Job 12:10 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

In whose hand is the soul That is, the life, or the principle of life; of every living thing That is, of all irrational animals, of which he spake, Job 12:7, opposed to man in the last words of this verse. He means, in whose absolute power it is to give life or to take it away, when and how it seemeth good to him; and the breath of all mankind Or, the spirit, as the word רוח, ruach, here used, commonly means; that is, the immortal soul, which is no less a creature, and in God's power to dispose of it, than the animal soul or life of brutes.