Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 12:11
Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat?
11. and the mouth taste his meat ] Rather, as the mouth (lit. palate) tasteth his meat. Does not the understanding ear discern and appropriate sound knowledge, as the palate discerns and relishes wholesome food? The ear (as well as the eye, Job 12:7-10) is a channel of sound information.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
11 25. Job 12:7-10 referred to what one could see of God’s power and wisdom in the world, these verses refer to what one might learn of them by hearing ancient men discourse regarding them. In ch. Job 13:1, where Job looks back upon this chapter, he refers to both channels of knowledge, his eye and his ear. He does not despise knowledge learned from the observation of others when it is pertinent, cf. ch. Job 21:29. And it is obvious that the description in Job 12:13-25 contains many allusions to catastrophes, both in nature and in human society, which Job could not have seen himself, but must have learned from tradition.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Doth not the ear try words? – The literal meaning of this, which is evidently a proverbial expression, is plain; but about its bearing here there is more difficulty. The literal sense is, that it is the office of the ear to mark the distinction of sounds, and to convey the sense to the soul. But in regard to the exact bearing of this proverb on the case in hand, commentators have not been agreed. Probably the sense is, that there ought to be a diligent attention to the signification of words, and to the meaning of a speaker, as one carefully tastes his food; and Job, perhaps, may be disposed to complain that his friends had not given that attention which they ought to have done to the true design and signification of his remarks. Or it may mean that man is endowed with the faculty of attending to the nature and qualities of objects, and that he ought to exercise that faculty in judging of the lessons which are taught respecting God or his works.
And the mouth – Margin, as in the Hebrew chek – palate. The word means not merely the palate, but the lower part of the mouth (Gesenius), and is especially used to designate the organ or the seat of taste; Psa 119:103; Job 6:30.
His meat – Its food – the word meat being used in Old English to denote all kinds of food. The sense is, man is endowed with the faculty of distinguishing what is wholesome from what is unwholesome, and he should, in like manner, exercise the faculty which God has given him of distinguishing the true from the false on moral subjects. He should not suppose that all that had been said, or that could be said, must necessarily be true. He should not suppose that merely to string together proverbs, and to utter common-place suggestions, was a mark of true wisdom. He should separate the valuable from the worthless, the true from the false, and the wholesome from the injurious. Job complains that his friends had not done this. They had shown no power of discrimination or selection. They had uttered common place apothegms, and they gathered adages of former times, without any discrimination, and had urged them in their arguments against him, whether pertinent or not. It was by this kind of irrelevant and miscellaneous remark that he felt that he had been mocked by his friends, Job 12:4.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 11. Doth not the ear try words?] All these are common-place sayings. Ye have advanced nothing new; ye have cast no light upon the dispensations of Providence.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As the mouth tasteth and thereby judgeth of meats, and as it liketh or disliketh, so it receiveth or rejecteth, what is put into it; so it is the office of the ear, or rather of the mind, which hears and receives the opinions and discourses of others by the ear, not rashly to approve or condemn every thing which it hears, but diligently and thoroughly to search and try whether it be true, and so to be embraced, or false, and to be rejected. Interpreters are much puzzled about the connexion and design of these words; but they seem to be either,
1. An apology for himself, why he did not comply with their opinion and all arguments, because they did not suit with his ear or mind; and though he had considered and tried them, he could not discern any weight in them. Or rather,
2. A reproof to his friends, that they did so hastily condemn his person and his doctrine without a strict and serious inquiry. Or,
3. A preface to his following discourse; whereby he invites them to hear and judge of his words and arguments more candidly and impartially; and not to scorn that he said because of his present poverty and misery, as men at ease used to do; nor to cast away the good for any mixture of bad with it; but calmly to weigh and debate things, both within and among themselves, and with him, that they and he too might all agree in disallowing whatsoever should appear to be false, and owning of every truth.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. As the mouth by tastingmeats selects what pleases it, so the ear tries the words of othersand retains what is convincing. Each chooses according to his taste.The connection with Job 12:12is in reference to Bildad’s appeal to the “ancients” (Job8:8). You are right in appealing to them, since “with themwas wisdom,” c. But you select such proverbs of theirs as suityour views so I may borrow from the same such as suit mine.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Doth not the ear try words?…. Articulate sounds; and the mind by them judges whether what is expressed and designed by them is right or wrong, true or false, to be received or rejected; so such that have spiritual ears to hear, try the words of God and men, the wholesome words of Christ, and those of false teachers, which eat as a canker; and by their spiritual judgment can distinguish between the one and the other, discern those that differ, and approve those that are excellent, by bringing them to the standard of the word, the balance of the sanctuary, the Scriptures of truth:
and the mouth taste his meat? and judge of it, whether good or bad, or savoury or unsavoury, and so receive or reject it: thus such who have their taste changed, and relish spiritual things, can distinguish between the meat that perishes, and that which endures to everlasting life, even Christ, whose flesh is meat indeed; and those that have tasted that the Lord is gracious, and to whose taste the fruits of Christ and the doctrines of grace are sweet; these will desire the sincere milk of the word, and that strong meat in it, which belongs to discerning and experienced souls; and will feed by faith upon the pure word of the Gospel, and mix it with it, and reject all others. Job by this would signify, that the things his friends had been discoursing of, and which they thought were such deep and wonderful things, were as easy to be searched and found out, tried and judged of, as sounds by the ear, or food by the taste; and it may be also that hereby he suggests, that his doctrine, if it was impartially examined and tried by proper judges, it would appear as plain as anything tried by the ear, or tasted by the mouth. Some think that Job intends by this, that from the senses of hearing and tasting in men might be inferred the omniscience of God, his knowledge of all things, and his quick discernment of men, and their actions, since “he that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall not he see?” Ps 94:9. Some versions read the whole, “doth not the ear try words, as the mouth tastes his meat” q? as in Job 34:3. Saadiah Gaon connects these words “as the ear tries words”, c. with Job 12:12, “so with the ancient is wisdom”.
q Vatablus, Drusius, Junius et Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus, Cocceius, Schultens so Broughton.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
11 Shall not the ear try sayings,
As the palate tasteth food?
12 Among the ancients is wisdom,
And long life is understanding.
13 With Him is wisdom and strength;
Counsel and understanding are His.
The meaning of Job 12:11 is, that the sayings ( , Job 8:10, comp. Job 5:27) of the ancients are not to be accepted without being proved; the waw in is waw adaequationis , as Job 5:7; Job 11:12, therefore equivalent to quemadmodum ; it places together for comparison things that are analogous: The ear, which is used here like ( Heb 5:14), has the task of searching out and testing weighty sayings, as the palate by tasting has to find out delicious and suitable food; this is indicated by , the dat. commodi . So far Job recognises the authority of these traditional sayings. At any rate, he adds (Job 12:12): wisdom is to be expected from the hoary-headed, and length of life is understanding, i.e., it accompanies length of life. “Length of days” may thus be taken as the subject (Ewald, Olsh.); but may also, with the old translations and expositors, be carried forward from the preceding clause: (lxx). We prefer, as the most natural: long life is a school of understanding. But – such is the antithesis in Job 12:13 which belongs to this strophe – the highest possessor of wisdom, as of might, is God. Ewald inserts two self-made couplets before Job 12:12, which in his opinion are required both by the connection and “the structure of the strophe;” we see as little need for this interpolation here as before, Job 6:14. and , which are placed first for the sake of emphasis, manifestly introduce an antithesis; and it is evident from the antithesis, that the One who is placed in contrast to the many men of experience is God. Wisdom is found among the ancients, although their sayings are not to be always implicitly accepted; but wisdom belongs to God as an attribute of His nature, and indeed absolutely, i.e., on every side, and without measure, as the piling up of synonymous expressions implies: , which perceives the reason of the nature, and the reality of the existence, of things; , which is never perplexed as to the best way of attaining its purpose; , which can penetrate to the bottom of what is true and false, sound and corrupt (comp. 1Ki 3:9); and also , which is able to carry out the plans, purposes, and decisions of this wisdom against all hindrance and opposition.
In the strophe which follows, from his own observation and from traditional knowledge (Job 13:1), Job describes the working of God, as the unsearchably wise and the irresistibly mighty One, both among men and in nature.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(11) Doth not the ear try words?Bildad had appealed to the wisdom of authority and tradition, but Job reminds him that it is given to the wise man not to accept everything he has received, but to discriminate. He allows that wisdom is the prerogative of age, but reminds him that the Ancient of Days must needs be wise indeed.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. And Even as.
Taste his meat Literally, Taste food for itself. In the same manner the testimony of the ancients is to be put to proof, and accepted on no other ground than that it should stand the test.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 12:11-12. Doth not the ear try words? &c. Doth not the ear try words, as the palate tasteth food? Job, being about to speak of the supreme and absolute dominion of God over his creatures, begins with two proverbial expressions, in which he seems to insinuate that he wished for other judges of what he had to say, who, endued with a more mature and solid understanding of spiritual things, were better able to distinguish sincere piety, and the just complaints of oppressed innocence, from impiety and hypocrisy, and to dispute more prudently concerning God and his providence. Schultens.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(11) Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat? (12) With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding. (13) With him is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding. (14) Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening. (15) Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up: also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth. (16) With him is strength and wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver are his. (17) He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools. (18) He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle. (19) He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty. (20) He removeth away the speech of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged. (21) He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty. (22) He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death. (23) He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again. (24) He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. (25) They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.
I do not offer a paraphrase on this most delightful discourse of Jobadiah It is too plain to need any, and too sublime to be aided by any. The sum and substance of it is, that the LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. And that he breaketh down, and it cannot be again built; that he shutteth, and none can open; that the deceiver and the deceived are his; yea, all shall ultimately minister to his glory, however various the designs of men, or whatever are their devices. And, Reader! pause with me, just to remark what beautiful and glorious illustrations there are in the word of GOD, in confirmation of GOD’S sovereignty, and wisdom in that sovereignty. When Joseph was sold as slave, here both the deceiver and the deceived were GOD’S; and the issue, in the salvation of the whole patriarch’s family, arose out of that dark event. When Haman erected a gallows for Mordecai, how little did he think that he himself should be hung upon it. Nay, infinitely higher, and more important than thousand, or ten thousand such instances; when the LORD JESUS was crucified by the malice of the Jews, who but the LORD could have known that this one event was the salvation of a world! Reader! allow me to make the same remark as the Psalmist hath, after giving the church a long and beautiful account of GOD’S leading his people by the hand through the whole of the dispensation in the wilderness; Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand, the loving kindness of the Lord. Psa 107:43 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 12:11 Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat?
Ver. 11. Doth not the ear try words? &c. ] The mind may as easily conceive of these truths as the ear judgeth certainly of the variety of sounds, and the tongue of the diversity of tastes; neither may you think that I will, without any examination or distinction, allow your discourses; or that I can take it well that you reject, as void of reason, whatsoever I have said, without once weighing it. The ear is one of the two learned senses, it is an instrument of discipline; only it should be kept clean and free from prejudice or passion, which will be as gall in the ear. See Exo 6:9 . Demosthenes called oft upon his Athenians to get their ears purged of choler, Quaedam animalia fel in aure gestant, and Alexander, when he heard a cause, was wont always to keep , one ear free from the other party: he would not be prepossessed, Mercer observeth, that the Hebrew word for an ear doth in the dual number signify a pair of balances ( Ozen, oznajin ), to note that a judicious Christian taketh not up truth upon trust, but considereth first, and afterwards believeth. He trieth all things, and then holdeth fast that which is good, but abstaineth from all appearance of evil, 1Th 5:21-22 . The ear and the mind are in the Greek tongue very like in sound, : the mind judgeth of the truth of words by the ears, as the beam in a pair of balances determineth the just weight of things by the two scales. He that is spiritual discerneth all things, 1Co 2:15 , he hath spiritual senses, Phi 1:9 , senses exercised, habitually exercised, to discern good and evil, Heb 5:14 ; his service is a rational service, Rom 12:1 , his obedience the obedience of faith, Rom 16:26 . Whereas the natural man is carried away as he is led, 2Co 12:2 , pulled away with the error of the wicked, 2Pe 3:17 , taken prisoner by seducers, 2Ti 3:6 , and by them made prize of, Col 2:8 , as having either no skill or no will to examine what is doctrinally propounded to him.
And the mouth taste his meat?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Doth: Job 34:3, 1Co 10:15, Phi 1:10, *marg. Heb 5:14, 1Pe 2:3
mouth: Heb. palate, Job 6:30
Reciprocal: 2Sa 19:35 – can I discern Job 6:6 – taste Isa 11:3 – understanding
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A DISCERNING EAR
Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat?
Job 12:11
I. There is no appeal from the verdict of our palate.We know in a moment whether a substance is sweet or bitter, palatable or disagreeable. Now, what the taste is to articles of diet, that the ear is to words, whether of God or man. Especially we can tell in a moment whether the fire of inspiration is burning in them. This is the test which Job proposed to apply to the words of his friends, and all of us may apply to Holy Scripture.
II. The humble student of the Word of God is sometimes much perplexed and cast down by the assaults which are made on it by scholars and teachers, who do not scruple to question the authorship and authority of large tracts of Scripture.To all these we may apply the test of the purged ear, and it will detect a certain quality in the Bible which is absent everywhere beside. There is a tone in the voice of Scripture which the child of God must recognise. God is speaking in the prophets, as He spake in His Son. Hearken, the Holy Ghost saith. This is the interesting characteristic in the quotations made in the New Testament from the Old. All the writers in the later Revelation detect the voice of God in the old; to them it is the Divine utterance through holy lips.
III. Ask that the Lord may touch your ears, that they may discern by a swift intuition the voice of the Good Shepherd from that of strangers.It is one of the characteristics of His sheep that they know His voice, and follow Him, whilst they flee from the voice of strangers.
Illustration
The things which give us most evidence of God are just the dark things of life; this was the experience of the man who, of all others, knew most of lifes dark things. And what Job learned by his sorrow we are all learningthat the cross is our crown, that the rejected stone is the head of the corner. Thou art seeking light on the life beyond the gravelight that shall dispel the gloom of death and turn back its shadow. But it does not occur to thee that the shadow of death is itself to be the light that thou seekest. He bringeth out to light the shadow of death, says Jobcauses illumination to come from the very source which threatened to shut it out for ever. It is from thy vision of death that there comes to thee the clearest sight thou hast of immortality.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Job 12:11. Doth not the ear try words? &c. Doth not the mind distinguish truth from falsehood, and wisdom from folly, as exactly as the palate distinguishes a sweet from a bitter taste? These words may either be considered as the conclusion of the foregoing discourse, or as a preface to the following. And he thereby demands from his friends the liberty of judging for himself of what they had said, and invites them to use the same liberty with respect to what he had advanced; wishing them to hear and judge of his words candidly and impartially, that they and he might agree in disavowing what should appear to be false or foolish, and in owning what was true and important.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
12:11 Doth not the ear {f} try words? and the mouth taste his meat?
(f) He exhorts them to be wise in judging, and as well to know the right use of their God-given ears, as well as their mouths.