Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.
Shutteth up. "He shall open, and none shall shut; and He shall shut, and none shall open" (Isaiah 22:22). Job refers to Zophar's "shut up" (Job 11:10). The image is from the pits often used as prisons (Jeremiah 37:1-21; Jeremiah 38:6): the mouth was shut over the prisoner. Job's calamity is like such a pit-prison, in which he is shut without any hope of opening.