Job 12:25

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.