Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 12:23

"He increaseth the nations, and he destroyeth them: He enlargeth the nations, and he leadeth them captive." — Job 12:23 (ASV)

He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them. —The latter part of this chapter teaches us a truth that is apt to be forgotten in the present day, which is, nevertheless, the key to much of the history of the world. Why is it that nations are marked with such characteristic differences? For instance, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Jews in ancient times; the French, the English, and the Germans in our own.

Why is it that the counsel of the wisest sometimes fails, as with Ahitophel—and the bravery of the boldest sometimes forsakes them? It is because there is One working underneath it all for His own purposes and to His own glory, as seems good to Him. Zophar, with all his common sense, had scarcely risen to the perception of this truth. For while Job maintained that there was always a deeper depth, Zophar was prepared, at all events, to imply that God's dealings were intelligible and conformed to human conceptions of equity.

Job, on the other hand, declared that God's dealings were inscrutable and, consequently, from their very darkness, suggested the necessity for faith. His teaching here may seem to suggest fatalism, but that is simply because he deals only with one side of the problem. Had he found occasion, he would have stated with equal force the correlative truth of the absolute responsibility of man, even though merely as clay in the hands of the potter. For, in fact, if it were not so, how then could God judge the world? Job does not enter into the mazes of this problem, being concerned with other questions and mysteries. Job's conception, therefore, of God's righteous government far transcended that of his friends, just as their estimate of his righteousness fell short of the truth. Justly, therefore, he exclaims, I am not inferior unto you.