Behold, I waited for your words; I gave ear to your reasons, whilst ye searched out what to say.
Ver. 11. Behold, I waited for your words] While you had anything to say I was silent, and no way troublesome or obstreperous. This he speaketh to Job's friends, who had free liberty to speak while they would without interruption; and should, therefore, now be content to hear (though perhaps what they would not) if God thereby might be glorified, and Job better convinced.
I gave ear to your reasons] Heb. To your understandings. Usque ad intelligentias vestras, to the utmost of your best arguments and most elaborated demonstrations, Ut cum dicitur, Redite usque ad me, Joel 2:12; for the which you has eviscerated your brains, and well nigh cracked your sconces, but all to no purpose; since you hover in generals; and, declining that which was the main matter in question (like lapwings, that cry farthest off from the nest), you brought only such reasons as were not cogent, and used such discourses as did nec coelum, nec terram attingere, to touch neither heave nor earth, never come at the business; which was no better than laborious loss of time.