Job 12:9

In verse 6 Job challenged the main position his friends had taken. They said that God always rewards godly people with prosperity here on earth, and brings disaster down on the head of the wicked. Job held that it was not so. There were cases where robbers prospered and men who provoked God were left secure. As proof 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 in even there, so that the weaker meet disaster and destruction from the stronger — and all of this by God's permission.

This is also in answer to Zophar's argument. Zophar had spoken of the greatness of God. The wisdom which Zophar had tried to impress upon him is so elementary that the beasts themselves know something about it.

The fish of the sea have practically no voice, and do not know how to talk — yet they too will declare it to you. That is, the whole creation — the lower creation of God upon the earth — is proof that things are not yet according to God. Do they not prey upon one another? Do not the great swallow up the small? And is not man the great dealer of death to beasts and birds and fishes, and everything, for his own pleasure? I do not mean merely for food, but to please himself at any cost. In short, it is not only what the Lord allows: man makes it serve his lusts, his luxury, everything except God. … "Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?" He cannot deny that the Lord has left it in this way.

Notice how "the Almighty" (how God had revealed Himself to the fathers) appears freely in the speeches of Job and his friends, as well as "God" as such. The writer uses "Jehovah" only when he is describing God, or introducing Him as speaking. The one exception is in Job 12:9.

You will notice that this name has not appeared after Job 2 (except in Job 12:9) in the historical part. But now, before the history itself closes, the book brings Him in again. We have Him speaking with His authority and in His relationship — that is exactly what "Jehovah" means. This is not God in the abstract, but God in relation to man on the earth.

Creation — in earth and air and sea — will back him up as he witnesses that God is everywhere and does everything. The conclusion he draws from it, however, brings him dangerously near to charging God with being the author of evil. He would appeal to age and experience to confirm it. If he means only that God is all-powerful, everyone would agree at once. But the words that follow show that his gloomy mind and distorted view are dwelling on the dark side of nature. That is where his danger lies.

They are not so much a revelation of truth as a question to Job, asking whether he knows the truths that lie all around him in the vast creation of God. That is what makes these words of Jehovah so wonderful. He speaks, not "in a tongue no man can understand," but in the language of nature — about the earth, the sky, the clouds and rain, and beasts and birds.