Job 12:2
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
No doubt but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
American King James Version (AKJV)
No doubt but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
American Standard Version (ASV)
No doubt but ye are the people, And wisdom shall die with you.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
No doubt you have knowledge, and wisdom will come to an end with you.
Webster's Revision
No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
World English Bible
"No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
English Revised Version (ERV)
No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
Clarke's Job 12:2 Bible Commentary
No doubt but ye are the people - Doubtless ye are the wisest men in the world; all wisdom is concentrated in you; and when ye die, there will no more be found on the face of the earth! This is a strong irony.
Barnes's Job 12:2 Bible Commentary
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.
Ὅττι βίων τέθνηκεν ὁ βώκολος, ἔττι σὺν αὐτῷ
Καὶ τὸ μέλος τέθνακε, καὶ ὤλετο Δωρίς ἀειδός.
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.
Wesley's Job 12:2 Bible Commentary
12:2 Ye - You have engrossed all the reason of mankind; and each of you has as much wisdom as an whole people put together. All the wisdom which is in the world, lives in you, and will be utterly lost when you die.When wise and good men die, it is a comfort to think that wisdom and goodness do not die with them: it is folly to think, that there will be a great, irreparable loss of us when we are gone, since God has the residue of the spirit, and can raise up others more fit to do his work.