12:13–25 In this unit of poetry Job expounds the doctrine of God’s sovereign freedom. Some have interpreted this as said tongue-in-cheek, a subtle criticism of God for mismanaging the universe. In this view God is limited, and needs to be “forgiven” by His creatures. But throughout this book, even when Job is raging over his suffering and suggesting doubts about God’s justice, he always assumes that God is sovereign, and that man can make no effective objection to what He does. Job wrestles with a mystery, one too deep for the shallow counselors. This part of the speech may have been provoked by Zophar’s question in 11:7, “Can you find out the deep things of God?” The poem may also be a reply to Eliphaz’s hymn in 5:1–26, where only good things happen to good people, an idea proved false in this stanza.