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Selected Verse: Job 12:17 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Job 12:17 |
King James |
He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
He leadeth counsellors away spoiled - Plundered or captive. That is, the counsels of wise and great men do not avail against God. Statesmen who promised themselves victory as the result of their plans he disappoints, and leads away into captivity. The object of this is to show that God is superior over all, and also that people are not dealt with in exact accordance with their character and rank. God is a sovereign, and he shows his sovereignty when defeating the counsels and purposes of the wisest of men, and overturning the plans of the mighty.
And maketh the judges fools - He leaves them to distracted and foolish plans. He leaves them to the adoption of measures which result in their own ruin. He is a sovereign, having control over the minds of the great, and power to defeat all their counsels, and to render them infatuated. Nothing can be clearer than this. Nothing has been more frequently illustrated in the history of nations. In accordance with this belief is the well-known expression:
Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat.
"Whom God purposes to destroy, he first infatuates." |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
17 He leadeth away counsellors stripped of their robes,
And maketh judges fools.
18 The authority of kings He looseth,
And bindeth their loins with bands.
19 He leadeth away priests stripped of their robes,
And overthroweth those who are firmly established.
20 He removeth the speech of the eloquent,
And taketh away the judgment of the aged.
21 He poureth contempt upon princes,
And maketh loose the girdle of the mighty.
In Job 12:17, Job 12:19, שׁולל is added to מוליך as a conditional accusative; the old expositors vary in the rendering of this word; at any rate it does not mean: chained (Targ. on Job 12:17), from שׁלל (שׁרר), which is reduplicated in the word שׁלשׁלת, a chain, a word used in later Hebrew than the language of the Old Testament (שׁרשׁרה is the Old Testament word); nor is it: taken as booty, made captive (lxx αἰχμαλώτους; Targ. on Job 12:19, בּבזתא, in the quality of spoil) = משׁולל; but it is a neuter adjective closely allied to the idea of the verb, exutus, not however mente (deprived of sense), but vestibus; not merely barefooted (Hirz., Oehler, with lxx, Mic 1:8, ἀνυπόδετος), which is the meaning of יחף, but: stripped of their clothes with violence (vid., Isa 20:4), stripped in particular of the insignia of their power. He leads them half-naked into captivity, and takes away the judges as fools (יהולל, vid., Psychol. S. 292), by destroying not only their power, but the prestige of their position also. We find echoes of this utterance respecting God's paradoxical rule in the world in Isa 40:23; Isa 44:25; and Isaiah's oracle on Egypt, Job 19:11-15, furnishes an illustration in the reality.
It is but too natural to translate Job 12:18 : the bands of kings He looses (after Psa 116:16, למוסרי פתחת, Thou hast loosed my bands); but the relation of the two parts of the verse can then not be this: He unchains and chains kings (Hirz., Ew., Heiligst. Schlottm.), for the fut. consec. ויּאסר requires a contrast that is intimately connected with the context, and not of mere outward form: fetters in which kings have bound others (מלכים, gen. subjectivus) He looses, and binds them in fetters (Raschi), - an explanation which much commends itself, if מוּסר could only be justified as the construct of מוּסר by the remark that "the o sinks into u" (Ewald, 213, c). מוּסר does not once occur in the signification vinculum; but only the plur. מוסרים and מוסרות, vincula, accord with the usage of the language, so that even the pointing מוסר proposed by Hirzel is a venture. מוּסר, however, as constr. of מוּסר, correction, discipline, rule (i.e., as the domination of punishment, from יסר, castigare), is an equally suitable sense, and is probably connected by the poet with פּתּח (a word very familiar to him, Job 30:11; Job 39:5; Job 41:6) on account of its relation both in sound and sense to מוסרים (comp. Psa 105:22). The English translation is correct: He looseth the authority of kings. The antithesis is certainly lost, but the thoughts here moreover flow on in synonymous parallelism.
Job 12:19
It is unnecessary to understand כהנים, after Sa2 8:18, of high officers of state, perhaps privy councillors; such priest-princes as Melchizedek of Salem and Jethro of Midian are meant. איטנים, which denotes inexhaustible, perennis, when used of waters, is descriptive of nations as invincible in might, Jer 5:15, and of persons as firmly-rooted and stedfast. נאמנים, such as are tested, who are able to speak and counsel what is right at the fitting season, consequently the ready in speech and counsel. The derivation, proposed by Kimchi, from נאם, in the sense of diserti, would require the pointing נאמנים. טעם is taste, judgment, tact, which knows what is right and appropriate under the different circumstances of life, Sa1 25:33. יקּח is used exactly as in Hos 4:11. Job 12:21 is repeated verbatim, Psa 107:40; the trilogy, Ps 105-107, particularly Ps 107, is full of passages similar to the second part of Isaiah and the book of Job (vid., Psalter, ii. 117). אפיקים (only here and Job 41:7) are the strong, from אפק, to hold together, especially to concentrate strength on anything. מזיח (only here, instead of מזח, not from מזח, which is an imaginary root, but from זחח, according to Frst equivalent to זקק, to lace, bind) is the girdle with which the garments were fastened and girded up for any great exertion, especially for desperate conflict (Isa 5:27). To make him weak or relaxed, is the same as to deprive of the ability of vigorous, powerful action. Every word is here appropriately used. This tottering relaxed condition is the very opposite of the intensity and energy which belongs to "the strong." All temporal and spiritual power is subject to God: He gives or takes it away according to His supreme will and pleasure. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Spoiled - The wise counsellors or statesmen, by whom the affairs of kings and kingdoms are ordered, he leadeth away as captives in triumph, being spoiled either of that wisdom which they had, or seemed to have; or of that power and dignity which they had enjoyed. Fools - By discovering their folly, and by infatuating their minds, and turning their own counsels to their ruin. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
He leadeth counsellors away spoiled - The events of war are also in his hand. It is he who gives victory; through him even the counsellors - the great men and chief men, are often led into captivity, and found among the spoils.
And maketh the judges fools - He infatuates the judges. Does this refer to the foolish conduct of some of the Israelitish judges, such as Samson? |
27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
7 Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?
40 He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way.
21 He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty.
11 Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
33 And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.
15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.
18 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over both the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and David's sons were chief rulers.
19 He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty.
22 To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.
6 Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants?
5 Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?
11 Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.
16 O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.
18 He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle.
11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.
12 His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.
13 He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.
14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
25 That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish;
23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
4 So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.
19 He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty.
17 He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools.
19 He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty.
17 He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools.