Job 12:1 - Meaning and Application

The rebukes Job gives his friends are very sharp, whether they were fair or not. They warn all proud and scornful people and expose the folly of self-importance. Job first rebukes them for thinking very highly of their own wisdom, especially compared with his.

He speaks with irony, “No doubt you are the people.” In other words, he says they act as if they alone can rule everyone else’s judgment. They seem to think no one can tell truth from error, or right from wrong, except them. Job’s point is plain, it is foolish and sinful to act as if you are wiser than everyone else and to speak with that kind of arrogance.

He goes even further. They seem to think no one will ever be as wise as they are, as if wisdom will die with them. Job reminds us that this is also foolish, because God still has the fullness of the Spirit and can raise up others to do his work. When wise and good people die, it is comforting to know that wisdom and goodness do not die with them.

Some think Job is also answering Zophar, one of his friends, who had compared people to the colt of a wild donkey (Job 11:12). If so, Job is saying, in effect, “Yes, you think we are animals, but you alone are the real men.” He then claims his own share in wisdom, saying, “I have understanding as well as you” (Job 12:3). He is not praising himself. He is saying he is able to judge God’s ways and the hard questions of providence as well as they are.

Job is not boasting when he says this. He is not claiming anything great by saying he understands the matter as well as they do, because the truth he is defending is simple. Many others can speak just as well about these plain matters. He says it to bring them down from their self-made pedestal and to humble their confidence as teachers.

This teaches us a few things. First, thinking about how many people know as much as we do, or even more, can keep us from pride. Second, when we are tempted to speak harshly to those we disagree with, we should remember that they also have understanding as well as we do. They have a mind and a right to judge for themselves. They may even be right and we wrong, so we should not despise them or act as their masters (Romans 14:3; James 3:1; Matthew 23:8).

Job then complains about how much contempt they showed him. Proud people often become scornful and are quick to trample on others. Job felt that way, saying, “I am like someone mocked” (Job 12:4). We should be careful here, because sometimes we mistake honest correction for mockery. That is a weakness in us. Still, Job had reason to feel hurt, because his friends came to comfort him but instead added to his pain.

Nothing hurts more to someone who has fallen from great success into deep trouble than being looked down on while already down. Job also felt especially wounded because these were his neighbors, his friends, and his companions. The scorn of such people cuts deeply. It hurt him too that they were men who called on God and claimed that God answered them, so he had wanted their prayers and approval.

It is sad when people who pray to God mock their brothers and sisters (James 3:9-10). A good person is also hurt when those he respects think badly of him. Yet Job had comfort too. He could bring his case to God, who hears when others do not. If friends condemn us, God knows our integrity. If they speak the worst of us, God can make the best of us.

Job also points out that his experience was not unusual. “The upright man is laughed to scorn.” People mock the just and honest for their faithfulness to God and their fairness toward others. Some laugh at these things as if religion were foolish and deserved to be laughed at. Others mock even small human weaknesses, while ignoring the larger honor of a person’s justice and uprightness.

It has long been the lot of honest, good people to be despised and mocked. We should not think that strange (1 Peter 4:12), and we should not count it too hard if it happens to us. They persecuted not only the prophets, but also the saints of the patriarchal age, the early family line from Abraham to Jacob (Matthew 5:12). If that was true of them, why should we expect better treatment?

Job also seems to point to the real reason for this scorn. In short, it was this: those around him were rich and comfortable, so they looked down on a man who had fallen into poverty. That is the way of the world, and we see it every day. People praise those who are doing well, but they say, “Let him fall,” about those who are sinking.

A person who is about to slip, though he once shone like a lamp, is then treated as if his light is going out. He is like the snuff of a candle, thrown on the ground and trampled underfoot. So he is despised in the thoughts of those who are at ease (Job 12:5). Even a truly upright man, one who has been like a burning and shining light in his generation, if he falls into temptation or comes under a dark cloud (Psalm 73:2), is often viewed with contempt.

This shows the common fault of people who live in comfort. When they are full, at ease, and cheerful themselves, they look coldly on those who are in need, pain, or sorrow. They pass them by, ignore them, and try to forget them (Psalm 123:4). Wealth, when it is not joined with grace, often makes people proud and careless toward their poor neighbors.

It also shows the common fate of those who fall into trouble. Poverty can hide all their former honor. Even if they are like lamps, if they are taken from golden lampstands and put, like Gideon’s lamps, into clay jars, no one values them as before. Those who live at ease then despise them.