But indeed a special revelation ought not to be necessary for Job. His trouble, proceeding as it does from one no less wise than irresistible (xi. 10, 11), ought to dispel his dream of innocence; as Zophar generalises, when God’s judgments are abroad—
(Even) an empty head wins understanding,
and a wild ass’s colt is new-born as a man (xi. 12).
We may pass over the brilliant description of prosperity consequent on a true repentance with which the chapter concludes. It fell quite unheeded on the ears of Job, who was more stung by the irritating speech of Zophar than by those of Eliphaz and Bildad.
The taunt conveyed indirectly by Zophar in xi. 12 is exposed in all its futility in the reply of Job. Zophar himself, however, he disdains to argue with; there is the same intolerable assumption of superiority in the speeches of all the three, and this he assails with potent sarcasm.
No doubt ye are mankind,
and with you shall wisdom die.
I too have understanding like you,
and who knows not the like of this? (xii. 2, 3.)
In what respect, pray, is he inferior to his friends? Has Eliphaz enjoyed a specially unique revelation? Job has had a still better opportunity of learning spiritual truth in communion of the heart with God (xii. 4). Is Bildad an unwearied collector of the wisdom of antiquity? Job too admits the value of tradition, though he will not receive it unproved (xii. 11, 12). In declamation, too, Job can vie with the arrogant Zophar; Job’s description of the omnipotence of God forms the counterpart of Zophar’s description of His omniscience. But of what account are generalities in face of such a problem as Job’s? The question of questions is not, Has God all power and all wisdom, but, Does He use them for moral ends? The three friends refuse to look facts in the face; the righteous God (we must understand the words, if there be one) will surely chastise them for insincerity and partisanship (xiii. 10).