Zophar’s first speech
11
📚Then answered Zophar the Naamathite and said, 2 📚“Should not so many words be answered? And should a man full of talk be justified?
3 📚Should your empty words make men keep silent? And when you mock, should no man make you ashamed?
11:1-3 Zophar is in full agreement with Eliphaz and Bildad. He believes that Job has grievously sinned, and that his words are vain and irreverent.⚜
4 📚For you have said, ‘My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in your eyes.’
11:4 Job had not said this. Zophar thinks this is the meaning of some of the things Job had said, but to get such a meaning he had to twist Job’s words. Job had confessed his ignorance (Job 9:2-3), and humbly revealed his desire for understanding (Job 6:24; 10:2). He knew that at times in his life he had sinned (Job 7:21).⚜
5 📚But oh, that God would speak, and open his lips against you,
11:5 Zophar’s wish is fulfilled in Job 38:1.⚜
6 📚And show you the secrets of wisdom, that they are double what seems to be! Know therefore that God exacts from you less than your iniquity deserves.
11:6 Zophar thinks that God has been merciful to Job and punished him less than he deserved.⚜
7 📚“Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty?
8 📚They are as high as heaven; what can you do? Deeper than hell 📖; what can you know?
9 📚Their measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
10 📚“If he cuts off, or shuts up, or gathers together, then who can hinder him?
11:7-10 He can teach Job nothing about this. Job himself has said similar things (Job 9:4-12).⚜
11 📚For he knows vain men. He also sees wickedness. Will he not then consider it?
12 📚For an idiot can no more become wise than a wild donkey’s colt can be born a man!
11:12 Zophar thinks it is practically impossible for a foolish man (as he thinks Job is) to become wise. He is quite sure that a wild donkey can never become a man. The writers of the Bible all knew that men are men and animals are animals and that the one would never become the other. There is no kind of reincarnation taught in the Bible. There is never the slightest suggestion by anyone in the book of Job (or in the rest of Bible) that Job (or anyone) was possibly being punished for sins done in a former life.
The Bible is God’s revelation to men. It contains all the truth they need now to know. The Bible completely ignores the Hindu and Buddhist teaching of reincarnation. By ignoring it the Bible shows that the idea of reincarnation does not contain any truth that men need, does not explain a single thing we should know. The Bible teaches resurrection, not reincarnation. According to the Bible a person lives but once on this earth and dies but once. At the end there will be the resurrection of the dead and God’s judgment (John 5:28-29; Acts 17:31; Heb 9:27). See also notes on John 3:3; 9:3.⚜
13 📚“If you prepare your heart, and stretch out your hands toward him,
11:13 He, like his friends, assumes that Job has not done so. It was a false assumption.⚜
14 📚Putting iniquity far away, if it is in your hand, and not letting wickedness dwell in your tents,
15 📚Then you would be able to lift up your face without spot; yes, you would be steadfast, and not fear,
16 📚Because you would forget your misery, and remember it like waters that pass away.
17 📚And your life would be brighter than noonday; you would shine forth like the morning.
18 📚And you would be secure, because there is hope; yes, you would look around and you would rest securely.
19 📚Also you would lie down, without anyone making you afraid. Yes, many would beg your favour.
11:13-19 He says if only Job would repent and turn to God for mercy he would be restored. He and his friends probably thought they were being very compassionate and sympathetic when they held out such hope to Job. Actually much of what they say about repentance and restoration is good. But it does not suit Job’s case (Job 5:17-18).⚜
20 📚But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and they will not escape, and their hope will be like giving up one’s last breath”.
11:20 Zophar closes with a warning he mistakenly thinks Job much needs.⚜