Job 12:14 - Clarke's commentary and critical notes on the Bible

Bible Comments

Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening. He breaketh down - He alone can create, and he alone can destroy. Nothing can be annihilated but by the same Power that created it. This is a most remarkable fact. No power, skill, or cunning of man can annihilate the smallest particle of matter. Man, by chemical agency, may change its form; but to reduce it to nothing belongs to God alone. In the course of his providence God breaks down, so that it cannot be built up again. See proofs of this in the total political destruction of Nineveh, Babylon, Persepolis, Tyre, and other cities, which have broken down never to be rebuilt; as well as the Assyrian, Babylonian, Grecian, and Roman empires, which have been dismembered and almost annihilated, never more to be regenerated.

He shutteth up a man - He often frustrates the best laid purposes, so that they can never be brought to good effect.

Job 12:14

14 Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth upd a man, and there can be no opening.