121 Then Job answered, 2 “No doubt, but you are the people,
and wisdom shall die with you. 3 But I have understanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these? 4 I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor,
I, who called on God, and he answered.
The just, the blameless man is a joke. 5 In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune.
It is ready for them whose foot slips.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 12:1-5
Commentary on Job 12:1-5
(Read Job 12:1-5)
Job upbraids his friends with the good opinion they had of their own wisdom compared with his. We are apt to call reproofs reproaches, and to think ourselves mocked when advised and admonished; this is our folly; yet here was colour for this charge. He suspected the true cause of their conduct to be, that they despised him who was fallen into poverty. It is the way of the world. Even the just, upright man, if he comes under a cloud, is looked upon with contempt.