Job 12: Group Study Handout

Overview

In Job Chapter 12, Job responds to his friends, asserting his knowledge is not inferior to theirs. He criticizes their claim to wisdom and rebuffs their simplistic understanding of God’s justice. Job emphasizes that the wisdom they claim is common knowledge and he, too, is aware of God’s power.

Key verse

“in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?”

Job 12:10 (WEB)

Outline

1. Job 12:1–2 Job's Assertion of Knowledge
2. Job 12:3–6 Critique of Conventional Wisdom
3. Job 12:7–10 Nature as a Teacher
4. Job 12:11–12 Wisdom and Understanding Defined
5. Job 12:13–19 God's Sovereign Control
6. Job 12:20–24 The Fate of Leaders
7. Job 12:25 The Darkness of Ignorance

Discussion questions

1. In v2, what does Job imply about his friends' understanding of wisdom?
2. What does Job say in v10 about the relationship between God and living beings?
3. In vv. 14-15, what is the implication of Job stating that God can both break down and withhold?
4. In v24, what does Job mean by saying God causes leaders to wander in a wilderness?
5. When have you felt like someone dismissed your understanding as inferior, like Job in v3?

Go deeper

Passages that echo Job 12: Acts 17, Daniel 2, Psalm 107.

Before next time: read Job 13.