Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 12:15
Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up: also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.
15. withholdeth the waters ] In droughts. The second half of the verse refers to floods and cataclysms.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He withholdeth the waters – From the clouds and springs. He has control over the rains and the fountains; and when these are withheld, rivers and lakes become dry. The Syriac renders this, – if he rebuke the waters, supposing that there might perhaps be an allusion to the drying up of the Red Sea, or the formation of a passage for the Israelites. But it is remarkable that in the argument here there is no allusion to any historical fact, not to the flood, or to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, or to the passage through the Red Sea, though these occurrences would have furnished so appropriate illustrations of the points under discussion. Is it to be inferred that Job had never heard of any of those events? Or may it have been that the lessons which they were adapted to teach had been actually embodied in the proverbs which he was using, and furnished well-known illustrations or the basis of such apothegms?
He sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth – Such inundations may have occurred in the swollen torrents of Arabia, and indeed are so common everywhere as to furnish a striking illustration of the power and sovereign agency of God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. He withholdeth the waters] This is, I think, an allusion to the third day’s work of the creation, Ge 1:9: And God said, Let the waters be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear. Thus the earth was drained, and the waters collected into seas, and bound to their particular places.
Also he sendeth them out] Here is also an allusion to the flood, for when he broke up the fountains of the great deep, then the earth was overturned.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He withholdeth the waters; which are reserved in the clouds, that they may not fall upon the earth.
They dry up, i.e. the waters upon the earth, ponds, and springs, and brooks, and rivers.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. Probably alluding to theflood.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up,…. Or “lays a restraint in” or “on the waters” s; either in the ocean, as he did at the creation, when he gathered the waters that were upon the face of the earth into one place, and restrained them there, even in the decreed place he broke up for them, called the sea, and set bars and doors to keep them within bounds, whereby the places they left became dry and the dry land appeared called earth; and so at the time of the flood, when the waters which covered the earth and drowned the world were called off again, the face of it was dry, and so it remains, the waters of the great ocean being restrained from overflowing it; and also when God rebukes the see, and smites the waves of it, or withholds the ebbing and flowing of the tides brooks and rivers of water dry up; see Na 1:4; or else this may be understood of God’s withholding and restraining the waters in the clouds, and not suffering them to let down rain on the earth; when not only brooks dry up, as the brook Cherith did, where Elijah abode for sometime, but the fruits of the earth, trees, plants, and herbs dry up, wither and die; see
1Ki 17:7; and this is an emblem in a spiritual sense of God’s withholding the word and ordinances, the waters of the sanctuary the means of grace, and of fruitfulness; which when he does, the consequence of it is barrenness and unfruitfulness in kingdoms, cities, towns, families, sad particular persons; and of his withholding the communications of his grace, often compared to water in Scripture, even from his people; the effect of which is, that they are in, withering circumstances, the things that revive seem ready to die, though they shall not; love waxes cold, faith is ready to fail, and hope and strength seem perishing from the Lord:
also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth; as at the time of the flood, when the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and such vast quantities of water issued out as overflowed the whole world, by which it was overturned; and as the Apostle Peter says, “perished”, 2Pe 3:5; though this is also true of inundations that may have been since, which though not universal as that, yet so far as they have reached have overturned all in their way, and carried off the fruits of the earth, the habitations of men, and men themselves; whole countries, cities and towns, have been carried away by the waters of the sea, or sunk into it, particularly all that space. Where now is the Atlantic sea, as Pliny t, from Plato, relates. It is well when the grace of God flows, and overflows, and superabounds abounding sin, and overpowers and overcomes carnal, earthly, and sensual lusts, and reigns where sin did, and teaches to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to mortify the members on the earth.
s “detinebit in aquis”, Montanus, Bolducius; “si contineat, vel cohibeat, q. d. imperium exerceat in aquas”, Michaelis. t Nat. Hist. l. 2. c. 90, 92.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15. Is thought by some to refer to the deluge. Compare Psa 104:29-30.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 12:15. He withholdeth the waters This seems to refer to the universal deluge; as the latter part of the next verse probably alludes to the fall.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 12:15 Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up: also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.
Ver. 15. Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up ] He not only, when he pleaseth, imprisoneth men, but waters also, that they cannot get out of the clouds, those bottles of rain, those airy sponges, vessels as thin as the liquor that is contained in them; it is from the power of God that they dissolve not upon us at once, and overwhelm us. Bartholinus reports that in the year of grace 1551 a great number of men and cattle were drowned by the sudden breaking of a cloud; various vineyards, stone walls, strong houses, were destroyed and ruined. At sea, sometimes, ships are by the same means sunk; seamen call it a water spout. Again, it is by the anger and judgments of God that the clouds are sometimes so closed up, that they yield no more water than iron or adamant. “If I shut up heaven,” saith he, “that there be no rain,” 2Ch 7:13 Deu 28:23-24 . God threateneth, as a punishment of men’s sins, that the heavens over their heads shall be brass, and the earth under them shall be iron; that the rain of their land shall be made powder and dust; from heaven shall it come down upon them, &c., by exceeding great drought, grains of dust shall ascend into the air with the wind, and come down as the drops of rain in a shower when it is kindly weather. Thus it was in Ahab’s days, 1Ki 18:1 ; See Trapp on “ Joe 1:20 “
And they dry up
Also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Behold: Job 12:10, Gen 8:1, Gen 8:2, 1Ki 8:35, 1Ki 8:36, 1Ki 17:1, Jer 14:22, Nah 1:4, Luk 4:25, Jam 5:17, Jam 5:18, Rev 11:6
he sendeth: Gen 6:13, Gen 6:17, Gen 7:11, Gen 7:23, Psa 104:7-9, Amo 5:8
Reciprocal: Gen 7:19 – and all the high hills 2Pe 3:6 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 12:15. He withholdeth the waters Which are reserved in the clouds, that they may not fall upon the earth; and they dry up Namely, the waters upon the earth, springs, brooks, and rivers dry up, as after the general deluge, to which here is a manifest allusion.