to open wide (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine singular
lips
שְׂפָתָ֣יוse.fa.Tav
H8193
the lip (as a natural boundary) · noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
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 38:1-2 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 23:3-7 Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!
Job 31:35 Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.
Job 33:6-18 Behold, I am according to thy wish in God’s stead: I also am formed out of the clay.
Job 40:1-5 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
Job 42:7 And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee,…
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…
doctrine--purposely used of Job's speeches, which sounded like lessons of doctrine (Deu 32:2; Pro 4:2).
thine--addressed to God. Job had maintained his sincerity against his friends suspicions, not faultlessness.
John Gill on Job 11:5
But O that God would speak,.... To Job, and stop his mouth, so full of words; convict him of his lies, reprove him for his mocks and scoffs, and make him ashamed of them; refute his false doctrine and oppose it, and show him his folly and vanity in imagining it to be pure, and in conceit thinking himself to be free from sin, and even in the sight of God himself: Zophar seems by this wish to suggest, that what his friends had as yet spoke had had no effect upon Job, and signified nothing; and that he despaired of bringing him to any true sense of himself and his case, but that God only could do it; and therefore he entreats he would take him in hand, and speak unto him; as he had by his provi…
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
"And how could God himself speak to you? Say rather what can draw on you his mercy.
But oh that God would speak with thee, and open His lips unto thee! For man by himself speaks to himself when in all that he thinks he is not withdrawn by the Spirit of the Divine Being from the sense of carnal wisdom; when the flesh puts forth a sense, and inviting the mind as it were to the understanding of it, sends it forth abroad. And hence 'Truth' saith to Peter, who was still full of earthly notions, For thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. Yet, when he made a good confession, the words are spoken, Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in Heaven. Now what do we understand by 'the lips' of God saving His judgments? For when the lips are closed the voice is kept in, and the meaning of the person keeping silence is not known; but when, the lips being opened, speech is put forth, the mind of the person speaking is found out. So 'God opens His lips' when He, manifests His will to men by open visitations. For He as it were speaks with open mouth, when the veil of interior Providence being drawn aside, He declines to conceal what is His will. For as it were with closed lips He forbear to indicate His meaning to us, when by the secresy of His judgments He conceals wherefore He does any thing. Zophar therefore, in order that he might reprove blessed Job on the grounds of a carnal understanding, and shew what kindness of disposition he himself was of, wishes good things for him, which even when they are there present he does not know to be so, saying, But oh that God would speak with thee, and open His lips with thee. As if he were to say in plain words, 'I feel for thy uninstructedness more than for thy chastening, in that I know thee to be endued with the wisdom of the flesh alone, and void of the Spirit of Truth. For didst thou discern the secret judgments of God, thou wouldest not give utterance to such daring sentences against Him.' And because when Almighty God raises us to take a view of His judgments, He forthwith puts to flight the mists of the ignorance that is in us, what instruction comes to us by His lips being opened, he forthwith shews by adding in the words.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Lip — Besides its literal sense (Isa. 37:29, etc.), is used in the original (saphah) metaphorically for an edge or border, as of a cup (1 Kings 7:26), a garment (Ex. 28:32), a curtain (26:4), the sea (Gen.…
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).
