I will teach you by the hand of God.
God’s treatment of wicked men
Looking at Job’s lecture or address, we have to notice two things.
I. Its introduction. The eleventh and twelfth verses may be regarded as an exordium; and in this exordium he indicates two things.
1. That his arguments are drawn from the operations of God in human history. “I will teach you by the hand of God.”
2. That the facts of human history are open to the observation of all. “Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it.”
II. Its doctrine. The doctrine is this, that punishment will ultimately overtake wicked men, however much, for a time, they may prosper in the world. “He gives back,” says a modern writer, “to his three friends the doctrine which they had fully imparted to him.”
1. That great wickedness often prospers for a time in this life.
2. That though it may, it must be followed by terrible punishment. Conclusion--
(1)
This address of Job’s is worthy of the imitation of religious teachers.
(2) It shows that worldly prosperity is neither a test of character, nor a safeguard against punishment. (Homilist.)
Zophar’s missing speech
There has been much diversity of view in regard to the remainder of this chapter. The difficulty is that Job seems here to state the same things which had been maintained by his friends, and against which he had all along contended. This difficulty has been felt to be very great, and is very great. It cannot be denied that there is a great resemblance between the sentiments here expressed, and those which had been maintained by his friends, and that this speech, if offered by them, would have accorded entirely with their main position. Job seems to abandon all which he had defended, and to concede all which he had so warmly condemned. Dr. Kennicott supposes that the text is imperfect, and that these verses constituted the third speech of Zophar. His arguments for this opinion are--
1. That Eliphaz and Bildad had each spoken three times, and that we are naturally led to expect a third speech from Zophar; but, according to the present arrangement, there is none.
2. That the sentiments accord exactly with what Zophar might be expected to advance, and are exactly in his style; that they are expressed in “his fierce manner of accusation,” and are “in the very place where Zophar’s speech is naturally expected.” But the objections to this view are insuperable. They are--
(1)
The entire want of any authority in the manuscripts, or ancient versions, for such an arrangement or supposition. All the ancient versions and manuscripts make this a part of the speech of Job.
(2) If this had been a speech of Zophar, we should have expected a reply to it, or an allusion to it, in the speech of Job which follows. But no such reply or allusion occurs.
(3) If the form which is usual on the opening of a speech--“And Zophar answered and said”--had ever existed here, it is incredible that it should have been removed. But it occurs in no manuscript or version; and it is not allowable to make such an alteration in the Scripture by conjecture. Wemyss, in his translation of Job, accords with the view of Kennicott, and makes the verses 13-23 to be the third speech of Zophar.
For this, however, he alleges no authority, and no reasons except such as had been suggested by Kennicott. Coverdale has inserted the word “saying” at the close of verse 12, and regards what follows to the end of the chapter as an enumeration or recapitulation of the false sentiments which they had maintained, and which Job regards as the “vain” things (verse 12) which they had maintained. In support of this view, it may be alleged--
(1) That it avoids all the difficulty of transposition, and the necessity of inserting an introduction, as we must do, if we suppose it to be a speech of Zophar.
(2) It avoids the difficulty of supposing that Job had here contradicted the sentiments which he had before advanced, or of conceding all that his friends had maintained.
(3) It is in accordance with the practice of the speakers in this book, and the usual practice of debaters, who enumerate at considerable length the sentiments which they regard as erroneous, and which they design to oppose.
(4) It is the most simple and natural supposition, and, therefore, most likely to be the true one. (Albert Barnes.)