Jobchapter 11
20 verses · BSBJob book hub →
Speaks with:Job 22×3Job 17×2Psalms 139×2Job 2×1Proverbs 10×1James 1×1
Summary
Chapter summary
Zophar the Naamathite enters, harshest of the three: 'should a man full of talk be justified?' He wishes God would speak and show Job the secrets of wisdom, adding that God exacts of Job less than his iniquity deserves. His great question is genuinely great even inside a bad argument: 'Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?' (11:7), high as heaven, deeper than Sheol, longer than the earth, broader than the sea. Then the standard offer: put away iniquity, set thy heart aright, 'then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot,' and none shall make thee afraid.
Context
Poetry · Unknown — Job overview
- A. 1–12 Zophar: Canst Thou by Searching Find Out God?
- B. 13–20 Zophar: Set Thy Heart Aright and Forget Thy Misery
The outline
A.Zophar: Canst Thou by Searching Find Out God?vv. 1 to 12
Read vv. 1 to 12 →B.Zophar: Set Thy Heart Aright and Forget Thy Miseryvv. 13 to 20
Read vv. 13 to 20 →
The world behind this chapter
Job 11The history
Zophar the Naamathite is the bluntest of the three and the shortest-tempered. He opens by asking whether a flood of words should go unanswered and whether Job's talk should make men hold their peace — the accusation that Job is simply talking his way out.
His claim is that wisdom has two sides, and that God could show Job the hidden half. Secret or double knowledge was a live idea in the ancient Near East: temple experts guarded lists, omen collections, and technical lore that ordinary people never saw, and 'the secrets of wisdom' would have sounded to hearers like a claim to inside information from the divine council.
He then measures God with the only measuring frame available: higher than heaven, deeper than Sheol, longer than the earth and broader than the sea. These are the four directions of the ancient cosmos, and the point is that a man standing at the centre of them cannot audit the one who set them.
His closing offer is the standard promise of security in that world, item by item: a face lifted without spot, fear gone, misery forgotten like water that has run past, life brighter than noon, lying down with none to make afraid, and many making suit to you. Set against it is the fate of the wicked — eyes that fail, no escape route, and hope that is the giving up of the ghost.
What it meant to them
Zophar's charge is the cruellest of the three: God is exacting of you less than your guilt deserves. He tells a ruined man he is getting off lightly.
By the end of the first round the hearers have watched three respectable men, using a vision, the ancestors, and pure logic, arrive at the same wrong answer. The book is dismantling a whole way of counselling, one speaker at a time.
Sources cited
- John E. Hartley, The Book of Job
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Job 11. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.