Albert Barnes Commentary Job 12:24

"He taketh away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, And causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way." — Job 12:24 (ASV)

He taketh away the heart — The word “heart” here evidently means mind, intelligence, and wisdom (see the notes at Job 12:3).

Of the chief of the people — The Hebrew is “Heads of the people”; that is, of the rulers of the earth. The meaning is that he leaves them to infatuated and distracted counsels. By withdrawing from them, he has power to frustrate their plans and to leave them to an entire lack of wisdom (see the notes at Job 12:17).

And causeth them to wander in a wilderness — They are like people in a vast, pathless waste of sands, without a landmark, a guide, or a path. The perplexity and confusion of the great ones of the earth could not be more strikingly represented than by the condition of such a lost traveler.