Job 12:3

Job's reply to Zophar was sarcastic, and you can see why: "No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you!" Zophar had implied that he had a natural wisdom Job lacked. Job was right to correct him: "But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you." In fact, Zophar had said only what was common knowledge: everyone knew these things.

"But I have understanding as well as you." Here he was far more considerate than they were. He did not put himself in the higher place. "I have understanding as well as you" — "I am not inferior." He does not say, "I am superior." He says, "I am not inferior to you." "Who does not know such things as these?" They were only talking platitudes, moral platitudes, that anyone with the slightest knowledge of God already knew. They gave no light on the very difficult question. How could a devout, God-fearing man fall into such terrible sorrow and suffering? They did not add one atom to that question.

What was the use of reciting truisms in flowery language? Such speeches brought neither comfort nor light to the sufferer. "Who does not know the same?" asks Job. He then shows that he had thought their questions over carefully long ago. He can develop them in all their variety — not in a one-sided way, as Zophar did.

The charges and platitudes of the friends sting Job. He meets them with bitter sarcasm, and then charges them with mocking him. They are at ease, while holding on to their unjust suspicions of him.

He too can speak well about the majesty of God in all His ways. But this cannot settle the question: how can a man who is a sinner be just before God? A man may speak well about the stars and the stones. He may have all the learning of this world. Yet he may still be unable to say clearly how God justifies the sinner.

They could not understand why such a perfect and upright man as Job should be tried so hard. So, after seven days of silence, their hints and false charges drove that patient man to cry out in bitterness of soul, "Miserable comforters are you all." They might have helped in an ordinary case. But here an outstandingly righteous man had lost every earthly possession in a way never seen before, and their tongues were dumb. They did not understand God's ways with His own at all. So they made Job feel how completely unable they were to help him, and threw him back on God Himself.