Job 12:11

_DOTH NOT THE EAR TRY WORDS? AND THE MOUTH TASTE HIS MEAT?_ Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat? As the mouth by tasting meats selects what pleases it, so the ear tries the words of others, and retains in the mind and memory what is convincing and pleasing. Each chooses according to his taste. The connection with Job 12:12 is in reference to Bildad's appeal to the "ancients" (Job 8:8). You are right in appealing to them, since 'with them was wisdom,' etc. But you select such proverbs of theirs as suit your views, so I may borrow from the same such as suit mine. TASTE HIS MEAT - tastes to find its own suitable food-the food which pleases it. As in Job 9:4, etc., Job dwelt on the terrors of God's powe

6-11 Job appeals to facts. The most audacious robbers, oppressors, and impious wretches, often prosper. Yet this is not by fortune or chance; the Lord orders these things. Worldly prosperity is of small value in his sight: he has better things for his children. Job resolves all into the absolute proprietorship which God has in all the creatures. He demands from his friends liberty to judge of what they had said; he appeals to any fair judgment....

Verse Job 12:11. _DOTH NOT THE EAR TRY WORDS?_] All these are common-place sayings. Ye have advanced nothing new; ye have cast no light upon the dispensations of Providence....

DOTH NOT THE EAR TRY WORDS? - The literal meaning of this, which is evidently a proverbial expression, is plain; but about its bearing here there is more difficulty. The literal sense is, that it is the office of the ear to mark the distinction of sounds, and to convey the sense to the soul. But in regard to the exact bearing of this proverb on the case in hand, commentators have not been agreed. Probably the sense is, that there ought to be a diligent attention to the signification of words, and to the meaning of a speaker, as one carefully tastes his food; and Job, perhaps, may be disposed to complain that his friends had not given that attention which they ought to have done to the true design and signification of his remarks. Or it may mean that man is endowed with the faculty of attending to the nature and qualities of objects, and that he ought to exercise that faculty in judging o...

EXPOSITION The discourse of Job, here begun, continues through three chapters (Job 12:1; Job 13:1; Job 14:1.). It is thought to form the conclusion of the first day's colloquy. In it Job for the first time really pours scorn upon his friends, and makes a mock of them (see verses 2, 8, 20; Job 13:4). This, however, is a secondary matter; his main object is to justify his previous assertions, (1) that the whole course of mundane events, whether good or evil, must be attributed to God (verses 6-25); (2) that his sufferings entitle him to plead with God, and demand to know why he is so punished ...

DOTH NOT THE EAR TRY WORDS?.... Articulate sounds; and the mind by them judges whether what is expressed and designed by them is right or wrong, true or false, to be received or rejected; so such that have spiritual ears to hear, try the words of God and men, the wholesome words of Christ, and those of false teachers, which eat as a canker; and by their spiritual judgment can distinguish between the one and the other, discern those that differ, and approve those that are excellent, by bringing them to the standard of the word, the balance of the sanctuary, the Scriptures of truth: AND THE MOUTH TASTE HIS MEAT? and judge of it, whether good or bad, or savoury or unsavoury, and so receive or reject it: thus such who have their taste changed, and relish spiritual things, can distinguish between the meat that perishes, and that which endures to everlasting life, even Christ, whose flesh is...

CHAPTER S 12-14 JOB'S ANSWER TO ZOPHAR _ 1. His sarcasm (Job 12:1)_ 2. He describes God's power (Job 12:7) 3. He denounces his friends (Job 13:1) 4. He appeals to God (Job 13:14) 5. The brevity and trouble of life (Job 14:1) 6. The ray of light through hope of immortality (Job 14:7) Job 12:1. He answers not only Zophar but the others as well. Before this Job had expressed his

Eliphaz had appealed to revelation, Bildad to the wisdom of the ancients, Zophar assumes that he himself is the oracle of God's wisdom. Job answers this assumption. Firstly Zophar is not the only wise man in the world, and secondly, as to this wisdom of God, which explains everything, Job has himself studied the ways of God, and whatever wisdom there may be in them there is certainly also the most arbitrary exercise of Divine power. The friends take themselves to be the whole people (Job 12:2); in your own estimation, Job says, you-' re everybody (Peake). Job, however, is not behind them in wisdom: they are not its sole oracle (Job 12:3). JOB 12:4. According to Duhm an interpolation. They treat of the contrast between the fate of the

_and the mouth taste his meat_ Rather, AS THE MOUTH (lit. palate) TASTETH HIS MEAT. Does not the understanding ear discern and appropriate sound knowledge, as the palate discerns and relishes wholesome food? The ear (as well as the eye, Job 12:7) is a channel of sound information....

DOTH NOT THE EAR TRY WORDS? &C.— _Doth not the ear try words, as the palate tasteth food?_ Job, being about to speak of the supreme and absolute dominion of God over his creatures, begins with two proverbial expressions, in which he seems to insinuate that he wished for other judges of what he had to say, who, endued with a more mature and solid understanding of spiritual things, were better able to distinguish sincere piety, and the just complaints of oppressed innocence, from impiety and hypocrisy, and to dispute more prudently concerning God and his providence. Schultens....