New English Translation
Job 12:15
15If he holds back the waters, then they dry up; if he releases them, they destroy 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.
- English Standard Version (ESV)If he withholds the waters, they dry up; if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.
- New King James Version (NKJV)If He withholds the waters, they dry up; If He sends them out, they overwhelm the earth.
Context of Job 12:15
13“With God are wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his. 14If he tears down, it cannot be rebuilt; if he imprisons a person, there is no escape. If he holds back the waters, then they dry up; if he releases them, they destroy the land. 16With him are strength and prudence; both the one who goes astray and the one who misleads are his. 17He leads counselors away stripped and makes judges into 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 whose hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all the human race.
- Genesis 8:1But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and domestic animals that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to blow over the earth and the waters receded.
- 1 Kings 8:35“The time will come when the skies are shut up tightly and no rain falls because your people sinned against you. When they direct their prayers toward this place, renew their allegiance to you, and turn away from their sin because you punish them,
- 1 Kings 17:1Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As certainly as the Lord God of Israel lives (whom I serve), there will be no dew or rain in the years ahead unless I give the command.”
- Jeremiah 14:22Do any of the worthless idols of the nations cause rain to fall? Do the skies themselves send showers? Is it not you, O Lord our God, who does this? So we put our hopes in you because you alone do all this.”
- Nahum 1:4He shouts a battle cry against the seaand makes it dry up; he makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither; the blossom of Lebanon withers.
- Luke 4:25But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days, when the sky was shut up three and a half years, and there was a great famine over all the land.
- James 5:17Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months!
- Revelation 11:6These two have the power to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the time they are prophesying. They have power to turn the waters to blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague whenever they want.
- Genesis 6:13So God said to Noah, “I have decided that all living creatures must die, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I am about to destroy them and 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 open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
- Psalms 104:7Your shout made the waters retreat; at the sound of your thunderous voice they hurried off –
- Amos 5:8(But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth’s surface. 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
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Commentaries