Job 12:6

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

tabernacles: Job 9:24, Job 21:7-15, Psalms 17:14, Psalms 37:1, Psalms 37:35, Psalms 73:11, Psalms 73:12, Jeremiah 5:27

Reciprocal: Job 5:5 - the robber Job 15:5 - uttereth Job 15:13 - and lettest Job 15:34 - the tabernacles Job 22:18 - he filled Job 24:5 - the wilderness Job 34:36 - his answers Psalms 92:7 - workers Jeremiah 5:28 - yet Jeremiah 12:1 - Wherefore doth Daniel 8:12 - and it practiced Malachi 3:15 - yea Luke 12:16 - The ground Romans 8:20 - the creature

Cross-References

Genesis 10:15
Canaan became the father of Sidon (his firstborn), Heth,

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 12:19
Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her to be my wife? Now therefore, see your wife, take her, and go your way."

Genesis 13:7
There was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite lived then in the land.

Genesis 33:18
Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram; and encamped before the city.

Genesis 34:2
Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her.

Genesis 35:4
They gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

Deuteronomy 11:30
Aren't they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah, over against Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?

Joshua 20:7
They set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill-country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron) in the hill-country of Judah.

Joshua 24:32
The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money: and they became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The tabernacles of robbers prosper,.... Such as the Chaldeans and Sabeans, who had robbed Job of his substance, and filled their houses with the spoils of others, and lived in the greatest fulness and prosperity, and whom he might have in his view; and the like is what has been since observed by good men, and has been a trial and temptation to them, not knowing well how to reconcile this to the justice and wisdom of God in providence, yet so it is, a fact that cannot be denied, see Psalms 73:2;

and they that provoke God are secure; all sin is abominable to God, contrary to his nature, will, and law, and so provoking; yet there are some sins that are more provoking than others, as idolatry, blasphemy, murder, theft, robbery, rapine, and oppression, and the like, as well as attended with more aggravating circumstances; and yet many who are guilty of such enormous crimes, and God provoking iniquities, are "secure", live in the greatest tranquillity and safety, free from the incursions, invasions, and insults of others: "their houses", as Job elsewhere says, "are safe from fear", Job 21:9;

into whose hand God bringeth [abundantly]; an abundance of the good things of this world, who have as much or more than heart can wish; whose belly is filled with hid treasure, whose grounds and fields bring forth plentifully, that they have no room to bestow their fruits; this, as it is an aggravation of their sin in provoking the God of their mercies, who is so liberal and bountiful to them, so it is the more full and express for the point in hand Job is confuting. Some, as Aben Ezra and Ben Gersom, understand this of idol makers and idol worshippers, and render the words, "who makes a god with his hand", or "carries a god in his hand" l, and worships it; which others interpret of his doing what he will with God, having him, as it were, in his hand, or reckoning his hands his god, and thinks to do what he pleases m.

l הביא אלוה בידו "quique deum portant [vel] portat in manu sua", Tigurine version, Munster; so Bolducius, De Dieu, Schultens. m Schmidt, &c.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The tabernacles of robbers prosper - The tents or dwellings of robbers are safe and secure. This is Job’s original proposition, to which he all along adheres. It is, that God does not deal with people in this life according to their character; and in support of this he now appeals to the fact that the tents or dwellings of robbers are safe. Arabia would furnish many illustrations of this, which could not be unknown to the friends of Job. The Arabs dwelt in tents, and they were then, as now, wandering, predatory tribes. They lived, to a great extent, by plunder, and doubtless Job could appeal to the observation of his friends for the proof of this. He affirms that so far from dealing with people according to their character, God often seemed to protect the public robber, and the blasphemer of his name.

Prosper - They are secure, tranquil, at rest - for so the Hebrew word means. They are not disturbed and broken in upon.

And they that provoke God - Or rather, “the tents are secure to those who provoke God.” Dr. Good renders it, “and are fortresses to those who provoke God;” but the true idea is, that the tents of those who provoke God by their conduct are safe. God does not seem to notice them, or to come out in judgment against them.

Into whose hand God bringeth abundantly - Dr. Noyes renders this, “who carry their God in their hand;” but with much less accuracy, as it seems to me, than commonly characterizes his version. Eichhorn renders it in a sense somewhat similar:

Die ihre Faust fur ihre Gottheit achten -

“Who regard their fist as their God.”

And so Stuhlman renders it:

Und wem die Faust fur Gottheit gilt -

“And to whom the fist avails for their God;”

That is, says he, Job means that this is the course of the world. Dr. Good renders it, “of him who hath created all these things with his hand” - still less accurately. In order to this, he is obliged to suppose an error in the text, but without the slightest authority. Jerome renders it as in our version. The Septuagint, “who provoke the Lord as if there would be no trial to them - ἔτασις αὐτῶν etasis autōn - here-after;” which certainly makes sense, but it was never obtained from the Hebrew. Rosenmuller renders it, “who have their own hand, that is, power for God;” a description, says he, of a wicked and violent man who thinks it right for him to do as he pleases. It seems to me, however, that the common interpretation, which is the most simple, is most in accordance with the Hebrew, and with the drift of the passage. According to this it means, that there is security to the man who lives to provoke that God who is constantly bringing to him in abundance the tokens of kindness. This is the fact on which Job is insisting - that God does not treat people in this world according to their real character, but that the wicked are prospered and the righteous are afflicted.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 12:6. The tabernacles of robbers prosper. — Those who live by the plunder of their neighbours are often found in great secular prosperity; and they that provoke God by impiety and blasphemy live in a state of security and affluence. These are administrations of Providence which cannot be accounted for; yet the Judge of all the earth does right. Therefore prosperity and adversity are no evidences of a man's spiritual state, nor of the place he holds in the approbation or disapprobation of God.