properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
up
וְיַסְגִּ֑ירve.yas.Gir
H5462
to shut up · conjunction + verb, hiphil, 3rd person masculine singular
together
וְ֝יַקְהִ֗ילve.yak.Hil
H6950
to convoke · conjunction + verb, hiphil, 3rd person masculine singular
hinder
יְשִׁיבֶֽנּוּye.shi.Ve.nu
H7725
to turn back (hence · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 9:12-13 Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What doest thou?
Job 12:14 Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.
Revelation 3:7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he…
Isaiah 41:27 The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings.
Daniel 4:35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabit…
Deuteronomy 32:30 How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?
Job 9:4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?
Job 34:29 When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? whether it be done against a nati…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 11:7-12
Zophar here speaks very good things concerning God and his greatness and glory, concerning man and his vanity and folly: these two compared together, and duly considered, will have a powerful influence upon our submission to all the dispensations of the divine Providence.
I. See here what God is, and let him be adored.
1. He is an incomprehensible Being, infinite and immense, whose nature and perfections our finite understandings cannot possibly form any adequate conceptions of, and whose counsels and actings we cannot therefore, without the greatest presumption, pass a judgment upon. We that are so little acquainted with the divine nature are incompetent judges of the divine providence; and…
cut off--Rather, as in Job 9:11, "pass over," as a storm; namely, rush upon in anger.
shut up--in prison, with a view to trial.
gather together--the parties for judgment: hold a judicial assembly; to pass sentence on the prisoners.
John Gill on Job 11:10
If he cut off,.... The horns, power, dominion, and authority of the wicked; or the spirits of princes, or kingdoms and states, whole nations, as he did the seven nations of Canaan; or families, as Job's, his servants, and his children; or particular persons, by diseases, or by judgments, by famine, sword, and pestilence; there is none can hinder him; he will do what he pleases: or, as others render it, "if he changes" (l); if he makes revolutions in governments, changes in families, and in the estates of men, as in Job's; or changes men's countenances by death, and sends them out of time into eternity, there is no opposing him: or, "if he passes through" (m), as the word is sometimes used; s…
10 When He passes by and arrests
And calls to judgment, who will oppose Him?
11 For He knoweth the men devoid of principle,
And seeth wickedness without observing it.
12 But before an empty head gaineth understanding,
A wild ass would become a man.
In יחלף God is conceived as one who manifests himself by passing to and fro in the powers of nature (in the whirlwind, Isa 21:1). Should He meet with one who is guilty, and seize and bring him to judgment, who then (waw apod.) will turn Him back, i.e., restrain Him? הקהיל is used of bringing to judgment, with reference to the ancient form of trial which was in public, and in which the carrying out of the sentence was partly incumbent on the people…
The Church Fathers
"Who can say to him, What have you done? In truth, all is well, if it is God who did it he can do only that which is good.
If He overturn all things, or shut them up together, then who shall gainsay Him? Or who can say to Him, Why doest Thou so? The Lord 'overturns heaven,' when by His terrible and secret ordering He pulls down the height of man's contemptations. He 'subverts hell,' when He allows the soul of any affrighted under its temptations to fall even into worse extremes. He 'overturns the earth,' when He cuts off the fruitfulness of good works by adversities pouring in. He 'overturns the sea,' when He confounds the fluctuations of our wavering spirit, by the rise of a sudden panic. For the heart, disquieted by its own uncertainty, fears horribly for this alone, that she goes thus wavering; and it is as if the sea were overturned, when our very trembling towards God is itself confounded on the terribleness of His judgment being thought on. Whereas therefore we have described in brief, in what sort heaven and hell, earth and sea, are overturned, now the somewhat more difficult task awaits us, to shew how these may be 'shut up together.' For it very often happens that the spirit already lifts the mind on high, yet that the flesh assails it with pressing temptations; and when the soul is led forward to the contemplation of heavenly things, it is struck back by the images of unlawful practice being presented. For the sting of the flesh suddenly wounds him, whom holy contemplation was bearing away beyond the flesh. Therefore heaven and hell are shut up together, when one and the same mind is at once enlightened by the uplifting of contemplation, and bedimmed by the pressure of temptation, so that both by straining forward it sees what it should desire, and through being bowed down be in thought subject to that which it should blush for. For light springs from heaven, but hell is held of darkness. Heaven and hell then are brought into one, when the soul which already sees the light of the land above, also sustains the darkness of secret temptation coming from the warfare of the flesh. Yea, Paul had already gone up to the height of the third heaven, already learnt the secrets of Paradise, and yet being still subject to the assaults of the flesh, he groaned, saying, But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. How then was it with the heart of this illustrious Preacher, saving…
Dictionary and topics
Afflictions · God dispenses, as He will — God dispenses, as He will
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
No one can discover everything about the Almighty (literally find out the limits of the Almighty), who is beyond the limits of the heavens, underworld, land, and sea (11:8-9).
Rashi on Job 11:10
If He passes and confines with pains the one He wishes,
and He assembles all His divine ministers to justify His act in having confined.
who among them can hinder Him with words to find injustice in His act? And if because the One being judged is tranquil and silent for many days, that is His way.
