Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high.
The verse stands within the long debate between Job and his three friends concerning his afflictions, a debate that spans Job 4–31. More specifically, it is part of Job's answer to Zophar's second speech about the portion of the wicked. In that answer it belongs to Job's teaching that the wicked prosper here in this life and that their punishment is future.
The question is whether anyone can teach knowledge to God, who already knows all things and judges even those who are high, because He sees the end from the beginning. Human wisdom and observation therefore cannot fully explain His dealings, and Job's friends were wrong to treat their limited experience as sufficient to judge his case.
The verse calls for knowing God with a lowly mind given to sacred learning in order to have peace forevermore. Such knowing of God enshrines Him in the heart and gives love for what He has made, which opens the book of nature spread out day and night so that its wonders are fully learned. Then the warbling grove, the surging sea, the banyan, the lily, and every winged seed quickened under the soil teach heavenly wisdom. This is unlike gathering wealth from storied pages, which only tends to wrinkling care and does not warm the frost of age.
The verse stands within the long debate between Job and his three friends concerning his afflictions, a debate that spans Job 4–31. More specifically, it is part of Job's answer to Zophar's second speech about the portion of the wicked. In that answer it belongs to Job's teaching that the wicked prosper here in this life and that their punishment is future.
The question is whether anyone can teach knowledge to God, who already knows all things and judges even those who are high, because He sees the end from the beginning. Human wisdom and observation therefore cannot fully explain His dealings, and Job's friends were wrong to treat their limited experience as sufficient to judge his case.
The verse calls for knowing God with a lowly mind given to sacred learning in order to have peace forevermore. Such knowing of God enshrines Him in the heart and gives love for what He has made, which opens the book of nature spread out day and night so that its wonders are fully learned. Then the warbling grove, the surging sea, the banyan, the lily, and every winged seed quickened under the soil teach heavenly wisdom. This is unlike gathering wealth from storied pages, which only tends to wrinkling care and does not warm the frost of age.