04 June

Bible In 365  Days                                                                

Job 11-13

Job 11

When Job had ceased, Zophar, the last of the three friends, answered him. His method was characterized by even greater plainness than that of Bildad. Indeed, there was a roughness and directness about him absent from his friends' manner. This may either reveal a man of different temperament, or that now, with greater definiteness and daring, Job had denied their philosophy by affirming his innocence.

He first affirmed the necessity for answering, describing Job as "a man full of talk," and declaring that his boastings could not silence his friends. Zophar's complaint against him is expressed in the words:

Thou sayest, my doctrine is pure, And I am clean in thine eyes.

He wished that God would speak. If He would, then Job would know that all his suffering was less than his iniquity. Job had affirmed the wisdom of God, and yet, in the thinking of Zophar, had questioned it. Therefore, in a passage full of beauty, he reaffirmed it, and insisted that this God of wisdom knows men. He intended to declare to Job that even though he might not be conscious of his own sin, yet sin was there, and God saw it.

This is again a restatement of the same philosophy as that of his friends. He was arguing from the suffering of Job to his sin. If Zophar was rough of manner, his desire and hope for Job may be observed, for his description of the prosperity which will come if he but set his heart right is longer and more beautiful than that of either Eliphaz or Bildad.

Job 12

Job's last reply in this first cycle is to the whole argument, as well as to Zophar's application of it. From beginning to end, it thrills with sarcasm, while it maintains its denial of personal guilt.

In the first movement he treated with contempt his friends' interpretation of God, claiming to know more of Him than they did. In this there are two movements, in the first of which (1-6), he dealt with his friends; in the second (7-25), he turned to the subject of the wisdom and power of God with which they had dealt. His first words reveal his contempt, as in biting sarcasm he says:

No doubt but ye are the people, And wisdom shall die with you.

He then rebuked them, declaring that he was not inferior to them, and yet they had made him a laughingstock. He marked his contempt for them as he affirmed theirs for him.

Turning then to the discussion of the things they had emphasized concerning God, he declared that the knowledge was self-evident. The beast and fowl, the earth and the fishes, are acquainted with these matters. It is knowledge of the simplest that a11 these things are the works of God and that He sustains them. His wisdom is unquestioned. As to God's power, in a passage full of passion and force, Job described it in nature, and among the great men of the earth, counselors and judges, kings and princes, both speaking and governing, amid the nations themselves, increasing and destroying, uplifting and degrading.

Job 13

Continuing his answer, Job restated his conviction that his knowledge was not inferior to theirs, and declared that his appeal was to God (1-3). Before making this appeal there is an introductory passage in which he first addressed himself to them in terms of anger (4-12), and then avowed his determination to make his appeal directly to God, and urged two conditions. His contempt for his friends as they are revealed in their attitude toward him knows no bounds. He described them as "forgers of lies," and "physicians of no value"; and proceeded to turn their argument back upon them. They had declared that God is righteous, and visits men according to their deeds. They had been speaking unrighteously for God, and therefore must accept His judgment upon themselves. He finally dismissed all their argument as "proverbs of ashes." Announcing his determination to appeal to God, even though God slay him in this determination, he found some comfort in believing that the godless cannot be heard. He urged two conditions: first, that God withdraw His hand from him; and, second, that He not make him afraid by His terror.

After these preliminary matters, Job's speech becomes a direct appeal to God. He first demanded to know his sins, and why God dealt with him as a leaf, as a moth-eaten garment.