Isaiah 22:22(v14)I will lay the key of David’s house on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open.
Revelation 3:7(v14)“To the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write: “He who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one…
1 Kings 17:1(v15)Elijah the Tishbite, who was one of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there…
Job 11:10(v14)If he passes by, or confines, or convenes a court, then who can oppose him?
Malachi 1:4(v14)Whereas Edom says, “We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places;” Yahweh of Armies says, “They shall build, but I…
Show all 36 cross-references
1 Samuel 17:46(v14)Today, Yahweh will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you, and take your head from off you. I will give the dead bodies of the army of…
1 Samuel 26:8(v14)Then Abishai said to David, “God has delivered up your enemy into your hand today. Now therefore please let me strike him with the spear to…
1 Kings 22:22-23(v16)Yahweh said to him, ‘How?’ He said, ‘I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ He said, ‘You will entice…
Job 9:12-13(v14)Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’ “God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of…
Job 12:13(v16)“With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.
Job 13:9(v16)Is it good that he should search you out? Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?
Job 16:11(v14)God delivers me to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
Job 19:10(v14)He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. He has plucked my hope up like a tree.
Job 37:7(v14)He seals up the hand of every man, that all men whom he has made may know it.
Jeremiah 51:58(v14)Yahweh of Armies says: “The wide walls of Babylon will be utterly overthrown. Her high gates will be burned with fire. The peoples will…
Ezekiel 14:9(v16)“ ‘ “If the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, Yahweh, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand on him, and will…
Amos 5:8(v15)seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for…
Genesis 6:13(v15)God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and…
Genesis 6:17(v15)I, even I, will bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that…
Genesis 7:11–8:2(v15)In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the…
1 Samuel 24:18(v14)You have declared today how you have dealt well with me, because when Yahweh had delivered me up into your hand, you didn’t kill me.
1 Kings 8:35-36(v15)“When the sky is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you; if they pray toward this place, and confess your…
Job 12:10(v15)in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?
Job 13:7(v16)Will you speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for him?
Psalms 104:7-9(v15)At your rebuke they fled. At the voice of your thunder they hurried away. The mountains rose, the valleys sank down, to the place which you…
Isaiah 14:23(v14)“I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says Yahweh of…
Isaiah 25:2(v14)For you have made a city into a heap, a fortified city into a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city. It will never be built.
Jeremiah 14:22(v15)Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren’t you he, Yahweh our God? Therefore…
Jeremiah 51:64(v14)Then you shall say, ‘Thus will Babylon sink, and will not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on her; and they will be weary.’…
Nahum 1:4(v15)He rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes.
Matthew 6:13(v16)Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’
Luke 4:25(v15)But truly I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up three years and six months, when a…
Romans 11:32(v14)For God has bound all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.
James 5:17-18(v15)Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years…
Revelation 11:6(v15)These have the power to shut up the sky, that it may not rain during the days of their prophecy. They have power over the waters, to turn…
Deuteronomy 11:17(v15)and Yahweh’s anger be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky so that there is no rain, and the land doesn’t yield its fruit; and you…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (14 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn v16He showeth that there is nothing done in this…
He showeth that there is nothing done in this world without God’s will and ordinance, for else he should not be Almighty.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv14–16Job 12:14 Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot…
Job 12:14 Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.
Ver. 14. Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again] As he did the old world, Sodom and Gomorrah, many monarchies and empires, the tower of Babel, and other castles and houses which now live by fame only, if at all. If God have a mind to ruin these, who shall raise or repair them? Julian, the apostate, in spite of the Christians, set the Jews to work to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem, but they could never effect it by reason of a terrible earthquake, that slew the workmen and marred the materials (Am. Marcel., Socrat. 3, Theod., Ruffin.). The Arian bishops held a second council at Nice, with the purpose of having abolished the memory of the first together with the Nicene Creed, and to have established Arianism (Func.); but God disappointed them, and sent them packing thence by a huge earthquake, which overturned a great part of that city, and killed a number of people. Constans, nephew to Heraclius, the Greek emperor, and (three hundred years after him) Otho, emperor of Germany, endeavoured, but in vain, to make Rome the seat of their empires, as anciently it had been (Theophanes, Zonares, Cedrenus). God would not allow it so to be, saith Genebrard, because the kingdom of the Church, foretold by Daniel, was to have its seat there. If he had said, the kingdom of Antichrist, foretold by Paul and John the divine, he had hit the nail on the very head.
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He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening] He clappeth him up close prisoner, as Manasseh, Zedekiah, Bajazet, Boniface VIII, &c., or fasteneth him to his bed by some chronic disease (as he did Abimelech, Ahaziah, Asa, Aeneas, Act 9:33), or otherwise straiteneth him, that he knows not how to help himself, as he did Pharaoh, Saul (when the Philistines were upon him on every side), those refractories in Isaiah, Isa 9:2, and shall do the whore of Babylon, Rev 18:9-19, when her lovers shall bewail her, but not be able to help her, Job 12:9-10. For when God shutteth up any in this sort, they must lie by it till he please to release them and extricate them, as he did Joseph, Jehoshaphat, David, Peter, Valentinian, and many others, when they were even forsaken by their hopes.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv14–16He breaketh down, to wit, houses, castles, cities, which…
He breaketh down, to wit, houses, castles, cities, which God designeth to destroy utterly.
He shutteth up; if he will shut up a man in prison, or in any straits or troubles.
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There can be no opening, without God’s permission and providence.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv14–16Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up,....…
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 God rebukes the see, and smites the waves of it, or withholds the ebbing and flowing of the tides brooks and rivers of water dry up; see Nah 1:4; or else this may be understood of God's withholding and restraining the waters in the clouds, and not suffering them to let down rain on the earth; when not only brooks dry up, as the brook Cherith did, where Elijah abode for sometime, but the fruits of the earth, trees, plants, and herbs dry up, wither and die; see Kg1 17:7; and this is an emblem in a spiritual sense of God's withholding the word and ordinances, the waters of the sanctuary the means of grace, and of fruitfulness; which when he does, the consequence of it is barrenness and unfruitfulness in kingdoms, cities, towns, families, sad particular persons; and of his withholding the communications of his grace, often compared to water in Scripture, even from his people; the effect of which is, that they are in, withering circumstances, the things that revive seem ready to die, though they shall not; love waxes cold, faith is ready to fail, and hope and strength seem perishing from the Lord:
also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth; as at the time of the flood, when the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and such vast quantities of water issued out as overflowed the whole world, by which it was overturned; and as the Apostle Peter says, "perished", Pe2 3:5; though this is also true of inundations that may have been since, which though not universal as that, yet so far as they have reached have overturned all in their way, and carried off the fruits of the earth, the habitations of men, and men themselves; whole countries, cities and towns, have been carried away by the waters of the sea, or sunk into it, particularly all that space. Where now is the Atlantic sea, as Pliny (t), from Plato, relates. It is well when the grace of God flows, and overflows, and superabounds abounding sin, and overpowers and overcomes carnal, earthly, and sensual lusts, and reigns where sin did, and teaches to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to mortify the members on the earth.
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(s) "detinebit in aquis", Montanus, Bolducius; "si contineat, vel cohibeat, q. d. imperium exerceat in aquas", Michaelis. (t) Nat. Hist. l. 2. c. 90, 92.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv14–16No opening - Without God's permission. Yea, he shuts…
No opening - Without God's permission. Yea, he shuts up in the grave, and none can break open those sealed doors. He shuts up in hell, in chains of darkness, and none can pass that great gulf.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv14–16Verse 14. He breaketh down] He alone can create,…
Verse 14. He breaketh down] He alone can create, and he alone can destroy. Nothing can be annihilated but by the same Power that created it. This is a most remarkable fact. No power, skill, or cunning of man can annihilate the smallest particle of matter. Man, by chemical agency, may change its form; but to reduce it to nothing belongs to God alone. In the course of his providence God breaks down, so that it cannot be built up again. See proofs of this in the total political destruction of Nineveh, Babylon, Persepolis, Tyre, and other cities, which have broken down never to be rebuilt; as well as the Assyrian, Babylonian, Grecian, and Roman empires, which have been dismembered and almost annihilated, never more to be regenerated.
He shutteth up a man] He often frustrates the best laid purposes, so that they can never be brought to good effect.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv14–16Job 12:14. Behold, he breaketh down — Houses, castles,…
Job 12:14. Behold, he breaketh down — Houses, castles, cities; and it cannot be built again — It is not in the power of any creature to repair what he designs utterly to destroy. He shutteth up a man — In prison, or in straits and troubles; and there can be no opening — Without his permission and providence. Yea, he shuts up in the grave, and none can break open those sealed doors. He shuts up in hell, in chains of darkness, and none can pass that great gulf.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv14–16Behold, he breaketh down - None can repair what…
Behold, he breaketh down - None can repair what he pulls down. Cities and towns he can devote to ruin by fire, or earthquake, or the pestilence, and so completely destroy them that they can never be rebuilt. We may now refer to such illustrations as Sodom, Babylon, Petra, Tyre, Herculaneum, and Pompeii, as full proof of what is here affirmed.
He shutteth up a man - He can shut up a man in such difficulties and straits that he cannot extricate himself; see Job 11:10. The Chaldee renders this, “he shuts up a man in the grave (בקבורתא) and it cannot be opened.” But the more correct idea is, that God has complete control over a man, and that he can so hedge up his way that he cannot help himself.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv14–16shutteth up-- (Isa 22:22). Job refers to Zophar's "shut…
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv14–1614. Shutteth up a man — In the sense…
14. Shutteth up a man — In the sense of closing over. This is explained by the nature of the prisons among the Hebrews, which were subterranean excavations, whose mouth was covered with a stone. Lam_3:53. The Chaldee renders it, “He shuts man up in the grave, and it cannot be opened.”
Saint Gregory moralizes upon this clause: “Evil deeds build a prison for man in the depths of his conscience. Habit bars the doors, and blindness of understanding darkens the windows. Thus God shuts him in. If ever the desire arise to break forth from his dungeon, he is not able.” But all this tends to depreciate the grace of the gospel, which is powerful to break any prison bar that habit or appetite has forged.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv14–1614. breaketh down] e.g. fenced cities, devoting them to…
14. breaketh down] e.g. fenced cities, devoting them to ruin, cf. ch. Job_15:28.
shutteth up a man] In prison, as captive kings and the like, cf. Jer_22:24 seq., 2Ki_25:27 seq.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn v14(14) Behold, he breaketh down . . .—God has…
(14) Behold, he breaketh down . . .—God has equal power over the moral and physical world.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv14–16Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built…
Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again. Professor Lee thinks that the allusion is to the cities of the plain. (Gen_19:24-29) But the sentiment is so general, that we may well doubt if particular instances were in Job"s mind. At any rate, the destructive agencies of nature must be as much included as any supernatural acts. He shutteth up a man. (comp. Job_11:10) God "shutsup" men when be hedges them in with calamities or other circumstances, which take away from them all freedom of action (Job_3:23 Job_19:8) When he does this, the result followsThere can be no opening. No other power can give release.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On v16With him are strength and wisdom
With him are strength and wisdom
The abstract nouns "strength" and "wisdom" can be expressed with the words "strong" and "wise." AT: "God is strong and wise" (See: Abstract Nouns)
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people who are deceived and the deceiver are both in his power
Being in God's power represents God ruling over them. AT: "people who believe a lie and people who lie to others are both in his power" or "God rules over both people who believe lies and people who lie to others"
He leads counselors away barefoot
Leading counselors away barefoot represents taking away their wisdom and authority. (See: Metaphor)
in sorrow
The abstract noun "sorrow" can be expressed with the words "sad" or "grieve" AT: "and they feel very sad" or "and they grieve" (See: Abstract Nouns)
he turns judges into fools
"he makes judges become foolish"
He takes off the chain of authority from kings
Possible meanings are that 1) this is a metonym for causing kings to no longer have authority. AT: "He takes away the authority of kings" or 2) this is a metonym for setting people free from the chains that kings have put on them. AT: "He takes off the bonds that kings have put on people" (See: Metonymy)
he wraps a cloth about their waists
This cloth is probably what a slave wears. To put these cloths on kings represents making the kings slaves. AT: "he makes kings wear the clothing of slaves" or "he makes them slaves" (See: Metonymy)
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v16 He showeth that there is nothing done in this…
He showeth that there is nothing done in this world without God’s will and ordinance, for else he should not be Almighty.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv14–16 Job 12:14 Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot…
Job 12:14 Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.
Ver. 14. Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again] As he did the old world, Sodom and Gomorrah, many monarchies and empires, the tower of Babel, and other castles and houses which now live by fame only, if at all. If God have a mind to ruin these, who shall raise or repair them? Julian, the apostate, in spite of the Christians, set the Jews to work to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem, but they could never effect it by reason of a terrible earthquake, that slew the workmen and marred the materials (Am. Marcel., Socrat. 3, Theod., Ruffin.). The Arian bishops held a second council at Nice, with the purpose of having abolished the memory of the first together with the Nicene Creed, and to have established Arianism (Func.); but God disappointed them, and sent them packing thence by a huge earthquake, which overturned a great part of that city, and killed a number of people. Constans, nephew to Heraclius, the Greek emperor, and (three hundred years after him) Otho, emperor of Germany, endeavoured, but in vain, to make Rome the seat of their empires, as anciently it had been (Theophanes, Zonares, Cedrenus). God would not allow it so to be, saith Genebrard, because the kingdom of the Church, foretold by Daniel, was to have its seat there. If he had said, the kingdom of Antichrist, foretold by Paul and John the divine, he had hit the nail on the very head.
Read full note →
He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening] He clappeth him up close prisoner, as Manasseh, Zedekiah, Bajazet, Boniface VIII, &c., or fasteneth him to his bed by some chronic disease (as he did Abimelech, Ahaziah, Asa, Aeneas, Act 9:33), or otherwise straiteneth him, that he knows not how to help himself, as he did Pharaoh, Saul (when the Philistines were upon him on every side), those refractories in Isaiah, Isa 9:2, and shall do the whore of Babylon, Rev 18:9-19, when her lovers shall bewail her, but not be able to help her, Job 12:9-10. For when God shutteth up any in this sort, they must lie by it till he please to release them and extricate them, as he did Joseph, Jehoshaphat, David, Peter, Valentinian, and many others, when they were even forsaken by their hopes.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv14–16 He breaketh down, to wit, houses, castles, cities, which…
He breaketh down, to wit, houses, castles, cities, which God designeth to destroy utterly.
He shutteth up; if he will shut up a man in prison, or in any straits or troubles.
Read full note →
There can be no opening, without God’s permission and providence.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv14–16 Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up,....…
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 God rebukes the see, and smites the waves of it, or withholds the ebbing and flowing of the tides brooks and rivers of water dry up; see Nah 1:4; or else this may be understood of God's withholding and restraining the waters in the clouds, and not suffering them to let down rain on the earth; when not only brooks dry up, as the brook Cherith did, where Elijah abode for sometime, but the fruits of the earth, trees, plants, and herbs dry up, wither and die; see Kg1 17:7; and this is an emblem in a spiritual sense of God's withholding the word and ordinances, the waters of the sanctuary the means of grace, and of fruitfulness; which when he does, the consequence of it is barrenness and unfruitfulness in kingdoms, cities, towns, families, sad particular persons; and of his withholding the communications of his grace, often compared to water in Scripture, even from his people; the effect of which is, that they are in, withering circumstances, the things that revive seem ready to die, though they shall not; love waxes cold, faith is ready to fail, and hope and strength seem perishing from the Lord:
also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth; as at the time of the flood, when the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and such vast quantities of water issued out as overflowed the whole world, by which it was overturned; and as the Apostle Peter says, "perished", Pe2 3:5; though this is also true of inundations that may have been since, which though not universal as that, yet so far as they have reached have overturned all in their way, and carried off the fruits of the earth, the habitations of men, and men themselves; whole countries, cities and towns, have been carried away by the waters of the sea, or sunk into it, particularly all that space. Where now is the Atlantic sea, as Pliny (t), from Plato, relates. It is well when the grace of God flows, and overflows, and superabounds abounding sin, and overpowers and overcomes carnal, earthly, and sensual lusts, and reigns where sin did, and teaches to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to mortify the members on the earth.
Read full note →
(s) "detinebit in aquis", Montanus, Bolducius; "si contineat, vel cohibeat, q. d. imperium exerceat in aquas", Michaelis. (t) Nat. Hist. l. 2. c. 90, 92.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv14–16 No opening - Without God's permission. Yea, he shuts…
No opening - Without God's permission. Yea, he shuts up in the grave, and none can break open those sealed doors. He shuts up in hell, in chains of darkness, and none can pass that great gulf.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv14–16 Verse 14. He breaketh down] He alone can create,…
Verse 14. He breaketh down] He alone can create, and he alone can destroy. Nothing can be annihilated but by the same Power that created it. This is a most remarkable fact. No power, skill, or cunning of man can annihilate the smallest particle of matter. Man, by chemical agency, may change its form; but to reduce it to nothing belongs to God alone. In the course of his providence God breaks down, so that it cannot be built up again. See proofs of this in the total political destruction of Nineveh, Babylon, Persepolis, Tyre, and other cities, which have broken down never to be rebuilt; as well as the Assyrian, Babylonian, Grecian, and Roman empires, which have been dismembered and almost annihilated, never more to be regenerated.
He shutteth up a man] He often frustrates the best laid purposes, so that they can never be brought to good effect.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv14–16 Job 12:14. Behold, he breaketh down — Houses, castles,…
Job 12:14. Behold, he breaketh down — Houses, castles, cities; and it cannot be built again — It is not in the power of any creature to repair what he designs utterly to destroy. He shutteth up a man — In prison, or in straits and troubles; and there can be no opening — Without his permission and providence. Yea, he shuts up in the grave, and none can break open those sealed doors. He shuts up in hell, in chains of darkness, and none can pass that great gulf.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv14–16 Behold, he breaketh down - None can repair what…
Behold, he breaketh down - None can repair what he pulls down. Cities and towns he can devote to ruin by fire, or earthquake, or the pestilence, and so completely destroy them that they can never be rebuilt. We may now refer to such illustrations as Sodom, Babylon, Petra, Tyre, Herculaneum, and Pompeii, as full proof of what is here affirmed.
He shutteth up a man - He can shut up a man in such difficulties and straits that he cannot extricate himself; see Job 11:10. The Chaldee renders this, “he shuts up a man in the grave (בקבורתא) and it cannot be opened.” But the more correct idea is, that God has complete control over a man, and that he can so hedge up his way that he cannot help himself.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv14–16 shutteth up-- (Isa 22:22). Job refers to Zophar's "shut…
shutteth up-- (Isa 22:22). Job refers to Zophar's "shut up" (Job 11:10).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv14–16 14. Shutteth up a man — In the sense…
14. Shutteth up a man — In the sense of closing over. This is explained by the nature of the prisons among the Hebrews, which were subterranean excavations, whose mouth was covered with a stone. Lam_3:53. The Chaldee renders it, “He shuts man up in the grave, and it cannot be opened.”
Saint Gregory moralizes upon this clause: “Evil deeds build a prison for man in the depths of his conscience. Habit bars the doors, and blindness of understanding darkens the windows. Thus God shuts him in. If ever the desire arise to break forth from his dungeon, he is not able.” But all this tends to depreciate the grace of the gospel, which is powerful to break any prison bar that habit or appetite has forged.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv14–16 14. breaketh down] e.g. fenced cities, devoting them to…
14. breaketh down] e.g. fenced cities, devoting them to ruin, cf. ch. Job_15:28.
shutteth up a man] In prison, as captive kings and the like, cf. Jer_22:24 seq., 2Ki_25:27 seq.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On v14 (14) Behold, he breaketh down . . .—God has…
(14) Behold, he breaketh down . . .—God has equal power over the moral and physical world.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv14–16 Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built…
Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again. Professor Lee thinks that the allusion is to the cities of the plain. (Gen_19:24-29) But the sentiment is so general, that we may well doubt if particular instances were in Job"s mind. At any rate, the destructive agencies of nature must be as much included as any supernatural acts. He shutteth up a man. (comp. Job_11:10) God "shutsup" men when be hedges them in with calamities or other circumstances, which take away from them all freedom of action (Job_3:23 Job_19:8) When he does this, the result followsThere can be no opening. No other power can give release.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v16 With him are strength and wisdom
With him are strength and wisdom
The abstract nouns "strength" and "wisdom" can be expressed with the words "strong" and "wise." AT: "God is strong and wise" (See: Abstract Nouns)
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people who are deceived and the deceiver are both in his power
Being in God's power represents God ruling over them. AT: "people who believe a lie and people who lie to others are both in his power" or "God rules over both people who believe lies and people who lie to others"
He leads counselors away barefoot
Leading counselors away barefoot represents taking away their wisdom and authority. (See: Metaphor)
in sorrow
The abstract noun "sorrow" can be expressed with the words "sad" or "grieve" AT: "and they feel very sad" or "and they grieve" (See: Abstract Nouns)
he turns judges into fools
"he makes judges become foolish"
He takes off the chain of authority from kings
Possible meanings are that 1) this is a metonym for causing kings to no longer have authority. AT: "He takes away the authority of kings" or 2) this is a metonym for setting people free from the chains that kings have put on them. AT: "He takes off the bonds that kings have put on people" (See: Metonymy)
he wraps a cloth about their waists
This cloth is probably what a slave wears. To put these cloths on kings represents making the kings slaves. AT: "he makes kings wear the clothing of slaves" or "he makes them slaves" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
wise
deceive
power
advice
judge, judges
fool
authority
king
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.