What is the meaning of Job 12:11?

Does not the ear test words

– Job points to a faculty God built into every person: the ability to recognize truth from error when we truly listen.

• Like Proverbs 18:13 warns, “He who answers before he hears—it is folly and shame,” so careful hearing is the first safeguard.

• Acts 17:11 commends the Bereans who “examined the Scriptures daily to see if these teachings were true,” showing that hearing includes measuring every word by God’s Word.

• 1 John 4:1 echoes the idea: “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.”

• Isaiah 55:3 pictures the responsive ear: “Incline your ear and come to Me; listen, that your soul may live.”

Listening is not passive; it is an active, Spirit–guided “testing” that filters messages through the trustworthy grid of Scripture.

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as the tongue tastes its food

Job’s comparison drives the point home by using a daily experience everyone understands.

• Just as taste buds instantly signal whether something is nourishing or spoiled, spiritual discernment should alert us to wholesome doctrine or poisonous error (Hebrews 5:14).

• Psalm 34:8 invites, “Taste and see that the LORD is good,” linking discernment with personal experience of God’s faithfulness.

• 1 Peter 2:2-3 urges believers to crave pure spiritual milk “now that you have tasted that the Lord is good,” reminding us that the more we feed on sound truth, the sharper our taste becomes.

• By contrast, 2 Timothy 4:3 warns of those who will heap up teachers “to suit their own desires,” illustrating dulled spiritual taste buds that crave junk food.

Every meal of the Word should be savored and evaluated; anything that contradicts Scripture must be spit out.

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summary

Job 12:11 teaches that God designed both the physical ear and the spiritual ear to examine what is heard just as the tongue samples food. Believers are called to active, Scripture-anchored discernment, accepting only what aligns with God’s revealed truth and rejecting whatever is false, so that spiritual health and growth flourish.