Ver. 1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite] With a most bitter invective, savouring more of passion than charity. Zophar rejoineth, or rather revileth innocent Job, misinterpreting his meaning, Job 11:4, and laying to his charge, 1. Loquacity, or talkativeness; 2. Lying; 3. Scoffing at God’s good providence, and men’s good counsel; 4. Self-conceitedness and arrogance, besides rashness, boldness, &c. For want of better arguments against him, he falls foul upon him in this sort. And if the adversaries of the truth do the like by us (as our Saviour saith they will, Matthew 5:11, and as himself, after Job and many other of his members, had the experience of it), we must not be overly troubled. Zophar signifieth a watcher, he watched for Job’s halting, and took him up before he was down; he is styled the Naamathite from Naamah (a city in the land of Uz, eighteen miles from Job’s Pyramis, saith Adricomius), which signifieth fair. But he dealeth not so fair with his friend as had been fit, for he giveth him no honour or respect at all, but treateth him with singular sharpness and violence, or rather virulence, of speech: hear him else.
Ver. 2. Should not the multitude of words be answered?] Should not he who speaketh what he will, hear what he would not? Nunquid qui multa loquitur, non et audiet? (Vulg.) Yes, Job shall now, or you will want of your will; but if Job have talked more than his part came to (the truth is, his speeches are longer than any of those of his three friends, which are all, except that first made by Eliphaz, Job 4 Job 5, comprehended in one chapter, whereas his take up by two, three, or more), he may well be excused, considering the sharpness of his disease, the ungentleness of his friends, and the sense of God’s displeasure, which his soul laboured under. Zophar and the rest looked upon him as a wretched hypocrite, and were angry that he would not yield himself so; they accused his former conversation as wicked; what way he had therefore to defend and assert his own integrity, but by words? And must he yet pass for a prattling fellow, a man of lips, a very wordy man, one that loveth to hear himself talk, because he will not be by them outtalked, and overly borne by their false charges? Most sure it is, that profane and profuse babblings are to be avoided, and to bring fulness of matter in fewness of words it is very commendable. Quam multa quam paucis! said Cicero of Brutus’s laconical epistle; how much is here in a little! but, 1. Every man cannot be a short spoken Spartan. It is reported that in Luther’s house was found written, Melancthon hath both matter and words; Luther hath matter, but wants words; Erasmus hath words at will, but wants matter. Every one hath his own share: all are not alike gifted. 2. He is to be accounted talkative who uttereth unprofitable words, and far from the purpose, beside the point; and so Zophar himself was to be blamed in this whole discourse of his, wherein he talketh much, but speaketh little. Concerning the infinite and unsearchable wisdom of God, he argueth truly and gravely, but yet nothing fitly to convince Job, who himself had said as much and more of the same subject. The counsel also that therehence he giveth Job doth little or nothing concern him; it being the same in effect that Eliphaz and Bildad had said before him: Zophar therefore was the locutuleius, the talkative man here mentioned, rather than Job, the lips man, adversus sua ipsius vitia facundus satis; and as Bion was wont to say, that the grammarians of his time could discourse well about the errors of Ulysses, but not at all see their own; so it befell Zophar. And should a man full of talk be justified?] Heb. A man of lips, so called, as if he were made all of lips, and had no other members. Shall such a one be ever a whit the better thought of? Not among wise men surely, whatever he may amongst his fellow fools; for in multiloquio stultiloquium: in much speaking is much foolishness, some gravel and mud passeth away with much water; some vanity with much talk; it is no wisdom for a man to lay on more words than the matter will well bear. A good orator, saith Plutarch, will see that his words and his matter be matches. And Hesiod saith, that words, as a precious treasure, should be thriftily husbanded and warily wasted: especially since an account is to be rendered, as our Saviour assureth us, Matthew 12:36; yea, by thy words (he saith not, for thy words) thou shalt be justified, and by thy words (if superfluous and sinful, waste and wicked) thou shalt be condemned, Matthew 12:37.
Ver. 3. Should thy lies make men hold their peace?] Or, thy toys, toilsome toys, hammered in thine own head, hatched in thine own heart, which is deceitful above all things, and so a fit shop to frame lies in; but should we be silent at the hearing of them, and so become guilty of thy sin by a tacit consent? Can any mortal wight hear what thou hast said in behalf of thine own imaginary innocence, Job 6:29,30, and how bold an appeal thou hast made to God as a witness thereof, Job 10:7, and not reply upon thee, and reprove thee? The truth is, had Job been a liar, as Zophar would make of him (even mendaciorum loquacissimum, as Tertullian saith of Tacitus, one that fearing his many words would not carry his cause, had intermixed various untruths, the better to grace the business), he ought not to have been forborne by Zophar or any else that wished well to his soul: but it was far from good Job to be guilty of this foul sin, so hated of God, so like the devil, so inconsistent with religion. Christianus est, non mentietur, he is a Christian, you may be sure he will not lie, was the old argument; he will rather die than lie. David indeed, in a distress, roundly told two or three lies together to Abimelech the high priest, who suspected that he fled as a proscribed person, 1 Samuel 21:2,8 27:10. But that he allowed not this sin in himself it appeareth in that, 1. He had chosen the way of truth, his election was truth, Psalms 119:30. And, 2. He prayed against the contrary evil, “remove from me the way of lying,” Psalms 119:29. He was not one of those that took fast hold of deceit, as Jeremiah phraseth it, Job 8:5. Much less was Job; however, Zophar was mistaken in him, as he was much more in his next charge, wherein he maketh him a scoffer of God and good people. And when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?] Job is made a mocker here; yea, a scorner, and derider, as the word signifieth, such as David describeth, Psalms 22:6, and the author to the Hebrews, Hebrews 11:36, where he speaks of cruel mockings, such as the Scripture everywhere (but especially in the Proverbs) brandeth for the worst sort of sinners. See Psalms 1:1, where the Septuagint translate for scorners, pests; as elsewhere incorrigible, Proverbs 21:1; naught, Proverbs 9:12; λοιμοι, ακολαστος, κακος, proud, Proverbs 3:34; workers of iniquity, υπερηφανοι παρηνομουν, Psalms 119:51. But where did Job mock in Zophar’s judgment? First, he spoke contemptuously (as he thought) of God, as Job 10:3, “Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress?” &c. And whereas he spake better sometimes of God’s wisdom and righteousness, Zophar thought it was but from the teeth outward; but poor Job had little list or leisure to mock and jeer. Next, he mocked his friends for saving that he was justly afflicted, saying that they were cold comforters, void of God s fear, merciless men, &c. This they took in very ill part, and Zophar thinks to make him ashamed of it; for saith he, Shall no man make thee ashamed?] sc. By refuting thee, and by bringing thee to a due sight of thine error. This good office he that shall undertake to do for another, must be sure that he be able to do it effectually, else better not to attempt it. When Carolostadius opposed Luther’s consubstantiation only weakly and insufficiently, Zuinglius said, he was sorry that so good a cause lacked shoulders, Non satis humerorum haberet.