Job 12

Job 12 is the final section of the first cycle of dialogue (chapters 4–14) between Job and his three friends. In Job 11, Zophar urged Job to put away his sin so that he might be restored. This chapter begins Job's reply to that speech, a reply that continues through chapter 14.

Outline

• Verses 1–3 Job mocks his friends, saying, "No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you," and insists that he is not inferior to them.
• Verses 4–6 He laments that the just and upright man who called upon God has become a laughingstock to his neighbors. The one who is at ease despises calamity, while the tabernacles of robbers prosper.
• Verses 7–10 He tells his friends to ask the beasts, the birds, the earth, and the fish of the sea. Even these know that the hand of the LORD has done this, and that the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind are in His hand.
• Verses 11–12 He says that just as the mouth tastes food, the ear tests words, and that wisdom is with the aged.
• Verses 13–25 He confesses that wisdom and strength belong to God. What God breaks down cannot be built again; He both withholds the waters and sends them out. He celebrates how God humbles counselors and judges, kings, priests, princes, and even the chiefs of the nations, making them stagger in darkness like a drunken man.

Key Verses

• Job 12:10 "In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind." This is a confession that all life depends on God.
• Job 12:13 "With him is wisdom and strength." This verse summarizes the theme of verses 13–25 as a whole.

People and Places

• Job: The speaker of this chapter.
• Job's three friends: Those whom Job addresses as "ye" in his reply. Most directly, his words are aimed at Zophar, who spoke in the preceding chapter.

Points for Reflection

• Verse 9 uses the divine name "the LORD" (Yahweh). This is generally regarded as the only place where the name appears in the dialogue section between Job and his friends (chapters 3–37). Some manuscripts use a different title for God. The wording itself resembles Isaiah 41:20.
• The final clause of verse 6 and the whole of verse 12 contain ambiguous Hebrew expressions. Interpreters therefore differ over whether verse 12 is Job's own assertion or a sarcastic quotation of his friends' words.
• Verses 7–9 are sometimes read alongside Romans 1:18–25, since both speak of creation revealing God. Job's emphasis, however, is that even calamity lies within God's hand. The context is a rebuttal of the friends' simplistic explanation that the righteous are blessed and the wicked are punished.
• Verse 10, in affirming that life belongs to God, connects with Paul's sermon in Acts 17:25–28.