Now that all three friends have spoken, Job feels free to really lay it on the line, holding nothing back. Nevertheless, he knows how to reply with class, while Zophar on his best day couldn’t rise above being crass. The problem seems to be that Job was willing to step out of the safety of the crowd and be counted, whether right or wrong. Nevertheless, his friends hunkered down with one another, losing their individuality for the sake of the safety of the crowd. For them one’s own conscience had no meaning. A similar modern proverb might be: The Bible says it; I believe it; that settles it! While on its face, the proverb is true, it usually means what one heard about the Bible, that one believes, and the accepted interpretation settles it. So, I have to ask, where is wisdom or self-governance in that proverb? The presumed wisdom of someone else doesn’t make one wise, simply because he agrees with what is said. It is the responsibility of the one who would be wise to investigate what he hears, carefully consider how he understands that to mean, and decide for himself what has value. Simply adhering to the common opinion adds nothing to one’s wisdom, to say nothing of one’s righteous character.
Job waxes ironical in this chapter. Have you ever argued with folks who simply refuse to listen to what you are saying? It is as though they pick out a word or statement you say, but don’t hear its context and can’t wait for you to stop speaking, so they could reply to the word or statement they heard you say. However, how they use what you said is totally unlike the manner in which you delivered it or intended it to be taken. Some folks have a mindset that simply refuses to be challenged. That is, what they believe is true, no matter what evidence to the contrary is offered by others. This is what Job was facing in his friends. They simply wouldn’t listen to or consider anything that might challenge what they believed was true. Their doctrine replaced individual conscience or self-governance. Hence, Job’s sarcasm: No doubt **you** are the people! Wisdom lives and dies with you!!!
Job’s irony has the intended meaning that they and only they had wisdom. The words “the people” should be taken in the sense of how the American Constitution begins: “We the people of the United States of America…” (emphasis mine). They have acted as though they were wisdom personified, and Job should behave as a good little disciple and believe everything that dripped from their lips (Job 12:1-2).
Nevertheless, Job wasn’t having any of it. He retorted that he also knew a thing or two: “I also have understanding, as well as you. I’m not inferior to you…” (Job 12:3). In fact, who doesn’t know these things? In other words, everyone knows God is great; everyone knows his ways cannot be fully understood by man! Everyone knows what you are trying to pass of as the wisdom of the ages, but which you pretend is uniquely understood by you alone. In other words, who are you trying to impress? If Job wasn’t in so much pain, he’d probably be laughing at this point.
Although Job complains that he has not been treated with the respect due him by any of his friends, I believe he is addressing Zophar’s remarks in particular in verse-4. He says he has been laughed at and mocked, but it is they (particularly Zophar; Job 11:2-3, 11-12, 20) who had mocked him. Yet, Job had been a prayerful man, and he knows that the Lord had answered his prayers, yet his friends mock him, laugh him to scorn, saying he is a wicked man. Although they knew very well that he had been righteous (Job 4:3-4), yet not once did they take this into consideration, when they spoke against him (Job 12:4).
Job sees himself as a man who has slipped from the high esteem in which others once held him, when he was prosperous. However, now that calamity has stricken him down, others, including his friends, rebuke him and have taken the position that he was a wicked man (Job 12:5). His friends are at ease, holding to the presumed security of traditional truth, truth held by all others, namely, that misfortune is a sign of the Lord’s disfavor and judgment (cp. Psalm 38:16). In other words, everyone believed Job had left the path of righteous behavior and has come under the wrathful hand of God (cp. Psalm 44:18).
Nevertheless, the proof that such a doctrine is false is plainly understood in the fact that criminals prosper in this world (Job 12:6). They provoke God, yet, rather than judging them, God brings the innocent into their hands! Why is that? If Job, who had often taken up the cause of the weak and helpless (cp. Job 4:3-4), is punished for presumed wickedness (cp. Job 6:24), why hasn’t the Lord judged the wicked who don’t hide their evil behavior?
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