O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.
The verse stands in the debate between Job and his three friends concerning his afflictions. There God is disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire of affliction while his friends charge him with sin and declare his sufferings are because of sin. It belongs to the great questions of overruling providence and of sin and suffering, and shows how humanity is prone to misjudge its fellows in the same way. In it Job tells his friends that they would show wisdom by keeping silent, speaking sharply after their words had exasperated him.
Keeping silent would be wiser than speaking foolishly. Their silence would be wiser than the arguments they offer from their own observation, for their claims may be generally true but are misapplied to his suffering, so speaking as though they understood God's dealings is not wisdom. Keeping silent can itself be an act of wisdom. Silence is fitting when there is no call to speak, when one is uninformed or unprepared, when speaking may become a snare, when passions are stirred, when listeners cannot attend, or when words would burden the afflicted.
The verse stands in the debate between Job and his three friends concerning his afflictions. There God is disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire of affliction while his friends charge him with sin and declare his sufferings are because of sin. It belongs to the great questions of overruling providence and of sin and suffering, and shows how humanity is prone to misjudge its fellows in the same way. In it Job tells his friends that they would show wisdom by keeping silent, speaking sharply after their words had exasperated him.
Keeping silent would be wiser than speaking foolishly. Their silence would be wiser than the arguments they offer from their own observation, for their claims may be generally true but are misapplied to his suffering, so speaking as though they understood God's dealings is not wisdom. Keeping silent can itself be an act of wisdom. Silence is fitting when there is no call to speak, when one is uninformed or unprepared, when speaking may become a snare, when passions are stirred, when listeners cannot attend, or when words would burden the afflicted.