Job 12:15
in Job 12If He holds back the waters, they dry up, and if He releases them, they overwhelm the land.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up; Again, he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.
KJV
Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up: also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.
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This verse in Job 12
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
He withholdeth the waters - From the clouds and springs. He has control over the rains and the fountains; and when these are withheld, rivers and lakes become dry. The Syriac renders this, - “if he rebuke the waters,” supposing that there might perhaps be an allusion to the drying up of the Red Sea, or the formation of a passage for the Israelites.
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.
This site's exposition
If He holds back the waters, they dry up
Job shows the power of God in drought and flood. Matthew Henry reads both as judgments on the land, when the waters are held back and when they overwhelm. Clarke hears an echo of Genesis 1:9, when God gathered the waters and the dry land appeared.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Then he shows how men can experience divine power in natural things, especially in rains and droughts. So he says, "If he will withhold the rain," so that it does not fall, "everything will dry up," which grows on the earth. "If he will send …
If He withholdeth the waters, all things are dried up. If He sendeth them out, they will overturn the earth.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
The waters - Which are reserved its the clouds, that they may not fall upon the earth. They - The waters upon the earth, springs, and brooks, and rivers. As at the time of the general deluge, to which here is a manifest allusion.
Great droughts are sometimes great judgments: He withholds the waters, and they dry up; if the heaven be as brass, the earth is as iron; if the rain be denied, fountains dry up and their streams are wanted, fields are parched and their fruits are wanted, Amos iv. Great wet is sometimes a great judgment.
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
2 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
He withholdeth the waters - This is, I think, an allusion to the third day’s work of the creation, Gen 1:9: And God said, Let the waters be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear. Thus the earth was drained, and the waters collected into seas, and bound to their particular places. Also he sendeth them out - Here is also an allusion to the flood, for when he broke up the fountains of the great deep, then the earth was overturned.
The words behind it
7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֵ֤ן | hen | there! | H2005 → | 316 times |
| יַעְצֹ֣ר | ya'tzor | he holds back | H6113 → | 47 times |
| בַּמַּ֣יִם | bamayim | <in> the waters | H4325 → | 581 times |
| וְיִבָ֑שׁוּ | veyivashu | so they may be dry | H3001 → | 59 times |
| וִֽ֝ישַׁלְּחֵ֗ם | vishalechem | and he lets loose them | H7971 → | 845 times |
| וְיַ֖הַפְכוּ | veyahafkhu | and they may devastate | H2015 → | 94 times |
| אָֽרֶץ׃ | ʾaretz | [the] earth | H776 → | 2504 times |
הֵ֤ןthere!
henH2005 →316 times
יַעְצֹ֣רhe holds back
ya'tzorH6113 →47 times
בַּמַּ֣יִם<in> the waters
bamayimH4325 →581 times
וְיִבָ֑שׁוּso they may be dry
veyivashuH3001 →59 times
וִֽ֝ישַׁלְּחֵ֗םand he lets loose them
vishalechemH7971 →845 times
וְיַ֖הַפְכוּand they may devastate
veyahafkhuH2015 →94 times
אָֽרֶץ׃[the] earth
ʾaretzH776 →2504 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
1 Kings 17:1Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD lives—the God of Israel before whom I stand—there will be neither dew nor rain in…
it leads to
- Luke 4:25–26
But I tell you truthfully that there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and great famine swept over all…
- James 5:17
Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
- Luke 1:17
And he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to…
- Luke 4:25–26
Through
Amos 5:8He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD…
it leads to
Through
Jeremiah 14:22Can the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies alone send showers? Is this not by You, O LORD our God? So we put our hope in You, for You have…
it leads to
- Joel 2:23
Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for He has given you the autumn rains for your vindication. He sends you showers, both autumn and spring rains, as…
- Jeremiah 5:24
They have not said in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rains, both autumn and spring, in season, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of harvest.’
- Joel 2:23
Through
Genesis 6:17And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish.
it leads to
- 2 Peter 2:5
if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;
- 2 Peter 2:5
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); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.
