Hear my words, O ye wise [men]; and give ear unto me, ye that have knowledge.
Ver. 2. Hear my words, O ye wise men] And those are not many, Hosea 14:9. He excludeth poor Job, whom yet he had promised to teach wisdom, Job 33:33. And that he spoke not to the many it is probable, for they have not those auras perpargatas, that he calleth for in the next verse. Bοιωτες fere sunt, they are heavily eared for the most part, and of dull apprehension;
Boeotum in patria, crassoque sub acre nati.
To the other three then of Job's friends he applieth himself; whom because he had sharply reproved before, and that they may not think that he held himself the only wise man among them, he thus bespeaketh to get audience, and makes them judges of his discourse. Men may be wise in some things that have carried the matter foolishly enough in other, ουδεις ανθρωπων αυπος απαντα σοφος (Theog.).
And give ear unto me, ye that have knowledge] It is a happiness to have such hearers. "I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say," 1 Corinthians 10:15. Jovianus the emperor was wont to wish, That he might govern wise men, and that wise men might govern him. But as it was once said, That there was never less wisdom in Greece than in the days of the seven wise men; so may we now well complain, that there is a very great want of sound and saving knowledge in this great abundance of helps thereunto; so that we may cry out, with the prophet Isaiah, Whom shall we teach knowledge, and whom shall we make to understand the hearing? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts; q.d. We have to do with very babes, children in understanding, but not in malice.