Job 12:16

_WITH HIM IS STRENGTH AND WISDOM: THE DECEIVED AND THE DECEIVER ARE HIS._ The deceived and the deceiver are his. "If the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet" (Ezekiel 14:9). Job means, since God has In His Almighty power all alike, the successful deceiver and his duped victim are equally in His power....

12-25 This is a noble discourse of Job concerning the wisdom, power, and sovereignty of God, in ordering all the affairs of the children of men, according to the counsel of His own will, which none can resist. It were well if wise and good men, who differ about lesser things, would see how it is for their honour and comfort, and the good of others, to dwell most upon the great things in which they agree. Here are no complaints, or reflections. He gives many instances of God's powerful management of the children of men, overruling all their counsels, and overcoming all their oppositions. Having all strength and wisdom, God knows how to make use, even of those who are foolish and bad; otherwise there is so little wisdom and so little honesty in the world, that all had been in confusion and ruin long ago. These important truths were suited to convince the disputants that they were out of t...

Verse Job 12:16. _WITH HIM_ IS _STRENGTH AND WISDOM_] עז ותושיה _oz_ _vethushiyah, strength and sufficiency_. Strength or power, springing from an exhaustless and infinite source of potency. In the _thirteenth_ verse it is said, _With him_ is _wisdom and strength_; but the expressions are not the same, חכמה וגבורה _chochmah_ _ugeburah, intelligence_ and _fortitude_, or _strength_ in _action_, the _wisdom_ ever guiding the exertions of _power_; but here is _strength_ or _power_ in _essence_, and an eternal _potentiality_. With him is every excellence, _in potentia_ and _in esse_. He _borrows_ nothing, he _derives_ nothing. As he is self-existent, so is he self-sufficient. We have had the word _tushiyah_ before....

THE DECEIVED AND THE DECEIVER ARE HIS - This is designed to teach that all classes of people are under his control. All are dependent on him, and all are subject to him. He has power to keep them, and he can destroy them when he pleases. Dr. Good supposes that Job refers here to himself and his friends who had beguiled him into expressions of impatience and complaint. But it is more probably a general declaration that all classes of people were under the control of God....

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 ...

WITH HIM [IS] STRENGTH AND WISDOM,.... Which is repeated from Job 12:13; though different words are used but expressive of the same things; of the greatest strength might, and power of God, as the above instances show and of his most consummate, solid and substantial wisdom, as appears by what follows: THE DECEIVED AND THE DECEIVER [ARE] HIS: the wisdom, knowledge, sagacity and penetration into affairs, which the one has not, and the other has are from him; he withholds them from the one, who are simple and void of understanding, and so are easily imposed upon and deceived, and he given them to others, who make as ill use of them, deceive their fellow creatures some are deceivers in civil things, in the business and affairs of life, who circumvent, trick, cheat, and defraud their neighbours in buying and selling, using deceitful weights and measures, and by many ot

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

WISDOM. stability. See note on Proverbs 2:7....

Job 12:7-10 referred to what one could _see_of God's power and wisdom in the world, these verses refer to what one might learn of them by _hearing_ancient men discourse regarding them. In ch. Job 13:1, where Job looks back upon this chapter, he refers to both channels of knowledge, his eye and his ear. He does not despise knowledge learned from the observation of others when it is pertinent, cf. ch. Job 21:29. And it is obvious that the description in Job 12:13 contains many allusions to catastrophes, both in nature and in human society, which Job could not have seen himself, but must have learned from tradition....