Job 12:10

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

⁶ The tents of robbers prosper, Those who provoke God are secure; Who carry their God in their hands. ⁷ "But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; The birds of the sky, and they shall tell you. ⁸ Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you; The fish of the sea shall declare to you. ⁹ Who doesn't know that in all these, The hand of Yahweh has done this, ¹⁰ In whose hand is the life of every living thing, The breath of all mankind? ¹¹ Doesn't the ear try words, Even as the palate tastes its food?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

whose hand: Numbers 16:22, Daniel 5:23, Acts 17:25, Acts 17:28

soul: or, life

the breath: Job 27:3, Job 34:14, Job 34:15, Genesis 2:7, Genesis 6:17, Psalms 104:29, Psalms 146:3, Psalms 146:4

mankind: Heb. flesh of man, John 3:6

Reciprocal: Numbers 26:51 - General Numbers 27:16 - the Lord 1 Kings 17:17 - that there was Job 12:15 - Behold Job 14:5 - his days Job 21:16 - Lo Psalms 90:3 - Thou Isaiah 42:5 - he that giveth Hebrews 12:9 - the Father

Cross-References

Genesis 12:1
Now Yahweh said to Abram, "Get out of your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.

Genesis 12:2
I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you, and make your name great. You will be a blessing.

Genesis 12:3
I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. In you will all of the families of the earth be blessed."

Genesis 12:4
So Abram went, as Yahweh had spoken to him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran.

Genesis 12:8
He left from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh, and called on the name of Yahweh.

Genesis 12:18
Pharaoh called Abram, and said, "What is this that you have done to me? Why didn't you tell me that she was your wife?

Genesis 42:5
The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

Genesis 43:1
The famine was severe in the land.

Genesis 47:13
There was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.

Ruth 1:1
It happened in the days when the judges judged, that there was a famine in the land. A certain man of Bethlehem-judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

In whose hand [is] the soul of every living thing,.... Of every animal, of every brute creature, as distinct from man, in the next clause: the life of everyone of them is from him, and it is continued by him as long as he pleases, nor can it be taken away without his leave; two sparrows, which are not worth more than a farthing, not one of them falls to the ground, or dies without the knowledge and will of God, Matthew 10:29; of the soul or spirit of beasts, see Ecclesiastes 3:21;

and the breath of all mankind; the breath of man is originally from God, he at first breathed into man the breath of life; and though this is in his nostrils, which makes him of little account, yet it would not continue there long, was it not in the hand, and under the care and providence of God; the breath of a king, as well as the heart of a king, is in the hand of the Lord: the breath of that great monarch Belshazzar, king of Babylon, was in the hand of God, Daniel 5:23; and so is the breath of every peasant; and as when he takes away the breath of other creatures, they die and return to the dust; such is the case of man when God takes away his breath; all our times are in his hand, to be born, to live and die, all is at his dispose: or "the spirit of all the flesh of men" p, or of all men's flesh; his rational soul, as distinguished from his flesh or body, this is from God, supported in its being by him, and ever will be, being immortal, and will never die.

p רוח כל בשר איש "spiritus omnis carnis viri?" Pagninus, Montanus, Schmidt, Schultens, Michaelis.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In whose hand is the soul of every living thing - Margin, “Life.” The margin is the more correct rendering. The idea is, that all are under the control of God. He gives life, and health, and happiness when he pleases, and when he chooses he takes them away. His sovereignty is manifested, says Job, in the inferior creation, or among the beasts of the field, the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of heaven.

And the breath of all mankind - Margin, “Flesh of man.” The margin is in accordance with the Hebrew. The meaning is, that man is subjected to the same laws as the rest of the creation. God is a sovereign, and the same great principles of administration may be seen in all his works.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 12:10. In whose hand is the soul of every living thing — נפש כל חי nephesh col chai, "the soul of all life."

And the breath of all mankind. — ורוח כל בשר veruach col besar, "and the spirit or breath of all flesh." Does not the first refer to the immortal soul, the principle of all intellectual life; and the latter to the breath, respiration, the grand means by which animal existence is continued? See Job 10:1.