Job 12:2 - An Example of Sarcasm

All sarcasm is not sinful. The bible is full of it. Many bible students, when reading the words of prophets, apostles, and even of the Lord Jesus Christ, often fail to realize that some words are spoken sarcastically, and therefore cannot be taken as statements of fact. I believe Job is one of the prophets who spoke sarcastically to his "miserable comforter" friends and the following words are evidence of it. Said Job to his three friends:

"No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you."

Barnes' Notes on the Bible (emphasis mine)

No doubt but ye are the people - That is, the only wise people. You have engrossed all the wisdom of the world, and all else are to be regarded as fools. This is evidently the language of severe sarcasm; and it shows a spirit fretted and chafed by their reproaches. Job felt contempt for their reasoning and meant to intimate that their maxims, on which they placed so much reliance, were common-place, and such as every one was familiar with.

And wisdom shall die with you - This is ironical, but it is language such as is common perhaps every where. "The people of the East," says Roberts, "take great pleasure in irony, and some of their satirical sayings are very cutting. When a sage intimates that he has superior wisdom or when he is disposed to rally another for his meagre attainments, he says, 'Yes, yes, you are the man! ' 'Your wisdom is like the sea.' 'When you die, whither will wisdom go?'"

I use irony and sarcasm in dealing with Hardshells and other cults. Using the language of Job, as a retort to all the Hardshell rhetoric about how they are all right and others all wrong, I could say -

"No doubt you all are the theological experts, and the church and the truth will die with you." 

I do not make that statement to affirm what is actually the case, or true, but being sarcasm, it is rather a denial of it.

Of course, using sarcasm for good takes some art and skill, and so those who use it should know when and how to use it. God help us to follow the example of Christ and the prophets and apostles.