Shall not they teach thee, [and] tell thee, and utter words out of their heart?
Ver. 10. Shall they not teach thee, and tell thee] They, that is, the forefathers, Job 8:8, these, though dead and gone, yet by their records and monuments, by their apopthegms and oracles (for the words of dying men are living oracles), do still teach us and tell us their minds, as if they were yet living, Heb 11:4 Luke 16:29. Books are mute matters, silent voices. The way to be wise, said a heathen, is to converse with the dead, τοις νεκροις συγχρωτιζειν. Histories are faithful counsellors, and by the reading of them many young men have attained to more understanding than their elders; as Augustus, Theodosius, Macarius, who was surnamed παιδαριογερων, the old youth, for his wisdom and gravity above his years, gotten by reading and prayer, as saith Nicephorus.
And utter words out of their heart?] Discourses dug out of their own hearts, things new and old, thrown out of that good treasure, e cordibus, non e codicibus, they were egregie cordati homines, hearty good men, and their speeches were heart sprung, dipped in their hearts, and there recalled ad limam, priusquam ad linguam, weighed before uttered. They spake not as thou dost, Job, rashly and at random; judiciously, solidly, oraculously conduct them therefore, and as they speak from their own heart, so let them speak to thine. With the ancient is wisdom, and in length of days understanding, Job 12:12 .