New International Version
Job 12:15
15If he holds back the waters, there is drought; if he lets them loose, they devastate 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.
- 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.
- 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“To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his. 14What he tears down cannot be rebuilt; those he imprisons cannot be released. If he holds back the waters, there is drought; if he lets them loose, they devastate the land. 16To him belong strength and insight; both deceived and deceiver are his. 17He leads rulers away stripped and makes fools of judges.
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 creature and the breath of all mankind.
- Genesis 8:1But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.
- 1 Kings 8:35“When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and give praise to your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them,
- 1 Kings 17:1Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”
- Jeremiah 14:22Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, Lord our God. Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this.
- Nahum 1:4He rebukes the sea and dries it up; he makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither and the blossoms of Lebanon fade.
- Luke 4:25I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.
- James 5:17Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
- Revelation 11:6They have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.
- Genesis 6:13So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.
- Genesis 7:11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
- Psalms 104:7But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
- Amos 5:8He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns midnight into dawn and darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land— 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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