Job 27:12

Job 27:12 Behold, all ye yourselves have seen [it]; why then are ye thus altogether vain?

Ver. 12. Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it] And can say as much to it as I can in these sc. that God afflicteth good men as well as bad, &c. Ecce autem cum vos omnes speculationibus (theologicis) operam dederitis, quare tam vanas opiniones habetis? So the Tigurine translation hath it; that is, But behold, whereas all ye have spent your time in theological speculations, how is it that ye have taken up such vain opinions? The Hebrew runs thus, Behold, you all have seen, or are seers (and he that is now called a prophet was before time called a seer, 1Sa 9:9), ye are knowing men, and of great experience, why then do ye go against your own knowledge, by speaking vainly and vilely notwithstanding?

Why then are ye thus altogether vain?] Heb. And why is this that ye are vain in vanity? sc while ye assert that God’s love may be known by prosperity, and his hatred by adversity; and while ye conclude me a hypocrite because afflicted? for so they had all done with one consent. Bildad, Job 8:13; Eliphaz, Job 15:34; and Zophar, Job 20:5. When as yet Job had given sufficient proof to the contrary; the matter was clear enough; but they did, data opera, for the nonce, obscure it: this was a vanity of vanities, and Job tells them as much.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 27:12. Ye yourselves have seen it — I speak no false or strange things: but what is known and confirmed by your own experience, and that of others. Why then are ye thus altogether vain? — In maintaining such a foolish and false opinion against your own knowledge and experience?

Why do you so obstinately defend your opinion, and not comply with mine, for the truth of which I appeal to your own consciences?

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That is, these secret judgments of God, and yet do not understand them.

Why maintain you then this error?

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

"Ye yourselves see" that the wicked often are afflicted (though often the reverse, Job 21:33). But do you "vainly" make this an argument to prove from my afflictions that I am wicked?

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 12. Ye yourselves have seen it] Your own experience and observation have shown you that the righteous are frequently in affliction, and the wicked in affluence.

Why then are ye thus altogether vain?] The original is very emphatical: הבל תהבלו hebel tehbalu, and well expressed by Mr. Good: "Why then should ye thus babble babblings!" It our language would allow it, we might say vanitize vanity.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(12) Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it.—That is, “You have seen me so proclaim the great power of God.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. are ye thus altogether vain?] i. e. wherefore do ye cherish and express opinions regarding me so foolish? “Two things are surprising here,” says Dillmann, “first, that Job should undertake to teach the three friends what they had always affirmed; and second, that he should say the opposite of what he had maintained in ch. 21, and 24 of the prosperity of the wicked even to their death.” A third thing might also seem surprising, namely that Job, while now coinciding with his friends in opinion, should reproach them with folly. To appropriate their sentiments and cover the operation by calling them foolish persons was not generous. The connexion, however, of the two clauses in this verse implies that what the three friends had seen of the fate of the wicked (as now to be described by Job , vv13-23) ought to have prevented them from coming to such conclusions regarding Job’s character as they had expressed or insinuated. Obviously to make such a reproach appropriate there must have been a difference clear to the eye between Job’s case and the fate of the wicked. But wherein lay the difference, in Job’s present condition? The three friends might be excused if they did not perceive it. The words do not seem to fit the condition in which Job still remains at the stage of development which the Poem has up to the present reached.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This is the portion of a wicked man with God,.... Not to be punished in this life, but after death. This is what Job undertook to teach his friends, and is the purport of what follows in this chapter. A wicked man is not only one that has been so from the womb, and is openly and notoriously a wicked man, but one also that is so secretly, under a mask of sobriety, religion, and godliness, and is an hypocrite, for of such Job speaks in the context; and the portion of such a man is not what he has in this life, which is oftentimes a very affluent one as to the things of this world, but what he has after death, which is banishment from the presence of God, the everlasting portion of his people, a part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, the wrath of God to the uttermost, the second death, and a dwelling with devils and wicked men, such as himself, even a portion with hypocrites, which of all is the most dreadful and miserable, Mat 24:51; and this is "with God", is appointed by him; for God has appointed the wicked, the vessels of wrath, fitted by their sins for destruction to the day of evil, to everlasting ruin and destruction; and it is prepared by him for them, as for the devil and his angels, and for them it is reserved among his treasures, even blackness of darkness, damnation, wrath, and vengeance:

and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty; these are such who are either oppressors of the poor in their natural and civil rights, taking from or denying to them what of right is their due; or oppressors of the saints in their religious rights and privileges, furious persecutors of them; and who, being powerful, are terrible, as the word signifies: there is an "heritage", or an inheritance for those, which is entailed upon them, and will descend unto them, as the firstborn of their father the devil, as children of disobedience, and so of wrath, and like an inheritance will endure: and this they "shall receive"; it is future, it is wrath to come, and it is certain there is no escaping it; it is their due desert, and they shall receive it; it is in the hands of the almighty God, and he will render it to them, and they shall most assuredly inherit it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it - You have had an opportunity of tracing the proofs of the wisdom of God in his works.

Why then are ye thus altogether vain - Why is it that you maintain such opinions - that you evince no more knowledge of his government and plans - that you argue so inconclusively about him and his administration! Why, since you have had an opportunity of observing the course of events, do you maintain that suffering is necessarily a proof of guilt, and that God deals with all people, in this life, according to their character? A close observation of the course of events would have taught you otherwise. Job proceeds to state what he supposes to be the exact truth on the subject, and particularly aims, in the following chapter, to show that the ways of God are inscrutable, and that we cannot be expected to comprehend them, and are not competent to pronounce upon them.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

I speak no false or strange things, but what is known and confirmed by your own as well as others’ experiences.

Why then are ye thus altogether vain, in maintaining such a foolish and false opinion against your own knowledge and experience? Why do you obstinately defend your opinion, and not comply with mine, for the truth of which I appeal to your own consciences?

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. Ye yourselves have seen it — The facts he is about to adduce are in keeping with their views. Job has, indeed, several times intimated, what he now expresses, that the prosperity of the wicked is not uninterrupted.

Altogether vain — Literally, Vain in vanity, or vain even to vanity. Their folly partly consisted in making false use of the truth. The words they spoke coined themselves into a corresponding state of the heart, a truth forcibly implied in the verb הבל, “to speak vainly,” (Gesenius,) “to be vain,” (Furst.) “Hollow opinions hollow out the man.” “They followed vanity and became vain.” 2Ki_17:15.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it. The true Divine scheme of action has been so long and so frequently made manifest openly set forth in the sight o! men that Job cannot believe that those whom he addresses are ignorant of it. They must themselves have seen the scheme at work. Why then are ye thus altogether vain? Why, then, do they not draw true inferences from the facts that come under their notice?

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Have seen - I speak what is confirmed by your own, as well as others experiences. Vain - To condemn me for a wicked man, because I am afflicted.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

all of you have seen that this is the portion of a wicked man.

now why do you become altogether vain? To be wicked and hypocritical.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.