Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Job 11:12

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Job 11:12. For vain man would be wise — The original is difficult and uncertain, ואיש נבוב ילבב veish nabub yillabeb, "And shall the hollow man assume courage," or "pride himself?" Or, as Mr. Good rather paraphrases it, Will he then accept the hollow-hearted person? The Chaldee gives two renderings: An eloquent man shall become wiser in his heart, and the colt of the wild ass is born as the son of man. Or, The wise man shall ponder it; and the refractory youth, who at last becomes prudent, shall make a great man. Coverdale.-A vayne body exalteth him self; and the son of man is like a wylde asse's foale. Houbigant translates thus: - A man who hath understanding will become prudent; but he who is as the wild ass hath no heart, i.e., sense. According to this critic, the meaning is this: - A man of sense, should he at any time transgress, will learn wisdom from it; but a man of a brutish mind, uncultivated and unreflecting, will plunge yet deeper into iniquity.

Though man be born like a wild ass's colt — Is translated by Mr. Good, Or shall the wild ass colt assume the man? This is making a sense, but such as I fear the original will never allow. There is no end to the translations of this verse, and conjectures relative to its meaning. I shall conclude with the Vulgate. - Vir vanus in superbiam erigitur, et tanquam pullum onagri se liberum natum putat, "Vain man is puffed up with pride; and he supposes himself to be born free like the wild ass's colt." Man is full of self-conceit; and imagines himself born to act as he pleases, to roam at large, to be under no control, and to be accountable to none for his actions.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Zophar speaks (11:1-20)

Angered at what he considers to be Job’s irreverent talk, Zophar can keep silent no longer (11:1-3). He rebukes Job for claiming to be an innocent victim of injustice, and asserts that if Job really suffered according to his sin, his suffering would be much worse (4-6). God’s wisdom is limitless and therefore his judgments must be true. People should neither oppose him nor expect to understand his ways (7-10). No one can deceive God, for he sees people as they really are. Only stupid people ask the sorts of questions Job has been asking (11-12).
What Job must do, says Zophar, is acknowledge his sin and turn from it (13-14). In return God will bless him with a genuinely clear conscience and a feeling of security and confidence. The miserable past will be forgotten; a bright future is assured (15-19). But if he stubbornly refuses to repent, Job can expect only increased suffering, which will lead finally to death (20).
The impression we gain from the speeches of Zophar is that he is the shallowest thinker of the three. Not surprisingly, he is also the most dogmatic and hot tempered. He has no experience such as Eliphaz’s dream to support him; he does not have Bildad’s knowledge of teachings handed down from the past; but he is totally confident that his view is right and all others wrong.

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

ZOPHAR ACCUSES JOB OF BEING IGNORANT OF GOD

“Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is high as heaven; what canst thou do? Deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, And broader than the sea. If he pass through, and shut up, and call unto judgment, Then who can hinder him? For he knoweth false men: He seeth iniquity also, even though he consider it not. But vain man is void of understanding, Yea, man is born as a wild ass’s colt.”

The things Zophar said in this passage were just as applicable to himself as they were to Job; but men with a plank in their own eye love to gouge for the mote in their brother’s eye. In the last analysis, God Himself finally opened his lips, as Zophar suggested in Job 11:5, flatly declaring that Zophar and Job’s other friends had not spoken “that which was right” about God (Job 42:7). How wrong he was!

Some of the generalities Zophar here uttered about God were of course true; but his thinly veiled suggestions that Job was ignorant (Job 11:8), that he could not hinder God (Job 11:10), that Job was one of the “false men” (Job 11:11), that God could see Job’s sin (Job 11:11), that Job was a vain man void of understanding (Job 11:12), and that he was as ignorant as a wild ass’s colt (Job 11:12) - all of this speech by Zophar must have been a very bitter thing for Job to hear.

Zophar had pretended to know that Job was a sinner, but without any evidence whatever. “So in these verses (Job 11:7-12), Zophar supported his charges by appealing to God’s infinity”!Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 471.

The greatest insult of all from Zophar is in Job 11:12, which in the RSV is rendered thus: A stupid man will get understanding when a wild ass’s colt is born a man. “This is a statement of the utter impossibility of a stupid man’s attaining wisdom.”Layman’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 8, p. 83.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

For vain man - Margin, “empty.” נבוב nâbûb, according to Gesenius, from the root נבב nâbab, to bore through, and then to be hollow; metaphorical, “empty,” “foolish.” The Septuagint, strangely enough, renders this,” but man floats about with words.” The Hebrew here means, manifestly, hollow, empty; then insincere and hypocritical. Zophar refers to a hollow-hearted man, who, though he was in fact like a wild ass’s colt, attempted to appear mild and gentle, and to have a heart. The meaning is, that man by nature has a spirit untamed and unsubdued, and that with this, he assumes the appearance of gentleness and tenderness, and attempts to appear as if he was worthy of love and affection. God, seeing this hollow-heartedness, treats him accordingly. The reference here is to men like Job, and Zophar undoubtedly meant to say that he was hollow-hearted and insincere, and yet that he wished to appear to be a man having a heart, or, having true piety.

Would be wise - Various interpretations have been given to this expression. The most simple and obvious seems to be the true one, though I have not seen it noticed by any of the commentators. The word rendered “would be wise” (ילבב yı̂lâbēb) is from לבב lâbab, or לב lêb, meaning “heart,” and the sense here, as it seems to me, is, “vain, hollow, and insincere, man would wish to seem to have a heart;” that is, would desire to appear sincere, or pious. Destitute of that truly, and false and hollow, he would nevertheless wish to appear different, and would put on the aspect of sincerity and religion. This is the most simple exposition, and this accords with the drift of the passage exactly, and expresses a sentiment which is unquestionably true. Gesenius, however, and some others render it, “but man is hollow and wanteth understanding; yea, man is born like a wild ass’s colt, signifying the weakness and dullness of the human understanding in comparison with the divine wisdom.” Others render it, “but the foolish man becometh wise when the wild ass’s colt shall become a man,” that is, never, a most forced and unnatural construction. Dr. Good renders it:

Will he then accept the hollow-hearted person?

Or shall the wild ass-colt assume the man?

Schultens and Dathe translate it:

Let then vain man be wise,

And the wild ass’s colt become a man.

Though man be born - Though man by nature, or in connection with his birth, is untamed, lawless, rebellious. The wild ass is a striking image of that which is untamed and unsubdued; compare the notes at Job 39:5. Thus, Jeremiah describes it, “a wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure,” Jeremiah 2:24. Thus, it is said of Ishmael Genesis 16:12, “and he will be a wild man,” אדם פרא pârâ' 'âdâm - a wild ass of a man. So Job 39:5 :

Who hath sent out the wild ass free?

Or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?

It is not quite easy for us to understand these allusions, for with us the ass is the proverbial image of stupidity, dullness, obstinacy, and immobility. But it was not so with the ancients. It is mentioned as distinguished for velocity, for wildness, and for an unsubdued spirit. Thus, Oppian, as quoted by Bochart, Hieroz. Lib. i. c. ix. p. 63, says:

Κῤαιπνὸν, ἀελλοπόδην, κρατερώνυχον, ὀξύτατον Θεῖν.

Kraipnon, aellopodēn, kraterōnuchon, ocutaton thein.

“Swift, rapid, with strong hoofs, and most fleet in his course.”

And Aristotle mentions wild asses as τήν ταχυτῆτα διαφέροντες tēn tachutēta diapherontes, Hist. Lib. vi. 6 c. 36. So Aelian says of them, ὤκιστοι δραμεῖν ōkistoi dramein, fleet in their course. And Xenophon says of them, πολὺ τοῦ ἵππου θᾶττον ἔτρεχον polu tou hippou thatton etrechon, they run much swifter than a horse. In describing the march of the younger Cyrus through Syria, he says, “The wild ass, being swifter of foot than our horses, would, in gaining ground upon them, stand still and look around; and when their pursuers got nearly up to them, they would start off, and repeat the same trick; so that there remained to the hunters no other method of taking them but by dividing themselves into dispersed parties which succeeded each other in the chase;” compare Bochart, Hieroz. P. I. Lib. iii. c. xvi. pp. 867-879. A similar statement is made by Aelian (Lib. xiv. cap. 10, as quoted by Bochart), “The wild asses of Maurusius ὄνοι Μανρούσιοι onoi Maurousioi are most fleet in their course, and at the commencement of their course they seem to be borne along by the winds, or as on the wings of a bird.” “In Persia,” says the Editor of the Pictorial Bible, “the wild ass is prized above all other animals as an object of chase, not only from its fleetness, but the delicacy of its flesh, which made it an article of luxury even at the royal tables.”

“They are now most abundantly found in the deserts of Tartary, and of the countries between the Tigris and the Indus, more particularly in the central parts of the regions thus defined. We know that they were also anciently found in the regions of Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Syria, and Arabia Deserta; but from these regions they seem to have been, in the course of ages, almost entirely expelled or extirpated.” Pict. Bib. on Job 39:5. The idea in the passage before us is, that man at his birth has a strong resemblance to a wild and untamed animal; and the passage undoubtedly indicates the early belief of the native proneness of man to wander away from God, and of his possessing by nature an insubmissive spirit.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Shall we turn to the eleventh chapter of the book of Job.

And in chapter 11 we hear from Job's third friend, old Zophar, and he gets his two cents worth in. Now for you that weren't here last Sunday night, we remember that the sons of God were presenting themselves to God and Satan came with them. And God did a little bragging on his servant, Job. And Satan said, "Yes, but You've so prospered him. Job, or anybody for that matter, would serve You if they were blessed as much as Job is. And You've put a hedge around the fellow; I can't get to him. Take away the hedge. Let me take away his possessions; he'll curse You to Your face." And so the Lord said, "All right. You can take away his possessions, but you leave him alone." And so Satan, operating within the limitations that God placed upon him. And Satan stripped Job of all of his possessions, his children even. And when Job received the word finally that his children were wiped out, he fell on his face and he said, "Naked I came into the world, naked I am going out. The Lord has given; the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." And in all of these things Job did not curse God, nor did he charge God foolishly.

So it came to pass in another day that the sons of God were presenting themselves to God, and Satan also came with them. And God said the Satan, "Where have you been?" And he said, "Oh, going around the earth." The Lord said, "Have you considered my servant Job? Good man. He's upright. He's perfect. He loves good; he hates evil. And in spite of all of what you've done, you were wrong about him. He didn't curse Me." And so Satan offered, really, a second suggestion concerned Job in which he expressed really what the psychologists tell us are the basic instincts of man, and that is self-preservation. Skin for skin. Yea, all that a man has will he give for his skin. Will he give for his life. "You see, You haven't let me touch him. Let me hit him. Let me get at him and he'll curse You to Your face." So God said, "All right, do what you would want, but don't take his life. Spare his life."

So Job was afflicted with these horrible boils from the head to the toe. Running, putrid sores. Painful. He lay out in the dust, in the ashes. As the sores would dry they would just form clods on his body. He'd take a piece of broken clay and just scrape himself. Absolutely miserable condition. His wife looked at him one day and said, "Honey, why don't you get it over with? Why don't you just curse God and die?" Job said, "We've received good from God, should we not also receive evil?"

There were three men from the east, reputed wise men who knew Job because Job was the greatest man in all of the east because of the abundance of his possessions prior to his being stripped. And they came to commiserate with him in his misery. And they sat there in silence for seven days as they saw the misery of their friend. And after seven days, Job opened up his mouth and cursed the day that he was born. Cursed the fact that he was alive. Cried out for death. And his friends began to more or less rebuke him. They began to suggest and intimate that no one could suffer this much unless he was some kind of a horrible sinner. That though he appeared outwardly to be a good man, yet he must be hiding some dreadful sin, or seeking to hide it, but God wouldn't let him hide it, and this surely is punishment from God for the evil that he has done.

Now, we know better than that because we had the first two chapters where we got the insight to what was happening. So we know how wrong is the evaluation of man concerning the situation. It's interesting how that we so often think that we know all the answers. And this is sort of Zophar's position. You know, he really knows just what it's all about. He knows all about God, and he's a religious dogmatist. And he now makes his speech as we get here to chapter 11, and rebukes Job, and again the innuendoes of evil and so forth in Job. So these are the discourses that the friends will speak and then Job will answer them. And then the next friend will speak up and try to put Job down, and Job will answer him. And the conversation is going back and forth between Job and his friends. A friend will speak, then Job responds, and this is the way the book of Job moves.

Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, Should not the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified? ( Job 11:1-2 )

Job, do you think you can just justify yourself with your mouth? A man who says all of the things you're saying, should you just let it go?

Should your lies make men hold their peace? ( Job 11:3 )

Now you see, he's accusing him of being a liar.

and when you mock, shall no man make thee ashamed? For you have said, My doctrine is pure, I am clean in thine eyes. But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee ( Job 11:3-5 );

Well, the first chapter God did speak. God said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? An upright man. He loves good. He hates evil." You see, God had spoken and given His evaluation of Job. Now this friend Zophar said, "Oh, if God would only speak! You know, tell us what He knows about you."

He would show thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know ye therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserves ( Job 11:6 ).

"Job, you listen, if God would really lay it on for all you're got coming, it'd be worse than what you've got now." Isn't that a great way to comfort a friend who's really hurting? No wonder Job cried out, "Miserable comforters are all of you." What a way to comfort a man. "Hey, man, you've got it easy. If God would really lay it on you like you've got coming to you, you'd be in much worse shape that this."

And so, an interesting question though. He said, "Can you by searching find out God? Can you find out the Almighty unto perfection?" And the answer is really no. Man, through an intellectual quest, cannot find out God. You will never understand God completely. Now one of our problems is that we are always seeking to understand God. We are always asking God, "Why, Lord, did You allow this? Why, God, has this happened to me? Why, Lord, am I in this condition?" We're trying to understand God. But I have found that why's can be a cesspool. You can drown in it. "Why did God?" The answer is, we don't know the why's of God. God does many things that I do not understand. I don't understand why a child is born blind. I don't understand why someone is crippled for life. I don't understand why children starve to death. There are a lot of things that I don't understand. I don't understand why we have to suffer. I don't understand why we experience sorrow. I don't understand why my brother and father were killed in a plane crash. A lot of things I don't understand.

That is why it is important that you have certain foundational truths upon which you stand. You see, there are certain things that I know. They are foundational truths, they are underneath, I rest upon these, I stand upon these. I know this: that God loves me. In spite of what happens, I know God loves me. In spite of what I might experience, I know God loves me. What tragedy might befall me in my path of life, I know that God loves me. And it's important that you know this. It's important that you have this as an undergirding, foundational truth. Because when you don't understand what's happening, you've gotta fall back on what you do understand, and I do understand God loves me. I do understand that God is far wiser than I am and He can see much more than I can see. I do know that my vision is very limited. I know that the spectrum that I can see is very small. I know that God has a much broader vision than I have. He can see the end from the beginning. Not only is His vision much broader than mine, but His wisdom is much expanded from mine. And though I do not understand, thank God I no longer have to understand all of the things that have happened to me. As long as I understand that God loves me and my life is in His hand and that He is working in me according to love and His wisdom, doing what is best for me as He knows what is best. I, by faith, rest there. Lord, You know what's best for me. Lord, You love me. Lord, You're in control of my life. So, whatever. I don't understand why God allowed His own Son to suffer on the cross in order to redeem such as me. There are a lot of things about God that I don't understand. But it isn't necessary or important that I do understand them. It is only necessary that I commit my life completely to God, come what may.

Now if you only commit yourself as far as you understand, if you're only, "Because I am blessed, I'm prospered and all, and therefore I love God and serve God because, you know, I'm prospered so much by God," then what are you going to do in the day of adversity? Should you be stripped of that which you have? What can you do then? But if you've learned to trust in God completely and commit to God completely your life, then you can handle the things that come along your path. So who by searching can find out God? You can't. This is one of the problems man has run up against. He sought to intellectually search for God and understand God, but God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. No matter how much you may search for God intellectually, there always comes that point where you've got to leave the area of reason and take the step of faith to touch Him. Now my intellect can tell me an awful lot about God. My intellect surely brings me to the consciousness and the awareness that God exists. I'm not so stupid as to think this whole thing could have come about through spontaneous generation, or just fortunate accidents. All of the life forms, the variables of the life forms, witness to me of the wisdom of the Divine Creator.

I love nature. I love to study nature. I love the quirks of nature. I love to study the little fish down in Panama that shoots water at the bugs that are on the twigs. Quite accurate. Hits them with a blob of water, they fall, and then his swims up and grabs them. Now how long did it take for that little fish to develop the capacity to spit that little bit of water, to develop the accuracy? How did he survive before he learned how to do it? Things like that fascinate me. Surely there is a Creator. Surely there is an original cause. My intellect can carry me a long way, but there comes the place where I have to, ultimately, to really reach God, leave the realm of the intellect and take the step of faith. "All right, God. I believe. I trust. I commit." A step of faith. I'll never understand God completely; God said I won't. He said, "My ways are not your ways. My ways are beyond your finding out" ( Isaiah 55:8 ). So who can understand God perfectly?

It is as high as heaven; what can you do? deeper than hell; what can you know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, it's broader than the sea. If God decides to cut off, or shut up, or gather together, who can hinder God? [Who can stop the purposes of God?] For he knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness also; will he not then consider it? For vain men would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt. If you prepare your heart, and stretch out your hands towards him; If iniquity be in your hand, put it far away, let not wickedness dwell in your tents ( Job 11:8-14 ).

So he's now turning to Job and saying, "Look, you know, if you prepare your heart and stretch out your hand to God, make sure you don't have any wickedness in your hands, and let your tabernacles be clean."

For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be steadfast, and shall not fear: Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as the waters that pass away: and thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; and shine forth, and thou shalt be as the morning. And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yes, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety. Also thou shalt lie down, and none will make thee afraid; yea, many shall make suit unto thee [or shall come to thee and do obeisance]. But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost ( Job 11:15-20 ). "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

5. Zophar’s first speech ch. 11

Zophar took great offense at what Job had said. He responded viciously with an aggressiveness that outdid both Eliphaz and Bildad. Zophar was a dogmatist.

"He . . . attempted heavy handed shock treatment to get through to Job." [Note: Smick, "Job," p. 917.]

"The Naamathite is the least engaging of Job’s three friends. There is not a breath of compassion in his speech. . . . His censorious chiding shows how little he has sensed Job’s hurt. Job’s bewilderment and his outbursts are natural; in them we find his humanity, and our own. Zophar detaches the words from the man, and hears them only as babble and mockery (Job 11:2). This is quite unfair. Zophar’s wisdom is a bloodless retreat into theory. It is very proper, theologically familiar and unobjectionable. But it is flat beer compared with Job’s seismic sincerity." [Note: Andersen, p. 156.]

"What Job needed was a helping hand, not a slap in the face." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 26]

"How sad it is when people who should share ministry end up creating misery." [Note: Ibid. Cf. Romans 12:15.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Zophar’s praise of God’s Wisdom 11:7-12

Eliphaz and Bildad had spoken mainly of God’s justice. Zophar extolled His wisdom. He rightly explained that God’s wisdom is unfathomable, but he inadvertently claimed to fathom it by saying Job deserved more punishment than he was getting. Job 11:12 may have been a proverb common in Job’s day. It means that it is harder for a fool (empty head) to learn wisdom than for a wild donkey, notorious for its stupidity, to give birth to a man. In Zophar’s view, Job was extremely foolish because he failed to see the truth of what Eliphaz and Bildad had said.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

For vain man would be wise,.... Or "hollow" r, empty man; empty of all that is good, though full of all unrighteousness; without God, the knowledge, love, and fear of him; without Christ, the knowledge of him, faith in him, and love to him; destitute of the Spirit, and of his grace, having no good thing in him: yet such a man "would be wise"; not desirous of true wisdom, but would be thought to be wise; he in conceit thinks himself that he is very wise, and he would fain have others think so of him; or is, or "may", or "will be wise" s; may be made wise by the chastisements of God through afflictions, being sanctified to him by the grace of God; though he is a vain man, and also is what is after said of him; afflicting dispensations are sometimes teaching ones, and in the school of afflictions many useful lessons are learnt, whereby men become wiser; see Psalms 94:12; though some understand the word in a very different sense, and interpret it bold, audacious, proud, and haughty; man takes heart t, and lifts up himself against God, stretches his hand, and hardens his heart against him:

though man be born [like] a wild ass's colt; foolish and stupid, without understanding of divine and spiritual things; given to lust and wantonness, to serve divers lusts and pleasures; not subject to the yoke of the law of God, stubborn, refractory, and untameable, but by the grace of God; the ass, and especially the wild ass, and the colt of one, being a very stupid creature, and a very lustful and wanton one, chooses to be free, will not bear the yoke, but ranges about in desert places; see Job 39:5; some render the words, "and a wild ass's colt is", or "may be born a man" u; that is, one that is by his first birth, and by his life and conversation, like a wild ass's colt, is or may be born again, and be made a new man, as Jarchi also interprets it, and so become a wise, knowing, and good man, which is a great truth; but whether the truth in this text, is not so clear: the Targum seems to incline this way;

"a refractory, youth that grows wise shall become a great man.''

r נבוב "concavus", Montanus; "cavus", Drusius; "vacuus", Pagninus, Beza, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Michaelis. s ילבב "fiat vel fit cordatus", Junius Tremellius, Piscator so Broughton, Beza. t "In superbiam erigitur", V. L. "audaciam sumit", Schmidt. u "Pullus onager homo nascitur", Cocceius, Schmidt "nascatur", Schultens.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      7 Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?   8 It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?   9 The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.   10 If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?   11 For he knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness also; will he not then consider it?   12 For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt.

      Zophar here speaks very good things concerning God and his greatness and glory, concerning man and his vanity and folly: these two compared together, and duly considered, will have a powerful influence upon our submission to all the dispensations of the divine Providence.

      I. See here what God is, and let him be adored.

      1. He is an incomprehensible Being, infinite and immense, whose nature and perfections our finite understandings cannot possibly form any adequate conceptions of, and whose counsels and actings we cannot therefore, without the greatest presumption, pass a judgment upon. We that are so little acquainted with the divine nature are incompetent judges of the divine providence; and, when we censure the dispensations of it, we talk of things that we do not understand. We cannot find out God; how dare we then find fault with him? Zophar here shows, (1.) That God's nature infinitely exceeds the capacities of our understandings: "Canst thou find out God, find him out to perfection? No, What canst thou do? What canst thou know?" Job 11:7; Job 11:8. Thou, a poor, weak, short-sighted creature, a worm of the earth, that art but of yesterday? Thou, though ever so inquisitive after him, ever so desirous and industrious to find him out, yet darest thou attempt the search, or canst thou hope to speed in it? We may, by searching find God (Acts 17:27), but we cannot find him out in any thing he is pleased to conceal; we may apprehend him, but we cannot comprehend him; we may know that he is, but cannot know what he is. The eye can see the ocean but not see over it. We may, by a humble, diligent, and believing search, find out something of God, but cannot find him out to perfection; we may know, but cannot know fully, what God is, nor find out his work from the beginning to the end,Ecclesiastes 3:11. Note, God is unsearchable. The ages of his eternity cannot be numbered, nor the spaces of his immensity measured; the depths of his wisdom cannot be fathomed, nor the reaches of his power bounded; the brightness of his glory can never be described, nor the treasures of his goodness reckoned up. This is a good reason why we should always speak of God with humility and caution and never prescribe to him nor quarrel with him, why we should be thankful for what he has revealed of himself and long to be where we shall see him as he is, 1 Corinthians 13:9; 1 Corinthians 13:10. (2.) That it infinitely exceeds the limits of the whole creation: It is higher than heaven (so some read it), deeper than hell, the great abyss, longer than the earth, and broader than the sea, many parts of which are to this day undiscovered, and more were then. It is quite out of our reach to comprehend God's nature. Such knowledge is too wonderful for us,Psalms 139:6. We cannot fathom God's designs, nor find out the reasons of his proceedings. His judgments are a great deep. Paul attributes such immeasurable dimensions to the divine love as Zophar here attributes to the divine wisdom, and yet recommends it to our acquaintance. Ephesians 3:18; Ephesians 3:19, That you may know the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, of the love of Christ.

      2. God is a sovereign Lord (Job 11:10; Job 11:10): If he cut off by death (margin, If he make a change, for death is a change; if he make a change in nations, in families, in the posture of our affairs),--if he shut up in prison, or in the net of affliction (Psalms 66:11),-- if he seize any creature as a hunter his prey, he will gather it (so bishop Patrick) and who shall force him to restore? or if he gather together, as tares for the fire, or if he gather to himself man's spirit and breath (Job 34:14; Job 34:14), then who can hinder him? Who can either arrest the sentence or oppose the execution? Who can control his power or arraign his wisdom and justice? If he that made all out of nothing think fit to reduce all to nothing, or to their first chaos again,--if he that separated between light and darkness, dry land and sea, at first, please to gather them together again,--if he that made unmakes, who can turn him away, alter his mind or stay his hand, impede or impeach his proceedings?

      3. God is a strict and just observer of the children of men (Job 11:11; Job 11:11): He knows vain men. We know little of him, but he knows us perfectly: He sees wickedness also, not to approve it (Habakkuk 1:13), but to animadvert upon it. (1.) He observes vain men. Such all are (every man, at his best estate, is altogether vanity), and he considers it in his dealings with them. He knows what the projects and hopes of vain men are, and can blast and defeat them, the workings of their foolish fancies; he sits in heaven, and laughs at them. He takes knowledge of the vanity of men (that is, their little sins; so some) their vain thoughts and vain words, and unsteadiness in that which is good. (2.) He observes bad men: He sees gross wickedness also, though committed ever so secretly and ever so artfully palliated and disguised. All the wickedness of the wicked is naked and open before the all-seeing eye of God: Will he not then consider it? Yes, certainly he will, and will reckon for it, though for a time he seem to keep silence.

      II. See here what man is, and let him be humbled, Job 11:12; Job 11:12. God sees this concerning vain man that he would be wise, would be thought so, though he is born like a wild ass's colt, so sottish and foolish, unteachable and untameable. See what man is. 1. He is a vain creature--empty; so the word is. God made him full, but he emptied himself, impoverished himself, and now he is raca, a creature that has nothing in him. 2. He is a foolish creature, has become like the beasts that perish (Psalms 49:20; Psalms 73:22), an idiot, born like an ass, the most stupid animal, an ass's colt, not yet brought to any service. If ever he come to be good for any thing, it is owing to the grace of Christ, who once, in the day of his triumph, served himself by an ass's colt. 3. He is a wilful ungovernable creature. An ass's colt may be made good for something, but the wild ass's colt will never be reclaimed, nor regards the crying of the driver. See Job 39:5-7. Man thinks himself as much at liberty, and his own master, as the wild ass's colt does, that is used to the wilderness (Jeremiah 2:24), eager to gratify his own appetites and passions. 4. Yet he is a proud creature and self-conceited. He would be wise, would he thought so, values himself upon the honour of wisdom, though he will not submit to the laws of wisdom. He would be wise, that is, he reaches after forbidden wisdom, and, like his first parents, aiming to be wise above what is written, loses the tree of life for the tree of knowledge. Now is such a creature as this fit to contend with God or call him to an account? Did we but better know God and ourselves, we should better know how to conduct ourselves towards God.