Does not the ear test words as the palate tastes food?
Job is answering friends who explain his suffering with confident theories. He replies with a proverb about testing: who decides whether words are true, and what happens when the taster himself is unwell?
The proverb behind the words
The line pairs two senses. Later in the book another speaker quotes it back and calls his hearers to test what they hear for themselves:
Samuel RidoutQuoting Job's own words (Job 12:11), which seem to be in the form of a proverb, he reminds his hearers that the ear is the way words are received and tested, just as the mouth is for food. So let them go with him in his search into whether Job's charges are true or false. In the same way our Lord appealed to His hearers, "And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?" and the apostle says, "I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say."
Job's claim to judge for himself
In Job's mouth the saying is a retort. His friends have talked to him as if he could not weigh a word they said:
William Kelly"Does not the ear test words?" — do you think I cannot hear? — "and the mouth taste its food?" — that I cannot discern with my own palate?
The verdict his ear reached
Job is not only claiming the ability to test. He also reports the result:
F. B. HoleIn verse 6 Job challenged the main position his friends had taken. They claimed God always rewards the godly with earthly prosperity and brings disaster on the wicked. He insisted it was not so. There were cases where robbers prospered and those who provoked God were secure. To prove this he pointed to what can be seen in the lower creation — beasts, birds and fishes. He meant, we suppose, the disorder that man's sin has brought even there, so that the weaker meet disaster and destruction from the stronger, and all of it by God's permission. Just as the mouth tastes food, so his ear had tested their words, and found them worthless.
When the palate itself is sick
The proverb assumes a healthy taster. Take that away and the method fails. One writer answers people who use this very verse to defend their own judgment:
James BoydSomeone may reply that the ear tests words, as the mouth tastes food. I admit that in Job 12:11 the comparison is not only allowable but intended. But suppose the health of the judge is bad, and his taste is therefore spoiled. He may want food that is unwholesome, he may call bitter sweet, and sweet bitter; he may call evil good, and good evil. What then? Where is his ability to judge? He may turn to his neighbour to decide for him. But suppose everyone he knew was suffering from the same illness — then no one could help him in the slightest.
The same writer names the leading symptom of this sickness, then asks the question that settles everything:
James BoydOne symptom of this sickness — and the leading one — is that the sick person is always absolutely sure his taste is excellent, and quite able to decide for himself between truth and error. No one can talk him out of it. But where is the standard of truth, by which we may judge what is put forward in this world of many voices? If we have no standard of truth to bring the opinions of men to, we must fall back on our taste. And if our taste is spoiled, our case is indeed hopeless, as far as our natural resources go.
The danger in Job's own hearing
One writer sees a danger in Job's reasoning here. Job appeals to creation and to the wisdom of age, but his own view of God is clouded:
Samuel RidoutCreation — in earth and air and sea — will back him up in witnessing that God is everywhere and does everything. His conclusion from this, however, brings him dangerously close to charging God with being the author of evil. He would appeal to age and experience to confirm it. If he simply means that God is almighty, everyone would agree at once. But the words that follow show that his gloomy mind and distorted vision are dwelling on the dark side of nature. That is where his danger lies (vv. 7-13).
Summary
- Ear. The verse is a proverb: the ear takes in and tests words the way the mouth takes in and tastes food.
- Test. Testing is expected of us. The Lord asked His hearers why they did not judge for themselves what is right, and the apostle told his readers to judge what he said.
- Verdict. Job had already done it. His friends said prosperity proves godliness. His ear tested that claim and found their words worthless.
- Palate. The comparison only holds if the taster is healthy. A spoiled palate calls bitter sweet and evil good, and a whole society can share the same illness.
- Standard. So taste alone cannot be the final court. Without a standard of truth outside ourselves, we fall back on a palate that may already be sick — and the sickest taster is the surest of himself.