Fathers

Job 12

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Then Job answered, “No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom will die with you. But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these? 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. In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips. The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands. “But ask the animals, now, and they will teach you; the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. The fish of the sea will declare to you. Who doesn’t know that in all these, Yahweh’s hand has done this, in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? Doesn’t the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food? With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding. “With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding. Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth. With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his. He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools. He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt. He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty. He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders. He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong. He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death. He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive. He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

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What the Fathers say

Job 12:21

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

He poureth contempt upon princes, and lifteth up those that were oppressed. For whilst the Jewish people continued in the precept of the Law, and the whole Gentile world knew nothing of the precepts of God, both the former seemed to be as 'Princes' by faith, and the latter lay borne down in the depth by unbelief. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XI ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Princes excel in the authority which they have for ruling others, and he says about these, "he pours contempt on princes," so that they are despised by those who should obey them. All these things seem to relate to what he had said, "He leads counselors to a foolish end." (v.17) But the fact that sometimes some are advanced from a lower state to the highest seems to relate to what he had said, "and judges to dullness." (v.17) As to this he then says, "and those who have been oppressed he relieves," which refers to the weak oppressed …

Commentary on Job ↗