Job 27:1

In the next chapter (Job 27) it would have been Zophar's turn; but although Bildad had very little to say, Zophar had nothing. He is out of the debate for good, and we shall find that Eliphaz does not return. Job now has it all to himself. So he gives here what might have been an answer to Zophar — but there was no Zophar left to answer, because Job had silenced him. They felt they had no case left. They began with great energy, full of confidence that their judgment was sound. But Job had answered all their foolish talk completely, and there they sat in silence. It is not that they were yet convinced they were wrong. They do what many people do — they shut up, have not a word to say, and still hold the same opinion.

The opening language differs from everything that has introduced Job's words up to now. It seems to imply that he paused after his reply to Bildad. The pause lasted long enough to show that Zophar and the rest had nothing more to say, though no doubt they were still unconvinced. He begins again with unusual solemnity.

The Old Testament uses the word "parable" many times for figurative language where no distinct parable is told. Balaam "took up his parable" (Numbers 23:7, 18), and Job "continued his parable" (Job 27:1; Job 29:1).

So Job resumed his discourse, striking a very solemn note, as one taking an oath before God. While affirming his own integrity and truth, he charged his friends with being the ones who spoke falsehood and deceit. He held fast his righteousness with all the resolve he had.

This closing speech shows us Job's heart. He defends himself. He refuses to accept the charges of his friends, and he implies that he is the one who has the true wisdom — the fear of the Lord. He then looks back on his past happiness and sets it against how low he has now fallen. He closes with fresh and complete declarations of his own righteousness.

Job has already won the debate, though he fully admits he has not found the relief he is seeking. Now he spends five chapters on his self-defence. It will get him nowhere as far as the answer to his distressing condition goes. His relatively righteous life had nothing to do with the answer to his questions.

There are certain elements of confusion in this long speech... The closing part is a sad conclusion — self-occupation, self-vindication, self-righteousness. But embedded between these two parts we have, in grand poetic beauty, a statement of what wisdom is, the true riches, unknown to the natural man. We cannot but feel that, with all he still has to unlearn, Job has the elements of this wisdom. The root of the matter is in him, the pure gold is there, and the dross will soon be removed.