Job 12:14
in Job 12What He tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man He imprisons cannot be released.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again; He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.
KJV
Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.
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This verse in Job 12
Commentary
8 notes on this verseIf He break down, there is none that can build again: if He shut up a man, there is none that can open. Almighty God 'breaks down' the heart of man, when He forsakes it; He 'builds it up,' when He fills it. For He does not destroy man's soul by consummation of war, but by withdrawing Himself from it; in that when it is left to itself, it wants nothing to its own ruin.
This site's exposition
What He tears down cannot be rebuilt
on Job 12:14-16
"What He tears down cannot be rebuilt" opens a survey of providence at work by unmaking what stands. Verse 15 pairs drought and flood as two faces of one governing hand. At verse 16, "The deceived and the deceiver are His" extends God's rule over deception itself.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
For since experience proceeds from sensible things, which although prior as to our way of being, are yet simply and in their nature posterior, he therefore begins to show how men can know divine power by experience. He does this first in human affairs themselves. …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these? 4 I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn. 5 He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
): He breaketh down, and it cannot be built again. Note, There is no contending with the divine providence, nor breaking the measures of it. As he had said before ( ch. ix.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation
Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
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.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Behold, he breaketh down - None can repair what he pulls down. Cities and towns he can devote to ruin by fire, or earthquake, or the pestilence, and so completely destroy them that they can never be rebuilt. We may now refer to such illustrations as Sodom, Babylon, Petra, Tyre, Herculaneum, and Pompeii, as full proof of what is here affirmed. He shutteth up a man - He can shut up a man in such difficulties and straits that he cannot extricate himself; see Job 11:10. The Chaldee renders this, “he shuts up a man in the grave (בקבורתא) and it cannot be opened.” But the more correct idea is, that God has complete control over a man, and that he can so hedge up his way that he cannot help himself.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֵ֣ן | hen | there! | H2005 → | 316 times |
| יַ֭הֲרוֹס | yaharos | he tears down | H2040 → | |
| וְלֹ֣א | velo' | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יִבָּנֶ֑ה | yibaneh | it will be rebuilt | H1129 → | 376 times |
| יִסְגֹּ֥ר | yisgor | he shuts | H5462 → | 91 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| אִ֝֗ישׁ | ʾish | a person | H376 → | 1663 times |
| וְלֹ֣א | velo' | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יִפָּתֵֽחַ׃ | yipateach | it will be opened | H6605 → | 144 times |
הֵ֣ןthere!
henH2005 →316 times
יַ֭הֲרוֹסhe tears down
yaharosH2040 →
וְלֹ֣אand not
velo'H3808 →5168 times
יִבָּנֶ֑הit will be rebuilt
yibanehH1129 →376 times
יִסְגֹּ֥רhe shuts
yisgorH5462 →91 times
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
אִ֝֗ישׁa person
ʾishH376 →1663 times
וְלֹ֣אand not
velo'H3808 →5168 times
יִפָּתֵֽחַ׃it will be opened
yipateachH6605 →144 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 22:22I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.
it leads to
- Revelation 3:7
To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut,…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Matthew 16:18–19
And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
- Matthew 18:18–19
Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
- Revelation 3:7
Through
Revelation 3:7To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut,…
it leads to
- Isaiah 22:22
I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.
- Revelation 1:18
the Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Matthew 16:19
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
- John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
- Mark 1:24
“What do You want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
- Isaiah 22:22
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XI; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.