Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
No doubt but ye are the people - That is, the only wise people. You have engrossed all the wisdom of the world, and all else are to be regarded as fools. This is evidently the language of severe sarcasm; and it shows a spirit fretted and chafed by their reproaches. Job felt contempt for their reasoning. and meant to intimate that their maxims, on which they placed so much reliance, were common-place, and such as every one was familar with.
And wisdom shall die with you - This is ironical, but it is language such as is common perhaps every where. "The people of the East," says Roberts, "take great pleasure in irony, and some of their satirical sayings are very cutting. When a sage intimates that he has superior wisdom or when he is disposed to rally another for his meagrc attainments, he says, ' Yes, yes, you are the man! ' ' Your wisdom is like the sea.' ' When you die, whither will wisdom go?' " In a serious sense, language like this is used by the Classical writers to describe the death of eminently great or good men. They speak of wisdom, bravery, piety, or music, as dying with them. Thus, Moschus, Idyll. iii. 12.
̔́ ́ ́ ̔ ́, ̓́ ̀ ̓͂ͅ
̀ ̀ ́ ́, ̀ ̓́ ́ ̓́.
Hotti biōn tethnēken ho bōkolos , esti sun autō
Kai to melos tethnake , kai ōleto Dōris aeidos .
"Bion the swain is dead, and with him song
Has died, and the Doric muse has perished."
Expressions like these are common. Thus, in the "Pleasures of Hope" it is said:
And Freedom shrieked when Kosciusko fell.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Job 12:2:
Job 12:4
Job 20:3
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