This is Job’s longest speech thus far and when he finishes, his three friends are silenced.
It’s not so much that he has silenced them with his words as they have run out of gas themselves. They’ve offered their explanations – but no comfort. In fact, Zophar, likely the oldest of the three, never replies again to Job after his second time.
As Job continues in chapter 27, he does something he’s not done before: he swears by the God who has denied him justice. A bit of a contradiction don’t you think? Though he believes God has wronged him, his confidence remains in God. His speech really agrees with the world-view expressed by his friends: that God does bring justice on the wicked. Job just denies that he is wicked. There must be something else about God and his way, something unknown about Him they have not figured out.
And this is the truth of the matter. What we can know about God has been revealed to us by Him. But that does not mean everything can be known about Him. Some things, his plans and purposes, are as beyond us as they were to Job. We must not presume to speak what God has not revealed, but our hope must surely reside in Him – as Job’s did.