| Geneva Study Bible For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild {f} ass's colt. (f) That is, without understanding, so that whatever gifts he has afterward come from God, and not from nature. Wesley's Notes 11:12 Man - That since the fall is void of all true wisdom, pretends to be wise, and able to pass a censure upon all God's ways and works. Colt - Ignorant, and dull, and stupid, as to divine things, and yet heady and untractable. King James Translators' Notes vain: Heb. empty Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 12. vain-hollow. would be-"wants to consider himself wise"; opposed to God's "wisdom" (see on [498]Job 11:11); refuses to see sin, where God sees it (Ro 1:22). wild ass's colt-a proverb for untamed wildness (Job 39:5, 8; Jer 2:24; Ge 16:12; Hebrew, "a wild-ass man"). Man wishes to appear wisely obedient to his Lord, whereas he is, from his birth, unsubdued in spirit. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 11:7-12 Zophar speaks well concerning God and his greatness and glory, concerning man and his vanity and folly. See here what man is; and let him be humbled. God sees this concerning vain man, that he would be wise, would be thought so, though he is born like a wild ass's colt, so unteachable and untameable. Man is a vain creature; empty, so the word is. Yet he is a proud creature, and self-conceited. He would be wise, would be thought so, though he will not submit to the laws of wisdom. He would be wise, he reaches after forbidden wisdom, and, like his first parents, aiming to be wise above what is written, loses the tree of life for the tree of knowledge. Is such a creature as this fit to contend with God? | 
