New King James Version
Job 12:15
15If He withholds the waters, they dry up; If He sends them out, they overwhelm the earth.
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 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 Him are wisdom and strength, He has counsel and understanding. 14If He breaks a thing down, it cannot be rebuilt; If He imprisons a man, there can be no release. If He withholds the waters, they dry up; If He sends them out, they overwhelm the earth. 16With Him are strength and prudence. The deceived and the deceiver are His. 17He leads counselors away plundered, And makes fools of the 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 whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind?
- Genesis 8:1Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.
- 1 Kings 8:35“When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them,
- 1 Kings 17:1And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.”
- Jeremiah 14:22Are there any among the idols of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are You not He, O Lord our God? Therefore we will wait for You, Since You have made all these.
- Nahum 1:4He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, And dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither, And the flower of Lebanon wilts.
- Luke 4:25But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land;
- James 5:17Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
- Revelation 11:6These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.
- Genesis 6:13And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
- Genesis 7:11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
- Psalms 104:7At Your rebuke they fled; At the voice of Your thunder they hastened away.
- Amos 5:8He made the Pleiades and Orion; He turns the shadow of death into morning And makes the day dark as night; He calls for the waters of the sea And pours them out on the face 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
New King James Version — © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc
Commentaries