They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
Parallel Translations
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They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
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They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.
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They grope in the dark without light, and He maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Job 12:25 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Job 5:14 They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night.
- Psalms 107:27 They reel back and forth, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
- Isaiah 24:20 The earth will stagger like a drunken man, and will sway back and forth like a hammock. Its disobedience will be heavy on it, and it will fall and not rise again.
- Isaiah 19:14 Yahweh has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the middle of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
- Genesis 19:11 They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
- Deuteronomy 28:29 You will grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. You will only be oppressed and robbed always, and there will be no one to save you.
- Isaiah 59:10 We grope for the wall like the blind. Yes, we grope as those who have no eyes. We stumble at noon as if it were twilight. Among those who are strong, we are like dead men.
- 1 John 2:11 But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
- Acts 13:11 Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is on you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sun for a season!” Immediately a mist and darkness fell on him. He went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 12:25 They grope in the dark without light,…
Job 12:25 They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like [a] drunken [man].
Ver. 25. They grope in the dark without light] This is the second simile, setting forth this judiciary act of God in taking away the heart of the heads of the earth; grope they do, and would fain find out a way by feeling, but they feel darkness, and not light (so the Hebrew); they try to help themselves and their people out of misery, as the last Greek emperor did notably; but it would not be (Turk. Hist. 345).
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And he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man] Who, having lost the use of reason, knoweth neither where he is nor what he was, but reeleth and falleth oft, and cannot rise again, much less go forward. So fareth it with evil rulers when God smiteth them with a spirit of giddiness and of slumber. See Isa 19:24; Isa 40:20.
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 They grope, like men that cannot see their way.
They grope, like men that cannot see their way.
In the dark without light; two phrases expressing the same thing, emphatically to express their profound darkness.
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Like a drunken man, who reels hither and thither without any certainty. So they sometimes take one course, and sometimes another, as resolving to try all experiments, and indeed not knowing what to do.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Grope - Thus are the revolutions of kingdoms brought…
Grope - Thus are the revolutions of kingdoms brought about by an overruling providence. Heaven and earth are shaken: but the Lord remaineth a king forever.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 25. They grope in the dark] The writer…
Verse 25. They grope in the dark] The writer seems to have had his eye on those words of Moses, De 28:28-29: The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart; and thou shalt GROPE AT NOONDAY, as the BLIND GROPETH IN DARKNESS. And this also may refer to the unaccountable errors, transgressions, and judicial blindness of the Israelites in their journeying to the promised land: but it will apply also to the state of wicked nations under judicial blindness. The writer is principally indebted for his imagery, and indeed for the chief expressions used here, to Ps 107:27: They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man. Ps 107:39-40: Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. He POURETH CONTEMPT UPON PRINCES, and CAUSETH THEM TO WONDER IN THE WILDERNESS, where there is NO WAY.
Mr. Good has some judicious reflections on this chapter, particularly on Job 12:13-22: "It should be observed," says he, "that the entire passage has a reference to the machinery of a regular and political government; and that its general drift is to imprint on the mind of the hearer the important doctrine that the whole of the constituent principles of such a government, its officers and institutions; its monarchs and princes; its privy-counsellors, judges, and ministers of state; its chieftains, public orators, and assembly of elders; its nobles, or men of hereditary rank; and its stout robust peasantry, as we should express it in the present day; nay, the deep designing villains that plot in secret its destruction; - that the nations themselves, and the heads or sovereigns of the nations, are all and equally in the hands of the Almighty: that with him human pomp is poverty; human excellence, turpitude; human judgment, error; human wisdom, folly; human dignity, contempt; human strength, weakness."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain They grope in the dark - They are like…
They grope in the dark - They are like persons who attempt to feel their way along in the dark; compare the notes at Isa 59:10.
And he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man - Margin, “wander.” Their unstable and perplexed counsels are like the reelings of a drunken man; see Isa 19:14, note; Isa 24:20, note. This closes the chapter, and with it the controversy in regard to the ability to adduce pertinent and striking proverbial expressions; see the notes at Job 12:3. Job had showed them that he was as familiar with proverbs respecting God as they were, and that he entertained as exalted ideas of the control and government of the Most High as they did. It may be added, that these are sublime and beautiful expressions respecting God. They surpass all that can be found in the writings of the pagan; and they show that somehow in the earliest ages there prevailed views of God which the human mind for ages afterward, and in the most favorable circumstances, was not capable of originating. These proverbial sayings were doubtless fragments of revealed truth, which had come down by tradition, and which were thus embodied in a form convenient to be transmitted from age to age.
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 job 12:25Deu 28:29; Psa 107:27 again quote Job, but…
job 12:25Deu 28:29; Psa 107:27 again quote Job, but in a different connection.
Next: Job Chapter 13
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 25. They grope, etc. — They feel the darkness…
25. They grope, etc. — They feel the darkness and not light. — Gesenius. The reading of the Septuagint is nearly the same. Their blindness must be intense, when the sense of feeling is their sight.
He maketh — God is said to do what he permits to be done. Men who resist grace he leaves a prey to the laws of nature — laws outside of the kingdom of grace. Their work God is said to perform, because it is through laws of his enactment. If he withdraw the enlightening and restraining influences of his grace, the twofold result — darkness and confusion — must follow. Thus deserted, nations like Egypt, (Isa_19:14,) and individuals like Saul, alike stagger to their doom. The withdrawal of himself is the great positive evil God inflicts upon an impure soul in the eternal world.
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 25. Further description of their perplexity. Cf. ch. Job_5:14.
25. Further description of their perplexity. Cf. ch. Job_5:14.
maketh them to stagger] Or, to wander. Cf. Isa_19:14; Psa_107:27; Psa_107:40.
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.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain They grope in the dark without light. (comp. Job_5:14…
They grope in the dark without light. (comp. Job_5:14 Deu_28:29) And he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man; literally, to wander to pursue a devious course instead of a straight one.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 12:25 Perhaps foolish counsel made the kings stagger like…
12:25 Perhaps foolish counsel made the kings stagger like drunkards (12:17; see Isa 19:14); it resulted from “drinking” God’s wrath (Ps 75:8; Jer 25:15-27).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.