to inclose · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
waters
בַּמַּ֣יִםba.Ma.yim
H4325
water · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
up
וְיִבָ֑שׁוּve.yi.Va.shu
H3001
to be ashamed · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine plural
out
וִֽ֝ישַׁלְּחֵ֗םvi.sha.le.Chem
H7971
to send away · conjunction + verb, piel, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
overturn
וְיַ֖הַפְכוּve.Ya.haf.khu
H2015
to turn about or over · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine plural
earth
אָֽרֶץ'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute
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
1 Kings 17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there…
Amos 5:8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that c…
Genesis 6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will dest…
Genesis 6:17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; a…
Genesis 7:11-8:2 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the…
1 Kings 8:35-36 When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, a…
Job 12:10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.
Psalms 104:7-9 At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 12:12–end
This is a noble discourse of Job's concerning the wisdom, power, and sovereignty of God, in ordering and disposing of all the affairs of the children of men, according to the counsel of his own will, which none dares gainsay or can resist. Take both him and them out of the controversy in which they were so warmly engaged, and they all spoke admirably well; but, in that, we sometimes scarcely know what to make of them. It were well if wise and good men, that differ in their apprehensions about minor things, would see it to be for their honour and comfort, and the edification of others, to dwell most upon those great things in which they are agreed. On this subject Job speaks like himself. Her…
Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up,.... Or "lays a restraint in" or "on the waters" (s); either in the ocean, as he did at the creation, when he gathered the waters that were upon the face of the earth into one place, and restrained them there, even in the decreed place he broke up for them, called the sea, and set bars and doors to keep them within bounds, whereby the places they left became dry and the dry land appeared called earth; and so at the time of the flood, when the waters which covered the earth and drowned the world were called off again, the face of it was dry, and so it remains, the waters of the great ocean being restrained from overflowing it; and also when G…
14 Behold, He breaketh down and it cannot be built again,
He shutteth up, and it cannot be opened.
15 Behold, He restraineth the waters and they dry up,
And He letteth them out and they overturn the earth.
16 With Him is might and existence,
The erring and the deceiver are His.
God is almighty, and everything in opposition to Him powerless. If He break down (any structure whatever), it can never be rebuilt; should He close upon any one (i.e., the dungeon, as perhaps a cistern covered with a stone, Lam 3:53, comp. Jer 38:6; על with reference to the depth of the dungeon, instead of the usual בּעד), it (that which is closed from above) cannot be opened again. In like manner, when He desires to…
The Church Fathers
"If he restrains the waters, the earth will be dried up. Water is wisdom, and earth is man. "If he gives them passage, they will upset. When many become wise, sinners become confused.
If He withholdeth the waters, all things are dried up. If He sendeth them out, they will overturn the earth. If 'water' be understood of knowledge for preaching, as when it is written, The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters, and the well-spring of wisdom as an overflowing brook; when 'water is withheld, all is dried up,' in that if the knowledge of the preacher is withdrawn, the hearts of those that might have flourished in eternal hope, are forthwith 'dried up,' that they should remain in hopeless barrenness, whilst, in love with transitory things, they care not to look for those which shall abide. But if by the term of 'water' the grace of the Holy Spirit is denoted, as it is said by the voice of truth in the Gospel, He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water; in which place the Evangelist immediately added, But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe in Him should receive; a suitable sense is laid open in these words wherein he saith, Behold He withholdeth the waters, and all things are dried up; in that if the grace of the Holy Spirit be withdrawn from the hearer's mind, the sense is at once 'dried up,' which already through hope seemed to be green in the hearer. But forasmuch as he does not mention 'water' but 'waters,' by the plural designation, he refers to the sevenfold grace of spiritual gifts, inasmuch as everyone is filled, so to speak, with as many waters as he is replenished with gifts, of which it is fitly added, Also if He sendeth them out, they will overturn the earth. For what is 'the earth' taken for, but the sinner, to whom it is said in sentence, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return? Thus the earth remains immoveable when the sinner scorns to obey the precepts of the Lord, when he erects the neck of pride, and shuts the mind's eyes to the light of truth. But whereas it is written, His feet stood, and the earth was moved; in that when Truth is rooted in the heart, the immoveableness of the mind is stirred; if the grace of the Holy Spirit, by bestowal from above, is infused according to the voice of the preacher, instantly the earth is 'overturned,' in that the obduracy of the guilty soul is changed from the stubbornness of its immobility, that it should afterwards bow down itself in weeping to the precepts of the Lord, as much as it afore time…
Dictionary and topics
Satan — Adversary; accuser. When used as a proper name, the Hebrew word so rendered has the article “the adversary” (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7). In the New Testament it is used as interchangeable with Diabolos, or…
Atheism · ARGUMENTS AGAINST — ARGUMENTS AGAINST
Philosophy · provi — provi
Religion · NATURAL — NATURAL
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).
