Job 12:11

KJV

Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat?

KJV (with Strong's)

Doth not the ear {H241} try {H974} words {H4405}? and the mouth {H2441} taste {H2938} his meat {H400}?

Complete Jewish Bible

Shouldn't the ear test words, just as the palate tastes food?

Berean Standard Bible

Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes its food?

American Standard Version

Doth not the ear try words, Even as the palate tasteth its food?

Commentary

### SUMMARY
Job 12:11 presents a profound rhetorical question, positing that just as the physical senses of hearing and taste are inherently designed for discernment and evaluation, so too should the human mind actively engage in the critical assessment of words, ideas, and wisdom. This verse serves as a foundational statement on the necessity of thoughtful engagement with truth, challenging passive reception in favor of active, discerning judgment in all areas of life, particularly in matters of counsel and spiritual understanding.

### CONTEXT
* **Literary Context:** Job 12:11 is embedded within Job's extensive and impassioned response to his friends, specifically following Zophar's second speech and preceding Job's direct address to God in chapter 13. In this section (Job 12-14), Job vehemently defends his integrity against the simplistic, retributive theology of his companions, who insist his suffering is a direct consequence of sin. He acknowledges God's immense power and wisdom, even in the midst of his incomprehensible pain, but he critiques his friends' presumptuous claims to understanding divine justice. This verse, therefore, functions as a direct challenge to their uncritical repetition of traditional maxims, urging them to apply the same discernment to his arguments and their own pronouncements as they would to basic sensory input. Job is essentially telling them to truly listen and evaluate, rather than merely condemn.
* **Historical & Cultural Context:** In ancient Near Eastern cultures, wisdom was highly valued and often transmitted orally. The role of the "wise man" or elder was significant, and their pronouncements carried weight. However, this also meant that traditional wisdom could be repeated without genuine understanding or critical application to specific circumstances. The setting of Job, likely in the land of Uz (possibly Edom or northern Arabia), suggests a context where tribal elders and friends would gather to offer counsel in times of distress. The metaphors of hearing and tasting are universal and deeply rooted in everyday human experience, making Job's point accessible and powerful. The cultural expectation was for friends to offer comfort and wise counsel, but Job finds their counsel lacking in both empathy and true wisdom, highlighting a cultural tension between inherited tradition and lived experience.
* **Key Themes:** This verse powerfully contributes to several overarching themes in the Book of Job. Primarily, it underscores the theme of **discernment and critical evaluation**, emphasizing that true wisdom is not merely the accumulation of knowledge but the active process of testing and understanding. It also speaks to the **limitations of human wisdom** when confronted with divine mystery, as Job's friends, despite their traditional wisdom, fail to grasp the complexity of God's ways. The verse implicitly champions **attentive listening and thoughtful engagement** as crucial components of gaining genuine insight, contrasting with the superficial understanding displayed by Job's accusers. Furthermore, it touches upon the theme of **God's sovereignty and inscrutability**, as Job acknowledges God's ultimate power even while questioning the human interpretation of His actions, echoing sentiments found in [the profound questions of God's power](/job/9-10 "Job 9:10 - God's Unsearchable Ways") and [the unsearchable depth of His wisdom](/job/11-7 "Job 11:7 - The Depth of God's Wisdom").

### EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
#### Key Word Analysis
* **Try (Hebrew, בָּחַן, _bâchan_):** This verb signifies a rigorous process of testing, examining, proving, or scrutinizing. It implies a thorough evaluation to determine genuineness, quality, or truth, often with the intent of refining or purifying. It's not a casual glance but an active, investigative discernment, much like a refiner tests metal for purity or a judge examines evidence. In the context of "words," it means to critically assess their validity, source, and implications.
* **Taste (Hebrew, טַעַם, _ṭâʻam_):** Beyond merely putting food in the mouth, this verb denotes the act of discerning flavor, quality, and suitability. It involves an active perception and evaluation of what is being consumed, distinguishing between what is palatable, nourishing, or potentially harmful. Applied to "meat" (food), it highlights the essential human capacity to differentiate and choose what is beneficial for sustenance.
* **Words (Hebrew, מִלָּה, _millâh_):** Refers to speech, utterances, or discourse. While the KJV uses the plural "words," the underlying Hebrew root (H4405) is singular, referring to a word or collectively, a discourse. In Job's context, these are the arguments, counsel, and theological pronouncements made by his friends. Job challenges them to apply the same critical faculty to their own words and his as they would to any sensory input.

#### Verse Breakdown
* **"Doth not the ear try words?"**: This rhetorical question asserts an obvious truth: the ear is designed not merely to receive sound passively but to actively discern and evaluate the content and quality of speech. Just as one distinguishes between noise and meaningful communication, or between pleasant and jarring sounds, so too should the mind, through the ear, critically assess the truthfulness, wisdom, and intent of spoken words. Job implies that his friends have failed in this fundamental task, listening superficially rather than discerning deeply.
* **"and the mouth taste his meat?"**: This second rhetorical question parallels the first, using the sense of taste as another universal example of inherent discernment. The mouth, equipped with taste buds, evaluates food for its flavor, freshness, and suitability for consumption. It instinctively distinguishes between what is nourishing and what is harmful or unpalatable. Job uses this common experience to argue that if humans possess such an innate capacity for physical discernment, they should surely apply a similar, if not greater, level of critical evaluation to intellectual and spiritual sustenance—the "meat" of ideas and arguments.

#### Literary Devices
Job 12:11 masterfully employs several literary devices to convey its profound message. The most prominent is the **Rhetorical Question**, which is designed not to elicit an answer but to make a forceful assertion that the answer is self-evident and universally acknowledged. By posing two such questions ("Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat?"), Job compels his audience (and the reader) to affirm the inherent human capacity for discernment. This is further amplified by **Synonymous Parallelism**, where the second clause ("and the mouth taste his meat?") reiterates and reinforces the idea presented in the first clause ("Doth not the ear try words?"), using different but conceptually equivalent imagery. Both clauses speak to the natural, active process of evaluation. Underlying these is a powerful **Metaphor** or **Analogy**, where the physical senses of hearing and taste, and their functions of discerning words and food, serve as a direct comparison for the intellectual and spiritual discernment required for evaluating wisdom, counsel, and truth. This analogy makes an abstract concept tangible and relatable, highlighting the fundamental importance of critical engagement with ideas.

### THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Job's rhetorical questions in Job 12:11 underscore a fundamental theological principle: God has endowed humanity with faculties for discernment, not only for physical survival but also for intellectual and spiritual navigation. This capacity for critical evaluation is essential for discerning truth from falsehood, wisdom from folly, and genuine counsel from misguided advice. It speaks to the active role believers must take in engaging with divine revelation and human discourse, rather than passively accepting all information. This theme resonates throughout Scripture, emphasizing the importance of testing, proving, and discerning in matters of faith and life.

* [1 Thessalonians 5:21](/1_thessalonians/5-21 "1 Thessalonians 5:21 - Prove All Things")
* [Hebrews 5:14](/hebrews/5-14 "Hebrews 5:14 - Discerning Good and Evil")
* [Proverbs 18:13](/proverbs/18-13 "Proverbs 18:13 - Hasty Judgment")

### REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
In an age saturated with information, Job 12:11 serves as an urgent and timeless call to cultivate spiritual and intellectual discernment. We are constantly bombarded with "words"—from news media, social platforms, political rhetoric, and even religious teachings. This verse challenges us to move beyond passive consumption and to actively "try" what we hear and "taste" what we are fed. It encourages a posture of critical engagement, where we do not simply accept information at face value but rigorously examine its source, its intent, and its alignment with truth, particularly God's revealed truth. For the believer, this means diligently testing every spirit and every doctrine against the plumb line of Scripture, ensuring that what we consume spiritually is truly nourishing and not harmful. It fosters intellectual humility, prompting us to question our own assumptions and biases, and to seek genuine understanding rather than merely confirming what we already believe.

#### Questions for Reflection
* **How often do I passively consume information versus actively "trying" words and "tasting" ideas?**
* **What are the "words" and "meat" that I am currently consuming, and how am I discerning their truthfulness and nourishment?**
* **In what areas of my life—spiritual, relational, professional—do I need to apply greater discernment, and how can I cultivate this skill?**
* **How does my willingness to "try words" and "taste meat" reflect my commitment to truth and wisdom?**

### FAQ
**Why does Job use physical senses to talk about intellectual discernment?**

Answer:Job uses the common, relatable experiences of hearing and tasting to illustrate a deeper principle of intellectual and spiritual discernment. These are universal human actions that inherently involve evaluation and judgment. Just as the ear automatically distinguishes between different sounds and the mouth discerns flavors, Job argues that the human mind is equipped, and indeed obligated, to critically assess ideas, counsel, and truth. This analogy makes an abstract concept concrete, highlighting that discernment is not an esoteric skill but a fundamental human capacity that should be applied to all forms of "food" for thought. It suggests that if we naturally apply such care to our physical intake, how much more should we apply it to what shapes our understanding and beliefs, especially in matters of divine truth, as seen in [the call to mature discernment](/hebrews/5-14 "Hebrews 5:14 - Maturity and Discernment").

**Is Job suggesting that we should question everything, even God's word?**

Answer:Job is not advocating for a cynical questioning of divine truth itself, but rather a critical discernment of *interpretations* of God's truth, especially when those interpretations are used to condemn or misrepresent. In his context, Job is challenging his friends' simplistic and uncompassionate application of traditional wisdom, which they present as God's definitive judgment on him. He is urging them to "try" their own words and their understanding of God's ways, implying that their counsel is not truly nourishing "meat" but rather a superficial or even harmful interpretation. The verse encourages a robust, thoughtful engagement with wisdom and revelation, ensuring that what is presented as truth is indeed sound and aligns with a comprehensive understanding of God's character and ways, much like the Bereans who "searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so" ([the noble Bereans](/acts/17-11 "Acts 17:11 - The Noble Bereans")).

**How does this verse relate to the concept of wisdom in the Bible?**

Answer:Job 12:11 is deeply connected to the biblical concept of wisdom, which is not merely intellectual knowledge but the skillful application of truth to life. True wisdom involves discernment—the ability to distinguish between good and evil, truth and falsehood, the wise and the foolish. This verse emphasizes the active, evaluative component of acquiring wisdom. It suggests that wisdom is not passively received but must be actively sought, tested, and internalized, much like discerning good food from bad. This aligns with the broader biblical emphasis on seeking understanding ([wisdom as the principal thing](/proverbs/4-7 "Proverbs 4:7 - Wisdom is the Principal Thing")), listening to counsel ([counsel in plans](/proverbs/15-22 "Proverbs 15:22 - Counsel in Plans")), and proving what is excellent ([approving excellent things](/philippians/1-10 "Philippians 1:10 - Approving Excellent Things")).

### CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Job 12:11, with its emphasis on discerning "words" and "meat," finds its ultimate fulfillment and deepest meaning in Jesus Christ. He is the living Word of God, the very embodiment of truth and wisdom, as [John's Gospel powerfully declares](/john/1-1 "John 1:1 - The Word Was God"). In a world filled with competing voices and deceptive doctrines, Jesus calls His followers to a profound discernment, urging them to [take heed what they hear](/mark/4-24 "Mark 4:24 - Take Heed What You Hear"). He Himself provides the true "meat" and "drink" for spiritual life, declaring, "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst" ([Jesus, the Bread of Life](/john/6-35 "John 6:35 - Jesus, the Bread of Life")). Just as Job challenged his friends to critically evaluate their counsel, Jesus constantly challenged the superficiality and hypocrisy of the religious leaders of His day, exposing their empty traditions and distorted interpretations of God's law. He taught with authority, providing [words of eternal life](/john/6-68 "John 6:68 - Words of Eternal Life") that truly nourish the soul. Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, believers are empowered with the spiritual discernment necessary to [test the spirits](/1_john/4-1 "1 John 4:1 - Test the Spirits") and recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd amidst the clamor of false teachings, ensuring they consume only the truth that leads to abundant and eternal life.

Note: Commentary is generated by AI with a directive for Biblical fidelity. Always rely on the Holy Spirit for discernment. The Scripture text and cross-references are from verified, non-AI sources.

Cross-References

Job 34:3

For the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat.

Philippians 1:10

That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;

Hebrews 5:14

But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, [even] those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Job 6:30

Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?

1 Peter 2:3

If so be ye have tasted that the Lord [is] gracious.

1 Corinthians 10:15

¶ I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.