Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 11:5
But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee;
5. Job had expressed his readiness to meet God and plead his cause before Him, ch. Job 9:25; Zophar, with reference to this, exclaims, Would that God would speak! The result would be different from what Job anticipated, his guilt would be laid before him.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But oh that God would speak – Hebrew, and truly, who will give that God should speak. It is the expression of an earnest wish that God would address him, and bring him to a proper sense of his ill desert. The meaning is, that if God should speak to him he would by no means find himself so holy as he now claimed to be.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. But O that God would speak] How little feeling, humanity, and charity is there in this prayer!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
i.e. Plead with thee, according to thy desire, Job 9:32, &c. He would soon put thee to silence and shame.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
But O that God would speak,…. To Job, and stop his mouth, so full of words; convict him of his lies, reprove him for his mocks and scoffs, and make him ashamed of them; refute his false doctrine and oppose it, and show him his folly and vanity in imagining it to be pure, and in conceit thinking himself to be free from sin, and even in the sight of God himself: Zophar seems by this wish to suggest, that what his friends had as yet spoke had had no effect upon Job, and signified nothing; and that he despaired of bringing him to any true sense of himself and his case, but that God only could do it; and therefore he entreats he would take him in hand, and speak unto him; as he had by his providences in afflicting him, so by his spirit in teaching and instructing him; and he adds:
and open his lips against thee; or rather, “with thee”, or “to thee” a; converse with thee; speak out his mind freely; disclose the secrets of his wisdom, as in Job 11:6, and that for thy good; fully convince thee of thy sins, mistakes, and follies: for, notwithstanding all the heat and warmth of Zophar’s spirit, yet, being a good man, as it cannot be thought he should wilfully and knowingly slander Job, and put a false gloss on his words, so neither could he desire any hurt or injury to be done him, or that God would deal with him as an enemy; only convince and reprove him for his sin, and justify himself and his own conduct, which he imagined Job had arraigned.
a , Sept. “tecum”, Pagninus, Montanus, Beza, Vatablus, Mercerus, Cocceius, Schmidt, Michaelis; “tibi”, V. L. “ad te”, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Job 11:5. Open his lips against thee The purpose of this wish is, that Job might be openly convicted of that wickedness of which they all concluded he must have been guilty, to draw down the wrath of God upon him to such an extraordinary degree.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(5) But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee; (6) And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.
Reader! do remark how prone the heart of man hath been in all ages, to make appeals to GOD. It is truly awful to hear, as not unfrequently may be heard, speeches like this dropping from the lips of carnal men; not only among the more open and profane, but even among some who would be hurt to have their religion called in question, who assume the freedom in direct defiance of the commandment, to take the LORD’S name in question, and call upon him to be a witness to their idle assertions as true.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 11:5 But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee;
Ver. 5. But oh that God would speak, &c. ] For we do but lose our sweet words upon thee, since thou art set, and so wedded and wedged to thine own will and way, that thou canst not be removed and rectified, but by an extraordinary touch from the hand of heaven: oh therefore that God would speak and open his lips against thee, and for us; for so Zophar doubts not but he would do; but if it proved otherwise, Job 42:7-10 , Job was justified, and these three condemned, because they had not spoken of God (or to God, as in this text), the thing that was right, Job 11:7 , but had been Satan’s instruments to discourage Job, and to drive that good man to many passionate speeches. Some men (and women too, as Sarah, Gen 16:5 ) are overly hasty to send for God, as it were, by a post, to decide their controversies; who, if he should come at their call, would certainly pronounce against them. Fret not thyself therefore to do evil, Psa 37:1 ; be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything in this way before God, Ecc 5:2 , or to interest him in thy quarrels and controversies, for he will surely pass an impartial sentence; neither is there any iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respecting of persons, nor receiving of gifts, 1Ch 19:7 . One interpreter from this wish of Zophar noteth, that it is an ordinary practice of heretics (Satan’s factors) to mention God, as approving of their errors, if by speaking he would from heaven declare himseff plainly, and that therefore we should take heed of those that labour to work upon us this way, when by right reason they are able to evince nothing that they say.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
lips. Figure of speech Anthropopatheia. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Job 23:3-7, Job 31:35, Job 33:6-18, Job 38:1, Job 38:2, Job 40:1-5, Job 40:8, Job 42:7
Reciprocal: Job 9:14 – shall I Job 13:3 – Surely
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 11:5. O that God would speak Plead with thee according to thy desire: he would soon put thee to silence. We are commonly ready, with great assurance, to interest God in our quarrels. But they are not always in the right who are most forward to appeal to his judgment, and prejudge it against their antagonists.