Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomin:

Job 12:3: “But I have understanding as well as you, I am not inferior than you; yea who knoweth not such things as these?”

“Wise men don’t need advice, fools will not take it.”   Benjamin Franklin

Reading this verse would suggest that Job is really getting annoyed with his friends.  It appears he is saying to them: “Tell me something I don’t already know.”   I have no doubt that is what Job is saying, but I think he is saying much more than this.

What I find interesting is the word used for “understanding” which is “Lev” which means “heart.”   This would more literally be translated out as: “I have a heart just like yours.”  If he is referring to his heart rather than understanding, then I would translate this whole verse a little differently.

The word that is used for “inferior” is “naphal” which means to fall, but this is a falling in surrender, or just giving up.  A literal translation would be “My heart is not surrendering because of you.”

Up to this point I would render this verse as: “I have a heart just like yours but it is not surrendering because of what you are saying to me.

“Who knoweth not such things as these” could be rendered another way.  The word for “these” is “Alah” which, with just the pure consonants, would have a wide variety of usages. It could be “these,” it could also mean to worship and adore.  It could also mean to swear or as my study partner pointed out to “curse as in to curse one’s soul.”  Another meaning is to be fat and stout.  So the question is asked?  Which one do you use?   The answer is that it depends upon the context of your translation.

To fit the context of my translation so far, I would have to use the words “curse one‘s soul” for “alah.”  Hence I would render this passage as:  “I have a heart just like yours, but it is not surrendering because of what you are saying to me.  My heart is not  cursing my soul like you.”

I like this rendering because it is more consist with the type of man I am finding Job to be.  When his wife told him to “Curse God and die,”   what she was saying in the Hebrew is: “Look at you, you’ve lost everything and now you are dying, why don’t you curse God?”  Job rebuked her by saying: “Should we only accept good things from God and not the bad?”   Job consistently rose above his sufferings better than others.  His friends followed the same reasoning as his wife: “Job, just give it up, you’ve sinned, admit it and repent, maybe then God will restore you.”   Job took this line of thinking to be nothing less than to curse God.  He knew his suffering was not the result of sin and to suggest that this was punishment from God for a sin was to undermine His Lordship over his life.

As I indicated yesterday, Job was ready to accept his suffering as He knew God had a greater priority and he wanted this priority to be carried out even if it meant he had to suffer.  His friends could not accept this.  After all if God loved us, then he wanted us to prosper, be comfortable and have a pleasant life with no conflicts.  Anything else would not fit their image of a loving God.  Anything else would suggest there was no spiritual warfare taking place and a powerful enemy fighting for our souls.

Did Job know of the first chapter in his book where the enemy appeared before God with a challenge?   If he wrote the book, he may have known.  If someone else wrote the book he would have had to tell them about it.  Let’s assume he didn’t know about the first chapter, he was walking with God prior to this, he was close to God’s heart, he knew there was an enemy out there and he was not going to surrender to that enemy.  His friends would, his wife would, but Job would not.  He knew God’s heart that is why he said that he had  a heart like his friends, who were also spiritual men.  His friends would not have been his friends if they were ungodly.  During good times Job and his friends must have shared some wonderful times in their journey to God’s heart, discussing many of the deep things of God.   But when the test really came, Job sees his friends, his spiritual companions, surrender their hearts to the enemy and literally curse his soul.

Job would not surrender his heart to the enemy, he knew God’s heart, and he knew his heart was surrounded by the glory of God so that all he wanted to see, could see, was God’s heart.  It is just he could not see God’s priorities.  When he asked God about it, God gave a lengthy answer covering many chapters in his book.  However that answer can be summed up by saying: “Job, you’re a smart man, you can figure out many things, but there are some things you can never figure out.  I could tell you but you will not understand, just trust me, keep believing I love you, even if it seems like everything and everyone is saying not to, keep trusting me.  All I ask is that you have faith.”

Job’s friends needed a reason, they had to ask why, they had to learn to their own understandings like it warns in Proverbs 3:5-6. God’s response to that is: “What do you mean why, you think I don’t have a purpose or a reason for doing what I do, you don’t think I love you?”   Job would trust that God loves Him no matter what.  He would have faith.  As Paul said: “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”  (Hebrews 11:6).

No matter what happens or how bad it gets, we may not understand it like Job, but like Job we do know that we are being blessed with an opportunity to please God.