Job 12 Study Notes

12:16 Job’s review of the scope of God’s wisdom and power includes a stunning but true claim that even the deceived and the deceiver, both of whom are presumably bereft of true knowledge of God and do not willingly submit to him, are his.

12:17-25 As Job cynically saw it, God arbitrarily directs social and political situations according to his inscrutable pleasure, with the result that counselors . . . judges . . . kings . . . priests, and all the world’s leaders strive in vain to choose wise paths. In reality God’s sovereignty is not arbitrary. “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God” (Rm 8:28).

12:18 It is unclear what bonds and a belt are intended to convey with regard to kings. One possibility is that God easily strips kings of their robes and leads them away. Another is that God can release those whom kings have bound and bind the king instead. A third is that if a king is defeated and bound, God can release him and gird him.

12:19 To be led away barefoot pictures defeat, captivity, and exile.

12:20 Under God’s governance, trusted advisers can be deprived of the very things that made them advisers in the first place: their eloquence and good judgment.

12:22 Though Job is unable to make sense of his own sufferings, he recognizes God’s power to reveal mysteries.

12:24-25 As Job viewed it, God causes national leaders to use poor judgment that leads to their disgrace (Ps 107:40).