Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those who are on high?
Through this chapter Job argues that wicked men often live long, prosper, and die at ease — the opposite of what his three friends insist always happens. At verse 22 he turns from the evidence to the question underneath it: who can correct God about how He runs the world?
The place of the question in Job's reply
Job is answering his friend Zophar. One writer ties the question to the wide variety in what actually happens to wicked people:
Samuel RidoutAs Job goes on to show, what happens to wicked people varies widely, and he asks: who will sit in judgment on God for these varied dealings? … Since that is the case, it hardly suits his friends to state, as a fixed rule, that suffering in this life was always a sign of sin, and prosperity a sign of righteousness, in the people affected.
Teaching God knowledge
The question expects the answer "no one." Why is the idea so foolish?
Leslie M. GrantHow foolish it is for anyone to think he can teach God knowledge (v.22), since He judges those on high just as He judges the lowest. The wicked differ from one another so much that it is folly to judge by what happens to them.
A disputed second line
The first half of the verse is plain. Translators render the second half in more than one way. Alongside the reading "those who are on high," one words the second line like this:
William KellyWill anyone teach God knowledge, when He judges even the righteous?
Job holds both sides; his friends held one
The strength of Job's position here is that he grants what is true in the friends' case while refusing their rule. That is what makes his speech honest and theirs hollow:
William Kelly"Will any teach God knowledge?" — now he turns to God to defend him — "seeing that he judges those who are on high. One dies" — you see, he took in both sides. This same man had said that truth has two sides; but it was all just talk. He never put it into practice. It was a wise saying, just a clever phrase, and not the true expression of what he felt and how he lived. But Job had a reality about him.
Appearances settle nothing
So what does the look of a person's life actually prove?
William KellyLook at these two men, each with a full cup, one of happiness, the other of misery; both lying dead together. Appearances prove nothing but the haste and folly of those who judge before the time.
The instinct the verse exposes
Job's question names a habit that outlives him:
James BoydGod is Judge of all, but the tendency in everyone is to set themselves up as judges of God.
What Job himself still lacked
Job is right that no one can instruct God. But being right did not mean he understood God's purpose:
The Bible TreasuryIn Job 21 Job replies by describing how the wicked prosper, to show that Zophar must be wrong. Yet he knows his friends' charges are groundless and still has no clear idea of God's will, or of any order or purpose in His dealings. He knows only that God is all-powerful and can do as He likes. He cannot see that God always has a definite goal in view in every one of His ways.
Summary
- Question — No one can answer it. Teaching God is folly, because He judges the highest just as He judges the lowest.
- Evidence — Job points to the mixed record everyone can see. One man dies at ease, another in bitterness, and both end in the same dust.
- Verdict — Appearances prove nothing. Anyone who reads a life's outcome as a life's sentence judges before the time.
- Contrast — The friends held half a truth and turned it into a rule. Job held both sides, and his words had a reality theirs lacked.
- Warning — The habit outlives Job. God is Judge of all, yet everyone tends to set themselves up as judge of God. Even Job, right on this point, saw only power where there was purpose.