12 Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.
12 Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.
12 Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.
12 Your wise sayings are knickknack wisdom, good for nothing but gathering dust.
12 Your platitudes are proverbs of ashes, Your defenses are defenses of clay.
12 Your platitudes are as valuable as ashes. Your defense is as fragile as a clay pot.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 13:12
Commentary on Job 13:1-12
(Read Job 13:1-12)
With self-preference, Job declared that he needed not to be taught by them. Those who dispute are tempted to magnify themselves, and lower their brethren, more than is fit. When dismayed or distressed with the fear of wrath, the force of temptation, or the weight of affliction, we should apply to the Physician of our souls, who never rejects any, never prescribes amiss, and never leaves any case uncured. To Him we may speak at all times. To broken hearts and wounded consciences, all creatures, without Christ, are physicians of no value. Job evidently speaks with a very angry spirit against his friends. They had advanced some truths which nearly concerned Job, but the heart unhumbled before God, never meekly receives the reproofs of men.