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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 12:14 - 12:14
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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; עַל with reference to the depth of the dungeon, instead of the usual בְּעַד), it (that which is closed from above) cannot be opened again. In like manner, when He desires to punish a land, He disposes the elements according to His will and pleasure, by bringing upon it drought or flood. יַעְצֹר, coercet, according to the correct Masoretic mode of writing יַעְצֹר with dagesh in the Ssade, in order clearly to distinguish in the pronunciation between the forms j'a-ssor and jaa'ssor (יַֽעֲצֹר);
(Note: Vid., my notice of Bär's Psalter-Ausgabe, Luth. Zeitschr. 1863, 3; and comp. Keil on Lev 4:13 (Comm on Pent., Clark's transl.).)
וְיִבָשׁוּ (for which Abulwalid writes וִיבָשׁוּ) is a defective form of writing according to Ges. §69, 3, 3; the form וְיַהַפְכוּ with the similarly pointed fut. consec., 1Sa 25:12, form a pair (zuwg) noted by the Masora. By תּוּשִׁיָּה, which is ascribed to God, is here to be understood that which really exists, the real, the objective, knowledge resting on an objective actual basis, in contrast with what only appears to be; so that consequently the idea of Job 12:16 and Job 12:13 is somewhat veiled; for the primary notion of חָכְמָה is thickness, solidity, purity, like πυκνότης.
(Note: The primary notion of חכם, Arab. hkm, is, to be thick, firm, solid, as the prim. notion of Arab. sachfa (to be foolish, silly) is to be thin, loose, not holding together (as a bad texture). The same fundamental notions are represented in the expression of moral qualities (in distinction from intellectual) by צדק, Arab. sdq, and רשׁע, (Arab. rs', rsg).)
This strophe closes like the preceding, which favours our division. The line with עִמֹּו is followed by one with לֹו, which affirms that, in the supremacy of His rule and the wisdom of His counsels, God makes evil in every form subservient to His designs.