4 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.
He will call on me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him, and honor him.
"But now those who are younger than I, have me in derision, Whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
"But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.
Surely there are mockers with me, My eye dwells on their provocation.
They ridiculed him. But he, having put them all out, took the father of the child and her mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was lying.
Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment.
The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they scoffed at him.
Please return. Let there be no injustice; Yes, return again, my cause is righteous.
But as for me, I will look to Yahweh. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.
Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great things, and difficult, which you don't know.
Like the profane mockers in feasts, They gnashed their teeth at me.
All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying, "He trusts in Yahweh; Let him deliver him; Let him rescue him, since he delights in him."
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 12
Commentary on Job 12 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 12
In this and the two following chapters we have Job's answer to Zophar's discourse, in which, as before, he first reasons with his friends (see 13:19) and then turns to his God, and directs his expostulations to him, from thence to the end of his discourse. In this chapter he addresses himself to his friends, and,
Job 12:1-5
The reproofs Job here gives to his friends, whether they were just or no, were very sharp, and may serve for a rebuke to all that are proud and scornful, and an exposure of their folly.
Job 12:6-11
Job's friends all of them went upon this principle, that wicked people cannot prosper long in this world, but some remarkable judgment or other will suddenly light on them: Zophar had concluded with it, that the eyes of the wicked shall fail, ch. 11:20. This principle Job here opposes, and maintains that God, in disposing men's outward affairs, acts as a sovereign, reserving the exact distribution of rewards and punishments for the future state.
Job 12:12-25
This is a noble discourse of Job's concerning the wisdom, power, and sovereignty of God, in ordering and disposing of all the affairs of the children of men, according to the counsel of his own will, which none dares gainsay or can resist. Take both him and them out of the controversy in which they were so warmly engaged, and they all spoke admirably well; but, in that, we sometimes scarcely know what to make of them. It were well if wise and good men, that differ in their apprehensions about minor things, would see it to be for their honour and comfort, and the edification of others, to dwell most upon those great things in which they are agreed. On this subject Job speaks like himself. Here are no passionate complaints, no peevish reflections, but every thing masculine and great.
Thus are the revolutions of kingdoms wonderfully brought about by an overruling Providence. Heaven and earth are shaken, but the Lord sits King for ever, and with him we look for a kingdom that cannot be shaken.