Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 12:6
The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth [abundantly].
6. The other side of the picture, the peace of the wicked.
into whose hand God bringeth abundantly ] The words might also mean: they who carry ( their) god in their hand, the idea being that their god is their own strong hand or the weapon in it; cf. what the prophet says of the Chaldeans, This their power is their god, Hab 1:11 with Job 12:16. The commentators quote from Vergil the words of the contemptor deorum, dextra mihi deus, and Hitzig refers to Ammianus, 17. 12, who says of some Scythian tribes, mucrones pro numinibus colunt. In Job 12:5 Job said that the afflicted righteous were despised; the strict antithesis would have been that the prosperous wicked received respect; but Job, with the keen eye which he has at present for the anomalies of the Divine government, attributes the peace of the wicked to God, though they recognise no God but their own strong arm. Cf. ch. Job 5:24.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The tabernacles of robbers prosper – The tents or dwellings of robbers are safe and secure. This is Jobs original proposition, to which he all along adheres. It is, that God does not deal with people in this life according to their character; and in support of this he now appeals to the fact that the tents or dwellings of robbers are safe. Arabia would furnish many illustrations of this, which could not be unknown to the friends of Job. The Arabs dwelt in tents, and they were then, as now, wandering, predatory tribes. They lived, to a great extent, by plunder, and doubtless Job could appeal to the observation of his friends for the proof of this. He affirms that so far from dealing with people according to their character, God often seemed to protect the public robber, and the blasphemer of his name.
Prosper – They are secure, tranquil, at rest – for so the Hebrew word means. They are not disturbed and broken in upon.
And they that provoke God – Or rather, the tents are secure to those who provoke God. Dr. Good renders it, and are fortresses to those who provoke God; but the true idea is, that the tents of those who provoke God by their conduct are safe. God does not seem to notice them, or to come out in judgment against them.
Into whose hand God bringeth abundantly – Dr. Noyes renders this, who carry their God in their hand; but with much less accuracy, as it seems to me, than commonly characterizes his version. Eichhorn renders it in a sense somewhat similar:
Die ihre Faust fur ihre Gottheit achten –
Who regard their fist as their God.
And so Stuhlman renders it:
Und wem die Faust fur Gottheit gilt –
And to whom the fist avails for their God;
That is, says he, Job means that this is the course of the world. Dr. Good renders it, of him who hath created all these things with his hand – still less accurately. In order to this, he is obliged to suppose an error in the text, but without the slightest authority. Jerome renders it as in our version. The Septuagint, who provoke the Lord as if there would be no trial to them – etasis auton – here-after; which certainly makes sense, but it was never obtained from the Hebrew. Rosenmuller renders it, who have their own hand, that is, power for God; a description, says he, of a wicked and violent man who thinks it right for him to do as he pleases. It seems to me, however, that the common interpretation, which is the most simple, is most in accordance with the Hebrew, and with the drift of the passage. According to this it means, that there is security to the man who lives to provoke that God who is constantly bringing to him in abundance the tokens of kindness. This is the fact on which Job is insisting – that God does not treat people in this world according to their real character, but that the wicked are prospered and the righteous are afflicted.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. The tabernacles of robbers prosper.] Those who live by the plunder of their neighbours are often found in great secular prosperity; and they that provoke God by impiety and blasphemy live in a state of security and affluence. These are administrations of Providence which cannot be accounted for; yet the Judge of all the earth does right. Therefore prosperity and adversity are no evidences of a man’s spiritual state, nor of the place he holds in the approbation or disapprobation of God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The tabernacles of robbers prosper: thy opinion, delivered Job 11:14, &c, is confuted by daily experience; which shows that the most wicked, and injurious, and impudent oppressors, tyrants, and robbers, are so far from meeting with those disappointments and miseries wherewith thou didst threaten them, that they commonly succeed in their cursed enterprises, and flourish in wealth and glory, and fill their houses with the goods of others which they violently took away; whereof the Chaldeans and Sabeans, Job 1:15,17, are a present and pregnant evidence.
They that provoke God are secure; they whose common practice it is to despise and provoke God are confident and secure, live without danger or fear.
Into whose hand God bringeth abundantly; so far is God from crushing such persons, that he seems to favour them with wonderful success, and by his special and more than common providence puts into their hands the opportunities which they seek, and the persons and goods of other more righteous men, which they lie in wait for.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. Job shows that the matter offact opposes Zophar’s theory (Job 11:14;Job 11:19; Job 11:20)that wickedness causes insecurity in men’s “tabernacles.”On the contrary, they who rob the “tabernacles”(“dwellings”) of others “prosper securely” intheir own.
into whose hand,&c.rather, “who make a god of their own hand,” thatis, who regard their might as their only ruling principle [UMBREIT].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The tabernacles of robbers prosper,…. Such as the Chaldeans and Sabeans, who had robbed Job of his substance, and filled their houses with the spoils of others, and lived in the greatest fulness and prosperity, and whom he might have in his view; and the like is what has been since observed by good men, and has been a trial and temptation to them, not knowing well how to reconcile this to the justice and wisdom of God in providence, yet so it is, a fact that cannot be denied, see Ps 73:2;
and they that provoke God are secure; all sin is abominable to God, contrary to his nature, will, and law, and so provoking; yet there are some sins that are more provoking than others, as idolatry, blasphemy, murder, theft, robbery, rapine, and oppression, and the like, as well as attended with more aggravating circumstances; and yet many who are guilty of such enormous crimes, and God provoking iniquities, are “secure”, live in the greatest tranquillity and safety, free from the incursions, invasions, and insults of others: “their houses”, as Job elsewhere says, “are safe from fear”, Job 21:9;
into whose hand God bringeth [abundantly]; an abundance of the good things of this world, who have as much or more than heart can wish; whose belly is filled with hid treasure, whose grounds and fields bring forth plentifully, that they have no room to bestow their fruits; this, as it is an aggravation of their sin in provoking the God of their mercies, who is so liberal and bountiful to them, so it is the more full and express for the point in hand Job is confuting. Some, as Aben Ezra and Ben Gersom, understand this of idol makers and idol worshippers, and render the words, “who makes a god with his hand”, or “carries a god in his hand” l, and worships it; which others interpret of his doing what he will with God, having him, as it were, in his hand, or reckoning his hands his god, and thinks to do what he pleases m.
l “quique deum portant [vel] portat in manu sua”, Tigurine version, Munster; so Bolducius, De Dieu, Schultens. m Schmidt, &c.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
6 The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly. 7 But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: 8 Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. 9 Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this? 10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind. 11 Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat?
Job’s friends all of them went upon this principle, that wicked people cannot prosper long in this world, but some remarkable judgment or other will suddenly light on them: Zophar had concluded with it, that the eyes of the wicked shall fail, ch. xi. 20. This principle Job here opposes, and maintains that God, in disposing men’s outward affairs, acts as a sovereign, reserving the exact distribution of rewards and punishments for the future state.
I. He asserts it as an undoubted truth that wicked people may, and often do, prosper long in this world, v. 6. Even great sinners may enjoy great prosperity. Observe, 1. How he describes the sinners. They are robbers, and such as provoke God, the worst kind of sinners, blasphemers and persecutors. Perhaps he refers to the Sabeans and Chaldeans, who had robbed him, and had always lived by spoil and rapine, and yet they prospered; all the world saw they did, and there is no disputing against sense; one observation built upon matter of fact is worth twenty notions framed by an hypothesis. Or more generally, All proud oppressors are robbers and pirates. It is supposed that what is injurious to men is provoking to God, the patron of right and the protector of mankind. It is not strange if those that violate the bonds of justice break through the obligations of all religion, bid defiance even to God himself, and make nothing of provoking him. 2. How he describes their prosperity. It is very great; for, (1.) Even their tabernacles prosper, those that live with them and those that come after them and descend from them. It seems as if a blessing were entailed upon their families; and that is sometimes preserved to succeeding generations which was got by fraud. (2.) They are secure, and not only feel no hurt, but fear none, are under no apprehensions of danger either from threatening providences or an awakened conscience. But those that provoke God are never the more safe for their being secure. (3.) Into their hand God brings abundantly. They have more than heart could wish (Ps. lxxiii. 7), not for necessity only, but for delight–not for themselves only, but for others–not for the present only, but for hereafter; and this from the hand of Providence too. God brings plentifully to them. We cannot therefore judge of men’s piety by their plenty, nor of what they have in their heart by what they have in their hand.
II. He appeals even to the inferior creatures for the proof of this–the beasts, and fowls, and trees, and even the earth itself; consult these, and they shall tell thee, Job 12:7; Job 12:8. Many a good lesson we may learn from them, but what are they here to teach us?
1. We may from them learn that the tabernacles of robbers prosper (so some); for, (1.) Even among the brute creatures the greater devour the less and the stronger prey upon the weaker, and men are as the fishes of the sea, Hab. i. 14. If sin had not entered, we may suppose there would have been no such disorder among the creatures, but the wolf and the lamb would have lain down together. (2.) These creatures are serviceable to wicked men, and so they declare their prosperity. Ask the herds and the flocks to whom they belong, and they will tell you that such a robber, such an oppressor, is their owner: the fishes and fowls will tell you that they are served up to the tables, and feed the luxury, of proud sinners. The earth brings forth her fruits to them (ch. ix. 24), and the whole creation groans under the burden of their tyranny, Rom 8:20; Rom 8:22. Note, All the creatures which wicked men abuse, by making them the food and fuel of their lusts, will witness against them another day, Jas 5:3; Jas 5:4.
2. We may from them learn the wisdom, power, and goodness of God, and that sovereign dominion of his into which plain and self-evident truth all these difficult dispensations must be resolved. Zophar had made a vast mystery of it, ch. xi. 7. “So far from that,” says Job, “that what we are concerned to know we may learn even from the inferior creatures; for who knows not from all these? v. 9. Any one may easily gather from the book of the creatures that the hand of the Lord has wrought this,” that is, “that there is a wise Providence which guides and governs all these things by rules which we are neither acquainted with nor are competent judges of.” Note, From God’s sovereign dominion over the inferior creatures we should learn to acquiesce in all his disposals of the affairs of the children of men, though contrary to our measures.
III. He resolves all into the absolute propriety which God has in all the creatures (v. 10): In whose hand is the soul of every living thing. All the creatures, and mankind particularly, derive their being from him, owe their being to him, depend upon him for the support of it, lie at his mercy, are under his direction and dominion and entirely at his disposal, and at his summons must resign their lives. All souls are his; and may he not do what he will with his own? The name Jehovah is used here (v. 9), and it is the only time that we meet with it in all the discourses between Job and his friends; for God was, in that age, more known by the name of Shaddai–the Almighty.
IV. Those words– (v. 11), Doth not the ear try words, as the mouth tastes meat? may be taken either as the conclusion to the foregoing discourse or the preface to what follows. The mind of man has as good a faculty of discerning between truth and error, when duly stated, as the palate has of discerning between what is sweet and what is bitter. Job therefore demands from his friends a liberty to judge for himself of what they had said, and desires them to use the same liberty in judging of what he had said; nay, he seems to appeal to any man’s impartial judgment in this controversy; let the ear try the words on both sides, and it would be found that he was in the right. Note, The ear must try words before it receives them so as to subscribe to them. As by the taste we judge what food is wholesome to the body and what not, so by the spirit of discerning we must judge what doctrine is sound, and savoury, and wholesome, and what not, 1Co 10:15; 1Co 11:13.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
(6) Into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.Some understand these words, to him that bringeth his god in his hand (comp. Hab. 1:11; Hab. 1:16); but the other seems more in accordance with the usage. (Comp., e.g., Pro. 3:27, &c.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Tabernacles of robbers prosper Literally, Are at peace. Zophar had spoken of the security of the tabernacle where virtue dwelt; (Job 11:14-19😉 Job adduces other matters of fact vice has also its security.
In ancient Egypt robbing was regarded as a necessity of its civilization, and was treated as a profession. Those who followed the craft “gave in their names to the chief of the robbers, and agreed that he should be informed of every thing that they should thence forward steal, the moment it was in their possession. In consequence of this the owner of the lost goods always applied by letter to the chief for their recovery.” WILKINSON’S Anc. Egyptians, Pop. Acct., 2:216. Into whose hand God bringeth Now generally rendered, he who brings God in his hand, (Ewald, etc.,) that is, who either deifies his hand, or, as some say, that which is taken into the hand. Thus Mezentius says, “Dextra mihi Deus My right hand is God.” AEneid, 10:773. Habakkuk speaks in like manner of the Chaldaean:
Literally, This its strength is its God. Job 1:11.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 12:6. Into whose hand God bringeth abundantly Those who provoke God, enjoy in security whatever God pleases to bestow upon them.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 12:6 The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth [abundantly].
Ver. 6. The tabernacles of robbers prosper ] By robbers here understand all such as sin against the second table, but especially oppressors and wrong dealers, whether by force or fraud. As by those that provoke God ( qui res Dei interturbant, so the Tigurines translate), that irritate and disquiet him, attempting to put him out of temper, are meant sinners against the first table. See the like 1Ti 1:13 : I was against God a blasphemer, against man a persecutor, against both injurious; but I obtained mercy, special mercy. So do not these robbers and God-provokers in the text: thrive they may, and be in a peaceable condition; yea, they may be secure and confident of the continuance of their prosperity. Confidences are to them, saith the Hebrew, verity; for they trust in uncertain riches, while God bringeth into their hands, viz. whatsoever they wish, yet not as love tokens, but as wrath tokens; these fatting beasts are but fitting for the slaughter. God oft giveth in wrath to some which he withholdeth from others in great mercy. Meanwhile Zophar’s twofold assertion in the former chapter, Job 12:17 ; Job 12:20 , that good men prosper here, and bad men suffer, falls to the ground, while Job disproves it, 1. By experience in this verse and the former. 2. By the testimony of the creatures, those catholic preachers, Job 12:7-25 . By the testimony of the senses, and of ancient men, Job 12:11-12 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
GOD Hebrew El. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
tabernacles: Job 9:24, Job 21:7-15, Psa 17:14, Psa 37:1, Psa 37:35, Psa 73:11, Psa 73:12, Jer 5:27
Reciprocal: Job 5:5 – the robber Job 15:5 – uttereth Job 15:13 – and lettest Job 15:34 – the tabernacles Job 22:18 – he filled Job 24:5 – the wilderness Job 34:36 – his answers Psa 92:7 – workers Jer 5:28 – yet Jer 12:1 – Wherefore doth Dan 8:12 – and it practiced Mal 3:15 – yea Luk 12:16 – The ground Rom 8:20 – the creature
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 12:6. The tabernacles of robbers prosper Jobs friends had all supposed that wicked men cannot prosper long in the world. This Job opposes, and maintains that God herein acts as sovereign, and reserves that exact distribution of rewards and punishments for the other world. As if he had said, Thy opinion, O Zophar, (see Job 11:14, &c.,) is confuted by daily experience; which shows that very wicked, injurious, and impudent oppressors, tyrants, and robbers, are so far from always meeting with those disappointments and miseries of which thou spakest as being their certain portion, that they frequently succeed in their iniquitous and daring enterprises, flourish in wealth and glory, and fill their houses with the goods of others, which they violently took away; of which the Chaldeans and Sabeans (Job 1:15; Job 1:17) are a present and striking evidence. And they that provoke God are secure They, whose common practice it is to despise and provoke God, are confident and safe, apparently living without danger or fear. Into whose hands God bringeth abundantly So far is God from crushing such persons, that he seems to favour them with wonderful success; by his providence, puts into their hands the opportunities which they seek, of enriching themselves by injustice and oppression, and the persons and goods of other more righteous men, for which they lie in wait.