Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 32:12

Yea, I attended unto you, and, behold, [there was] none of you that convinced Job, [or] that answered his words:

There was none of you that convinced Job – There was no one to produce conviction on his mind, or rather, there was no one to reprove him by answering him – mokiyach anah. They were completely silenced: and had nothing to reply to the arguments which he had advanced, and to his reflections on the divine government.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 12. Yea, I attended unto you] Instead of veadeychem, and unto you, one MS. reads the above letters with points that cause it to signify and your testimonies; which is the reading of the Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint.

Behold, there was none of you that convinced Job] Confuted Job. They spoke multitudes of words, but were unable to overthrow his arguments.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

By solid and satisfactory answers to his assertions and allegations.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

Yea, I attended unto you,…. Very closely, with great application and diligence, endeavouring to get, as it were, within them, and thoroughly understand the meaning of what they said:

and, behold, [there was] none of you that convinced Job; which was not owing to his obstinacy, but to want of proof in them, their words and arguments; they had charged Job highly, as particularly Eliphaz,

Job 22:5; but then they failed in their proof; they produced nothing to support their allegations:

[or] that answered his words; the arguments and reasons he gave in proof of his own innocence and uprightness, or the instances he produced, showing that God often afflicted good men, and suffered the wicked to prosper; and therefore no argument could be drawn from God’s dealings with men, proving they were either of this or the other character, good or bad men.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(12) There was none of you.In Elihus judgment there was no one who touched the main point of the argument with Job.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Job 32:12 Yea, I attended unto you, and, behold, [there was] none of you that convinced Job, [or] that answered his words:

Ver. 12. Yea, I attended unto you ] Et usque ad yes perpendebam, I throughly weighed your words, and rightly considered them (as our Mr Bradshaw was wont to do at the ministers’ meetings, and was therehence called the weighing divine), that you may not think I answer the matter before I understand it, as fools do, to their shame, 2Pe 2:12 , daring to reprehend what I do not comprehend, as did that Popish expositor, who calleth Ezekiel’s description of the temple insulsam descriptionem, an absurd description (Sanctius in cap. 40, Ezek. in argum.).

And, behold, there was none of you that convinced Job, or that answered his words ] And yet they thought they had done both effectually; and that it was merely his stubbornness to stand out against them. Ready they were to give him up for uncounsellable; and to turn him over to God with a non convertetur, he is past our cure, we can do no good on him; none but God can put him out of his good conceit of himself, &c. Out of all this a good interpreter maketh these following conclusions: 1. That we must diligently hear and weigh what things are spoken by others before we proceed to censure them. 2. That we must not pass a censure upon any one part of a speech, but take it all together, ere we make judgment of it. 3. That when we have weighed everything well and wisely, we must not countenance any error, but freely utter what we do truly and rightly think of it. 4. That we may think things sufficiently refuted by the learned which yet had need to be further inquired into. 5. That one younger man may see further sometimes into a matter than many others of longer standing and experience. 6. That men may be esteemed obstinate and opinionated who are nothing less. 7. That multitude and antiquity are but ciphers in divinity, &c.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

convinced = convicted. Man condemns without convicting; but God convicts first, that the man may condemn himself.

words = arguments.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

unto you: Weadeychem is rendered “and your testimonies,” by the Syriac, Arabic, and LXX, and one of De Rossi’s manuscripts (874) is so pointed as to require this reading.

behold: Job 32:3, 1Ti 1:7

Reciprocal: Job 5:27 – we have searched Job 29:21 – gave ear Job 32:4 – waited till Job had spoken Job 33:5 – If

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Job 32:12-13. Yea, I attended unto you I have duly considered all you have said; and behold, none of you convinced Job I must pronounce you have not confuted him, nor advanced any thing to the purpose in answer to his defence of himself. Lest you should say, We have found out wisdom God has thus left you to your own weakness and mistakes, and shown you your inability to convince him, or even to make good your own arguments by answering his objections, lest you should glory in your own wisdom; lest you should boastingly say, We have discovered and said all that need or can be said in the cause, and what may finally end the controversy; we have said, God thrusteth him down, not man, and by his dreadful judgments upon him, shows him to be a hypocrite, and to be guilty of some gross, though secret sins. Or, as the Hebrew, , eel jiddepennu, may be properly rendered, God must, or will, confute him, not man; God only can sift him to the bottom, and know whether his pretences to piety have any thing real in them, or are only hypocritical. But, says Elihu, this argument does not satisfy me, and therefore bear with me if I seek for a better.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments