Job 12 · a question people ask
"The deceived and the deceiver are his" (12:16). Is Job saying God deceives?
Job says, "With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his" (12:16) (tap wisdom, deceiver). The verse says both belong to God. It doesn't say that God deceives, or how the deceiver is his. Elsewhere the Bible says, "God is not a man, that he should lie" (Numbers 23:19), and James writes, "God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one" (James 1:13). These are Job's words, and the book doesn't say which of Job's words it means when the LORD says Job has spoken "the thing that is right" (42:7), or when he asks, "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" (38:2). 1 Kings 22's honest question, on "the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets" (1 Kings 22:23), sets out the two main ways Christians read the LORD's part where others deceive, each resting on its verses. These notes don't repeat them, and don't choose.
The verses
“With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.”
“God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and he won’t do it? Or has he spoken, and he won’t make it good?”
“Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.”
“It was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.”