a brag or lie · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
make
יַחֲרִ֑ישׁוya.cha.Ri.shv
H2790
to scratch · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
men
מְתִ֣יםme.Tim
H4962
properly · noun, common masculine plural absolute
peace
חָרַשׁchârash
H2790
to scratch
mockest
וַ֝תִּלְעַ֗גva.til.'Ag
H3932
to deride · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
ashamed
מַכְלִֽםmakh.Lim
H3637
properly · verb, hiphil active participle, masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 17:2 Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
Job 12:4 I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn.
Job 13:4 But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
Job 13:9 Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?
Job 15:2-3 Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
Job 21:3 Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.
Job 24:25 And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?
Job 34:7 What man is like Job, who drinketh up scorning like water?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 11:1-6
It is sad to see what intemperate passions even wise and good men are sometimes betrayed into by the heat of disputation, of which Zophar here is an instance. Eliphaz began with a very modest preface, Job 4:2. Bildad was a little more rough upon Job, Job 8:2. But Zophar falls upon him without mercy, and gives him very bad language: Should a man full of talk be justified? And should thy lies make men hold their peace? Is this the way to comfort Job? No, nor to convince him neither. Does this become one that appears as an advocate for God and his justice? Tantaene animis coelestibus irae? - In heavenly breasts can such resentment dwell? Those that engage in controversy will find it very hard t…
lies--rather, "vain boasting" (Isa 16:6; Jer 48:30). The "men" is emphatic; men of sense; in antithesis to "vain boasting."
mockest--upbraidest God by complaints, "shall no man make thee ashamed?"
John Gill on Job 11:3
Should thy lies make men hold their peace?.... By which he means, either lies in common, untruths wilfully told, which are sins of a scandalous nature, which good men will not dare to commit knowingly; and to give a man, especially such a man, the lie, is very indecent; and to charge a man falsely with it is very injurious: or else doctrinal ones, errors in judgment, falsehoods concerning God and things divine; which not only are not of the truth, for no lie is of the truth, but are against it; and indeed where the case is notorious in either sense, men should not be silent, or be as men deaf and dumb, as the word (u) signifies, as if they did not hear the lies told them, or were unconcerned…
1 Then began Zophar the Naamathite, and said:
2 Shall the torrent of words remain unanswered,
And shall the prater be in the right?
3 Shall thy vain talking silence the people,
So that thou mockest without any one putting thee to shame,
4 And sayest: my doctrine is pure,
And I am guiltless in Thine eyes?
5 But oh that Eloah would speak,
And open His lips against thee,
6 And make known to thee the secrets of wisdom,
That she is twofold in her nature -
Know then that Eloah forgetteth much of thy guilt.
When Job has concluded his long speech, Zophar, the third and most impetuous of the friends, begins. His name, if it is to be explained according to the Arabic Esauitish name el-assfar,
(Note:…
The Church Fathers
"Since nobody contradicts you. When he spoke, no one actually contradicted him.
Zophar means, "Is there none to answer you?" meaning other than we ourselves. Or it could mean: "There is nobody who knows your misfortunes, apart from God, and if he had wanted to disgrace you, then you would have been already dead." Notice that, since Job does not say anywhere that he is unjustly suffering and that he has no faults, this is exactly what they resentfully bring up to him.
Should men hold their peace at thee only? and when thou mockest at others, shall no man confute thee? The uninstructed mind, as we have said, is sorely galled by the sentences of truth, and reckons silence to be a punishment; it takes all that is said aright to be the disgrace of mocking at itself. For when a true voice addresses itself to the ears of bad men, guilt stings the recollection, and in the rebuking of evil practices, in proportion as the mind is touched with consciousness within, it is stirred up to eagerness in gainsaying without; it cannot bear the voice, in that, being touched in the wound of its guilt it is put to pain, and by that which is delivered against the wicked generally, it imagines that it is itself attacked in a special manner; and what it inwardly remembers itself to have done, it blushes to hear the sound of without. Whence it presently prepares itself for a defence, that it may cover the shame of its guilt by words of froward gainsaying. For as the righteous, touching certain things which have been done unrighteously by them, account the voice of rebuke to be the service of charity so the froward reckon it to be the insult of mockery. The one sort immediately prostrate themselves to shew obedience, the other are lifted up to shew the madness of self-defence. The one sort take the helping hand of correction as the upholding of their life, by means of which whilst the sin of the present life is corrected, the wrath of the Judge that is to come is abated; the other, when they find themselves assailed by rebuke, see therein the sword of smiting, in that whilst sin is unclothed by the voice of chiding, the conceit of present glory is spoilt. Hence 'Truth' says by Solomon in commendation of the righteous man, Give instruction to a wise man, and he will hasten to receive it; hence he makes nothing of the obstinacy of the wicked, saying, He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself wrong. For it generally happens that when they cannot defend the evils that are reproved in them, they are rendered worse from a feeling of shame, and carry themselves so high in their defence of themselves, that they rake out bad points to urge against the life of the reprover, and so they do not account themselves guilty, if they fasten guilty deeds upon the heads of others also. And when they are unable to find true ones, they feign them, that they may…
Dictionary and topics
Man — (1.) Heb. ‘Adam, used as the proper name of the first man. The name is derived from a word meaning “to be red,” and thus the first man was called Adam because he was formed from the red earth. It is…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
this torrent of words: Verbosity is characteristic of fools (Prov 10:8, 14) and sinners (Prov 10:19), but Job was innocent. • mock God: Zophar viewed Job’s words about God’s justice as sinfully sarcastic (Job 10:2-7, 13-15).
Rashi on Job 11:3
Your fabrications that you invent from your heart.
may silence men Heb. מתים, people.