TRV
See on the biblical-era map
Study This Verse
Commentary on Job 27 verses 11–23
Job's friends had seen a great deal of the misery and destruction that attend wicked people, especially oppressors; and Job, while the heat of disputation lasted, had said as much, and with as much assurance, of their prosperity; but now that the heat of the battle was nearly over he was willing to own how far he agreed with them, and where the difference between his opinion and theirs lay. 1. He agreed with them that wicked people are miserable people, that God will surely reckon with cruel oppressors, and one time or other, one way or other, his justice will make reprisals upon them for all the affronts they have put upon God and all the wrongs they have done to their neighbours. This truth is abundantly confirmed by the entire concurrence even of these angry disputants in it. But, 2. In this they differed - they held that these deserved judgments are presently and visibly brought upon wicked oppressors, that they travail with pain all their days, that in prosperity the destroyer comes upon them, that they shall not be rich, nor their branch green, and that their destruction shall be accomplished before their time (so Eliphaz, Job 15:20, Job 15:21, Job 15:29, Job 15:32), that the steps of their strength shall be straitened, that terrors shall make them afraid on every side (so Bildad, Job 18:7, Job 18:11), that he himself shall vomit up his riches, and that in the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits, so Zophar, Job 20:15, Job 20:22. Now Job held that, in many cases, judgments do not fall upon them quickly, but are deferred for some time. That vengeance strikes slowly he had already shown (ch. 21 and 24); now he comes to show that it strikes surely and severely, and that reprieves are no pardons.
I. Job here undertakes to set this matter in a true light (Job 27:11, Job 27:12): I will teach you. We must not disdain to learn even from those who are sick and poor, yea, and peevish too, if they deliver what is true and good. Observe, 1. What he would teach them: "That which is with the Almighty," that is, "the counsels and purposes of God concerning wicked people, which are hidden with him, and which you cannot hastily judge of; and the usual methods of his providence concerning them." This, says Job, will I not conceal. What God has not concealed from us we must not conceal from those we are concerned to teach. Things revealed belong to us and our children. 2. How he would teach them: By the hand of God, that is, by his strength and assistance. Those who undertake to teach others must look to the hand of God to direct them, to open their ear (Isa 50:4), and to open their lips. Those whom God teaches with a strong hand are best able to teach others, Isa 8:11. 3. What reason they had to learn those things which he was about to teach them (Job 27:12), that it was confirmed by their own observation - You yourselves have seen it (but what we have heard, and seen and known, we have need to be taught, that we may be perfect in our lesson), and that it would set them to rights in their judgment concerning him - "Why then are you thus altogether vain, to condemn me for a wicked man because I am afflicted?" Truth, rightly understood and applied, would cure us of that vanity of mind which arises from our mistakes. That particularly which he offers now to lay before them is the portion of a wicked man with God, particularly of oppressors, Job 27:13. Compare Job 20:29. Their portion in the world may be wealth and preferment, but their portion with God is ruin and misery. They are above the control of any earthly power, it may be, but the Almighty can deal with them.
II. He does it, by showing that wicked people may, in some instances, prosper, but that ruin follows them in those very instances; and that is their portion, that is their heritage, that is it which they must abide by.
1.They may prosper in their children, but ruin attends them. His children perhaps are multiplied (Job 27:14) or magnified (so some); they are very numerous and are raised to honour and great estates. Worldly people are said to be full of children (Psa 17:14), and, as it is in the margin there, their children are full. In them the parents hope to live and in their preferment to be honoured. But the more children they leave, and the greater prosperity they leave them in, the more and the fairer marks do they leave for the arrows of God's judgments to be levelled at, his three sore judgments, sword, famine, and pestilence, Sa2 24:13. (1.) Some of them shall die by the sword, the sword of war perhaps (they brought them up to live by their sword, as Esau, Gen 27:40, and those that do so commonly die by the sword, first or last), or by the sword of justice for their crimes, or the sword of the murderer for their estates. (2.) Others of them shall die by famine (Job 27:14): His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. He thought he had secured to them large estates, but it may happen that they may be reduced to poverty, so as not to have the necessary supports of life, at least not to live comfortably. They shall be so needy that they shall not have a competency of necessary food, and so greedy, or so discontented, that what they have they shall not be satisfied with, because not so much, or not so dainty, as what they have been used to. You eat, but you have not enough, Hag 1:6. (3.) Those that remain shall be buried in death, that is, shall die of the plague, which is called death (Rev 6:8), and be buried privately and in haste, as soon as they are dead, without any solemnity, buried with the burial of an ass; and even their widows shall not weep; they shall not have wherewithal to put them in mourning. Or it denotes that these wicked men, as they live undesired, so they die unlamented, and even their widows will think themselves happy that they have got rid of them.
2.They may prosper in their estates, but ruin attends them too, Job 27:16-18. (1.) We will suppose them to be rich in money and plate, in clothing and furniture. They heap up silver in abundance as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay; they have heaps of clothes about them, as plentiful as heaps of clay. Or it intimates that they have such abundance of clothes that they are even a burden to them. They lade themselves with thick clay, Hab 2:6. See what is the care and business of worldly people - to heap up worldly wealth. Much would have more, until the silver is cankered and the garments are moth-eaten, Jam 5:2, Jam 5:3. But what comes of it? He shall never be the better for it himself; death will strip him, death will rob him, if he be not robbed and stripped sooner, Luk 12:20. Nay, God will so order it that the just shall wear his raiment and the innocent shall divide his silver. [1.] They shall have it, and divide it among themselves. In some way or other Providence shall so order it that good men shall come honestly by that wealth which the wicked man came dishonestly by. The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just, Pro 13:22. God disposes of men's estates as he pleases, and often makes their wills against their wills. The just, whom he hated and persecuted, shall have rule over all his labour, and, in due time, recover with interest what was violently taken from him. The Egyptians' jewels were the Israelites' pay. Solomon observes (Ecc 2:26) that God makes the sinners drudges to the righteous; for the sinner he gives travail to gather and heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. [2.] They shall do good with it. The innocent shall not hoard the silver, as he did that gathered it, but shall divide it to the poor, shall give a portion to seven and also to eight, which is laying up the best securities. Money is like manure, good for nothing if it be not spread. When God enriches good men they must remember they are but stewards and must give an account. What bad men bring a curse upon their families with the ill-getting of good men bring a blessing upon their families with the well-using of. He that by unjust gain increaseth his substance shall gather it for him that will pity the poor, Pro 28:8. (2.) We will suppose them to have built themselves strong and stately houses; but they are like the house which the moth makes for herself in an old garment, out of which she will soon be shaken, Job 27:18. He is very secure in it, as a moth, and has no apprehension of danger; but it will prove of as short continuance as a booth which the keeper makes, which will quickly be taken down and gone, and his place shall know him no more.
3.Destruction attends their persons, though they lived long in health and at ease (Job 27:19): The rich man shall lie down to sleep, to repose himself in the abundance of his wealth (Soul, take thy ease), shall lie down in it as his strong city, and seem to others to be very happy and very easy; but he shall not be gathered, that is, he shall not have his mind composed, and settled, and gathered in, to enjoy his wealth. He does not sleep so contentedly as people think he does. He lies down, but his abundance will not suffer him to sleep, at least not so sweetly as the labouring man, Ecc 5:12. He lies down, but he is full of tossings to and fro till the dawning of the day, and then he opens his eyes and he is not; he sees himself, and all he has, hastening away, as it were, in the twinkling of an eye. His cares increase his fears, and both together make him uneasy, so that, when we attend him to his bed, we do not find him happy there. But, in the close, we are called to attend his exit, and see how miserable he is in death and after death.
(1.)He is miserable in death. It is to him the king of terrors, Job 27:20, Job 27:21. When some mortal disease seizes him what a fright is he in! Terrors take hold of him as waters, as if he were surrounded by the flowing tides. He trembles to think of leaving this world, and much more of removing to another. This mingles sorrow and wrath with his sickness, as Solomon observes, Ecc 5:17. These terrors put him either [1.] Into a silent and sullen despair; and then the tempest of God's wrath, the tempest of death, may be said to steal him away in the night, when no one is aware or takes any notice of it. Or, [2.] Into an open and clamorous despair; and then he is said to be carried away, and hurled out of his place as with a storm, and with an east wind, violent, and noisy, and very dreadful. Death, to a godly man, is like a fair gale of wind to convey him to the heavenly country, but, to a wicked man, it is like an east wind, a storm, a tempest, that hurries him away in confusion and amazement, to destruction.
(2.)He is miserable after death. [1.] His soul falls under the just indignation of God, and it is the terror of that indignation which puts him into such amazement at the approach of death (Job 27:22): For God shall cast upon him and not spare. While he lived he had the benefit of sparing mercy; but now the day of God's patience is over, and he will not spare, but pour out upon him the full vials of his wrath. What God casts down upon a man there is no flying from nor bearing up under. We read of his casting down great stones from heaven upon the Canaanites (Jos 10:11), which made terrible execution among them; but what was that to his casting down his anger in its full weight upon the sinner's conscience, like the talent of lead? Zac 5:7, Zac 5:8. The damned sinner, seeing the wrath of God break in upon him, would fain flee out of his hand; but he cannot: the gates of hell are locked and barred, and the great gulf fixed, and it will be in vain to call for the shelter of rocks and mountains. Those who will not be persuaded now to fly to the arms of divine grace, which are stretched out to receive them, will not be able to flee from the arms of divine wrath, which will shortly be stretched out to destroy them. [2.] His memory falls under the just indignation of all mankind (Job 27:23): Men shall clap their hands at him, that is, they shall rejoice in the judgments of God, by which he is cut off, and be well pleased in his fall. When the wicked perish there is shouting, Pro 11:10. When God buries him men shall hiss him out of his place, and leave on his name perpetual marks of infamy. In the same place where he has been caressed and cried up he shall be laughed at (Psa 52:7) and his ashes shall be trampled on.
“I will teach you through the hand of God.” He says that he will describe to them with his teaching the afflictions that are given to the hypocrites through the hand of God. In order to show his full knowledge of the things that he will describe, he adds a full account of them. They cannot ignore what he is going to relate. The Greek text reads, “I will announce to you the things that are in the hand of God, the things that are with the Almighty, and I will not lie.”
9. It is written; And that servant, ‘Which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself; neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. [Luke 12, 47. 48.] But he that knew not, and did not worthily, shall be beaten with few stripes. And again it is written; Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. [Jam. 4, 17] And so for the heightening of greater guilt Holy Church tells it that her enemies at once know what they ought to follow, and will not follow what they may know. Of which same persons it is elsewhere said; Let them go down quick into hell. [Ps. 55, 15] Those are’ quick’ that are sensible of the things that are done towards them. For the dead neither know nor are sensible at all, and so ‘the dead’ who do not feel are used to be put for persons that know not, but’ the quick,’ who are sensible, for those that know. Therefore to ‘go down quick into hell’ is for persons to sin knowing and being sensible of it. It goes on; This is the portion of an ungodly man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty. Which same’ portion’ and’ inheritance’ he thereupon gives.
Continue studying Job 27:12 across the web’s major study libraries — every link below opens this exact verse, chapter, or book on the destination site.
Read & Compare
BibleGatewayThis verse in more than 200 translations and 70 languages.
Bible.comThe YouVersion reader — hundreds of translations, reading plans, and highlights.
ESV.orgCrossway's official English Standard Version reader.
NET BibleThe NET translation with 60,000+ translators' notes on every rendering decision.
STEP BibleTyndale House's free study tool — original text, vocabulary, and scholarly resources.
BibliaLogos Bible Software's free web reader.
USCCBThe New American Bible (Revised Edition) with the U.S. bishops' study notes.
Commentaries
BibleHub CommentariesDozens of classic commentaries on this verse, gathered on one page.
StudyLightMore than 100 commentary sets — the largest collection on the web.
BibleRefPlain-English commentary on what this verse means, verse by verse.
Enduring WordDavid Guzik's free commentary on this chapter, widely used by Bible teachers.
Bible Study ToolsVerse commentary alongside Greek and Hebrew study aids.
Original Language & Research
- BibleHub InterlinearThe verse word by word — original language, transliteration, and English.
- BibleHub LexiconEvery word's original-language definition and Strong's entry.
Blue Letter BibleDeep-study tools — Strong's numbers, concordance, and word studies.
SefariaThe Hebrew text with Rashi and centuries of Jewish commentary.
Sermons, Hymns & Audio
TrulyRandomVerse is not affiliated with these sites and doesn’t control their content. They’re linked because they’re genuinely useful.
SUMMARY
In Job 27:12, Job directly confronts his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, challenging the superficiality and emptiness of their arguments. Despite their own observations of God's complex dealings in the world and the varied experiences of humanity, Job declares their theological pronouncements regarding his suffering to be utterly "vain" and devoid of true insight, highlighting the profound inadequacy of their rigid retribution theology.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Job 27:12 employs several potent literary devices to convey Job's frustration and his critique of his friends. The most prominent is Rhetorical Question, "why then are ye thus altogether vain?" Job is not genuinely asking for an explanation; rather, he uses the question to make a forceful statement about the utter emptiness and illogical nature of their arguments. This device highlights the absurdity of their position given what they should already know. There is also a strong element of Irony present, as these men, who came to offer "wisdom" and theological counsel, are themselves exposed as "vain" or empty in their understanding. Their supposed wisdom is revealed as folly. Furthermore, Job's direct address to his silent friends, using terms like "all ye yourselves," constitutes Direct Address or Apostrophe, creating a sense of personal confrontation and emphasizing the weight of his accusation.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Job 27:12 serves as a profound theological statement on the limitations of human wisdom and the danger of rigid, simplistic theology when confronted with the complexities of divine providence and human suffering. It challenges the presumption that humanity can fully grasp God's ways or neatly categorize the reasons for all suffering. The friends' "vain" arguments stem from an overconfidence in their own understanding and a failure to acknowledge the inscrutable nature of God's justice and sovereignty. This verse implicitly calls for humility in theological discourse and warns against judgmentalism, reminding us that true wisdom often lies in acknowledging what we do not know and trusting in God's ultimate righteousness, even when His methods are beyond our comprehension.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Job 27:12 offers timeless lessons for believers today, particularly concerning our approach to suffering and theological understanding. It is a powerful reminder that our human wisdom, even when rooted in seemingly sound theological principles, can become "vain" if it is applied rigidly, without humility, compassion, or an acknowledgment of God's infinite and often mysterious ways. We are cautioned against the temptation to offer simplistic explanations for complex suffering, or to judge others based on a narrow understanding of divine retribution. Instead, this verse calls us to cultivate a posture of profound humility before God's sovereignty, to extend empathy and support to those who suffer, and to resist the urge to fill the silence of unknowing with empty pronouncements. True wisdom, as Job himself demonstrates, often involves wrestling with difficult questions and trusting God's character even when His plan is not fully revealed.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What does "vain" mean in this context, and why is it significant?
Answer: In Job 27:12, "vain" (from Hebrew: hâbal and hebel) signifies emptiness, futility, worthlessness, or falsehood. It's significant because Job is not just saying his friends are wrong; he's asserting that their entire theological framework, as applied to his situation, is fundamentally devoid of substance or truth. Despite their observations of God's general providence and the complexities of life, their arguments are baseless and offer no real insight or comfort. This word is also used in the command not to take God's name in vain (Exodus 20:7), implying a misuse or treating something sacred as worthless, which parallels how the friends have misused their theological knowledge to offer empty counsel.
What "it" have Job's friends "seen" that should have prevented their "vain" arguments?
Answer: The "it" refers to the general, observable realities of God's dealings in the world. This could include the complexities of divine providence, where the righteous sometimes suffer and the wicked sometimes prosper (as Job himself has just described in Job 27:7-10). It also likely refers to their own experiences and common knowledge of life's unpredictability, God's immense power (as Job articulated in Job 26), and perhaps even the evidence of Job's own integrity. Job implies that these observable truths should have led them to a more nuanced understanding, rather than their rigid and ultimately "vain" conclusion that Job's suffering must be due to his sin.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Job 27:12, with its indictment of "vain" human wisdom, powerfully foreshadows the ultimate revelation of God's wisdom in Christ. Job's friends, trapped in a superficial retribution theology, could not comprehend righteous suffering, nor could they offer true comfort or understanding. Their "empty" words stand in stark contrast to the profound and transformative wisdom revealed in Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate righteous sufferer, the innocent Lamb of God, whose suffering was not a consequence of His sin but the very means of salvation for humanity, as prophesied in Isaiah 53. The "vanity" of human reasoning, which often seeks to explain God's ways through simplistic formulas, is utterly exposed by the "foolishness" of the cross, which is, in fact, the power and wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:18-25). Where Job's friends offered empty accusations, Christ offers genuine comfort, truth, and a burden that is light (Matthew 11:28-30). The "it" that Job's friends failed to truly "see" – the deeper, mysterious workings of God's justice and love – is fully unveiled in the person and work of Jesus, who is the very wisdom of God incarnate (Colossians 2:3).