noonday;
And if darkness fall, it shall be as the morning.
Thou shalt then have confidence because there is hope;
Yea, look around and take rest in safety,
Also lie down and none shall affray thee,
And many shall make suit unto thee.
But the eyes of the wicked fail;
For them no way of escape.
And their hope is to breathe out the spirit.
Rhetoric and logic are used in promises given freely by all the speakers. But not one of them has any comfort for his friend while the affliction lasts. The author does not allow one of them to say, God is thy friend, God is thy portion now; He still cares for thee. In some of the psalms a higher note is heard: "There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased." The friends of Job are full of pious intentions, yet they state a most unspiritual creed, the foundation of it laid in corn and wine. Peace of conscience and quiet confidence in God are not what they go by. Hence the sufferer finds no support in them or their promises. They will not help him to live one day, nor sustain him in dying. For it is the light of Gods countenance he desires to see. He is only mocked and exasperated by their arguments; and in the course of his own eager thought the revelation comes like a star of hope rising on the midnight of his soul.
Though Zophar fails like the other two, he is not to be called a mere echo. It is incorrect to say that, while Eliphaz is a kind of prophet and Bildad a sage, Zophar is a commonplace man without ideas. On the contrary, he is a thinker, something of a philosopher, although, of course, greatly restricted by his narrow creed. He is stringent, bitter indeed. But he has the merit of seeing a certain force in Jobs contention which he does not fairly meet. It is a fresh suggestion that the answer must lie in the depth of that penetrating wisdom of the Most High, compared to which mans wisdom is vain. Then, his description of the return of blessedness and prosperity, when one examines it, is found distinctly in advance of Eliphazs picture in moral colouring and gravity of treatment. We must not fail to notice, moreover, that Zophar speaks of the omniscience of God more.than of His omnipotence; and the closing verse describes the end of the wicked not as the result of a supernatural stroke or a sudden calamity, but as a process of natural and spiritual decay.
The closing words of Zophars speech point to the finality of death, and bear the meaning that if Job were to die now of his disease the whole question of his character would be closed. It is important to note this, because it enters into Jobs mind and affects his expressions of desire. Never again does he cry for release as before. If he names death it is as a sorrowful fate he must meet or a power he will defy. He advances to one point after another of reasserted energy, to the resolution that, whatever death may do, either in the underworld or beyond it, he will wait for vindication or assert his right.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v1Zophar follows in the same train with his companions.…
FIRST SPEECH OF ZOPHAR
Zophar follows in the same train with his companions. Misled by the same false principle—great sufferings prove great sins—he acts the part, not of a comforter, but of a reprover and an exhorter.
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I. His reason for speaking (Job_11:2-4).
“Should not the multitude of words be answered?” &c. His reason involves Job’s censure. Bitterly reproves him—
(1) As a mere talker (Job_11:2). “Should a man full of talk be justified?”
(2) As a vain and lying boaster (Job_11:3). “Should thy lies make men hold their peace?”
(3) As a proud despiser of others; “When thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?”
(4) As a self-righteous pretender to perfection, both in his principle and his practice (Job_11:4). “For thou hast said, my doctrine (speech, teaching, principles) is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes.” Observe—
(1) Even good men can speak and act towards others like the carnal and unconverted.
(2) Religious professors very often misunderstand and misjudge God’s tried people.
(3) Believers’ greatest trials sometimes from their own brethren in the faith. Christ a merciful as well as faithful High Priest, touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Heb_2:17-18; Heb_4:15).
II. Zophar desiderates Divine teaching for Job’s conviction (Job_11:5).
“But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee!” God speaks with a strong hand (Isa_8:11). “None teacheth like Him.” Such teaching needed alike by saint and sinner. Necessary—
(1) for conviction;
(2) for consolation. Divine teaching imparts—
(1) the knowledge of ourselves;
(2) the knowledge of God. God opens his lips—
(1) “against” the sinner, for his conviction;
(2) for him, for his consolation. “Spake in time past to the fathers in divers manners.” Speaks now—
(1) In His Word;
(2) By His Spirit. The Spirit’s office to convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (Joh_16:8). The Word of God sharper than any two-edged sword—a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Its office to pierce, to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, joints and marrow (Heb_4:12).—Two things desired as the result of Divine teaching in Job’s case; both important for shutting the mouths of complainers against God:—
1. The discovery of God’s transcendent and unsearchable wisdom (Job_11:6). “That he would shew thee the secrets (hidden depths) of wisdom, that they are double to that which is” (or, “for they are manifold,” or “there are doublings,”—complications or intricacies—“in his understanding”).—All complaints against the Divine procedure and our own lot proceed from ignorance of God’s designs. “What I do thou knowest not now.” God’s judgments a great deep. His way in the sea. “Depth of riches,” both in “the wisdom and knowledge of God.” His ways past finding out, yet all just and true. God not to be traced but trusted. “Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,” &c.
2. The discovery of Job’s own sinfulness as much greater than his sufferings. “Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth” (or “consigns to oblivion in thy favour,” or “remits to thee [a part] of thy iniquity,” or “punishment”). True, even in Job’s case, on the supposition that his sufferings were the punishment of his sins. Any affliction in this life only a part of what all sin deserves. The rich man in torments probably no worse than his neighbours (Luk_16:19-23). His sin not even mentioned by the Saviour. Probably only worldliness and self-indulgence, with its natural consequence, heedlessness of the wants and woes of others. His belly and the world his God. To offend in one point of God’s law makes a man guilty of all. Sin, knowingly committed, nothing less than rebellion against God; causeless anger and hatred against another, equivalent in God’s sight to murder. Equally subjects a man to the penalty of hell-fire (Mat_5:22; 1Jn_3:15). Covetousness a species of idolatry (Eph_5:5; Col_3:5). Earth a place of mercy and forbearance. The full punishment of sin reserved for another state.
III. Zophar chides Job’s presumption, and enlarges on the unsearchableness of the Almighty (Job_11:7-9).
“Canst thou by searching find out God” (or, “wilt thou find out the search,” or “deep wisdom” of God?) Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection (or “wilt thou find out perfectly,” or “penetrate to the perfection of the Almighty?”) It is as high as heaven (margin, “the heights of heaven”); what canst thou do [in attaining to it, viz., the deep wisdom or perfection of the Almighty]; deeper than hell (Sheol, or Hades, the invisible spirit-world, supposed to be in the lower parts of the earth), what canst thou know? (or how wilt thou understand it?) The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.” Poetical description of the Divine wisdom and knowledge, and in general of
The Unsearchableness of God
God unsearchable to finite creatures—
1. In His Person. His Nature or Essence beyond creature ken. As easy for an insect to comprehend man’s nature as for man to comprehend his Creator’s. The more the Grecian sage studied the question, what is God? the more he felt himself lost in it. Hence the altar of Athens with the inscription: To the Unknown God. In God is both “that which may be known,” and which may not be known (Rom_1:19). That He is, and what He is, may be known; how He is, and how far He is, is beyond a creature’s capacity to know. God capable of being apprehended, but not of being comprehended. A little child may apprehend God; a seraph cannot comprehend Him. God is incomprehensible in His mode of being as the One God; still more as the Three in One. To know that God is and what He is, necessary for an intelligent creature’s happiness: to know how He is, were it possible, could only gratify his curiosity. God only known as He is pleased to reveal Himself. Reveals Himself—
(1) In His works;
(2) In the human consciousness;
(3) In His word;
(4) Most of all in His Son Jesus Christ. Christ the image of the invisible God; He that hath seen Him hath seen the Father (Col_1:15; Joh_14:9). The incarnation, life, and death of Jesus Christ,—the final, full and authentic exhibition of the Divine character and perfections. Eternal life, to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent (Joh_17:3).
2. His Perfections. God’s Perfections or Attributes are—
(1) Natural or essential, as His Omniscience and Omnipotence;
(2) Moral, as His justice and goodness. God unsearchable in both kinds. The universe a theatre for the display of His perfections. A God everywhere present, and everywhere working,—sustaining the vibrations of an animalcule and the revolutions of a planet; watching over a sparrow, and giving orders to an archangel; and doing all in infinite wisdom, and justice, and goodness,—may well be unsearchable.
3. In His Purposes. The history of the world and of the universe, as well as of each individual, the evolution of these purposes (Act_15:18; Act_2:23). His purposes unsearchable (Rom_11:33; Psa_92:5). “Deep in unfathomable mines,” &c.
4. In His Performances. God unsearchable in His works of creation. Examples: The contents of a drop of stagnant water, as examined with a microscope; the starry heavens, as seen through Lord Rosse’s telescope. Modern astronomy gives a meaning to the “heights of heaven” undreamt of in the days of Zophar. Geology, on the other hand, reveals displays of Divine power and wisdom in extinct worlds or creations far beneath our feet.
5. In His Procedure. God’s dealings in providence both in regard to angels and men, the human race and the individuals composing it, unsearchable. Evil permitted in His own universe. The incarnation and death of His own Son an atonement for it. Man the object of that merciful provision; sinning angels excluded from its benefit.
Lessons from the unsearchableness of God:—
1. Modesty and humility in judging of God’s person or perfections, His works or His ways.
2. Submission to His will, and acquiescence in His providence.
3. Implicit trust in His wisdom and goodness.
4. Reverential, loving, and admiring adoration. The result of the contemplation of God’s works and ways in the apostle (Rom_11:33-36), and in the glorified in heaven (Rev_15:3-4).
IV. Adduces God’s resistless power and all-seeing eye as arguments to move Job to repentance (Job_11:10-12).
1. His Almighty power (Job_11:10). “If He cut off” (margin, “make a change,” as He has done in Job and his family; or, “if He seize” as a criminal, as He has done in Job’s case), and shut up (as in prison; or, “deliver over,” i.e., to an officer for trial), or gather together (an assembly or court to try the criminal)—who can hinder him? (margin, “turn him away.”) Awful picture of a sinner arrested by Divine justice. A sinner in the hands of an angry God! Escape or rescue equally impossible. The only hope of safety for a sinner lies in submission. Same sentiment uttered by Job himself (ch. Job_9:4; Job_9:12-13). Argument used by God (Psa_50:22); by Jesus (Mat_5:25-26); by the Apostle (Heb_2:3; Heb_10:31).
2. His Omniscience (Job_11:12). “For He knoweth vain men; He seeth wickedness also; will He not then consider it?” Another weighty argument for a sinner’s repentance. To elude God’s eye as impossible as to escape from His hand. “No darkness or shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.” “All things naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Further considerations, however, necessary to bring a sinner to repentance. Felix “trembled,” and said to the preacher: “Go thy way for this time.” Only the apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ able to soften and subdue the sinner’s heart. As addressed to Job, these arguments were—
(1) Inapplicable; Job not the sinner Zophar supposed.
(2) Useless; Job probably more keenly sensible of these truths than Zophar himself. Arguments, in order to move and benefit, need to be not only sound and solemn, but suitable and seasonable.—One important part of a preacher’s duty to consider the character and condition of those whom he addresses.—Zophar’s application of the foregoing arguments (Job_11:12). “For vain man would be wise (or ‘but let a vain, or empty, hollow-headed man become wise’) though man be born as the wild ass’s colt,” (or, “and let the wild ass’s colt be born a man”). The latter part of the verse, as thus read, an Arab proverb. “Wild ass,” used by the Arabs as a term of reproach. Probably the whole a proverbial maxim of the ancients. Apparently an exhortation rather than a statement. Contains truth in reference to man in general.
1. Man left to himself, ever since the fall, is “vain”. Empty of real goodness and sound spiritual understanding. “There is none that understandeth; there is none that doeth good.” Even the sages of antiquity “professing themselves wise became fools” (Rom_1:22).
2. Man is now by nature froward and self-willed “as a wild ass’s colt.” Like that animal, man’s disposition is to be free and uncontrolled. The child, like the man, wishes to be its own master. “Our lips are our own. Who is lord over us?” “Who is the Lord, that I should serve Him?” “Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” Frowardness, self-will, and intractableness, God’s frequent complaints against Israel. “All day long have I stretched out my hand towards a disobedient and gainsaying people.” “The heart of man fully set in them to do evil.” “Madness in men’s hearts while they live.” The constant tendency of man’s fallen nature to break loose from the restraints of Divine authority. Apart from grace, man, after his hardness and impenitent heart, treasures up wrath against the day of wrath (Rom_2:5).
3. A change of character and disposition necessary in order to man’s well-being either here or hereafter. The vain man must become wise. The wild ass’s colt—froward, self-willed, independent—must become a man, thoughtful, submissive, obedient. The second part of Christ’s call in the Gospel: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls” (Mat_11:29).
4. Such a change nothing less than a new birth. The wild ass’s colt must be “born” in order to become a man. A new birth necessary to froward, self-willed, independent man, in order to his entering the kingdom of God, whether on earth or in heaven. The teaching of Jesus (Joh_3:7). The promise (Eze_36:26). The prayer (Psa_51:10). The experience of it (Tit_3:5). The exhortation, as addressed to Job, was—
(1) Inapplicable. Job neither a fool nor, except perhaps in his trouble, especially when worried by his friends, a wild ass’s colt.
(2). Uncharitable, because inappropriate. “Charity thinketh no evil; hopeth all things.”
(3). Rude. No part of wisdom in a preacher or monitor to apply harsh terms and ill names, even indirectly. “Be courteous.” Hearers neither to be flattered on the one hand nor libelled on the other.
(4). Unfeeling. No consideration made of Job’s intense sufferings and accumulated trials. Zophar pours vinegar instead of oil on Job’s wounded spirit. Sympathy in a preacher necessary to success. Want of sympathy argues want of sense.
V. Persuasion to repentance, on the ground of personal advantage (Job_11:13-20).
The whole passage a noble strain of moral Oriental poetry. Perhaps quoted from the ancients by Zophar, from its supposed applicability to Job’s case. Exhibits the views prevalent at the period. The teaching that of the Old Testament or pre-Evangelical platform. Holds forth more especially the promise of earthly comfort and prosperity as the result of repentance and piety. Similar sentiments expressed by Eliphaz (ch. Job_5:8; Job_5:17-26); and by Bildad (ch. Job_8:5-7). Frequent in the Psalms and Proverbs; as Psalms 1, 37, 128; Proverbs 3, 4, ,
8. In order to personal profit, the passage to be read in the light of New Testament truth. The lamp of the New Testament to be carried with us in exploring the dark chambers of the Old. In the New Testament, the promises of future good are mainly connected with the Lord’s second appearing (Act_3:19-21; 1Th_1:9-10; Tit_2:11-13). The posture of New Testament believers that of “strangers and pilgrims on the earth;” the object of their desires and affections, the “things that are above;” their spirit, contentment with “such things as they have” (Heb_13:5; Heb_13:14; 1Pe_2:11; Col_3:1-2; 1Ti_6:8). The passage contains—
1. The terms proposed, or the duty recommended (Job_11:13-14). The condition a true turning to God. Three steps indicated—
(1). A preparation or right disposition of the heart (Job_11:13). “If thou prepare (or set right) thine heart.” Always represented as the first step in seeking God (1Sa_7:3; 2Ch_19:3; 2Ch_30:19; Ezr_7:10; Psa_78:8; Psa_78:37). Implies—(a) Serious consideration; (b) Firm purpose; (c) Suitable frame and disposition; (d) Removal of secret sin. The heart naturally biassed, and needs to be made straight; unstable, and needs to be made steadfast. Sincerity and earnestness essential in seeking God.
(2). Earnest prayer. “If thou stretch forth thine hands towards Him.” A common attitude in Old Testament devotion (Psa_36:9; Psa_143:6; Isa_1:15). Examples: Moses (Exo_9:33); Ezra (Job_9:5); Solomon (1Ki_8:22). Includes—(a) Confession of sin; (b) Supplication for mercy.
(3). Amendment of life (Job_11:14). “If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles” (or tents,—Arab chiefs required more than one for their household;—wickedness—not to be allowed in any of them. Several copies and ancient versions, however, read the word in the singular). Sin to be put away both from our persons and our premises. “Iniquity,”—injustice or wrong doing not to remain in our hand; “wickedness,”—any kind of open sin—not to remain in our house. Zacchæus an example of the first (Luk_19:8); David of the second (Psa_101:7). A man is greatly responsible for what is done in his household. Domestic, as well as personal sins, to be looked after and put away. The commendation of Abraham (Gen_18:19); The neglect of Eli (1Sa_2:12; 1Sa_2:17; 1Sa_3:11; 1Sa_3:14); The resolution of David (Psa_101:2; Psa_101:7). Observe—
(1) A striking gradation in the putting away of sin;—from the heart, from the hand, from the house.
(2) True religion begins with the heart, and ends with the life.
(3) Sin not only to be put away, but “far away.” Present impressions not to be trusted. All occasions and temptations to relapses to be avoided.
2. The promises annexed (Job_11:15-19). The promises suppose pardon and acceptance of the penitent, with his consciousness of it. This promised in the Old as well as in the New Testament, upon sincere confession and repentance, with faith in the Sacrifice (See Psa_32:1; Psa_32:5; Pro_28:13; Isa_1:17; Isa_55:6-7.) The promises here are—
1. A cheerful confidence before God and men (Job_11:15). “Thou shalt lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear.” Sense of pardon gives serenity of aspect. A purged conscience makes an uplifted countenance. “Without spot,”—either of guilt or its consequences. A face unabashed by guilt or shame, unsullied by grief or tears. Spots on the conscience transfer themselves to the countenance. Spots of guilt removed by the sprinkled blood; spots of grief by the consciousness of it. Conscious guilt makes the countenance to fall; sense of pardon and acceptance lifts it up (Gen_4:5-6; Luk_18:13; 1Jn_3:21.) The face sooner and better lifted up by pardon than by prosperity.
2. Deliverance from present suffering (Job_11:16). “Thou shalt forget thy misery and remember it as waters that pass (or, have passed) away.” Inward, if not outward misery, removed by sense of pardoning mercy (Psa_32:1; Psa_32:5; Psa_51:8-14). Inward suffering sooner or later the fruit of sin. The remembrance of previous sorrow swallowed up by present joy. Trouble forgotten through long continued triumph. Remembrance of grief often only an enhancement of joy. No trace left of the winter-torrent that has passed away. “Your joy no man taketh from you.” The desolating flood that has disappeared only remembered with thankful joy. So the pardoned soul has still in remembrance, “the wormwood and the gall.”
3. Abiding peace and joy (Job_11:17). “Thine age shall be clearer than the noonday (or, “a period, or happy age, shall arise to thee, brighter than, &c.”); and thou (or it) shalt shine forth, thou (or it) shalt be as the morning” (or, “now thou art in darkness, but then thou shalt be as the morning”). Light out of darkness, the experience of a penitent and pardoned soul (Hos_6:3). The light and joy of acceptance like “the noonday” for brightness; like “the morning” for increase. “The path of the just,” the justified and sanctified in Christ, a light increasing in brightness “unto the perfect day” (Pro_4:18). The believer’s joy not diminished by manifold trials (1Pe_1:6). Like oil poured on water, comes always to the surface. At times unspeakable and full of glory (1Pe_1:8).
4. Safety and security (Job_11:18-19). “Thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt aig about thee (making preparation, according to patriarchal custom, for a new abode; or, ‘now thou art ashamed but then, &c.’), and thou shalt take thy rest in safety; also, thou shalt lie down (as a shepherd with his flock), and none shall make thee afraid.” Hope in God’s mercy through Christ, the only foundation of real security. Divine protection one of the sweetest of new covenant blessings. Christ’s sheep safe in His hands and in those of His Father (Joh_10:28; Joh_10:30). “Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” Preservation of the soul an Old as well as New Testament promise (Psa_121:7). Oriental tents and travellers exposed to danger from robbers, wild beasts, and reptiles; believers’ souls exposed to no less peril (Col_2:8; Col_2:18; 1Pe_5:8; 2Co_11:3).
5. Influence among men (Job_11:19). “Many shall make suit to thee.” The mark of a great, if not a good man. “Many entreat the favour of the prince” (Pro_19:6). The same promised to the Church or Bride of Christ (Psa_45:12). So Abimelech made suit to Abraham, entreating his favour and alliance (Gen_26:26-29. Pardoned people are praying people; and praying people are Israels,—princes that have power both with God and men (Gen_32:28). God’s presence with a believer the ground of true greatness. He that has power with God likely to have influence among men. “We will go with you for we have heard that God is with you (Zec_8:23). Believers are kings and priests to God. Their duty so to walk as to gain respect to their profession. An ill sign with a professor when nobody seeks the favour of his prayers. A believer’s privilege so to carry Christ about with him that men shall feel his influence, as those who sought only to be in Peter’s shadow. The true character of a pardoned and accepted person is to have so much of Christ’s loving spirit as to carry with him a constant benefaction. Made sweet and gracious by God’s favour on them, and His spirit in them, believers carry with them the unconscious influence of a sweet and gracious atmosphere. A pardoned man, walking with Christ and imbibing His spirit, as sure to be perceived as a bag that carries sweet perfume. The privilege and duty of believers to exhale so much of Christ’s loving nature as, like modest and half-hidden violets, to attract others to them by their fragrance. This, as well as the other promises, realised in Job’s after experience, but not in the way imagined by Zophar (ch. Job_42:7-9).
VI. The contrasted case of the ungodly (Job_11:20) Includes—
(1) “Anxiety and disappointment. “The eyes of the wicked shall fail,”—anxiously looking in vain for the possession of good and deliverance from evil. A time when it is too late to knock even at mercy’s door. “They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me (Pro_1:28.
(2) Perplexity and hopelessness. “They shall not escape.” (Heb. “Refuge has perished from them”). Calamity, sooner or later, overtakes the Christless and impenitent, from which escape is impossible. “Because I called and ye refused,—I also will laugh at your calamity” (Pro_1:24-26). “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb_2:3; Heb_10:26-27).
(3) Ruin and despair. “Their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost” (margin, “as a puff of breath”). The hope of the impenitent and Christless proves as vain and unsubstantial as a puff of breath. Their expectation terminates with their life. Having chosen death rather than life, they obtain their choice. “All they that hate me love death.” (Pro_8:36.)
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible1900 · Public DomainOn v1Job 11:7-8
Job 11:7-8
Zophar’s question made Job burn with passion. Over three chapters, in alternate hope and despair, but always with fierce intensity, turning and returning his thoughts, but always reasserting against his woes his unconquerable knowledge of God, his unconquerable trust, Job’s reply spreads itself before us. The question is, Can a man find God?
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I. Look at nature; that is Job’s first cry. "Ask the beasts, and they shall teach thee," etc. Wherever I look I see life. Where does the life come from? Here are Job’s words: "In God’s hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind." Can I by searching find out God? Yes. I look for Him in nature, and I know Him there as intelligence and life.
II. Then Job passes on. Look now at man, he cries; see the changes of the world, the breaking down and raising up of men, wise men turned fools, bonds of kings loosed, the mighty overthrown. Who has done this? Man himself alone? The one clear thing in it all is that man is proved to be the creature of Another’s will. It is He whom I have found in nature, God the Lord.
III. Then Job turns to the personal question, the question pressed upon him by his dull and meddling friends, who in his trouble began to preach to him. He throws himself in a passionate despair of trust on God. I have nothing else to look to, and I will cling to that, no matter if death come. And he does cling to it, mean it.
IV. "Can man by searching find out God?" Yes. There is no need to seek Him in the unreachable heavens, or in the depths of the invisible darkness to look for Him. He is here in the life, and intelligence, and beauty of nature. He is here in the conduct of the world. He is here in the sense I have of my own righteousness before Him. He is here in the sense of an absolute justice, even though that justice punish me. He is here in my undying, unquenchable trust that He is mine and I am His for ever.
S. A. Brooke, The Spirit of the Christian Life, p. 347.
References: Job 11:7.—H. Melvill, Voices of the Year, vol. ii., p. 1. Job 11:7-9.—W. English, Church Sermons, vol. ii., p. 26. Job 11:12.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 314. Job 11:13-15.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 129. Job 11—S. Cox, Expositor, 1st series, vol. v., p. 123; Ibid., Commentary on Job, p. 141. Job 11-17—A. W. Momerie, Defects of Modern Christianity, p. 104.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow1909 · Public DomainOn v1The First Speech of Zophar
The First Speech of Zophar
The speech is short and unsympathetic.
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1-6. Zophar rebukes Job for daring to assert his innocence.
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 deserved.
7-12. God knows Job's sinfulness if he does not himself.
7. RM 'Canst thou find out the deep things of God?'
8. It] God's wisdom.
10. If he cut off, etc.] rather, 'Should he pass by, imprison, arraign before an assembly?' If God, with perfect knowledge of sinful man, visits him in various ways, who shall gainsay His actions?
12. Perhaps we may render, 'Thus vain man gets understanding, and a wild ass's colt is born a man.' The description of affliction brings wisdom to the foolish and transforms the most unpromising natures.
13-20. Repentance the way to restored prosperity.
14. Tabernacles] RV 'tents.'
15. Without spot] of guilt.
16. Waters] rather, 'floods.'
17. Thine age] RV 'thy life.' Thou shalt shine] RV 'Though there be darkness, it shall be as the morning.'
18. Dig] RV 'search,' viz. for danger, but find none.
20. As] RV omits. There is nothing before the wicked but death. The statement is general, but Zophar, unlike the other friends, hints that Job may belong to the wicked.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v1Zophar is a religious dogmatist who assumes to know…
Zophar
Zophar is a religious dogmatist who assumes to know all about God; what God will do in any given case, why He will do it, and all His thoughts about it. Of all forms of dogmatism this is most irreverent, and least open to reason.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein1922 · Public DomainOn v1CHAPTER 11 Zophar’s First Address
CHAPTER 11 Zophar’s First Address
1. Job’s multitude of words rebuked (Job 11:1-6)
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2. The greatness and omniscience of God (Job 11:7-12)
3. That Job repent and receive the Blessings (Job 11:13-20)
Job 11:1-6. The third friend of Job is in every way the weakest. Speaking last he must have been the youngest of the three. He lacks the dignity of Eliphaz and the gentleness of Bildad, nor does he possess the depths of either. Evidently Job’s speech has taxed his patience and irritated him.
Should not thy mass of words be answered?
And a man so full of talk, should he be justified?
Can thy boastings make men hold their peace?
And when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?
For thou sayest ‘My doctrine is pure
And I am clean in His eyes.
But Oh that God might speak
And open His lips against thee.
That He would show thee the secrets of wisdom,
That is manifold in effectual working!
Know therefore that God exacts not more
than thine iniquity deserveth.
One can almost feel the boisterous spirit in which this rebuke must have been delivered.
Job 11:7-12. He now reminds Job of the greatness and omniscience of the God whom he accused. Could he by searching find out God or find out the Almighty unto perfection? “It is high as heaven; what canst thou do? Deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.” But more than that He is an omniscient God, the searcher of hearts. He knoweth vain men and seeth iniquity also. So far it all seems well.
Job 11:13-20. So far all sounds well, but now he follows the same argument as his friends. He too believes that Job is a wicked man who has hidden iniquity, and that this must explain his affliction. So he turns exhorter and calls on him to repent. Set thine heart aright, he tells Job; stretch out thy hands towards Him. Put iniquity away, do not permit iniquity to be in thy tents! He talks as if he is very sure, more so than Eliphaz and Bildad, that Job is guilty of much sin. Then he draws a charming picture of the blessed results if Job confesses and repents. He would forget his misery “as waters that are passed away.”
Everything is painted by him in the rosiest colors as if he knew what God would do for Job. The time did come when Job got richer blessings than those outlined by Zophar. And what Zophar said, “Yea, many shall make suit unto thee” (marginal reading: entreat thee), came actually true when Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar had to humble themselves before this Servant of God. Zophar’s final word is a warning of the fate of the wicked. It was meant for Job. The blunt, rough way of Zophar, who does not contribute anything new and fresh to the controversy, makes Job more confident that he is right and he gives a remarkable answer.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v1Zophar Tries to Reprove Job
Zophar Tries to Reprove Job
v. 1. Then answered Zophar, the Naamathite, 2:11, and said,
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v. 2. Should not the multitude of words, as just brought out in the speech of Job, be answered? And should a man full of talk, literally, "a man of lips," that is, of many words, a vain and foolish babbler, be justified, be right? Zophar was a man of zealous and violent spirit, and he was very emphatic in his statement that Job must not be allowed the last word in this matter.
v. 3. Should thy lies, rather, "chatter, vain babbling," make men hold their peace? "Men" is emphatic; no one who calls himself a man will remain silent with such talk going on. And when thou mockest, both men and God, in Zophar’s opinion, being included in Job’s upbraiding, shall no man make thee ashamed? It was necessary that his statements be refuted, lest he consider himself justified.
v. 4. For thou hast said, My doctrine, the moral teaching, the tenets which Job had expounded, is pure, and I am clean in Thine eyes, Job maintained his purity even over against God.
v. 5. But oh, that God would speak and open His lips against thee, since such an action would put an immediate end to Job’s boasting, as Zophar confidently believed;
v. 6. and that He would show thee the secrets of wisdom, making known the true, divine wisdom over against Job’s doctrine, that they are double to that which is, that God’s wisdom immeasurably surpasses everything that men consider wisdom! Know, therefore, that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth, literally, "that God consigns to oblivion [a large part of] thy guilt," leaving it out of account against Job, who would otherwise long have been overwhelmed by God’s punishment.
v. 7. Canst thou by searching find out God, reaching the bottom of the mystery of God’s wonderful essence? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection, penetrating to the uttermost parts of the divine nature? "The nature of God may be sought after, but cannot be found out; and the end of God is unattainable, for He is both: the perfect or absolute God and the endless or infinite God. " (Delitzsch. )
v. 8. It is as high as heaven, literally, "heights of heaven," namely, those are the distances which extend between man’s understanding and God’s infinity; what canst thou do? Deeper than hell, far below the realm of the dead the hidden depths of the divine wisdom extend; what canst thou know? Man’s utter powerlessness in the face of God’s immeasurable essence is here brought out with a force rarely equaled.
v. 9. The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea, the length of God’s wisdom is unbounded, and its breadth extends far beyond human understanding.
v. 10. If He cut off, passing over, or rushing upon, in anger, and shut up, or gather together, that is, if God arrests a man and calls him to judgment, holds a public trial, then who can hinder Him? Who can turn Him aside, who will oppose Him? God will render judgment, God will pass sentence upon every prisoner whom He summons, in spite of all opposition.
v. 11. For He knoweth vain men, such evil men as try to disguise their godlessness; He seeth wickedness also; will He not, then, consider it? The statement is rather affirmative: God sees wickedness without considering it, although it is open before His eyes; He does not immediately punish the transgressors.
v. 12. For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt, literally, "And a hollow-headed, witless man will gain wisdom, and the foal of a wild ass a man will be born," which means, either: Before an empty head gains understanding, a wild ass’s foal will be born a man, or: A witless fool should be filled with understanding, he should be regenerated and made over into a man, though by nature as untamed as the colt of a wild ass. Zophar wanted to make his rebuke as emphatic as possible, even by means of biting comparisons, in order to overcome Job’s calm arguments.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1, 4Zophar the Naamathite
Zophar the Naamathite
See how you translated this man's name in Job 2:11. AT: "Zophar from the region of Naamah" (See: How to Translate Names)
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Should not such a multitude of words be answered?
Zophar is asking a question in the negative to emphasize that Job's words must be challenged. AT: "We must answer all of these words!" or "Someone should respond to all these words!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
Should this man, so full of talk, be believed?
Zophar uses this question to emphasize that they should not believe what Job was saying. AT: "This man is so full of talk, but the people should not believe him!" or "Your many words alone do not mean you are innocent!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
Should your boasting make others remain silent?
Zophar uses this question to rebuke Job. AT: "Just because you have spoken many words, this does not mean that others must keep silent." (See: Rhetorical Question)
When you mock, will no one make you feel ashamed?
Zophar uses this question to rebuke Job. You may need to make explicit what it is that Job is mocking. AT: "You have mocked us for what we have said. Now we will make you feel ashamed!"
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 6 Should he persuade by his great talk, that he…
Should he persuade by his great talk, that he is just?
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–6 Job 11:1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
Job 11:1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
Ver. 1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite] With a most bitter invective, savouring more of passion than charity. Zophar rejoineth, or rather revileth innocent Job, misinterpreting his meaning, Job 11:4, and laying to his charge, 1. Loquacity, or talkativeness; 2. Lying; 3. Scoffing at God’s good providence, and men’s good counsel; 4. Self-conceitedness and arrogance, besides rashness, boldness, &c. For want of better arguments against him, he falls foul upon him in this sort. And if the adversaries of the truth do the like by us (as our Saviour saith they will, Mat 5:11, and as himself, after Job and many other of his members, had the experience of it), we must not be overly troubled. Zophar signifieth a watcher, he watched for Job’s halting, and took him up before he was down; he is styled the Naamathite from Naamah (a city in the land of Uz, eighteen miles from Job’s Pyramis, saith Adricomius), which signifieth fair. But he dealeth not so fair with his friend as had been fit, for he giveth him no honour or respect at all, but treateth him with singular sharpness and violence, or rather virulence, of speech: hear him else.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2–6 Dost thou think to carry thy cause by thy…
Dost thou think to carry thy cause by thy long and tedious discourses, consisting of empty words, without weight or reason? Shall we by our silence seem to approve of thy errors? or shall we think thy cause the better, because thou usest more words than we do?
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 It is sad to see what intemperate passions even…
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? Is this the way to comfort Job? No, nor to convince him neither. Does this become one that appears as an advocate for God and his justice? Tantaene animis coelestibus irae? - In heavenly breasts can such resentment dwell? Those that engage in controversy will find it very hard to keep their temper. All the wisdom, caution, and resolution they have will be little enough to prevent their breaking out into such indecencies as we here find Zophar guilty of.
I. He represents Job otherwise than what he was, Job 11:2, Job 11:3. He would have him thought idle and impertinent in his discourse, and one that loved to hear himself talk; he gives him the lie, and calls him a mocker; and all this that it might be looked upon as a piece of justice to chastise him. Those that have a mind to fall out with their brethren, and to fall foul upon them, find it necessary to put the worst colours they can upon them and their performances, and, right or wrong, to make them odious. We have read and considered Job's discourses in the foregoing chapters, and have found them full of good sense and much to the purpose, that his principles are right, his reasonings strong, many of his expressions weighty and very considerable, and that what there is in them of heat and passion a little candour and charity will excuse and overlook; and yet Zophar here invidiously represents him, 1. As a man that never considered what he said, but uttered what came uppermost, only to make a noise with the multitude of words, hoping by that means to carry his cause and run down his reprovers: Should not the multitude of words be answered? Truly, sometimes it is no great matter whether it be or no; silence perhaps is the best confutation of impertinence and puts the greatest contempt upon it. Answer not a fool according to his folly. But, if it be answered, let reason and grace have the answering of it, not pride and passion. Should a man full of talk (margin, a man of lips, that is all tongue, vox et praeterea nihil - mere voice) be justified? Should he be justified in his loquacity, as in effect he is if he be not reproved for it? No, for in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin. Should he be justified by it? Shall many words pass for valid pleas? Shall he carry the day with the flourishes of language? No, he shall not be accepted with God, or any wise men, for his much speaking, Mat 6:7. 2. As a man that made no conscience of what he said - a liar, and one that hoped by the impudence of lies to silence his adversaries (should thy lies make men hold their peace?) - a mocker, one that bantered all mankind, and knew how to put false colours upon any thing, and was not ashamed to impose upon every one that talked with him: When thou mockest shall no man make thee ashamed? Is it not time to speak, to stem such a violent tide as this? Job was not mad, but spoke the words of truth and soberness, and yet was thus misrepresented. Eliphaz and Bildad had answered him, and said what they could to make him ashamed; it was therefore no instance of Zophar's generosity to set upon a man so violently who was already thus harassed. Here were three matched against one.
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II. He charges Job with saying that which he had not said (Job 11:4): Thou hast said, My doctrine is pure. And what if he had said so? It was true that Job was sound in the faith, and orthodox in his judgment, and spoke better of God than his friends did. If he had expressed himself unwarily, yet it did not therefore follow but that his doctrine was true. But he charges him with saying, I am clean in thy eyes. Job had not said so: he had indeed said, Thou knowest that I am not wicked (Job 10:7); but he had also said, I have sinned, and never pretended to a spotless perfection. He had indeed maintained that he was not a hypocrite as they charged him; but to infer thence that he would not own himself a sinner was an unfair insinuation. We ought to put the best construction on the words and actions of our brethren that they will bear; but contenders are tempted to put the worst.
III. He appeals to God, and wishes him to appear against Job. So very confident is he that Job is in the wrong that nothing will serve him but that God must immediately appear to silence and condemn him. We are commonly ready with too much assurance to interest God in our quarrels, and to conclude that, if he would but speak, he would take our part and speak for us, as Zophar here: O that God would speak! for he would certainly open his lips against thee; whereas, when God did speak, he opened his lips for Job against his three friends. We ought indeed to leave all controversies to be determined by the judgment of God, which we are sure is according to truth; but those are not always in the right who are most forward to appeal to that judgment and prejudge it against their antagonists. Zophar despairs to convince Job himself, and therefore desires God would convince him of two things which it is good for every one of us duly to consider, and under all our afflictions cheerfully to confess: -
1. The unsearchable depth of God's counsels. Zophar cannot pretend to do it, but he desires that God himself would show Job so much of the secrets of the divine wisdom as might convince him that they are at least double to that which is, Job 11:6. Note, (1.) There are secrets in the divine wisdom, arcana imperii - state-secrets. God's way is in the sea. Clouds and darkness are round about him. He has reasons of state which we cannot fathom and must not pry into. (2.) What we know of God is nothing to what we cannot know. What is hidden is more than double to what appears, Eph 3:9. (3.) By employing ourselves in adoring the depth of those divine counsels of which we cannot find the bottom we shall very much tranquilize our minds under the afflicting hand of God. (4.) God knows a great deal more evil of us than we do of ourselves; so some understand it. When God gave David a sight and sense of sin he said that he had in the hidden part made him to know wisdom, Psa 51:6.
2. The unexceptionable justice of his proceedings. "Know therefore that, how sore soever the correction is that thou art under, God exacteth of thee less than thy iniquity deserves," or (as some read it), "he remits thee part of thy iniquity, and does not deal with thee according to the full demerit of it." Note, (1.) When the debt of duty is not paid it is justice to insist upon the debt of punishment. (2.) Whatever punishment is inflicted upon us in this world we must own that it is less than our iniquities deserve, and therefore, instead of complaining of our troubles, we must be thankful that we are out of hell, Lam 3:39; Psa 103:10.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–6 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite,.... The third of Job's…
Then answered Zophar the Naamathite,.... The third of Job's friends, that came to visit him; see Gill on Job 2:11; and who perhaps might be the youngest, since his turn was to speak last; and he appears to have less modesty and prudence, and more fire and heat in him; than his other friends; though he might be the more irritated by observing, that their arguments were baffled by Job, and had no manner of effect on him, to cause him to recede from his first sentiments and conduct:
and said; as follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–6 Zophar charges Job with falsehood and pride, ver. 1-4.…
Zophar charges Job with falsehood and pride, ver. 1-4. Wishes that God would convince him of his wisdom, justice, and unsearchable perfections, ver. 5-9. Of his sovereignty, power and the cognisance he takes of men, ver. 10-12. He assures him, that on his repentance, God would restore him to prosperity, but that the wicked should perish, ver. 13-20.
Then answered - How hard is it, to preserve calmness, in the heat of disputation! Eliphaz began modestly: Bildad was a little rougher: But Zophar falls upon Job without mercy. "Those that have a mind to fall out with their brethren, and to fall foul upon them, find it necessary, to put the worst colours they can upon them and their performances, and right or wrong to make them odious."
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–6 Zophar answers Job, and reproves him severely for his…
CHAPTER XI
Zophar answers Job, and reproves him severely for his attempts
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to justify himself; charges him with secret iniquity, and
contends that God inflicts less punishment on him than his
iniquities deserve, 1-6.
Shows the knowledge and perfections of God to be unsearchable,
and that none can resist his power, 7-11.
Warns him against vanity of mind, and exhorts him to repentance
on the ground that his acceptance with God is still a possible
case, and that his latter days may yet become happy and
prosperous, 12-20.
NOTES ON CHAP. XI
Verse 1. Zophar the Naamathite] Of this man and his friends, see Job 2:11. He is the most inveterate of Job's accusers, and generally speaks without feeling or pity. In sour godliness he excelled all the rest. This chapter and the twentieth comprehends all that he said. He was too crooked to speak much in measured verse.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1–6 Job 11:1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite — How…
Job 11:1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite — How hard is it to preserve calmness in the heat of disputation! Eliphaz began modestly: Bildad was a little rougher: but Zophar falls upon Job without mercy. “Those that have a mind to fall out with their brethren, and to fall foul upon them, find it necessary to put the worst colours they can upon them and their performances, and, right or wrong, to make them odious.” Zophar, highly provoked that Job should dare to call in question a maxim so universally assented to as that urged by his friends, immediately charges him home with secret wickedness. He tells him that he makes not the least doubt, were the real state of his heart laid open, that it would be found God had dealt very gently with him, Job 11:2-7. That he was highly blameworthy to pretend to fathom the depths of divine providence, a task to which he was utterly unequal: that, however his wickedness might be concealed from me, yet it was open and bare to God’s all-seeing eye; could he therefore imagine that God would not punish the wickedness he saw? Job 11:7-11. It would surely be far more becoming in him to submit, and give glory to God, by making an ample confession and full restitution. In that case, indeed, he might hope for a return of God’s goodness to him; but the way he was in at present was the common road of the wicked, whose only hope was annihilation, Job 11:12-20. — Heath and Dodd.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2–6 Should not the multitude of words be answered? -…
Should not the multitude of words be answered? - As if all that Job had said had been mere words; or as if he was remarkable for mere garrulity.
And should a man full of talk be justified - Margin, as in Hebrew “of lips.” The phrase is evidently a Hebraism, to denote a great talker - a man of mere lips, or empty sound. Zophar asks whether such a man could be justified or vindicated. It will be recollected that taciturnity was with the Orientals a much greater virtue than with us, and that it was regarded as one of the proofs of wisdom. The wise man with them was he who sat down at the feet of age, and desired to learn; who carefully collected the maxims of former times; who diligently observed the course of events; and who deliberated with care on what others had to say. Thus, Solomon says, “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise;” Pro 10:19; so Jam 1:19, “let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak.” It was supposed that a man who said much would say some foolish or improper things, and hence, it was regarded as a proof of prudence to be distinguished for silence. In Oriental countries, and it may be added also, in all countries that we regard as uncivilized, it is unusual and disrespectful to be hasty in offering counsel, to be forward to speak, or to be confident and bold in opinion; see the notes at Job 32:6-7. It was for reasons such as these that Zophar maintained that a man who was full of talk could not be justified in it; that there was presumptive proof that he was not a safe man, or a man who could be vindicated in all that he said.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6 Naamathite. Septuagint, "the Minean," in Arabia Felix, or rather…
Naamathite. Septuagint, "the Minean," in Arabia Felix, or rather of the Meonim, not far from the Themanites, Judges x. 11. Sophar was probably a descendant of Sepho, styled by Septuagint Sophar, (Genesis xxxvi. 11., and 1 Paralipomenon i. 36.) brother of Thaman, and grandson of Eliphaz, the son of Esau. (Calmet) --- He speaks with greater insolence than the two others, (Pineda) and inveighs against Job, insisting that he can be punished thus only for his crimes. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 III. Zophar and Job: Chaps. 11–14
III. Zophar and Job: Chaps. 11–14
A.—Zophar’s violent arraignment of Job, as one who needs in penitence to submit himself to the all-seeing and righteous God:
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Job 11
1. Expression of the desire that the Omniscient One would appear to convince Job of his guilt
Job_11:2-6
1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said:
2 Should not the multitude of words be answered?
and should a man full of talk be justified?
3 Should thy lies make men hold their peace?
and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?
4 For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure,
and I am clean in Thine eyes.
5 But oh that God would speak,
and open His lips against thee;
6 and that He would show thee the secrets of wisdom,
that they are double to that which is!
Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.
2. Admonitory description of the impossibility of contending against God’s omniscience, which charges every man with sin:
Job_11:7-12
7 Canst thou by searching find out God?
canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
8 It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do?
deeper than hell, what canst thou know?
9 The measure thereof is longer than the earth,
and broader than the sea.
10 If He cut off, and shut up,
or gather together, then who can hinder Him?
11 For He knoweth vain men;
He seeth wickedness also; will He not then consider it?
12 For vain man would be wise,
though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.
3. The truly penitent has in prospect the restoration of his prosperity; for the wicked, however, there remains no hope:
Job_11:13-20
13 If thou prepare thine heart,
and stretch out thine hands toward Him;
14 if iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away,
and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.
15 For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot;
yea, thou shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear.
16 Because thou shalt forget thy misery,
and remember it as waters that pass away;
17 and thine age shall be clearer than the noonday;
thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning.
18 And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope;
yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety.
19 Also thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid;
yea, many shall make suit unto thee.
20 But the eyes of the wicked shall fail,
and they shall not escape,
and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The comparative violence of this new arraignment of Job is to be explained by the fact that he in his last discourse had positively maintained his innocence, and had accused God quite openly and directly of injustice. Zophar, the youngest and the least considerate of the three friends, opposes him on this head with the declaration that God the All-wise and All-seeing, would observe in him, as in all men, enough of sin to justify the stern infliction of punishment on him (Job_11:6). He indeed gives direct expression to the thought that the suffering which Job endured was well-deserved punishment for sin (Job_11:11), that sincere repentance was required of him (Job_11:14), and that on condition of such repentance could he hope for restoration to his former prosperity, that in any other case the sad doom of the wicked would surely be before him (Job_11:20). [“In his first appearance he is hot, and eager, and peremptory, but widely more gentle and less coarse than hereafter. Eliphaz brings forward his earnest exhortation, overawed by its divine majesty, and trembling when he recollects how he received from heaven the truth which he utters for Job’s advantage. Bildad reposes not on revelation, but on the human consciousness. Zophar, the private dogmatist, and as such—having nothing to fall back on with dignity—the hottest and most intolerant, has only his own ‘of course,’ ‘it cannot but be,’ with which to silence his obstinate adversary.” Davidson.] His discourse falls into three divisions: 1. The expression of a desire for such a declaration from the All-wise God as would convince Job of his guilt (Job_11:2-6); 2. A description intended to warn Job of God’s exalted knowledge, by virtue of which He charges on every man his sins (Job_11:7-12); 3. An inculcation of the necessity of repentance as the only condition of recovering his former prosperity (Job_11:13-20). Parts 1 and 2 are Double Strophes, consisting of small strophes of three or two verses each. Part 3 contains three such shorter strophes or groups of verses.
2. First Division, or Double Strophe. The expression of the desire that the Omniscient One would appear to convince Job of his guilt (Job_11:2-6).
First Strophe: Job_11:2-4. A censure of the high-flown and impenitent discourse of Job.
Job_11:2. Shall the multitude of words (רֹב דְּבָרִים, as in Pro_10:19; Ecc_5:2) remain unanswered, or shall a babbler (lit. “man of lips,” אִישׁ שְׂכָתַיִם, to be distinguished from אִישׁ דְּבָרִים, “a man of words,” i.e., an eloquent speaker, Exo_4:10) be in the right?—יִצְדַּק, literally “to be justified, to be declared in the right,” to wit, by allowing him the last word. The beginning of the discourse resembles that of Bildad, Job_8:2. At the game time there may be detected a slight tone of apology, that the speaker undertakes to say any thing, notwithstanding his youth. [“If Zophar’s name, which signifies chirper or chatterer, was expressive of his character, these words might have been applied to himself.” Wordsworth.]
Job_11:3. Shall thy vain talk (בַּדִּים from בדד, βαττολογεῖν) [E. V.: too strong, “lies,” rather chatter, idle babbling] put men (מְתִים, archaic expression for אדם or אנשים [“like other archaisms, e.g., תֵּבֵל, always without the article.” Del.], comp. Job_11:11; Job_19:19; Job_22:15, etc.) to silence, so that thou mockest [“God (Hirzel); better Rosenmüller: nos et Deum.” Del.], without any one putting thee to shame?viz., by refuting thee.—The fut. consec.וַתִּלְעַג, as also ותאמר at the beginning of the following verse, denotes that into which Job might be betrayed by men’s silence. It bears, therefore, since the principal verb יַחֲרִישׁוּ continues the question of the preceding verse, a modal impress: “so that thou darest to mock and to say,” etc. (so correctly Umbreit, Hirzel, Vaihinger, Hahn, Delitzsch, etc., while Ewald, Stickel, Dillmann [Carey], etc. remove altogether the interrogative character of our verse, and make it to consist of two co-ordinate affirmative clauses.
Job_11:4. My doctrine is pure.—לֶקַח, in the Book of Job occurring only here, very common, however, in Proverbs (comp. also Deu_32:2; Isa_29:24), signifies not a mere “assumption,” or “opinion” (Hahn), but something appropriated from tradition, a truth taught in accordance with tradition, especially in respect to moral conduct, therefore, in brief, moral teaching, or doctrine in general. With regard, therefore, to this his doctrine, the substance of his moral axioms and rules of living, Zophar reproaches Job with maintaining (or rather he says that he would maintain, if encouraged by the silence of others): “it is pure,” i.e., it is immaculate and infallible (זַךְ as in Job_8:6; Job_33:9; Pro_16:2, etc.). And yet more than this: even against God would he maintain that “he was pure in His eyes” (comp. Job_9:21; Job_10:7). He would therefore, in addition to the purity of his principles, maintain also that of his life, a result which seems to Zophar the height of absurdity, and which seems to him to mock every holy ordinance of God.
Second Strophe: Job_11:5-6. Expression of the wish that God Himself might personally interpose to punish Job’s arrogant falsehoods.
Job_11:5. But oh that Eloah would speak and open His lips against thee.—After מי יִתֵּן here follows first the Infinitive (as in Exo_16:3); then, however, in b, and in the following verse Imperfects: comp. Gesen. § 136, 2. [The subject of the Inf. is emphatically placed before it. “Oh, that Eloah would speak!” See Ewald, § 329, c.] A forcible וְאוּלָם (verum enim vero) introduces the whole optative clause and puts it, in a measure, in opposition to the wish that God might come, previously uttered by Job himself (Job_9:34 seq.), thus: verily, would He but come, there would be an immediate end to thy boasting.
Job_11:6. And make known to thee the secrets of His wisdom, that it is twofold in true knowledge.—תּוּשִׁיָּה in a somewhat different sense from that found above in Job_5:12; Job_6:13; here in a more theoretic (scientific) sense. כִּפְלַיִם, lit. that which is doubled, i.e., in general that which is much greater than something else, which far surpasses it [hence “manifold” would, according to our mode of expression, be more exact than “twofold.” The explanation of some that the word is used here by way of comparison, as though the meaning were that “God’s wisdom is double thine,” or “twice as great as thou canst imagine,” is inadequate. The word is absolute, and although dual in form, is to us plural, or intensive in meaning=God’s wisdom is fold upon fold! how then canst thou presume to judge it, as though able to see through it? For this intensive use of the dual comp. צָחֳרַיִם, Job_11:17, lit. “double brightness,” i.e., the superlative brightness of noonday.—E.]. Comp. Isa_40:2. The subj. of כפלים, viz., היא referring back to חכמה, is here omitted, because it is identical with the obj. of the principal clause; comp. Gen_2:4; Isa_3:10 (Ewald, § 336, b). [E. V. here—“that they are double to that which is”—is scarcely intelligible.] So must thou know [וְרַע, Imperat. consec., presenting the necessary consequence of the fulfilment of that wish; comp. Ewald, § 347, a) [Delitzsch; “Instead of saying: then thou wouldst perceive, Zophar, realizing in his mind that which he has just wished, says imperiously וְדַע”] that Eloah remits to thee of thy guilt—i.e., leaves much of it out of the account against thee, lets it go unpunished. The מִן in מֵעֲוֹנְךָ is accordingly partitive, to be expressed by “somewhat of, much of,” הִשָּׁה, lit. to bring into forgetfulness, oblivioni dare, a causative Hiphil, occurring elsewhere in the O. T. only in Job_39:17.
3. Second Division, or Double Strophe: Describing, with an admonitory purpose, the impossibility of contending against God’s omniscience, which charges every man with sin, Job_11:7-12.
First Strophe: Job_11:7-9. [God’s wisdom unsearchable.]
Job_11:7. Canst thou reach the depths [in the Germ.: den Grund erreichen: lit. to reach the bottom] in Eloah, or penetrate to the uttermost parts [zum Aeussersten hinandringen] in the Almighty?—חֵקֶר, “search” (Job_8:8), is used here sensu objectivo=that which is to be searched, the ground of any thing (so in Job_38:16); here, therefore, the hidden depth [ground, basis] of the divine nature. תַּכְלִית, on the contrary, denotes “the finishing, the terminus,” i.e., the end, the extremity of the same divine nature [Wordsworth: “canst thou arrive at the limit of God? Canst thou attain to the horizon of the Almighty?”] (comp. Job_26:10; Job_28:3; Psa_139:22; Neh_3:21). The first question accordingly describes God as unfathomable, the second as illimitable or immeasurable; the former conveys the notion of absolute mystery, the latter that of absolute greatness and incomprehensibility. [“The nature of God may be sought after, but cannot be found out; and the end of God is unattainable, for He is both: the Perfect One, absolutus; and the Endless One, infinitus.” Del.] Many moderns, after Eichhorn (e.g., John Pye Smith: The Scripture Testimony of the Messiah, 6 Ed., Vol. I. 11; Vol. II. 240) [also E. V.] take חקר in the active sense of searching or discovering, and תכלית in the sense of perfection. This, however, yields for both members a less suitable sense, and assigns to תכלית a signification which it can nowhere be proved to have. [Conant and others (so also E. V.) regard the clause עד־תכלית as adverbial: “Canst thou find out the Almighty to a perfection?” i.e., to a perfect comprehension of Him. Neither of Conant’s reasons for this rendering is valid. (1) The parallelism does not favor it, but contrariwise. חֵקֶו אֱל׳ finds its parallel in תַּכְ׳ שַׁ׳; the former belonging to the category of depth, the latter to that of length, which accounts for the preposition עַד. (2) The accentuation does not favor it, but the reverse. Munach puts שַׁדַּי in precisely the same connection with the final verb in this member, as אֱלוֹהַּ in the former member.—E.]
Job_11:8. Heights of heaven: to wit, are the distances which lie between our perception and the “extremity” of the Almighty, the dimensions with which we seek to measure His infinitude. Hence the question, vividly annexed to this exclamation—what canst thou do?—emphasizing the helplessness and powerlessness of man over against that which is immeasurable. To this corresponds the second member:—deeper than the underworld (are the hidden depths, the grounds of the Godhead, or of the Divine Wisdom)—what knowest thou? what can thy knowledge do in view of such depths? In so far as the phrase “heights of heaven” points back to the idea of the תּכלית, while the phrase “deeper than the underworld” points to that of the חקר, the position of the two members of this verse seems to be inverted as regards those of the ver. preceding. It is to be observed that the ruling idea here, as well as in the following verse, is throughout that of the Divine wisdom (omniscience), or the Divine nature on the side of wisdom and intellectual perfection, as the connection of the passage with Job_11:6 clearly shows.
Job_11:9. Longer than the earth is its measure, and broader is it than the sea:viz. the Divine wisdom, the immeasurableness of which is here described according to all the four dimensions, according to the height and depth, and also according to the length and breadth, as in Eph_3:18 these same four dimensions are used in describing the absoluteness of the love of God in Christ. Our translation: “longer than the earth is its [lit. her] measure,” rests on the reading מִדָּחּ with He mappiq, which is to be regarded as an abbreviated feminine form for מִדָּתָהּ (comp. Job_5:13, עָרְמָם for עָרְמָתָם: also Zec_4:2, etc.). The Masorah, indeed, favors מִדָּה, with He raphatum, with which reading the word would be the Accus. of nearer definition (“according to its measure, in measure”). But the separation between the Accus. of relation and its ruling word produced by a word intervening, would give here, where היא is omitted, a somewhat harsh construction, to which the simpler rendering given above is to be preferred.
Second Strophe: Job_11:10-12. [The judicial intervention of God supposed.]
Job_11:10. If He passes by [יחלף, as in Job_9:11; E. V. incorrectly “cut off”], and arrests, and calls to judgment (lit. summons an assembly, implying that the process of a trial was public, and the verdict rendered and executed by the assembled people: comp. Eze_16:40; Eze_23:46; 1Ki_21:9). [“One might almost imagine that Zophar looks upon himself and the other two friends as forming such an ‘assembly:’ they cannot justify him in opposition to God, since He accounts him guilty.” Del.]—Who will oppose Him? present a protest in behalf of the accused as though he were not guilty. Comp. in general Job_9:11-12, which description of Job’s Zophar here reproduces in part word for word, but with quite another purpose, viz. to defend, not to condemn or assail God’s justice [“וּמִיvav apod. with fine effect—who, as you say (Job_9:12) would?” Dav.].
Job_11:11. For He [emphatic, הוּא; whether others know it, or not] knows evil men (מְתֵי שָׁוְא, lit. “men of vanity, of falsehood,” [“people who hypocritically disguise their moral nothingness.” Del.], as in Psa_26:4; comp. also Job_22:15), and sees wickedness without considering it:i.e. without watching it with strenuous and anxious strictness (comp. Job_34:23), the moral qualities of His creatures being at every moment unveiled to His omniscience. [“Finely magnifying the Divine Insight, which is omniscient, and is so without effort.” Dav.] This is the only rendering of וְלֹא יִתְבּוֹנָן which accords with the context (comp. already Aben Ezra; non opus habet, ut diu consideret; among moderns Hirzel, Dillm., Del., etc.). Far less natural are the explanations of Ewald: “without his (the wicked) observing it;” of Umbreit, Stickel, Hahn: “without his (the wicked) being observed;” of Schlottman: “and (sees) him who observes not, who is without understanding.”
Job_11:12. So must (even) a witless man acquire wisdom, and a wild ass’s foal be born over a man.—This interpretation, which is the one substantially adopted by Piscator, Umbreit, Ewald, Schlottm., Vaih., Heiligst., Dillmann [Renan, Hengst., Wordsworth], and generally by most moderns, is the most suitable among the numerous interpretations of this difficult verse. The connection by the וְ with the verse preceding, shows that this verse should indicate what effect the judicial intervention of the Omniscient God ought to have on man, even though he be a stubborn sinner and devoid of understanding.—אִישׁ נָבוּב, lit. a man bored through, i.e. a hollow man, hence one void of understanding, a man without intellectual and moral substance; comp. the phrase מְתֵי שָׁוְא.—Again, עַיִר פֶּרֶא (of which פֶּרֶא is in apposition, not in the genitive), signifies lit. “a foal, a wild ass, i.e., a wild-ass-foal (comp. the phrase פֶּרֶא אָדָם, used in almost the same sense of untamed wildness in Gen_16:12).—Both these expressions, as well as those of the preceding verse, are chosen not without reference to the conduct of Job, who seems to Zophar to be an obstinate fool (comp. Job_2:10); although not pointed directly at him, they inflict on him a sensible cut [see Job_12:3, where with evident reference to the יִלָּבֵב of this passage, Job with indignant scorn says גַּמ־לִי לֵבָב כּ׳—E.], and they at the same time facilitate the transition to the following admonitions. Observe also the intentional and witty paronomasia [both of sound and sense] between נָבוּב and יִלָּבֵב: the empty man is to be made a man of substance [der Hohlkopf soll beherzt gemacht), the void in his head is to be filled up as it were by a new heart. [Observe in addition the assonance of the closing words of each member, יִלָּבֵב and יִוּלֵד.—Davidson adopts essentially the same construction of terms and clauses as that given here, but gives to the verse a different tone. Instead of regarding it as a grave declaration of what should be the result of the judicial intervention of God, he regards it as a sarcastic denial of wisdom to man:—“But a witless man would be wise, and a wild ass colt be a born man! a man who is a fool would arrogate wisdom to himself, and though a wild ass colt, he would claim humanity.” This, however, would be a tone of remark entirely out of harmony with what precedes, and with what follows. Davidson characterizes the interpretation adopted above as “excessively artificial and unhebraistic in construction:” a strange charge surely to come from one who adopts the very same construction, except that he gives it a different coloring. Equally wide of the mark is the objection that Job himself did not exhibit the result which Zophar here says ought or might be expected to follow.—Hengstenberg remarks on the contents of the verse according to our interpretation: “We have here the first passage of Scripture which speaks of a regeneration.”—E.] The following varying explanations are to be rejected as being in part against the connection, in part too harsh, or grammatically inadmissible. 1. “An empty man is without heart,” i.e. without understanding, etc. (Gesenius, Olshausen), [Conant, Noyes, Merx, Rodwell.—Against this it may be argued that such a privative use of Niphal is unexampled in Hebrew, and especially as Dillmann urges, that the sentiment thus expressed is self-evident and trite, and takes away the whole force of the paronomasia].—2. “But man, like a hollow pate, has he understanding,” etc. (Hirzel). [“Violates the accentuation, and produces an affected witticism.” Del.]—3. “Man is—at his birth—as one empty furnished with a heart,” i.e. he receives an empty undiscerning heart (Hupfeld). [Opposed to the future verbs, and to the correlation of נבוב and ילבב].—4. “Ignorant man flares up, or becomes insolent, etc.” (Vulgate, Stickel, Welte [Carey], etc. [Does not bring out the proper antithesis between נבוב and ילבב. Why should the man of whom it is affirmed that he has a bold defiant heart, be described as נָבוּב? This meaning is, moreover, less suitable to the connection. See remarks below at the end of the verse.—The same objections apply to] 5. “An empty man becomes stubborn” (Böttcher).—6. “Before an empty head gains a heart (understanding), a wild ass’s foal will be born again a man” (Rosenm., Hahn, Del., Kamphausen, etc.)
[In determining the meaning of this difficult expression the following considerations should have controlling weight. (1) The evident antithesis of נבוב and ילבב. Now as נבוב can be referred only to man in his sinful hollowness, emptiness, ילבב must describe the opposite, or man as endowed with a heart to understand, appreciate, and profit by God’s dealings. (2) The assonance of יִלָּבֵב and יִוָּלֵד, as well as the striking homogeneousness of thought between the two terms, the one describing the process of endowing man with לֵב, the distinguishing characteristic of manhood, the other the process of becoming a man, being born, here being born again a man, suggests that the verse is most probably a synonymous parallelism, the same essential thought being repeated in both members. (3) The gravity of the connection forbids our regarding the verse as simply a piece of witty irony. The verses preceding are a solemn description of God’s procedure against man in judgment; the verses following a solemn appeal to Job to repent and return to God. This verse in like manner is far more likely to be a grave earnest affirmation of truth than the opposite. (4) The practical drift of the connection makes it probable that the verse is not a description of the sinner in his perversity, but in the possibilities of his restoration. As the result of God’s severe disciplinary processes “empty man may or should be filled with a heart, and a wild ass’s foal may or should be born over a man.” This being the case, if thou direct thine heart, etc., thou shalt lift up thy face without spot, etc. Thus understood, it will be seen that the verse furnishes a suitable sequel to Job_11:10-11, and a suitable preparation to Job_11:13 seq.—(5) It seems exceedingly probable to say the least, that Job’s language in Job_12:3 a is his direct reply to the implied reproach in this verse. There he claims that he hasלבב as well as the friends, a claim which is most satisfactorily explained by supposing that he was stung to make it by understanding Zophar’s language here to imply that he needed to be put in possession of לבב.—E.].
4. Third Division: An admonition to repentance and conversion as the only means by which Job can recover his former prosperity, and escape the terrible doom of the wicked: Job_11:13-20.
First Strophe: Job_11:13-15. A period, consisting of Job_11:13 as hypothetical antecedent, Job_11:15 as consequent, and Job_11:14 as a regularly constructed parenthesis.
Job_11:13. (But) if thou direct thy heart (prepare it, bring it into a proper condition, not: “give it the right direction towards God,” Del. and others; nor again: “establish it,” Hirzel [“not pertinent, because Zophar has not in his mind so much perseverance in godliness as a return to it,” Dav.]), and spread forth thy hands unto Him, viz., in prayer and penitent supplication for mercy; comp. Job_8:5, and for the same phrase פרשׂ כפים, manus supinas (palmas) extendere, comp. Exo_9:29; Exo_9:33; 1Ki_8:22; Isa_1:15.
Job_11:14. If iniquity is in thy hand, put it far away, and let not evil dwell in thy tents (comp. Job_5:24); this being the antecedent condition of the success of Job’s prayer according to Zophar’s mode of thinking, which indeed is not in itself a theory of legality or work-righteousness (comp. Psa_34:13(12) seq.; 1Pe_3:10; Isa_1:15 seq.), but which in the present case does nevertheless proceed from a narrow judgment, and is excessively offensive to Job.
Job_11:15. Surely, then thou shalt lift up thy face (comp. on Job_10:15) without spot:i.e., “without consciousness of guilt, and without any outward sign of the same cleaving to thee,” (Dillm.) מִן lit. “away from,” here equivalent to “without,” comp. Job_19:26; Job_21:9; 2Sa_1:22; Pro_20:3; and shalt be steadfast without fearing; shalt be firmly fixed in thy new prosperity, without having to fear any further judgments of God.—מֻצָּק, Part. Hoph. of יצק, lit. fused into solidity, quasi ex ære fusus (comp. 1Ki_7:16. [“We must not lose the fine idea of one state arising out of another, a state of fluidity מָם Job_6:14) passing over into solidity; playing on Job’s past and future.” Dav.].
Second Strophe: Job_11:16, Job_11:17. Continuation of the promise of well-being to the penitent.
Job_11:16. For thou shalt forget trouble, shalt remember it as waters that have passed away: as something therefore that is never to come back, that has disappeared forever. [“When we think of water that has flowed away, we think of it as something which does not return, or rather we think no more about it at all, for with its disappearance even the remembrance of it is gone.” Dillmann]. The pronoun here is emphatic: “for thou thyself wilt forget trouble, thou and none other, no stranger (comp. Job_19:27) [or, as Davidson: “thou, unlike others, who escape calamity, but are haunted by its memory;” or, as Hengst: “thou, who just now canst think no other thought than of thy suffering”]: giving “an emphasis to the personal application of this peroration,” which would be lost if, with the Pesh. and Hirzel, כּי אַתָּה were changed to כִּי עַתָּה.
Job_11:17. And brighter than the glory of noon (צהרים, as in Job_5:14 b) arises (for thee) the future. חֶלֶד, lit. that which creeps along slowly, which passes by unobserved (from חלד, to glide) hence time in general, either in the sense of the world, that which is temporal, αἰών (Psa_17:14; comp. Hupfeld on the passage, Psa_49:2); or in the sense of life, lifetime, future, as here and in Psa_39:6 (5); Psa_89:48 (47), etc. [“יָקּוּם, an exquisite image, lift itself up, disentangle itself from the accumulated, crushing darkness of the present, increasing in brilliancy ever as it disengages itself.” Dav.]. For מִן in מצהרים, (with “brighter” to be supplied) comp. Mic_7:4.—Should it be dark, it will be as the morning;i.e., if any darkness should come, if dark adversity should befall thee (תָּעֻפָה, 3d Pers. Fem., with neut. signification: not 2d Pers., “shouldest thou become dark,” as Schlottm. would explain) it will then ever be as bright as on a clear morning: evidently an intentional reversal of the gloomy picture of his future in Job_10:22, which Job had himself drawn. [“His climax there was that his daylight should be as darkness; Zophar’s promise is that his darkness shall he daylight.” Dav.—Gesenius (in Thes.) Ewald, Conant, etc., prefer taking תעפה as a noun, “darkness,” written תְּעֻפָה, or תְּעוּפָה, as found in a few MSS., and as read by the Syr. and Chald.—Bernard, Hengstenberg, and others render the verb—“thou shalt fly up,” i.e., soar out of the depths of thy misery to the heights of prosperity; a rendering which destroys the antithesis between this verse and Job_10:22.—E. V.: “thou shalt shine forth” seems to be a paraphrase of this last rendering, suggested perhaps by the frequent comparison of the beams of light to the wings of a bird.—E.]
Third Strophe: Job_11:18-20. Conclusion of the promise of prosperity, with an admonitory reference to the joyless end of the wicked.
Job_11:18. And thou hast (thou shalt have, Perf. consec.) confidence, because there is [יֵשׁ, “with the force of a real and lasting existence,” Del.] hope (for thee, comp. Job_14:7, also the opposite of this hopeful condition, described above in Job_7:6); and thou shalt search about (to ascertain, viz., whether all that pertains to thy household is in a state of order and security; comp. Job_5:24 b), shalt lie down securely, viz., for sleep; comp. Ps. 4:9 (Psa_4:8). חָפַר here certainly “to spy out,” as in Job_39:21; Job_39:29; not “to blush (חָפֵר), to be ashamed,” as though וְחָפַרְתָּ were a concessive antecedent clause: “and even shouldest thou be put to shame (in thy confidence), thou canst still lie down in peace,” Rosenm., Hirzel, [Carey], an unsuitable weakening of the sense, which is at variance with the remainder of the bright promises contained in these verses. [“Against this conditional sense is the affirmative use of the corresponding form in the parallel member.” Con. “It is inadmissible, since it introduces a sadness into the promise.” Del.]. The rendering of Hengstenberg is altogether too artificial: “and thou hast dug,” i.e., dug a trench for protection around thy house [and so E. V.—“thou shalt dig about thee”], a sense which the reference to Job_3:21; Job_39:21 is scarcely sufficient to justify.
Job_11:19. Thou liest down without any one making thee afraid; as peacefully and securely, that is, as the beast, or the cattle, which no foe terrifies; comp. Gen_49:9; Isa_17:2.—Yea, many shall seek thy favor, lit. stroke, or caress thy face (Del. “thy cheeks”) flatter thee; comp. Pro_19:6; Psa_45:13 (12). Instead of being despised, and covered with ignominy, (Job_10:15) thou shalt be highly honored, and greatly courted.
Job_11:20. But the eyes of the wicked waste away, in vainly looking for help, in unsatisfied yearning for good (comp. Job_17:5) and every refuge vanishes from them; lit. “away from them,” מִנְּהֶם poet. for מֵהֵם; and their hope is the breathing out of the soul;i.e., all that they have still to hope for is the breathing out of their soul (comp. נָפַח נֶפֶשׁ, Job_31:39; Jer_15:9), hence the giving up of the ghost, death (not a state where their desires will remain eternally unfulfilled, as Delitzsch explains.) [“Zophar here makes use of the choicest expressions of the style of the prophetic Psalms,” Delitzsch. “If we compare with each other the closing words of the three friends, Job_5:26 sq; Job_8:22 b; Job_11:20, the advance, which each makes beyond his predecessor, is unmistakable.” Dillmann.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. This first discourse of Zophar’s resembles that of Eliphaz, and still more that of Bildad, both in respect of the rebuke with which it begins (“who can hear such words in silence?” etc.) and in respect of the union of promise and warning at the close. It proceeds from the same theological and ethical premises as those of the two previous speakers, in so far as it puts God’s absolute perfection and exaltation (here more particularly on the intellectual side, the illimitability of His knowledge and His wisdom) in solemn and emphatic contrast with the short-sighted limitation of man, and thence derives man’s obligation in all circumstances to draw nigh to God as a penitent, and to confess himself before Him as guilty and deserving of punishment. Not less does it resemble those two preceding arraignments of Job in respect of form, in the strength of its expressions, in the poetic loftiness and figurative richness of its descriptions, qualities which shine forth with especial brilliancy in the passage where the Divine wisdom is described as being high as heaven, deep as hell, long as the earth, and broad as the sea (Job_11:7-9). Moreover the comparatively correct orthodoxy of its positions and arguments, the absence of everything that would decidedly contradict the doctrinal and ethical tradition of pious Old Testament worshippers of Jehovah (worshippers of Eloah), the circumstance that nowhere is there even any excessive work-righteousness and legal harshness visible (particularly not in Job_11:14)—all this exhibits Zophar to us as a kindred soul with Eliphaz and Bildad, and his stand-point as most intimately related to theirs.
2. That, however, which marks the difference between this discourse, as to its contents and tendency, and those of the two former speakers—a difference, too, which is not to the advantage of the speaker—is its tone, which is immeasurably more violent. Its attack on the sorely tried sufferer, who so greatly needed a merciful and tender treatment, is harsher, more pointed and personal. At the very beginning (Job_11:2-3) the bitter charge is hurled at his head that his speech was “a torrent of words” and “empty talk.” To the expression “an empty pate,” which is here applied to him, is added in Job_11:11-12 a description of vain, hollow-pated, stubborn people (who are like the wild ass), which points with unmistakable significance to Job. And in the closing passage (Job_11:20), which points out the hopeless destruction of the wicked, there is no trace of the delicacy and urbanity of his two predecessors, at the close of whose discourses, the tone of promise altogether predominates over that of threats and warnings. The discourse at this very point shows a decidedly perceptible advance beyond the two which precede towards inconsiderate harshness. “Eliphaz barely appended a slight warning; Bildad briefly blends it with his promise by way of contrast; Zophar adds a verse which already looks like the advanced picket of an army of similar harsh menaces in chs. 15, 18, 20” (Ewald). Again, the exceedingly personal and unqualified way in which Zophar in Job_11:6 reproaches Job with his guilt, and suggests that there must be not a little of it that is overlooked by God, as well as the not less personal and humiliating demand that he should repent and renounce all unrighteousness as a conditio sine qua non of his restoration to divine favor (Job_11:13 seq.) exhibit a certain advance on the part of this speaker beyond the stand-point of the two former. Instead of reckoning himself as belonging to those who need repentance and purification, as Eliphaz does very distinctly, and Bildad also, at least to some extent, Zophar, when he reminds Job of the duty of acknowledging his sins and repenting of them, speaks only in the second person. He thus sets himself up before him as a rigid censor and accuser, and assumes the character of an advocate of God, who himself needs no correction. As a consequence all that he says in the way of positive instruction, or produces out of the store of his monotheistic Chokmah-tradition, loses for Job its proper moral value and its determining power. Even the description of the abysmal vastness and unsearchableness of the Divine nature and intelligence in Job_11:7 seq., grand as it is in itself, must seem cold to Job, and pass away without leaving any impression on him; for no softening ray of heartfelt brotherly love, and of a humble realization of grace falls on this magnificent picture of the Divine omniscience and wisdom. That picture can and should in truth produce only terror and trembling; for in whichever of the four directions we turn, whether toward the heights of heaven, or the depths of hell, or the lengths of the earth, or the breadths of the sea, nowhere do we discover any bridge hospitably inviting and facilitating our advance. We find no experience, not even a presentiment of the love-power of Christ’s cross, which fills and pervades the abysmal depths of the divine nature. There is to be found as yet no trace of that knowledge of God, which Paul in Eph_3:18 describes as a “comprehending … what is the breadth and the length and the depth and the height:” a comprehension which indeed belongs only to the “saints” of the New Dispensation, which is produced only by the cross of the Redeemer as the solution of all contradictions (comp. also Eph_4:8-10), and which can be acquired and appropriated only at the feet of the Crucified One.1 The deficiency in this knowledge of God, which Zophar here exhibits is indeed on his part essentially not criminal, resting as it does on the fact that neither to him, nor to his associates, nor to Job himself, had the mystery of justification by faith been openly revealed as yet (comp. Brentius: “Zophar and the other friends of Job seem to be entirely ignorant of what the Gospel and faith in God’s promise can effect; they argue against Job as though no one could ever be justified before God by faith”), and that as to his general position he belonged to that immature and imperfect stage of development in the education of the human race, when it was impossible as yet to advance beyond a rigid contra-position of the Godhead and the creature. He must, however, be to the last charged with criminal and guilty conduct in this, that he uses his insight into that heavenly immeasurable superiority of the Divine knowledge over the human (or, which is the same thing: his doctrine that the divine wisdom represents all men as sinful and foolish) with merciless severity against Job, deeply wounding him with it as with a sword, without making even a single attempt to soften the application, or to use this two-edged weapon in a considerate and conciliatory spirit.
3. It is easy to see accordingly what in Zophar’s discourse must be censured as one-sided and unfriendly, and what on the other hand remains as really beautiful and valuable religious and moral truth. The latter is limited essentially to the inspired eulogy of the Divine wisdom and omniscience in Job_11:7 seq.,—a description which in power and beauty is not, indeed, equal to that presented in the introductory part of Psalms 139., but which furnishes nevertheless one of the most note-worthy Old Testament parallels of that passage. It is in the more detailed exhibition of the individual beauties and profound truths of this eulogy of Divine wisdom that we are principally to find the
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Suggestions of this Discourse.—It is neither necessary nor advisable to subdivide it in thus treating it. For as Job_11:2-5 are simply introductory to the main theme, so Job_11:13-20 show how the wisdom of the Most High, incomprehensible in itself, and His omniscience, can alone become comprehensible to man, thus furnishing the basis for the practical and hortatory part, in which every homily on such a theme as the present one must find its issue. The whole is to be left in its organic connection. The following hints however may serve for the treatment of particular passages.
Job_11:7. Œcolampadius: By the four greatest dimensions of the greatest things the idea of supreme perfection is conveyed.… Wisdom is higher than the heaven, deeper than hell, broader than the sea, and longer than the earth, for its greatness is not included within all of these. For the heaven of the heavens cannot contain Thee, says Solomon in his prayer (1Ki_8:27).—Cocceius: It is no longer necessary that we should wish for one who might either ascend to heaven, or descend to hell or depart beyond the sea. In Christ we have One who came from heaven, who returned from hell, who measures the earth and the sea with a span. In Him all things are open and clear to us.—Starke: If man is not capable of searching out so many things in nature, how much less can he with his narrow understanding comprehend God’s nature, and His wise government (Wis_9:16)!—Hengstenberg (on Job_11:10 seq ): It is here that we first see quite clearly in what respect Zophar asserts the claims of the Divine wisdom against Job, as being that, namely, by virtue of which God penetrates the depths of the human heart and life, which to man himself are utterly inaccessible and hidden. He in rendering His judgment has all facts and data at His control, whereas to man only a small part is accessible.
Job_11:13 seq. Cocceius: As there was impudence in the Pharisee’s lifting up of his hands (Luk_18:11 seq.), so there is deception in the hypocrite’s beating of the breast. These gestures easily degenerate. The best prayers are those which make the least noise, and which are poured out in the secret recesses of the heart to Him who seeth in secret, and rewardeth openly, who is the “Hearer of the heart, not of the voice,” as Cyprian says.—Starke: True penitence and believing prayer are the means by which calamity is warded off, and prosperity and blessing procured (Jdt_8:12 seq.) With true repentance, however, there must be associated (as in the case of Zacchæus, Luk_19:8) an earnest purpose to reform the life.
Job_11:15 seq. Brentius: What therefore shall be to the man who directs his own heart, who stretches out his hands toward God, and who purges his works of sin? He dares to lift up his face before God, without spot, without crime; for if conscience, sin, or Satan should accuse us it is God who justifies; it is Christ who died and rose again, and the Christian shall rise together with Him.… All these promises are fulfilled in the Church, in which by faith tears are wiped away, and mourning disappears (Rev_21:4); the body indeed suffers pain, but the inward man is renewed day by day (2Co_4:16).
Job_11:20. Starke: The Divine threatenings are to be applied to the soul that rests in careless security, but not to the soul that is tried with temptation and anguish (2 Thess. 5:14).—Hengstenberg; Job had spoken of death as his only hope. Very true, says Zophar, it is the only hope, if thou remainest as thou art! Zophar is quite right in making all Job’s hope, and all his salvation depend on his knowing himself as a sinner. His error begins only when he comes to determine more particularly the way and mode of recognizing sin, when—that is—he treats sinners and transgressors as convertible terms. In his sense Job could not acknowledge himself a sinner.
Footnotes:
[1]It is a favorite thought of many of the Church Fathers that the Cross of Christ is a power which mediates and reconciles the discords and oppositions between all parts of the universe (as though accordingly it sent its roots down into the under-world, its head up into heaven, while with both arms it lovingly embraced the broad expanse of earth and air). This thought is elaborated for the most part in connection with Eph_3:18 (Job_4:8-10), but occasionally also with reference to Job_11:8-9. So by Basil the Great (comm. on Isaiah 2); by Gregory of Nyssa (Catech. Magna, c. 32); by Rufinus (Expositio Symb. Apostolici); by Coel. Sedulius (Mirabilia Div. V. 297, 54); by John of Damascus (De fide orthod. iv. 12), etc. The same may be said of many modern mystics and theosophists, such as Baader, St. Martin. Görres, J. F. v. Meyer. Comp. especially the last named’s “Blütter f. hohere Wahrheit,” Vol. VIII., page 145 seq.: “The Cross points upward and downward, to the right and to the left; this fourfold direction designates the All, on which and from which its influence acts. Its head uplifts itself to the throne of God, and its root reaches down to hell. Its arms stretch out from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, from pole to pole. In it heaven and earth are united, in it appeased; in it things which are most strongly opposed are reconciled and made one.” Comp. also the remarks of Œcolampadius, Cocceius, etc., cited below [Homiletical and Practical].
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 6 lies--rather, "vain boasting" (Isa 16:6; Jer 48:30). The "men"…
lies--rather, "vain boasting" (Isa 16:6; Jer 48:30). The "men" is emphatic; men of sense; in antithesis to "vain boasting."
mockest--upbraidest God by complaints, "shall no man make thee ashamed?"
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6 ZOPHAR’S FIRST ADDRESS.1. Then answered Zophar — Eliphaz had…
ZOPHAR’S FIRST ADDRESS.1. Then answered Zophar — Eliphaz had modestly confirmed his views by an appeal to the revelation of a spirit; Bildad, by recourse to the wisdom of the ancients; Zophar, the youngest of the three, relies upon himself. “At first,” says Jahn, “his discourse is characterized by rusticity; his second address adds but little to the first; and in the third dialogue he has no reply to make.” The other two friends had looked upon Job’s sufferings as the chastenings of God, rather than punishments. Zophar, on the other hand, regards them as solely punitive. The address opens with painful vituperation, but proceeds in noble language to describe the infinite wisdom of God — a wisdom that comprehends and arraigns the human heart. In contrast man at best is, as Zophar says, but hollow-headed and perverse from his birth. With beautiful imagery he portrays the happiness and security of the just, and concludes, like Bildad, with the doom of the wicked.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–6 2. Should not the multitude of words] Or, shall…
2. Should not the multitude of words] Or, shall not …? Zophar probably did not demand the parole immediately on Job’s ceasing to speak. A pause was allowed to intervene, and the words with which he commences form his apology for speaking—he replies to Job only lest Job should fancy that by his much speaking he has shewn himself to be in the right, cf. Pro_10:19.
should a man full of talk] Or, shall a man full of talk, lit. a man of lips. Zophar insinuates that Job’s words come merely from his lips; they could not come, as the words of the ancients did, from the heart, ch. Job_8:10; they were mere empty phrases, cf. ch. Job_8:2; Isa_36:5. Job, it must be confessed, had made a long and in some parts vehement oration.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6 (1) Zophar, the third of Job’s friends, has a…
XI.
(1) Zophar, the third of Job’s friends, has a clearly defined character, distinct from that of the others; he is the ordinary and common-place moral man, who expresses the thoughts and instincts of the many. Eliphaz was the poet and spiritual man, who sees visions and dreams; Bildad was the man who rested on authority and appealed to tradition; Zophar is the man of worldly wisdom and common sense. In some respects he is the most offensive of the three. He is astonished that Job has not been silenced by the replies of the other two, and thinks he can do no less than help to silence him. Thus he at once begins with “a multitude of words,” and “full of talk,” and “lies,” and “mockery.” Zophar stands on a lower level, and drags Job down to it. He refracts his protestations of innocence against himself, and charges him with iniquity in making them. His longing also to come into judgment with God (Job_9:32) he turns back upon himself, being confident that it could not fail to convict him were he to do so.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–6 Vers. 1-20. Zophar, the Naamathite, the third of Job"s…
Vers. 1-20. Zophar, the Naamathite, the third of Job"s comforters, (Job_2:11) and probably the youngest of them, now at last takes the word, and delivers an angry and violent speech. He begins by accusing Job of having spoken at undue length, and at the same time, boastfully and mockingly (vers. 2-4). He then expresses a wish that God would take Job at his word, and really answer him, since he is sure that the result would be to show that Job had been punished much less than he. deserved to be (vers. 5, 6). Job"s complaints against the justice of God"s dealings he meets by an assertion of God"s unsearchableness and perfect wisdom, which he contrasts with the folly of man (ver. 7-12). Finally, he suggests that a stricken man, being guilty, should humble himself, put away his iniquity, and turn to God, in which ease he may expect a restoration to favour. Otherwise, he has only to look for wretchedness, failure, and despair (vers. 18-20).
Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said. (see the comment on Job_2:11)
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Vers. 1-6. Zophar to Job: 1. The opinions of a dogmatist.
I ZOPHAR"S OPINIONS CONCERNING JOB. A severe but wholly unfounded indictment.
1. Loquacity. Job"s previous orations, so full of lofty sentiment and fervent emotion, he characterizes as "a multitude of words," and Job himself as "a man full of talk literally, "a man of lips." Prolixity in speech, though not a violation of God"s Law, is certainly a breach of good taste. Words should never be employed except to represent thoughts, and should always be carefully selected and skilfully compacted. If brevity he the soul of wit, it is also the heart of wisdom. Mere talkativeness is a fool"s gift, (Ecc_5:3) and a frequent occasion of sin. (Pro_10:19) On the other hand, "even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise; and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding". (Pro_17:28) A wise man, also, is never so much in danger of being mistaken for a fool as when he forgets to put a bridle on his tongue. God"s people should be "swift to hear, slow to speak.
2. Boasting. Job"s vehement language Zophar describes as "big talk the noisy declamation of a loud-mouthed controversialist, who talks his opponents down by sheer force of clamour, foolishly supposing he has thereby overcome them in argument. Words of truth and soberness should be used by all. (Act_26:25) Religious men especially should be careful, particularly in the hearing of weak brethren, of extravagant assertions as to either their own piety or their thoughts about God. Job"s asseverations came near overstepping the limits of a just moderation; yet they appeared worse than they were because of Zophar"s failure to understand them. or sympathize with their speaker.
3. Mockery. Job"s sentiments Zophar pronounced to be wholly of an infidel tendency. But what Job scoffed at was only the representation of the Divine character and government which had been given by Eliphaz and Bildad. It may argue audacity and self-conceit to arraign the popular dogmas of the day; but one may do so, it is hoped"without being justly chargeable with impiety and unbelief.
4. Hypocrisy. Job"s steadfast assertion of personal integrity seemed to Zophar mere religious pretence. But if a man, who is at heart insincere, may yet be esteemed righteous by his fellows, (Mat_6:1-6) it is not impossible that one, who seems a hypocrite in man"s eyes, may in God"s sight be "perfect and entire.
II ZOPHAR"S OPINIONS CONCERNING GOD. Zophar suggests that, if God appeared to Job, he would be found:
1. Irresistible in teaching. "Oh that God would speak, and open his lips against or, "with thee" (ver. 5). Thy complaints would then be silenced by the convincing light of God"s revelations! What Zophar here desiderated for his friend has been practically granted to all. "God manifest in the flesh," "the Man Christ Jesus," who appeared in the fulness of the times, is God"s Answer to all preceding and subsequent centuries perplexed with the dark problem of existence. No solution of life"s enigma but God"s ever satisfies a soul. God can accomplish what no human teacher can; (Job_36:22) he can exhibit to the soul truth in its naked purity, causing it to commend itself to every man"s conscience, and, whether accepted or rejected, putting to silence all doubts and questionings as to its import. (1Co_2:4-13 2Co_4:2 1Th_1:5)
2. Unsearchable in wisdom. "And that he would show thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is or perhaps, that it is fold upon fold." True wisdom lies deep. Its secrets are seldom patent to superficial observation. Hidden fold over fold, their discovery is a work of labour, the fruit of profound reflection, the result of Heaven"s revelation. Even that wisdom which is purely mundane requires patient, painful, persevering study; (Pro_2:3, Pro_2:4) much more "that wisdom which cometh from above". (Jam_3:17) Most of all the wisdom of the Divine mind lies fold upon fold, deep, intricate, unfathomable, unsearchable, and therefore undiscoverable by man except through Divine revelation (see homiletics on next paragraph).
3. Merciful in judgment. "Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity literally, "forgets for thee of thy guilt" (ver. 6). Designed for Job"s humiliation, the exhortation, nevertheless, contains precious truths.
(1) That God can forget a man"s guilt, suffer it to drop out of his mind in such a way that it shall never plead against him for punishment. (Rom_3:26)
(2) That God, in point of fact, forgets a portion of every man"s guilt, since otherwise no man could stand before him. (Psa_130:3) Zophar failed to see
(3) that God can forget all a sinner"s trespass, and exact from him nothing of what he deserves.
Learn:
1. That all the opinions of a good man are not necessarily correct.
2. That it is sometimes harder to be just to one"s fellow-men than it is to be fair to God.
3. That man"s ideas of God and truth may be arraigned without incurring the charge of infidelity.
4. That men often behold sins in others which they cannot, though they should, see in themselves.
5. That good teaching should not be rejected, even though rudely proffered.
6. That even vulgar dogmatists may sometimes utter lofty truths.
7. That God is more merciful than even the best of men think.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-20. "Humble yourselves beneath the mighty hand of God.
Zophar, the youngest of the friends, now comes forward once more to beat down the complaint of Job with the old arguments and commonplaces. To support his words, he does not appeal to a vision like Eliphaz, nor rely on the wisdom of the ancients like Bildad, but depends on his own understanding and zealous though narrow instinct for God. His whole speech is an example of the beauty and, at the same time, the defect of religious zeal. In anxiety for God"s honour he forgets to be considerate of his fellow-man. The general contents of the speech may be characterized as the rebuke of human ignorance.
I INDIGNANT DENUNCIATION OF HUMAN COMPLIANT. (Vers. 1-4) He terms Job"s outpourings a "torrent of words," "vain talk," and impious "mockery," a scoffing; and Job himself is an idle "prater." Further, he stoutly sums up all Job"s speeches as meaning shortly this: "My teaching is pure, and I am guiltless in God"s eyes." Job, in fact, has stepped quite out of his place, in Zophar"s opinion, laying down principles and doctrines instead of meekly and penitently suffering in silence. It is an unjust view, manifestly; and we should be warned against the danger, in pleading for God, of being unjust and unfair, hard and uncharitable, to our fellow-man. To fetter the tongue, to attempt to lay fetters on the free course of the mind, especially in its moment of sorrow, may be to inflict a cruel injury on a sensitive heart.
II WISH FOR GOD"S APPEARANCE. (Vers. 5, 6) He desires that God in the fulness of his revelation, in the complete disclosure of knowledge and truth, may convince Job how "doubly strong" is Wisdom in her nature and penetrating power (ver. 6). Here would Job learn that, so far from being unjustly punished, God has rather passed by much of his guilt, and punishes him far less than he deserves. Here two defects are contrasted.
1. Half-knowledge of God. This according, to Zophar, is Job"s condition. He has but a partial understanding of God; and the little that he sees he misapplies, and so is led into perplexity and passion. Zophar, assuming guilt in Job, deems, and wrongly, that Job is tempted to think only of his innocence, and to overlook his great and hidden sins. In the end (ch. 38), when God does manifest himself, Job does recognize that he is but a half-knower, but not that he is a hypocrite.
2. But there is, on the other hand, the assumption of knowledge on the part of the rebuking speaker which is not less a fault. This is, indeed, the error of all the friends, and it awaits the Divine answer. In seeking to remove the mote from Job"s eye, they are unconscious of the beam in their own. These differences may be reconciled if we bear in mind the great saying of St. Paul, that we see but in part, and know but in part, and that all perplexities are solved by an absolute faith in the Divine love. We see again and again illustrated in Divine things the truth that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
III CHALLENGE TO HUMAN IGNORANCE: THE UNSEARCHABLENESS OF GOD. (Vers. 7-9) All measures of vastness, all ideas of infinity, are called in to impress this thought. The might and the wisdom of God are high as the unscalable heaven, deep as the dark lower world. (comp. Job_22:12 Job_26:6) The infinity of God embraces the whole earth, and reaches beyond; it is longer than the firm land, broader than the broad sea, so that before it there is nothing too lofty, too obscure, too remote. It is the fixed thought-embrace of the universe. Will mortal man, then, be guilty of the folly of quarrelling with God"s wisdom and power, and so incur the full weight of his judgment? Rather let him be dumb, and open not his mouth, and say, "Thou hast done it.
a. HUMAN IGNORANCE CONVICTED AND ABASHED BEFORE THE DIVINE JUDGMENT. (Vers. 10-12) If God holds judgment with this supreme wisdom and power, then plainly man, be he never so stupid and obstinately ignorant of his guilt, must forthwith become conscious of it; and though he were furious and wild as a wild ass, (comp. Job_39:5, Job_39:8) he must be subdued by that omnipotent power into tameness and docility. "The wild ass is now born as a man," converted by the terror of that moment of judgment. So speaks Zophar with caustic rebuke of what he considers the contumacy of Job. He seems to turn the language of Job, Job_9:11, et seq"to his own purpose. Thus the arrival of the Judge to execute judgment is in the rush of a rapid storm (ver. 10). He "passes bye" and thereupon follows the "shutting-up" or arrest of the accused, that he may not escape during the judgment; and then the "gathering together" of the people to hear the judgment.
b. WORDS OF HOPE AND PROMISE. (Vers. 13-20) Severe as are the speeches of the three friends, they yet have a clear apprehension of the eternal gospel of God"s mercy, and insist on the unfailing hope set before the true penitent in that gospel
1. Conditions.
a. (Ver. 13) The "direction," or "preparation," or setting straight, of the heart. This is the first thing. Crooked feelings, perverted principles, must be rectified. There must be sincere penitence. Happiness does not begin with the outward life to pass into the inward; the process is the reverse. And the restoration must be in the same order. If the inward life be purified, the outward will flow into peace.
b. Along with this there must be the "spreading forth of the hands to God;" in other words, true prayer. The symbol is put for the thing signified, the rite for the reality. Very significant and beautiful was the Hebrew attitude of prayer. It expressed longing, urgency, the effort of the soul to seize and hold fast the unseen power and grace in time of need.
c. (Ver. 14) There must be the removal of all previous iniquity from the home as well as the heart. Every vestige and association of it must be swept away all that might remind the soul of forbidden pleasures, and tempt it into renewal of its sin. It might be well for a man in the endeavour to make his repentance thorough and sincere, and might help his mind to form new associations, to renew the face of his dwelling from top to bottom, and cast out all articles of furniture, pictures, utensils, etc., that might bring up the thought of former evil. For some minds it would at least be a wholesome discipline. At all events, let nothing be left undone to cleanse the heart, the imagination, the inward chambers of the soul, in preparation for the coming of the gracious renewing, consecrating presence of the Divine Guest.
2. The consequences of return to God.
(1) Courage (ver. 15), fresh, calm, and strong. Referring to Job"s complaint (Job_10:15) that he is compelled to bow his head in ignominy before the unworthy, his friend declares that he will be enabled to lift it up in the face of day. How serene the face, how clear the glance, how assured the step of the man who has no coward secret of ill in his heart, who by confession and repentance has made the mighty God his Friend!
(2) Oblivion of sorrow. (Ver. 16) Is memory on the whole a greater blessing or torment? Alas! Job has lately found it to be the latter. The "remembering happier things" has proved his "crown of sorrow." Like a returning tide, it has cast his wrecked treasures at his feet. But on the turning of his heart to God these bitter memories shall be carried away, as on a flowing stream, till they pass out of sight and disappear. Thank God that we can remember; but thank God, too, that we can forget!
(3) A season of brightness. (Ver. 17) Even if the darkness come, it will be comparatively light like the morning-exactly opposite to Job_10:22. For there is no darkness to him who has God as the Guest of his soul.
(4) Rest unbroken by danger (vers. 18, 19); cheerful hope in toil; the respect and homage of friends and suitors. For there is something magnetic in piety and goodness; it seems a kind of amber which attracts to itself. Such will be, ever are, the fruits of a heart free from guile, and at peace with God. Zophar"s enthusiastic picture is fitted to kindle a love of virtue and piety; but its exclusion of the facts and relations of life renders it but partially true, like the maxims of his two friends. We must be content to feel that there is a truth, and a very deep and Divine truth, in this sequence, without denying that there are complications of this truth with others, as in the case of Job, which God and eternity can alone unravel.
VI DARK PICTURE, IN CONTRAST, OF THE WICKED. (Ver. 20)
1. The languor of vain longing. Their eyes waste and consume with watching and tears for a dawn that never comes. (comp. Psa_6:7)
2. Escape from the prima of their woe is denied.
3. Hope and life are together extinguished. J.
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN Vers. 1-6. Self-complacency condemned.
Even the lowly and humble are liable to over-estimate their own goodness, and the more so if roused to self-justification. All imperfect human judgments, given as Job"s were, under the influence of deep feeling, are liable to be coloured, to be overdrawn and extravagant. Job"s long speech in his own justification is likened by Zophar to a torrent. Zophar, like his companions, may judge Job harshly, wherein lies his error and theirs; but his words have a vein of truth in them. He is right in condemning the self-complacent, who can prate freely of his own goodness, whether he is judging Job rightly or wrongly.
I SELF-COMPLACENCY APT TO BURY ITSELF IN A MULTITUDE OF WORDS. It would almost seem that the mere abundance of Job"s answers to all the accusations raised against him excites his friend"s retort. Yet how true is it that the self-complacent one, willing to justify himself, finds arguments in abundance! And, being on his defence, he is liable to view things with a prejudiced eye. The man "fall of talk" is in danger of burying truth in "the multitude of words." The greater need for guarding against the perils of exaggeration by how much many words are used. A strict watch necessary when the tongue runneth over.
II SELF-COMPLACENCY SHOWN ESPECIALLY IN SELFJUSTIFICATION. This the point of Zophar"s accusation. This the constant danger. A man at peace with himself, rightly or wrongly believing in his own innocence, is most liable to justify himself. The lowly self-accused spirit is freed from this especial danger. Self-justification shows the standard by which life is judged to be a low one. As men rise in goodness, and so in their clearer discernment of the true nature of righteousness, they are bowed down in self-abasement. The self-justified has but a poor and very imperfect standard of right before his eyes. "Shall no man make thee ashamed?" Therefore
III SELF-COMPLACENCY HIDES THE JUDGMENT OF GOD FROM THE EYES. The man comes up to his standard. He is open to no more teaching. His "doctrine is pure;" he is "clean at least, in his own "eyes." Such a man in danger of perverting judgment. To close the eyes to the Divine judgment upon the life, even though that judgment be severe, is to do irreparable harm to the character. Let the true light shine, though it reveal faults of the gravest kind and bring down the pride of men to the very earth. Zophar may not intend to accuse Job of intentional lying, but he does accuse him of error. Men must err in their judgments if the standards by which they judge are false. The eye blinded by self-complacency cannot see that which, if clearly seen, would condemn.
IV SELF-COMPLACENCY REBUKED BY AN ACCURATE VIEW OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS. To this Job was ultimately brought. We see him in the process in the way. If God "speak," if he "open his lips," his words are sure to condemn. If he shows "the secrets of wisdom," then would appear his gracious forbearance, and, even in the case of the heavily afflicted, it would be revealed that he "exacteth less than iniquity deserveth." One day the clear light will shine, and not Job only, but every perplexed and suffering son of Adam, will see that the Lord is gracious and merciful, that he does not render to man the whole fruit of his evil doings. He remembers the frailty and error of men"s judgments, and is patient and forgiving. R.G.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY Ver. 1. Zophar, the man of the world.
After the seer and the pedant comes Zophar, who poses as the man of the world. He can pretend to no supernatural illumination, neither has he any claims to put forth on the score of learning; but he thinks he knows men, he prides himself on his common sense, the ways of the world are familiar to him. Even from his low standpoint he thinks he can detect enough to condemn Job. We may see in Zophar the characteristics of a man of the world in his treatment of moral and religious questions, when he presents himself as a devout man and friendly adviser.
I HE IS ORTHODOX Zophar entirely agrees with the main position of Eliphaz and Bildad. He accepts the doctrines of the visionary when they have been endorsed by conventional society, and he echoes the traditions of antiquity after he has ascertained that they are not regarded as obsolete in his time. He has not the spiritual individuality to be singular. He will always side with the majority. The fear of Mrs. Grundy is ever before his eyes. It is bad form to be a heretic. Conventionality is orthodoxy with this man, and conventionality is the rule of his life.
II HE IS A MAN OF THE TIMES. He would rather despise the dreams of the visionary and the sayings of the pedant. He thinks himself a modern man. But he is no power in his day, for he is but the creature of his age. It is the duty of Christians not to follow the age, but to rule it. When the worldly Christian follows it, he enslaves himself, and does his best to subject the kingdom of heaven to the prince of this world. We ought to understand our times, sympathize with their need, use their advantages, work for their progress, but never be their creatures and drudges.
III HE IS BLIND TO THE GREATEST TRUTH. The whole spiritual world is a nonentity to this man. Being religious and orthodox, he talks the language of Divine things; but his words are meaningless counters. The reality of those things is quite beyond his grasp. He thinks he knows men, but he only sees one side of the world. A whole hemisphere of human experience is turned away from his gaze. He is like a person on this world looking at the moon, seeing one side in varying phases, but never able to catch a glimpse of the other side of it. The truly spiritual, the generous, the mystical, are all obscure to him. We cannot know the best truth till we are liberated from the shackles of conventionality.
IV HE IS CENSORIOUS. Zophar joins his two friends in their condemnation of Job. The man of the world thinks himself broad-minded. Very often he is not over-scrupulous on moral questions that touch his own interest. But no one can be harder in condemning those who transgress the customs of the circle in which he moves. His religion has no softening, sweetening influence on him. It only seems to make him sour and disagreeable. So-called Christians of this stamp are the greatest possible hindrances to the progress of the gospel. It is their conduct that makes so many people hate the Christian religion. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite.
Job_11:1-6
Then answered Zophar the Naamathite.
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The attitude of Jobs friends
In this chapter Zophar gives his first speech, and it is sharper toned than those which went before. The three friends have now all spoken. Your sympathies perhaps are not wholly on their side. Yet do not let us misjudge them, or assail them with the invectives which Christian writers hurled against them for centuries. Do not say, as has been said by the great Gregory, that these three men are types of Gods worst enemies, or that they scarcely speak a word of good, except what they have learned from Job. Is it not rather true that their words, taken by themselves, are far more devout, far more fit for the lips of pious, we may even say, of Christian men, than those of Job? Do they not represent that large number of good and God-fearing men and women, who do not feel moved or disturbed by the perplexities of life; and who resent as shallow, or as mischievous, the doubts to which those perplexities give rise in the minds of others, of the much afflicted, or the perplexed, or of persons reared in another school than their own, or touched by influences which have never reached themselves? So Jobs friends try in their own way to justify the ways of God to man--a noble endeavour, and in doing this, they have already said much which is not only true, but also most valuable. They have pleaded on their behalf the teaching, if I may so speak, of their Church, the teaching handed down from antiquity, and the experiences of Gods people. They have a firm belief, not only in Gods power, but in His unerring righteousness. They hold also the precious truth that He is a God who will forgive the sinner, and take back to His favour him who bears rightly the teaching of affliction. Surely, so far, a very grand and simple creed. We shall watch their language narrowly, and we shall still find in it much to admire, much with which to sympathise, much to treasure and use as a storehouse of Christian thought. We shall see also where and how it is that they misapplied the most precious of truths, and the most edifying of doctrines; turned wholesome food to poison; pressed upon their friend half truths, which are sometimes the worst of untruths. We shall note also no less that want of true sympathy, of the faculty of entering into the feelings of men unlike themselves, and of the power of facing new views or new truths, which has so often in the history of the Church marred the character and impaired the usefulness of some of Gods truest servants. We shall see them, lastly, in the true spirit of the controversialist, grow more and more embittered by the persistency in error, as they hold it, of him who opposes them. The true subject of this sacred drama is unveiling itself before our eyes. Has he who serves God a right to claim exemption from pain and suffering? Is such pain a mark of Gods displeasure, or may it be something exceedingly different? Must Gods children in their hour of trial have their thoughts turned to the judgment that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah, or shall they fix them on the agony and bloody sweat of Him whose coming in the flesh we so soon commemorate? (Dean Bradley.)
Questionable reproving and necessary teaching
I. Questionable reproof. Reproof is often an urgent duty. It is the hardest act of friendship, for whilst there are but few men who do not at times merit reprehension, there are fewer still who will graciously receive, or even patiently endure a reproving word, and Considering, as John Foster has it, how many difficulties a friend has to surmount before he can bring, himself to reprove me, I ought to be much obliged to him for his chiding words. The reproof which Zophar, in the first four verses, addressed to Job suggests two remarks.
1. The charges he brings against Job, if true, justly deserve reproof. What does he charge him with?
(1) Loquacity. Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should not a man full of talk be justified? As the tree with the most luxuriant leafage is generally least fruitful, so the man full of talk is, as a rule, most empty. It is ever true that in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin, and every man should be swift to hear and slow to speak. He charges him
(2) With falsehood. Should thy lies make men hold their peace? For lies, in the margin we have devices. Zophar means to say that much of what Job said was not according to truth, not fact, but the ungrounded inventions or fancies of his own mind. He charges him
(3) With irreverence. And when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?
(4) With hypocrisy. But thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in mine eyes.
2. The charges, if true, could not justify the spirit and style of the reproof. Considering the high character and the trying circumstances of Job, and the professions of Zophar as his friend, there is a heartlessness and an insolence in his reproof most reprehensible and revolting. There is no real religion in rudeness; there is no Divine inspiration in insolence. Reproof, to be of any worth, should not merely be deserved, but should be given in a right spirit, a spirit of meekness, tenderness, and love. Reprehension is not an act of butchery, but an act of surgery, says Seeker. There are those who confound bluntness with honesty, insolence with straightforwardness. The true reprover is of a different metal, and his words fall, not like the rushing hailstorm, but like the gentle dew.
II. Necessary teaching. These words suggest that kind of teaching which is essential to the well-being of every man.
1. It is intercourse with the mind of God. Oh that God would speak, and open His lips against thee. The great need of the soul is direct communication with God. All teachers are utterly worthless unless they bring God in contact with the soul of the student. If this globe is to be warmed into life the sun must do it.
2. It is instruction in the wisdom of God. And that He would show thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Gods wisdom is profound; it has its secrets. Gods wisdom is double, it is many folded; fold within fold, without end.
3. It is faith in the forbearing love of God. Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth. (Homilist.)
Multitudinous words
I have always a suspicion of sonorous sentences. The full shell sounds little, but shows by that little what is within. A bladder swells out more with wind than with oil. (J. Landor.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Job 11
XI.
A FRESH ATTEMPT TO CONVICT
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Job 11
ZOPHAR SPEAKS
THE 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 thou mayest mock on, none putting thee to shame?"
True it was, Job had used vehement speech. Yet it is a most insulting suggestion that he meant little but irreligious bluster. The special note of Zophar comes out in his rebuke of Job for the mockery, that is, sceptical talk, in which he had indulged. Persons who merely rehearse opinions are usually the most dogmatic and take most upon them. Nobody reckons himself more able to detect error in doctrine, nobody denounces rationalism and infidelity with greater confidence, than the man whose creed is formal, who never applied his mind directly to the problems of faith, and has but a moderate amount of mind to apply. Zophar, indeed, is a man of considerable intelligence; but he betrays himself. To him Jobs words have been wearisome. He may have tried to understand the matter, but he has caught only a general impression that, in the face of what appears to him clearest evidence, Job denies being any way amenable to justice. He had dared to say to God, "Thou knowest that I am not wicked." What? God can afflict a man whom He knows to be righteous! It is a doctrine as profane as it is novel. Eliphaz and Bildad supposed that they had to deal with a man unwilling to humble himself in the way of acknowledging sins hitherto concealed. By pressure of one kind or another they hoped to get Job to realise his secret transgression. But Zophar has noted the whole tendency of his argument to be heretical. "Thou sayest, My doctrine is pure." And what is that doctrine? Why, that thou wast clean in the eyes of God, that God has smitten thee without cause. Dost thou mean, O Job! to accuse the Most High of acting in that manner? Oh that God would speak and open His lips against thee! Thou hast expressed a desire to state thy case to Him. The result would be very different from thy expectation.
Now, beneath any mistaken view held by sincere persons there is almost always a sort of foundation of truth; and they have at least as much logic as satisfies themselves. Jobs friends are religious men; they do not consciously build on lies. One and all they are convinced that God is invariable in His treatment of men, never afflicting the innocent, always dealing out judgment in the precise measure of a mans sin. That belief is the basis of their creed. They could not worship a God less than absolutely just. Beginning the religious life with this faith they have clung to it all along. After thirty or forty years experience they are still confident that their principle explains the prosperity and affliction, the circumstances of all human beings. But have they never seen anything that did not harmonise with this view of providence? Have they not seen the good die in youth, and those whose hearts are dry as summer dust burn to their sockets? Have they not seen vile schemes prosper, and the schemers enjoy their ill-gotten power for years? It is strange the old faith has not been shaken at least. But no! They come to the case of Job as firmly convinced as ever that the Ruler of the world shows His justice by dispensing joy and suffering in proportion to mens good and evil deeds, that whenever trouble falls on any one some sin must have been committed which deserved precisely this kind and quantity of suffering.
Trying to get at the source of the belief we must confess ourselves partly at a loss. One writer suggests that there may have been in the earlier and simpler conditions of society a closer correspondence between wrong doing and suffering than is to be seen nowadays. There may be something in this. But life is not governed differently at different epochs, and the theory is hardly proved by what we know of the ancient world. No doubt in the history of the Hebrews, which lies behind the faith attributed to the friends of Job, a connection may be traced between their wrong doing as a nation and their suffering as a nation. When they fell away from faith in God their obedience languished, their vigour failed, the end of their existence being lost sight of, and so they became the prey of enemies. But this did not apply to individuals. The good suffered along with the careless and wicked in seasons of national calamity. And the history of the people of Israel would support such a view of the Divine government so long only as national transgression and its punishment were alone taken into account. Now, however, the distinction between the nation and the individual has clearly emerged. The sin of a community can no longer explain satisfactorily the sufferings of a member of the community, faithful among the unbelieving.
But the theory seems to have been made out rather by the following course of argument. Always in the administration of law and the exercise of paternal authority, transgression has been visited with pain and deprivation of privilege. The father whose son has disobeyed him inflicts pain, and, if he is a judicious father, makes the pain proportionate to the offence. The ruler, through his judges and officers, punishes transgression according to some orderly code. Malefactors are deprived of liberty; they are fined or scourged, or, in the last resort, executed. Now, having in this way built up a system of law which inflicts punishment with more or less justice in proportion to the offence imputed, men take for granted that what they do imperfectly is done perfectly by God. They take for granted that the calamities and troubles He appoints are ordained according to the same principle, with precisely the same design, as penalty is inflicted by a father, a chief, or a king. The reasoning is contradicted in many ways, but they disregard the difficulties. If this is not the truth, what other explanation is to be found? The desire for happiness is keen; pain seems the worst of evils: and they fail to see that endurance can be the means of good. Feeling themselves bound to maintain the perfect righteousness of God they affirm the only theory of suffering that seems to agree with it.
Now, Zophar, like the others full of this theory, admits that Job may have failed to see his transgression. But in that case the sufferer is unable to distinguish right from wrong. Indeed, his whole contention seems to Zophar to show ignorance. If God were to speak and reveal the secrets of His holy wisdom, twice as deep, twice as penetrating as Job supposes, the sins he has denied would be brought home to him. He would know that God requires less of him than his iniquity deserves. Zophar hints, what is very true, that our judgment of our own conduct is imperfect. How can we trace the real nature of our actions, or know how they look to the sublime wisdom of the Most High? Job appears to have forgotten all this. He refuses to allow fault in himself. But God knows better.
Here is a cunning argument to fortify the general position. It could always be said of a case which presented difficulties that, while the sufferer seemed innocent, yet the wisdom of God, "twofold in understanding" (Job_11:6) as compared with that of man, perceived guilt and ordained the punishment. But the argument proved too much, for Zophars own health and comfort contradicted his dogma. He took for granted that the twofold wisdom of the Almighty found nothing wrong in him. It was a naive piece of forgetfulness. Could he assert that his life had no flaw? Hardly. But then, why is he in honour? How had he been able to come riding on his camel, attended by his servants, to sit in judgment on Job? Plainly, on an argument like his, no man could ever be in comfort or pleasure, for human nature is always defective, always in more or less of sin. Repentance never overtakes the future. Therefore God who deals with man on a broad basis could never treat him save as a sinner, to be kept in pain and deprivation. If suffering is the penalty of sin we ought all, notwithstanding the atonement of Christ, to be suffering the pain of the hour for the defect of the hour, since "all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." At this rate mans life-again despite the atonement-would be continued trial and sentence. From all which it is evident that the world is governed on another plan than that which satisfied Jobs friends.
Zophar rises to eloquence in declaring the unsearchableness of Divine wisdom.
"Canst thou find the depths of Eloah?
Canst thou reach to the end of Shaddai?
Heights of heaven!
What canst thou do?
Deeper than Sheol!
What canst thou know?
The measure thereof is longer than the earth,
Broader is it than the sea."
Here is fine poetry; but with an attempt at theology the speaker goes astray, for he conceives God as doing what he himself wishes to do, namely, prove Job a sinner. The Divine greatness is invoked that a narrow scheme of thought may be justified. If God pass by, if He arrest, if He hold assize, who can hinder Him? Supreme wisdom and infinite power admit no questioning, no resistance. God knoweth vain or wicked men at a glance. One look and all is plain to him. Empty man will be wise in these matters "when a wild asss colt is born a man."
Turning from this, as if in recollection that he has to treat Job with friendliness, Zophar closes like the other two with a promise. If Job will put away sin, his life shall be established again, his misery forgotten or remembered as a torrent of spring when the heat of summer comes.
Thou shalt forget thy misery;
Remember it as waters that have passed by;
And thy life shall rise brighter than noonday;
And if darkness fall, it shall be as the morning.
Thou shalt then have confidence because there is hope;
Yea, look around and take rest in safety,
Also lie down and none shall affray thee,
And many shall make suit unto thee.
But the eyes of the wicked fail;
For them no way of escape.
And their hope is to breathe out the spirit.
Rhetoric and logic are used in promises given freely by all the speakers. But not one of them has any comfort for his friend while the affliction lasts. The author does not allow one of them to say, God is thy friend, God is thy portion now; He still cares for thee. In some of the psalms a higher note is heard: "There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased." The friends of Job are full of pious intentions, yet they state a most unspiritual creed, the foundation of it laid in corn and wine. Peace of conscience and quiet confidence in God are not what they go by. Hence the sufferer finds no support in them or their promises. They will not help him to live one day, nor sustain him in dying. For it is the light of Gods countenance he desires to see. He is only mocked and exasperated by their arguments; and in the course of his own eager thought the revelation comes like a star of hope rising on the midnight of his soul.
Though Zophar fails like the other two, he is not to be called a mere echo. It is incorrect to say that, while Eliphaz is a kind of prophet and Bildad a sage, Zophar is a commonplace man without ideas. On the contrary, he is a thinker, something of a philosopher, although, of course, greatly restricted by his narrow creed. He is stringent, bitter indeed. But he has the merit of seeing a certain force in Jobs contention which he does not fairly meet. It is a fresh suggestion that the answer must lie in the depth of that penetrating wisdom of the Most High, compared to which mans wisdom is vain. Then, his description of the return of blessedness and prosperity, when one examines it, is found distinctly in advance of Eliphazs picture in moral colouring and gravity of treatment. We must not fail to notice, moreover, that Zophar speaks of the omniscience of God more.than of His omnipotence; and the closing verse describes the end of the wicked not as the result of a supernatural stroke or a sudden calamity, but as a process of natural and spiritual decay.
The closing words of Zophars speech point to the finality of death, and bear the meaning that if Job were to die now of his disease the whole question of his character would be closed. It is important to note this, because it enters into Jobs mind and affects his expressions of desire. Never again does he cry for release as before. If he names death it is as a sorrowful fate he must meet or a power he will defy. He advances to one point after another of reasserted energy, to the resolution that, whatever death may do, either in the underworld or beyond it, he will wait for vindication or assert his right.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Zophar follows in the same train with his companions.…
FIRST SPEECH OF ZOPHAR
Zophar follows in the same train with his companions. Misled by the same false principle—great sufferings prove great sins—he acts the part, not of a comforter, but of a reprover and an exhorter.
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I. His reason for speaking (Job_11:2-4).
“Should not the multitude of words be answered?” &c. His reason involves Job’s censure. Bitterly reproves him—
(1) As a mere talker (Job_11:2). “Should a man full of talk be justified?”
(2) As a vain and lying boaster (Job_11:3). “Should thy lies make men hold their peace?”
(3) As a proud despiser of others; “When thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?”
(4) As a self-righteous pretender to perfection, both in his principle and his practice (Job_11:4). “For thou hast said, my doctrine (speech, teaching, principles) is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes.” Observe—
(1) Even good men can speak and act towards others like the carnal and unconverted.
(2) Religious professors very often misunderstand and misjudge God’s tried people.
(3) Believers’ greatest trials sometimes from their own brethren in the faith. Christ a merciful as well as faithful High Priest, touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Heb_2:17-18; Heb_4:15).
II. Zophar desiderates Divine teaching for Job’s conviction (Job_11:5).
“But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee!” God speaks with a strong hand (Isa_8:11). “None teacheth like Him.” Such teaching needed alike by saint and sinner. Necessary—
(1) for conviction;
(2) for consolation. Divine teaching imparts—
(1) the knowledge of ourselves;
(2) the knowledge of God. God opens his lips—
(1) “against” the sinner, for his conviction;
(2) for him, for his consolation. “Spake in time past to the fathers in divers manners.” Speaks now—
(1) In His Word;
(2) By His Spirit. The Spirit’s office to convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (Joh_16:8). The Word of God sharper than any two-edged sword—a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Its office to pierce, to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, joints and marrow (Heb_4:12).—Two things desired as the result of Divine teaching in Job’s case; both important for shutting the mouths of complainers against God:—
1. The discovery of God’s transcendent and unsearchable wisdom (Job_11:6). “That he would shew thee the secrets (hidden depths) of wisdom, that they are double to that which is” (or, “for they are manifold,” or “there are doublings,”—complications or intricacies—“in his understanding”).—All complaints against the Divine procedure and our own lot proceed from ignorance of God’s designs. “What I do thou knowest not now.” God’s judgments a great deep. His way in the sea. “Depth of riches,” both in “the wisdom and knowledge of God.” His ways past finding out, yet all just and true. God not to be traced but trusted. “Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,” &c.
2. The discovery of Job’s own sinfulness as much greater than his sufferings. “Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth” (or “consigns to oblivion in thy favour,” or “remits to thee [a part] of thy iniquity,” or “punishment”). True, even in Job’s case, on the supposition that his sufferings were the punishment of his sins. Any affliction in this life only a part of what all sin deserves. The rich man in torments probably no worse than his neighbours (Luk_16:19-23). His sin not even mentioned by the Saviour. Probably only worldliness and self-indulgence, with its natural consequence, heedlessness of the wants and woes of others. His belly and the world his God. To offend in one point of God’s law makes a man guilty of all. Sin, knowingly committed, nothing less than rebellion against God; causeless anger and hatred against another, equivalent in God’s sight to murder. Equally subjects a man to the penalty of hell-fire (Mat_5:22; 1Jn_3:15). Covetousness a species of idolatry (Eph_5:5; Col_3:5). Earth a place of mercy and forbearance. The full punishment of sin reserved for another state.
III. Zophar chides Job’s presumption, and enlarges on the unsearchableness of the Almighty (Job_11:7-9).
“Canst thou by searching find out God” (or, “wilt thou find out the search,” or “deep wisdom” of God?) Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection (or “wilt thou find out perfectly,” or “penetrate to the perfection of the Almighty?”) It is as high as heaven (margin, “the heights of heaven”); what canst thou do [in attaining to it, viz., the deep wisdom or perfection of the Almighty]; deeper than hell (Sheol, or Hades, the invisible spirit-world, supposed to be in the lower parts of the earth), what canst thou know? (or how wilt thou understand it?) The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.” Poetical description of the Divine wisdom and knowledge, and in general of
The Unsearchableness of God
God unsearchable to finite creatures—
1. In His Person. His Nature or Essence beyond creature ken. As easy for an insect to comprehend man’s nature as for man to comprehend his Creator’s. The more the Grecian sage studied the question, what is God? the more he felt himself lost in it. Hence the altar of Athens with the inscription: To the Unknown God. In God is both “that which may be known,” and which may not be known (Rom_1:19). That He is, and what He is, may be known; how He is, and how far He is, is beyond a creature’s capacity to know. God capable of being apprehended, but not of being comprehended. A little child may apprehend God; a seraph cannot comprehend Him. God is incomprehensible in His mode of being as the One God; still more as the Three in One. To know that God is and what He is, necessary for an intelligent creature’s happiness: to know how He is, were it possible, could only gratify his curiosity. God only known as He is pleased to reveal Himself. Reveals Himself—
(1) In His works;
(2) In the human consciousness;
(3) In His word;
(4) Most of all in His Son Jesus Christ. Christ the image of the invisible God; He that hath seen Him hath seen the Father (Col_1:15; Joh_14:9). The incarnation, life, and death of Jesus Christ,—the final, full and authentic exhibition of the Divine character and perfections. Eternal life, to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent (Joh_17:3).
2. His Perfections. God’s Perfections or Attributes are—
(1) Natural or essential, as His Omniscience and Omnipotence;
(2) Moral, as His justice and goodness. God unsearchable in both kinds. The universe a theatre for the display of His perfections. A God everywhere present, and everywhere working,—sustaining the vibrations of an animalcule and the revolutions of a planet; watching over a sparrow, and giving orders to an archangel; and doing all in infinite wisdom, and justice, and goodness,—may well be unsearchable.
3. In His Purposes. The history of the world and of the universe, as well as of each individual, the evolution of these purposes (Act_15:18; Act_2:23). His purposes unsearchable (Rom_11:33; Psa_92:5). “Deep in unfathomable mines,” &c.
4. In His Performances. God unsearchable in His works of creation. Examples: The contents of a drop of stagnant water, as examined with a microscope; the starry heavens, as seen through Lord Rosse’s telescope. Modern astronomy gives a meaning to the “heights of heaven” undreamt of in the days of Zophar. Geology, on the other hand, reveals displays of Divine power and wisdom in extinct worlds or creations far beneath our feet.
5. In His Procedure. God’s dealings in providence both in regard to angels and men, the human race and the individuals composing it, unsearchable. Evil permitted in His own universe. The incarnation and death of His own Son an atonement for it. Man the object of that merciful provision; sinning angels excluded from its benefit.
Lessons from the unsearchableness of God:—
1. Modesty and humility in judging of God’s person or perfections, His works or His ways.
2. Submission to His will, and acquiescence in His providence.
3. Implicit trust in His wisdom and goodness.
4. Reverential, loving, and admiring adoration. The result of the contemplation of God’s works and ways in the apostle (Rom_11:33-36), and in the glorified in heaven (Rev_15:3-4).
IV. Adduces God’s resistless power and all-seeing eye as arguments to move Job to repentance (Job_11:10-12).
1. His Almighty power (Job_11:10). “If He cut off” (margin, “make a change,” as He has done in Job and his family; or, “if He seize” as a criminal, as He has done in Job’s case), and shut up (as in prison; or, “deliver over,” i.e., to an officer for trial), or gather together (an assembly or court to try the criminal)—who can hinder him? (margin, “turn him away.”) Awful picture of a sinner arrested by Divine justice. A sinner in the hands of an angry God! Escape or rescue equally impossible. The only hope of safety for a sinner lies in submission. Same sentiment uttered by Job himself (ch. Job_9:4; Job_9:12-13). Argument used by God (Psa_50:22); by Jesus (Mat_5:25-26); by the Apostle (Heb_2:3; Heb_10:31).
2. His Omniscience (Job_11:12). “For He knoweth vain men; He seeth wickedness also; will He not then consider it?” Another weighty argument for a sinner’s repentance. To elude God’s eye as impossible as to escape from His hand. “No darkness or shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.” “All things naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Further considerations, however, necessary to bring a sinner to repentance. Felix “trembled,” and said to the preacher: “Go thy way for this time.” Only the apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ able to soften and subdue the sinner’s heart. As addressed to Job, these arguments were—
(1) Inapplicable; Job not the sinner Zophar supposed.
(2) Useless; Job probably more keenly sensible of these truths than Zophar himself. Arguments, in order to move and benefit, need to be not only sound and solemn, but suitable and seasonable.—One important part of a preacher’s duty to consider the character and condition of those whom he addresses.—Zophar’s application of the foregoing arguments (Job_11:12). “For vain man would be wise (or ‘but let a vain, or empty, hollow-headed man become wise’) though man be born as the wild ass’s colt,” (or, “and let the wild ass’s colt be born a man”). The latter part of the verse, as thus read, an Arab proverb. “Wild ass,” used by the Arabs as a term of reproach. Probably the whole a proverbial maxim of the ancients. Apparently an exhortation rather than a statement. Contains truth in reference to man in general.
1. Man left to himself, ever since the fall, is “vain”. Empty of real goodness and sound spiritual understanding. “There is none that understandeth; there is none that doeth good.” Even the sages of antiquity “professing themselves wise became fools” (Rom_1:22).
2. Man is now by nature froward and self-willed “as a wild ass’s colt.” Like that animal, man’s disposition is to be free and uncontrolled. The child, like the man, wishes to be its own master. “Our lips are our own. Who is lord over us?” “Who is the Lord, that I should serve Him?” “Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” Frowardness, self-will, and intractableness, God’s frequent complaints against Israel. “All day long have I stretched out my hand towards a disobedient and gainsaying people.” “The heart of man fully set in them to do evil.” “Madness in men’s hearts while they live.” The constant tendency of man’s fallen nature to break loose from the restraints of Divine authority. Apart from grace, man, after his hardness and impenitent heart, treasures up wrath against the day of wrath (Rom_2:5).
3. A change of character and disposition necessary in order to man’s well-being either here or hereafter. The vain man must become wise. The wild ass’s colt—froward, self-willed, independent—must become a man, thoughtful, submissive, obedient. The second part of Christ’s call in the Gospel: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls” (Mat_11:29).
4. Such a change nothing less than a new birth. The wild ass’s colt must be “born” in order to become a man. A new birth necessary to froward, self-willed, independent man, in order to his entering the kingdom of God, whether on earth or in heaven. The teaching of Jesus (Joh_3:7). The promise (Eze_36:26). The prayer (Psa_51:10). The experience of it (Tit_3:5). The exhortation, as addressed to Job, was—
(1) Inapplicable. Job neither a fool nor, except perhaps in his trouble, especially when worried by his friends, a wild ass’s colt.
(2). Uncharitable, because inappropriate. “Charity thinketh no evil; hopeth all things.”
(3). Rude. No part of wisdom in a preacher or monitor to apply harsh terms and ill names, even indirectly. “Be courteous.” Hearers neither to be flattered on the one hand nor libelled on the other.
(4). Unfeeling. No consideration made of Job’s intense sufferings and accumulated trials. Zophar pours vinegar instead of oil on Job’s wounded spirit. Sympathy in a preacher necessary to success. Want of sympathy argues want of sense.
V. Persuasion to repentance, on the ground of personal advantage (Job_11:13-20).
The whole passage a noble strain of moral Oriental poetry. Perhaps quoted from the ancients by Zophar, from its supposed applicability to Job’s case. Exhibits the views prevalent at the period. The teaching that of the Old Testament or pre-Evangelical platform. Holds forth more especially the promise of earthly comfort and prosperity as the result of repentance and piety. Similar sentiments expressed by Eliphaz (ch. Job_5:8; Job_5:17-26); and by Bildad (ch. Job_8:5-7). Frequent in the Psalms and Proverbs; as Psalms 1, 37, 128; Proverbs 3, 4, ,
8. In order to personal profit, the passage to be read in the light of New Testament truth. The lamp of the New Testament to be carried with us in exploring the dark chambers of the Old. In the New Testament, the promises of future good are mainly connected with the Lord’s second appearing (Act_3:19-21; 1Th_1:9-10; Tit_2:11-13). The posture of New Testament believers that of “strangers and pilgrims on the earth;” the object of their desires and affections, the “things that are above;” their spirit, contentment with “such things as they have” (Heb_13:5; Heb_13:14; 1Pe_2:11; Col_3:1-2; 1Ti_6:8). The passage contains—
1. The terms proposed, or the duty recommended (Job_11:13-14). The condition a true turning to God. Three steps indicated—
(1). A preparation or right disposition of the heart (Job_11:13). “If thou prepare (or set right) thine heart.” Always represented as the first step in seeking God (1Sa_7:3; 2Ch_19:3; 2Ch_30:19; Ezr_7:10; Psa_78:8; Psa_78:37). Implies—(a) Serious consideration; (b) Firm purpose; (c) Suitable frame and disposition; (d) Removal of secret sin. The heart naturally biassed, and needs to be made straight; unstable, and needs to be made steadfast. Sincerity and earnestness essential in seeking God.
(2). Earnest prayer. “If thou stretch forth thine hands towards Him.” A common attitude in Old Testament devotion (Psa_36:9; Psa_143:6; Isa_1:15). Examples: Moses (Exo_9:33); Ezra (Job_9:5); Solomon (1Ki_8:22). Includes—(a) Confession of sin; (b) Supplication for mercy.
(3). Amendment of life (Job_11:14). “If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles” (or tents,—Arab chiefs required more than one for their household;—wickedness—not to be allowed in any of them. Several copies and ancient versions, however, read the word in the singular). Sin to be put away both from our persons and our premises. “Iniquity,”—injustice or wrong doing not to remain in our hand; “wickedness,”—any kind of open sin—not to remain in our house. Zacchæus an example of the first (Luk_19:8); David of the second (Psa_101:7). A man is greatly responsible for what is done in his household. Domestic, as well as personal sins, to be looked after and put away. The commendation of Abraham (Gen_18:19); The neglect of Eli (1Sa_2:12; 1Sa_2:17; 1Sa_3:11; 1Sa_3:14); The resolution of David (Psa_101:2; Psa_101:7). Observe—
(1) A striking gradation in the putting away of sin;—from the heart, from the hand, from the house.
(2) True religion begins with the heart, and ends with the life.
(3) Sin not only to be put away, but “far away.” Present impressions not to be trusted. All occasions and temptations to relapses to be avoided.
2. The promises annexed (Job_11:15-19). The promises suppose pardon and acceptance of the penitent, with his consciousness of it. This promised in the Old as well as in the New Testament, upon sincere confession and repentance, with faith in the Sacrifice (See Psa_32:1; Psa_32:5; Pro_28:13; Isa_1:17; Isa_55:6-7.) The promises here are—
1. A cheerful confidence before God and men (Job_11:15). “Thou shalt lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear.” Sense of pardon gives serenity of aspect. A purged conscience makes an uplifted countenance. “Without spot,”—either of guilt or its consequences. A face unabashed by guilt or shame, unsullied by grief or tears. Spots on the conscience transfer themselves to the countenance. Spots of guilt removed by the sprinkled blood; spots of grief by the consciousness of it. Conscious guilt makes the countenance to fall; sense of pardon and acceptance lifts it up (Gen_4:5-6; Luk_18:13; 1Jn_3:21.) The face sooner and better lifted up by pardon than by prosperity.
2. Deliverance from present suffering (Job_11:16). “Thou shalt forget thy misery and remember it as waters that pass (or, have passed) away.” Inward, if not outward misery, removed by sense of pardoning mercy (Psa_32:1; Psa_32:5; Psa_51:8-14). Inward suffering sooner or later the fruit of sin. The remembrance of previous sorrow swallowed up by present joy. Trouble forgotten through long continued triumph. Remembrance of grief often only an enhancement of joy. No trace left of the winter-torrent that has passed away. “Your joy no man taketh from you.” The desolating flood that has disappeared only remembered with thankful joy. So the pardoned soul has still in remembrance, “the wormwood and the gall.”
3. Abiding peace and joy (Job_11:17). “Thine age shall be clearer than the noonday (or, “a period, or happy age, shall arise to thee, brighter than, &c.”); and thou (or it) shalt shine forth, thou (or it) shalt be as the morning” (or, “now thou art in darkness, but then thou shalt be as the morning”). Light out of darkness, the experience of a penitent and pardoned soul (Hos_6:3). The light and joy of acceptance like “the noonday” for brightness; like “the morning” for increase. “The path of the just,” the justified and sanctified in Christ, a light increasing in brightness “unto the perfect day” (Pro_4:18). The believer’s joy not diminished by manifold trials (1Pe_1:6). Like oil poured on water, comes always to the surface. At times unspeakable and full of glory (1Pe_1:8).
4. Safety and security (Job_11:18-19). “Thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt aig about thee (making preparation, according to patriarchal custom, for a new abode; or, ‘now thou art ashamed but then, &c.’), and thou shalt take thy rest in safety; also, thou shalt lie down (as a shepherd with his flock), and none shall make thee afraid.” Hope in God’s mercy through Christ, the only foundation of real security. Divine protection one of the sweetest of new covenant blessings. Christ’s sheep safe in His hands and in those of His Father (Joh_10:28; Joh_10:30). “Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” Preservation of the soul an Old as well as New Testament promise (Psa_121:7). Oriental tents and travellers exposed to danger from robbers, wild beasts, and reptiles; believers’ souls exposed to no less peril (Col_2:8; Col_2:18; 1Pe_5:8; 2Co_11:3).
5. Influence among men (Job_11:19). “Many shall make suit to thee.” The mark of a great, if not a good man. “Many entreat the favour of the prince” (Pro_19:6). The same promised to the Church or Bride of Christ (Psa_45:12). So Abimelech made suit to Abraham, entreating his favour and alliance (Gen_26:26-29. Pardoned people are praying people; and praying people are Israels,—princes that have power both with God and men (Gen_32:28). God’s presence with a believer the ground of true greatness. He that has power with God likely to have influence among men. “We will go with you for we have heard that God is with you (Zec_8:23). Believers are kings and priests to God. Their duty so to walk as to gain respect to their profession. An ill sign with a professor when nobody seeks the favour of his prayers. A believer’s privilege so to carry Christ about with him that men shall feel his influence, as those who sought only to be in Peter’s shadow. The true character of a pardoned and accepted person is to have so much of Christ’s loving spirit as to carry with him a constant benefaction. Made sweet and gracious by God’s favour on them, and His spirit in them, believers carry with them the unconscious influence of a sweet and gracious atmosphere. A pardoned man, walking with Christ and imbibing His spirit, as sure to be perceived as a bag that carries sweet perfume. The privilege and duty of believers to exhale so much of Christ’s loving nature as, like modest and half-hidden violets, to attract others to them by their fragrance. This, as well as the other promises, realised in Job’s after experience, but not in the way imagined by Zophar (ch. Job_42:7-9).
VI. The contrasted case of the ungodly (Job_11:20) Includes—
(1) “Anxiety and disappointment. “The eyes of the wicked shall fail,”—anxiously looking in vain for the possession of good and deliverance from evil. A time when it is too late to knock even at mercy’s door. “They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me (Pro_1:28.
(2) Perplexity and hopelessness. “They shall not escape.” (Heb. “Refuge has perished from them”). Calamity, sooner or later, overtakes the Christless and impenitent, from which escape is impossible. “Because I called and ye refused,—I also will laugh at your calamity” (Pro_1:24-26). “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb_2:3; Heb_10:26-27).
(3) Ruin and despair. “Their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost” (margin, “as a puff of breath”). The hope of the impenitent and Christless proves as vain and unsubstantial as a puff of breath. Their expectation terminates with their life. Having chosen death rather than life, they obtain their choice. “All they that hate me love death.” (Pro_8:36.)
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Job 11:7-8
Job 11:7-8
Zophar’s question made Job burn with passion. Over three chapters, in alternate hope and despair, but always with fierce intensity, turning and returning his thoughts, but always reasserting against his woes his unconquerable knowledge of God, his unconquerable trust, Job’s reply spreads itself before us. The question is, Can a man find God?
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I. Look at nature; that is Job’s first cry. "Ask the beasts, and they shall teach thee," etc. Wherever I look I see life. Where does the life come from? Here are Job’s words: "In God’s hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind." Can I by searching find out God? Yes. I look for Him in nature, and I know Him there as intelligence and life.
II. Then Job passes on. Look now at man, he cries; see the changes of the world, the breaking down and raising up of men, wise men turned fools, bonds of kings loosed, the mighty overthrown. Who has done this? Man himself alone? The one clear thing in it all is that man is proved to be the creature of Another’s will. It is He whom I have found in nature, God the Lord.
III. Then Job turns to the personal question, the question pressed upon him by his dull and meddling friends, who in his trouble began to preach to him. He throws himself in a passionate despair of trust on God. I have nothing else to look to, and I will cling to that, no matter if death come. And he does cling to it, mean it.
IV. "Can man by searching find out God?" Yes. There is no need to seek Him in the unreachable heavens, or in the depths of the invisible darkness to look for Him. He is here in the life, and intelligence, and beauty of nature. He is here in the conduct of the world. He is here in the sense I have of my own righteousness before Him. He is here in the sense of an absolute justice, even though that justice punish me. He is here in my undying, unquenchable trust that He is mine and I am His for ever.
S. A. Brooke, The Spirit of the Christian Life, p. 347.
References: Job 11:7.—H. Melvill, Voices of the Year, vol. ii., p. 1. Job 11:7-9.—W. English, Church Sermons, vol. ii., p. 26. Job 11:12.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 314. Job 11:13-15.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 129. Job 11—S. Cox, Expositor, 1st series, vol. v., p. 123; Ibid., Commentary on Job, p. 141. Job 11-17—A. W. Momerie, Defects of Modern Christianity, p. 104.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The First Speech of Zophar
The First Speech of Zophar
The speech is short and unsympathetic.
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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 deserved.
7-12. God knows Job's sinfulness if he does not himself.
7. RM 'Canst thou find out the deep things of God?'
8. It] God's wisdom.
10. If he cut off, etc.] rather, 'Should he pass by, imprison, arraign before an assembly?' If God, with perfect knowledge of sinful man, visits him in various ways, who shall gainsay His actions?
12. Perhaps we may render, 'Thus vain man gets understanding, and a wild ass's colt is born a man.' The description of affliction brings wisdom to the foolish and transforms the most unpromising natures.
13-20. Repentance the way to restored prosperity.
14. Tabernacles] RV 'tents.'
15. Without spot] of guilt.
16. Waters] rather, 'floods.'
17. Thine age] RV 'thy life.' Thou shalt shine] RV 'Though there be darkness, it shall be as the morning.'
18. Dig] RV 'search,' viz. for danger, but find none.
20. As] RV omits. There is nothing before the wicked but death. The statement is general, but Zophar, unlike the other friends, hints that Job may belong to the wicked.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v1 Zophar is a religious dogmatist who assumes to know…
Zophar
Zophar is a religious dogmatist who assumes to know all about God; what God will do in any given case, why He will do it, and all His thoughts about it. Of all forms of dogmatism this is most irreverent, and least open to reason.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 CHAPTER 11 Zophar’s First Address
CHAPTER 11 Zophar’s First Address
1. Job’s multitude of words rebuked (Job 11:1-6)
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2. The greatness and omniscience of God (Job 11:7-12)
3. That Job repent and receive the Blessings (Job 11:13-20)
Job 11:1-6. The third friend of Job is in every way the weakest. Speaking last he must have been the youngest of the three. He lacks the dignity of Eliphaz and the gentleness of Bildad, nor does he possess the depths of either. Evidently Job’s speech has taxed his patience and irritated him.
Should not thy mass of words be answered?
And a man so full of talk, should he be justified?
Can thy boastings make men hold their peace?
And when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?
For thou sayest ‘My doctrine is pure
And I am clean in His eyes.
But Oh that God might speak
And open His lips against thee.
That He would show thee the secrets of wisdom,
That is manifold in effectual working!
Know therefore that God exacts not more
than thine iniquity deserveth.
One can almost feel the boisterous spirit in which this rebuke must have been delivered.
Job 11:7-12. He now reminds Job of the greatness and omniscience of the God whom he accused. Could he by searching find out God or find out the Almighty unto perfection? “It is high as heaven; what canst thou do? Deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.” But more than that He is an omniscient God, the searcher of hearts. He knoweth vain men and seeth iniquity also. So far it all seems well.
Job 11:13-20. So far all sounds well, but now he follows the same argument as his friends. He too believes that Job is a wicked man who has hidden iniquity, and that this must explain his affliction. So he turns exhorter and calls on him to repent. Set thine heart aright, he tells Job; stretch out thy hands towards Him. Put iniquity away, do not permit iniquity to be in thy tents! He talks as if he is very sure, more so than Eliphaz and Bildad, that Job is guilty of much sin. Then he draws a charming picture of the blessed results if Job confesses and repents. He would forget his misery “as waters that are passed away.”
Everything is painted by him in the rosiest colors as if he knew what God would do for Job. The time did come when Job got richer blessings than those outlined by Zophar. And what Zophar said, “Yea, many shall make suit unto thee” (marginal reading: entreat thee), came actually true when Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar had to humble themselves before this Servant of God. Zophar’s final word is a warning of the fate of the wicked. It was meant for Job. The blunt, rough way of Zophar, who does not contribute anything new and fresh to the controversy, makes Job more confident that he is right and he gives a remarkable answer.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Zophar Tries to Reprove Job
Zophar Tries to Reprove Job
v. 1. Then answered Zophar, the Naamathite, 2:11, and said,
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v. 2. Should not the multitude of words, as just brought out in the speech of Job, be answered? And should a man full of talk, literally, "a man of lips," that is, of many words, a vain and foolish babbler, be justified, be right? Zophar was a man of zealous and violent spirit, and he was very emphatic in his statement that Job must not be allowed the last word in this matter.
v. 3. Should thy lies, rather, "chatter, vain babbling," make men hold their peace? "Men" is emphatic; no one who calls himself a man will remain silent with such talk going on. And when thou mockest, both men and God, in Zophar’s opinion, being included in Job’s upbraiding, shall no man make thee ashamed? It was necessary that his statements be refuted, lest he consider himself justified.
v. 4. For thou hast said, My doctrine, the moral teaching, the tenets which Job had expounded, is pure, and I am clean in Thine eyes, Job maintained his purity even over against God.
v. 5. But oh, that God would speak and open His lips against thee, since such an action would put an immediate end to Job’s boasting, as Zophar confidently believed;
v. 6. and that He would show thee the secrets of wisdom, making known the true, divine wisdom over against Job’s doctrine, that they are double to that which is, that God’s wisdom immeasurably surpasses everything that men consider wisdom! Know, therefore, that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth, literally, "that God consigns to oblivion [a large part of] thy guilt," leaving it out of account against Job, who would otherwise long have been overwhelmed by God’s punishment.
v. 7. Canst thou by searching find out God, reaching the bottom of the mystery of God’s wonderful essence? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection, penetrating to the uttermost parts of the divine nature? "The nature of God may be sought after, but cannot be found out; and the end of God is unattainable, for He is both: the perfect or absolute God and the endless or infinite God. " (Delitzsch. )
v. 8. It is as high as heaven, literally, "heights of heaven," namely, those are the distances which extend between man’s understanding and God’s infinity; what canst thou do? Deeper than hell, far below the realm of the dead the hidden depths of the divine wisdom extend; what canst thou know? Man’s utter powerlessness in the face of God’s immeasurable essence is here brought out with a force rarely equaled.
v. 9. The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea, the length of God’s wisdom is unbounded, and its breadth extends far beyond human understanding.
v. 10. If He cut off, passing over, or rushing upon, in anger, and shut up, or gather together, that is, if God arrests a man and calls him to judgment, holds a public trial, then who can hinder Him? Who can turn Him aside, who will oppose Him? God will render judgment, God will pass sentence upon every prisoner whom He summons, in spite of all opposition.
v. 11. For He knoweth vain men, such evil men as try to disguise their godlessness; He seeth wickedness also; will He not, then, consider it? The statement is rather affirmative: God sees wickedness without considering it, although it is open before His eyes; He does not immediately punish the transgressors.
v. 12. For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt, literally, "And a hollow-headed, witless man will gain wisdom, and the foal of a wild ass a man will be born," which means, either: Before an empty head gains understanding, a wild ass’s foal will be born a man, or: A witless fool should be filled with understanding, he should be regenerated and made over into a man, though by nature as untamed as the colt of a wild ass. Zophar wanted to make his rebuke as emphatic as possible, even by means of biting comparisons, in order to overcome Job’s calm arguments.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4 Zophar the Naamathite
Zophar the Naamathite
See how you translated this man's name in Job 2:11. AT: "Zophar from the region of Naamah" (See: How to Translate Names)
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Should not such a multitude of words be answered?
Zophar is asking a question in the negative to emphasize that Job's words must be challenged. AT: "We must answer all of these words!" or "Someone should respond to all these words!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
Should this man, so full of talk, be believed?
Zophar uses this question to emphasize that they should not believe what Job was saying. AT: "This man is so full of talk, but the people should not believe him!" or "Your many words alone do not mean you are innocent!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
Should your boasting make others remain silent?
Zophar uses this question to rebuke Job. AT: "Just because you have spoken many words, this does not mean that others must keep silent." (See: Rhetorical Question)
When you mock, will no one make you feel ashamed?
Zophar uses this question to rebuke Job. You may need to make explicit what it is that Job is mocking. AT: "You have mocked us for what we have said. Now we will make you feel ashamed!"
translationWords
boast
peace
mock
shame
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 4, 5 11:1 Zophar the Naamathite (see study note on 2:11),…
11:1 Zophar the Naamathite (see study note on 2:11), the most severe of Job’s three friends, dealt only with the issue of sin.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.