Job 12:13
in Job 12Wisdom and strength belong to God; counsel and understanding are His.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
With God is wisdom and might; He hath counsel and understanding.
KJV
With him is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding.
⋯
This verse in Job 12
Commentary
11 notes on this verseWith Him is wisdom and strength: He hath counsel and understanding. We not unfitly interpret these words of the Only begotten Son of the Supreme Father, so as to understand Him to be Himself 'the Wisdom and Strength of God.' For Paul also bears testimony to our interpretation, in the words, Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. Who is ever 'with Him,' in that, In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
This site's exposition
Wisdom is found with the elderly
on Job 12:12-13
"Wisdom is found with the elderly, and understanding comes with long life" concedes a proverb the friends have leaned on, that age carries authority. "Wisdom and strength belong to God; counsel and understanding are His" caps the concession, moving the seat of wisdom from human elders to God.
This site's exposition
Wisdom and strength belong to God
Verse 13 answers verse 12. Matthew Henry sets the wisdom of elderly men beside the wisdom of the Ancient of Days, who has all power. Gregory reads the verse of Christ, called the power and the wisdom of God at 1 Corinthians 1:24.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"In the length of time is wisdom, and in long life knowledge." In this passage it can be gathered that reason is natural to humanity as well as eating; or, at the beginning he said, "Are you really the only men?" Since I am a man, he means, I can understand what you also understand. "In length of time," he says, "is wisdom." It seems to me that he is criticizing them. "Do you believe," he says, "that you have found out all things?" Even if we possess reason to discern, we need a long time to find out things. "With him are wisdom and power, with him counsel and understanding." "All wisdom indeed," he says, "is in God, in his fullness, and it is in him without any need of time." … Therefore, is it possible that since we know that, we also know all things? I know that the wicked are punished; but I am punished despite my justice, so time is needed to understand this.
The Medieval Church1 voice
After he has shown the power of experience, he then adds what men can know by experience about God when he says, "With him is wisdom and courage, he has counsel and understanding." Here he attributes four things to God which have an order among …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
What is the wisdom of ancient men compared with the wisdom of the ancient of days! It is but little that we know, and less that we can do; but God can do every thing, and no thought can be withheld from him. Happy are those who have this God for their God, for they have infinite wisdom and strength engaged for them.
I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these? 4 I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn. 5 He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
With him is wisdom and strength,....
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
With him is wisdom - Margin, correctly, “God.” However much wisdom there may seem to be with aged men, yes the true wisdom - that which was supreme and worthy of the name - was to be found in God alone. The object of Job was to lead the thoughts up to God, and to bring his friends to a contemplation of the wisdom which he manifests in his works.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
In contrast to, "with the ancient is wisdom" (Job 12:12), Job quotes a saying of the ancients which suits his argument, "with Him (God) is (the true) wisdom" (Pr 8:14); and by that "wisdom and strength" "He breaketh down," &c., as an absolute Sovereign, not allowing man to penetrate His mysteries; man's part is to bow to His unchangeable decrees (Job 1:21).
With him is wisdom and strength - But all these things come from God; he is the Fountain of wisdom and the Source of power. He alone can give us unerring counsel, and understanding to comprehend and act profitably by it. See on Job 12:16 (note).
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
In elders there is wisdom etc. to know that with Him is wisdom.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עִ֭מּוֹ | imo | [are] with him | H5973 → | 1050 times |
| חָכְמָ֣ה | chokhmah | wisdom | H2451 → | 153 times |
| וּגְבוּרָ֑ה | ugevurah | and might | H1369 → | 61 times |
| ל֝֗וֹ | lo | [belong] to him | ||
| עֵצָ֥ה | ʾetzah | counsel | H6098 → | 89 times |
| וּתְבוּנָֽה׃ | utevunah | and understanding | H8394 → | 42 times |
עִ֭מּוֹ[are] with him
imoH5973 →1050 times
חָכְמָ֣הwisdom
chokhmahH2451 →153 times
וּגְבוּרָ֑הand might
ugevurahH1369 →61 times
ל֝֗וֹ[belong] to him
lo
עֵצָ֥הcounsel
ʾetzahH6098 →89 times
וּתְבוּנָֽה׃and understanding
utevunahH8394 →42 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
James 1:5Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
it leads to
- Proverbs 2:3–6
if you truly call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding,
- John 15:7
If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
- Jeremiah 29:12–13
Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
- Proverbs 3:5–7
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
- 1 John 5:14–15
And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
- Proverbs 2:3–6
Through
Job 36:5Indeed, God is mighty, but He despises no one; He is mighty in strength of understanding.
it leads to
- Psalms 22:24
For He has not despised or detested the torment of the afflicted. He has not hidden His face from him, but has attended to his cry for help.
- Psalms 138:6
Though the LORD is on high, He attends to the lowly; but the proud He knows from afar.
- Jeremiah 10:12
The LORD made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.
- Psalms 22:24
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XI; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 12:12-13; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.