English Standard Version
Job 12:15
15If he withholds the waters, they dry up; if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.
Job 12:15 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up: also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.
- New International Version (NIV)If he holds back the waters, there is drought; if he lets them loose, they devastate the land.
- New King James Version (NKJV)If He withholds the waters, they dry up; If He sends them out, they overwhelm the earth.
- New Living Translation (NLT)If he holds back the rain, the earth becomes a desert. If he releases the waters, they flood the earth.
Context of Job 12:15
13"With God are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding. 14If he tears down, none can rebuild; if he shuts a man in, none can open. If he withholds the waters, they dry up; if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land. 16With him are strength and sound wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are his. 17He leads counselors away stripped, and judges he makes fools.
Read all of Job 12Job 12:15 word by word
הֵ֤ן יַעְצֹ֣ר בַּמַּ֣יִם וְיִבָ֑שׁוּ וִֽ֝ישַׁלְּחֵ֗ם וְיַ֖הַפְכוּ אָֽרֶץ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 12:15
- Job 12:10In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.
- Genesis 8:1But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.
- 1 Kings 8:35"When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them,
- 1 Kings 17:1Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word."
- Jeremiah 14:22Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not he, O Lord our God? We set our hope on you, for you do all these things.
- Nahum 1:4He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers.
- Luke 4:25But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land,
- James 5:17Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
- Revelation 11:6They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.
- Genesis 6:13And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
- Genesis 7:11In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
- Psalms 104:7At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
- Amos 5:8He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name;
Commentaries on Job 12:15
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 15He withholdeth the waters - This is, I think, an allusion to the third day's work of the creation, Genesis 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…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 15He 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…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 12-25Verses 12-25 This is a noble discourse of Job concerning the wisdom, power, and sovereignty of God, in ordering all the affairs of the children of men, according to the counsel of His own will, which none can resist. It were well if wise and good men, who differ about lesser things, would see how it is for their honour and comfort, and the good of others, to dwell most upon the great things in which they agree. Here are no complaints, or reflections. He…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1515. Probably alluding to the flood.Read the comment
Topics related to Job 12:15
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 12
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
English Standard Version — © 2001 Crossway Bibles
Commentaries