Job 12:18

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹² With aged men is wisdom, In length of days understanding. ¹³ "With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding. ¹⁴ Behold, he breaks down, and it can't be built again; He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. ¹⁵ Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up; Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth. ¹⁶ With him is strength and wisdom; The deceived and the deceiver are his. ¹⁷ He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools. ¹⁸ He loosens the bond of kings, He binds their loins with a belt. ¹⁹ He leads priests away stripped, And overthrows the mighty. ²⁰ He removes the speech of those who are trusted, And takes away the understanding of the elders. ²¹ He pours contempt on princes, And loosens the belt of the strong.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

2 Chronicles 33:11-14, Jeremiah 52:31-34, Daniel 2:21, Revelation 19:16

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 20:32 - Thy servant Job 30:11 - loosed Isaiah 5:27 - neither Isaiah 45:5 - I girded thee Daniel 4:32 - until

Cross-References

Genesis 3:13
Yahweh God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

Genesis 4:10
Yahweh said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground.

Genesis 12:9
Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.

Genesis 12:10
There was a famine in the land. Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was sore in the land.

Genesis 12:11
It happened, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, "See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman to look on.

Genesis 31:26
Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword?

Genesis 44:15
Joseph said to them, "What deed is this that you have done? Don't you know that such a man as I can indeed divine?"

Exodus 32:21
Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people to you, that you have brought a great sin on them?"

Joshua 7:19
Joshua said to Achan, My son, please give glory to Yahweh, the God of Israel, and make confession to him; and tell me now what you have done; don't hide it from me.

1 Samuel 14:43
Then Saul said to Jonathan, Tell me what you have done. Jonathan told him, and said, I did certainly taste a little honey with the end of the rod that was in my hand; and, behold, I must die.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

He looseth the bonds of kings,.... Not with which they themselves may be bound, being taken prisoners, or being so before made kings, and brought from thence to reign, as in Ecclesiastes 4:14; but that which they bind on their subjects, a yoke of bondage, tyranny, and oppression; so that to loose their bond is to loose their subjects from it, and free them from their arbitrary and despotic power, and from the burdens they lay upon them: unless rather it should be understood of loosing their waistbands, as an emblem of their government, ungirding them, or unkinging them, stripping them of their royal power and authority, called a "loosing of their loins", Isaiah 45:1; and this power God has over such great personages, as to set up kings, and remove them at his pleasure, Daniel 2:21; which shows that strength and power, as well as wisdom, are with him; this may respect Chedorlaomer casting off the yoke of Nimrod, and the kings of Canaan casting off the yoke of Chedorlaomer, and being loosed from it, Genesis 14:1;

and girdeth their loins with a girdle; not with a royal waistband, as an ensign of government; see Isaiah 11:5; which he looses, and strips them of, but another instead of that; he girds them with the girdle of a servant or traveller; the allusion being to the custom in those eastern countries, where they wore long garments, for servants to gird them up, when they waited on their masters, or when men went long journeys, see Luke 17:7; and so may signify that kings sometimes become servants, or go into captivity, and there be used as such, as they sometimes are; the Vulgate Latin version is, "he girds their reins with a rope".

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He looseth the bond of kings - The bond of kings (מוּסר mûsâr) here means that by which they bind others. Their power over others he loosens or takes away.

And girdeth their loins with a girdle - That is, he girds them with a rope or cord, and leads them away as prisoners. The whole series of remarks here refers to the reverses and changes in the conditions of life. The meaning here is, that the bonds of authority which they imposed on others are unbound, and that their own loins are bound with a girdle, not a girdle of royal dignity and ornament, but such a one as they are bound with who are servants, or who travel. “Pict. Bib.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 12:18. He looseth the bond of kings — He takes away their splendid robes, and clothes them with sackcloth; or, he dissolves their authority, permits their subjects to rebel and overthrow the state, to bind them as captives, and despoil them of all power, authority, and liberty. Many proofs of this occur in the Israelitish history and in the history of the principal nations of the earth, and not a few in the history of Britain.