Job 12

Ver. 1. Lo, mine eye hath seen all this.] I know, by my own observation and experience, all that I have spoken concerning God’s power and wisdom; so that I need not your discourses about them. Clark. These two verses ought not to have been disjoined from the former chapter. They authenticate the facts contained in it. Scott.

Job 12:13

13. With him is wisdom &c.] The design of this grand discourse on the ways of God to men is, I apprehend, to establish his position, chap. ix. 22, “He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.” That proposition is here proved by induction. He allegeth those great and general calamities, drought, inundation, and the overthrow of kingdoms; which make no distinction between the innocent and the guilty, but involve the most virtuous characters, and the noblest and most important talents, in distress, disgrace, and ruin. Scott.

Job 12:16

16. — the deceived and the deceiver are his.] God will make both the deceiver and the deceived accountable to Himself: it is from his sufferance that there are any such: in infinite wisdom and holiness He disposeth of the errors of men and of those that lead them into error, ordering how far any man shall deceive, and to what extent his deceit shall prevail: and further, the Lord improves both to serve His own ends, to bring about His counsels, and promote His own glory. Caryl.

Job 12:18

18. He looseth the bond of kings, &c.] He dissolves their authority, and reduces them to the condition of servants, attending on their masters with loins girt up, to execute their commands. Bp. Stock.

“He looseth the bond of kings,” He destroys their binding power, their authority, by dethroning them. The expression may allude to the royal belt, one of the insignia of majesty; compare Is. xlv. 1. “And girdeth, &c.” The tenour of the discourse requires these expressions to be taken in a calamitous sense. The “girdle” therefore must here mean the cord, or chain, that was tied about the waist of captives; see Ps. clix. 8. The manner of making war in our days is very different from what it was in ancient times. We now see no such catastrophes as princes and their people led into captivity: but these were the usual effects of conquest in former ages. Scott.

Job 12:20

20. — taketh away the understanding of the aged.] When Job would set out the uncontrollable power of

speech of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged.

Job 12:21

21. — weakeneth the strength of the mighty.] The margin reads, “looseth the girdle of the strong,” the valiant, or hero. The girdle in 1 Sam. xviii. 4, is connected with the sword and the bow, as part of the military dress: so we read in 2 Kings iii. 21, “The Moabites gathered all that were able to gird themselves with a girdle,” as it is in the margin; that is, to oppose the enemies; “to put on armour,” as in our translation. Fragments to Calmet. A zone or girdle was a token of strength. Chappelow. See the note on Isai. v. 27.

Job 12:22

22. He discovereth deep things out of darkness, &c.] The sentiment is, that, while these terrible revolutions remain in the Divine counsels, they are darkness, utter darkness to us, deep impenetrable secrets: and, when they are discovered in the execution, they astonish and terrify mankind, as though sepulchral darkness covered the face of the earth. The Prophet Daniel speaks in like figurative language of the counsels of God, relating to the four great empires of the world, chap. ii. 21, 22. Scott.

— the shadow of death.] That which hath been contrived in the greatest obscurity. Bp. Patrick.

Job 12:24

24. He taketh away the heart &c.] When God takes away the hearts of men, they run strange courses, and go ways which the wise never went; the foot of honesty or of justice treads not their paths. Caryl.

Divine infatuation of the governing powers is here described in forcible language and striking resemblance. Privation of judgment and courage is expressed by God’s “taking away their hearts” in their confusion, mistakes, perplexity, and distress, they resemble persons who have lost themselves in the Arabian solitudes; without a path, without a way-mark, without a light to guide them; and their irresolution and unstable counsels are like the reeling motions of a drunken man. Scott.

Job 12:25

25. They grope in the dark without light, &c.] See Is. xix. 14; xxiv. 20; xxix. 9, 10. Rosenmüller.

Chap. XIII. The friends of Job charged him with Job reproveh his friends of partiality. Before CHRIST about 1520. and intreateth to know his own sins, and God’s purpose in afflicting him. LO, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it.