Job 11:10

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

⁷ "Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty? ⁸ They are high as heaven. What can you do? Deeper than Sheol: what can you know? ⁹ The measure of it is longer than the earth, And broader than the sea. ¹⁰ If he passes by, or confines, Or convenes a court, then who can oppose him? ¹¹ For he knows false men. He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn't consider it. ¹² But vain man can become wise If a man can be born as a wild donkey's colt.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

If he cut off: or, If he make a change, Job 5:18, Job 9:4, Job 9:12, Job 9:13, Job 12:14, Job 34:29, Isaiah 41:27, Daniel 4:35

shut up: Job 38:8, Deuteronomy 32:30, Psalms 31:8, Revelation 3:7

hinder him: Heb. turn him away

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 9:2 - Who can stand 2 Chronicles 7:13 - If I shut up heaven Job 23:13 - who can Psalms 88:5 - cut Psalms 95:4 - In Ecclesiastes 7:13 - who

Cross-References

Genesis 11:17
Eber lived after he became the father of Peleg four hundred thirty years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:21
Reu lived after he became the father of Serug two hundred seven years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:22
Serug lived thirty years, and became the father of Nahor.

Genesis 11:27
Now this is the history of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If he cut off,.... The horns, power, dominion, and authority of the wicked; or the spirits of princes, or kingdoms and states, whole nations, as he did the seven nations of Canaan; or families, as Job's, his servants, and his children; or particular persons, by diseases, or by judgments, by famine, sword, and pestilence; there is none can hinder him; he will do what he pleases: or, as others render it, "if he changes" l; if he makes revolutions in governments, changes in families, and in the estates of men, as in Job's; or changes men's countenances by death, and sends them out of time into eternity, there is no opposing him: or, "if he passes through" m, as the word is sometimes used; see Isaiah 8:8; if he comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth, and goes through a kingdom and nation, making or suffering to be made devastations everywhere, as he went through the land of Egypt and smote all the firstborn in it, there is no stopping him: or, "if he passes on" n, or "from" hence, or goes away; see 1 Samuel 11:3; or departs from a people or particular person, even his own people, and hides his face from them, and is long, at least as they think, before he returns; who can behold him, or find him out, or cause him to show himself? see Job 23:3; or, "if he subverts" o and overturns things, or should reduce the world and all things in it to a chaos, as at the deluge, or as he overturned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, or should set on fire the whole course of nature, and burn up the whole world and all in it, and reduce it to ashes, as he will; there is none can stay his hand, and obstruct him in his designs and measures:

and shut up; should he do so; shut up in a civil sense, either in a prison, as Gersom, or in the hands of an enemy, by giving them unto them, to be enclosed and straitened by them, there is none can deliver;

Psalms 31:8; or to shut them up as he did Noah in the ark, by protecting them by his power and providence, and so appear to be on their side, and for them; who then can be against them? or what does it signify if any are, if the Lord shuts them up and keeps them close? or in a spiritual sense, if he concludes men in sin, and shuts them up in unbelief, and under the law; who but himself can set them free? or, if good men are shut up in their frames, and straitened in their souls, that they cannot come forth in the lively exercise of grace, and free discharge of duty; there is no opening for them till he pleases,

Psalms 88:8;

or gather together, then who can hinder him? either gathers them into one place, in a civil sense; or in a gracious manner, with great mercies and everlasting kindness to himself, to have communion with him; to his son, to participate of the blessings of his grace, and to his church and people, to enjoy all spiritual privileges with them; or, gathers men at and by death; see Job 34:14; and as he will gather them at the last day, even all nations, before him, the tares, and burn them and his wheat, and put them into his garner; and when he does any and every of these things, who can hinder him or turn him back from doing what he pleases: Job says much the same in Job 9:12; the Targum is,

"if he passes through and shuts up the heavens with clouds, and gathers armies, who can turn him back?''

l אם יחלוף "si permutet proprie", Mercerus, Heb. "si mutabit locum", Piscator. m "Si transmeabit", Junius Tremellius, Piscator "si pervadat", Cocceius; "si transiverit", Michaelis. n "Si abierit", Schmidt. o "Si subverterit omnia", V. L.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If he cut off - Margin, “Make a change.” But neither of these phrases properly expresses the sense of the original. The whole image here is probably that of arresting a criminal and bringing him to trial, and the language is taken from the mode of conducting a prosecution. The word rendered “cut off” - יחלף yachâlop, from חלף châlaph - means properly to pass along; to pass on; then to pass against anyone, to rush on, to assail; and in a remote sense in the Piel and the Hiphil, to cause to pass on or away, that is, to change. This is the sense expressed in the margin. The idea is not that of cutting off, but is that of making a rush upon a man, for the purpose of arresting him and bringing him to trial. There are frequent references to such trials in the book of Job. The Chaldee renders this, “if he pass on and shut up the heavens with clouds” - but the paraphrasist evidently did not understand the passage.

And shut up - That is, imprison or detain with a view to trial. Some such detention is always practiced of necessity before trial.

Or gather together - Gather together the parties for trial; or rather call the individual into court for trial. The word קהל qâhal means properly to call together, to convoke, as a people; and is used to denote the custom of assembling the people for a trial - or, as we would say, to “call the court,” which is now the office of a crier.

Then who can hinder him? - Margin, “Who can turn him away?” He has all power, and no one can resist him. No one can deliver the criminal from his hands. Zophar here is in fact repeating in another form what Job had himself said (Job 9:3 ff), and the sentiment seems to be proverbial. The idea here is, that if God should call a man into judgment, and hold him guilty, he could neither answer nor resist him. God is so great; he so intimately knows the human heart; he has so thorough an acquaintance with all our past sins, that we cannot hope to answer him or escape. Zophar argues on this principle: “God holds you to be guilty. He is punishing you accordingly. You do not feel it so, or suppose that you deserve all this. But he sees your heart, and knows all your life. If he holds you to be guilty, it is so. You cannot answer him, and you should so regard it, and submit.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 11:10. If he cut off — As he is unlimited and almighty, he cannot be controlled. He will do whatsoever he pleases; and he is pleased with nothing but what is right. Who then will dare to find fault? Perhaps Zophar may refer to Job's former state, his losses and afflictions. If he cut off, as he has done, thy children; if he shut up, as he has done, thyself by this sore disease; or gather together hostile bands to invade thy territories and carry away thy property; who can hinder him? He is sovereign, and has a right to dispose of his own property as he pleases.