Job 12:25
◄  Job 12:25  ►
New International Version (©2011)
They grope in darkness with no light; he makes them stagger like drunkards.

New Living Translation (©2007)
They grope in the darkness without a light. He makes them stagger like drunkards.

English Standard Version (©2001)
They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"They grope in darkness with no light, And He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
They grope around in darkness without light; He makes them stagger like drunken men.

International Standard Version (©2012)
They grope in the dark without light; he causes them to stagger around like a drunkard."

NET Bible (©2006)
They grope about in darkness without light; he makes them stagger like drunkards.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
They grope in the dark with no light, and he makes them stumble like drunks.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them to stagger like a drunken man.

American King James Version
They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them to stagger like a drunken man.

American Standard Version
They grope in the dark without light; And he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.

Douay-Rheims Bible
They shall grope as in the dark, and not in the light, and he shall make them stagger like men that are drunk.

Darby Bible Translation
They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunkard.

English Revised Version
They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.

Webster's Bible Translation
They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.

World English Bible
They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

Young's Literal Translation
They feel darkness, and not light, He causeth them to wander as a drunkard.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:12-25 This is a noble discourse of Job concerning the wisdom, power, and sovereignty of God, in ordering all the affairs of the children of men, according to the counsel of His own will, which none can resist. It were well if wise and good men, who differ about lesser things, would see how it is for their honour and comfort, and the good of others, to dwell most upon the great things in which they agree. Here are no complaints, or reflections. He gives many instances of God's powerful management of the children of men, overruling all their counsels, and overcoming all their oppositions. Having all strength and wisdom, God knows how to make use, even of those who are foolish and bad; otherwise there is so little wisdom and so little honesty in the world, that all had been in confusion and ruin long ago. These important truths were suited to convince the disputants that they were out of their depth in attempting to assign the Lord's reasons for afflicting Job; his ways are unsearchable, and his judgments past finding out. Let us remark what beautiful illustrations there are in the word of God, confirming his sovereignty, and wisdom in that sovereignty: but the highest and infinitely the most important is, that the Lord Jesus was crucified by the malice of the Jews; and who but the Lord could have known that this one event was the salvation of the world?

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - They grope in the dark without light (comp. Job 5:14 and Deuteronomy 28:29). And he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man; literally, to wander - to pursue a devious course instead of a straight one.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

They grope in the dark without light,.... Like blind men, as the men of Sodom, when they were struck with blindness; or "they grope", or "feel the dark, and not light" (g), as the Targum; as the Egyptian, did when such gross darkness was upon them as might be felt:

and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man; that has lost his sight, his senses, and his feet, and knows not where he is, which way to go, nor how to keep on his legs, but reels to and fro, and is at the utmost loss what to do; all this is said of the heads or chief of the people, in consequence of their hearts being taken away, and so left destitute of wisdom and strength.

(g) "palpant tenebras et non lucem", Vatablus, Mercerus, Drusius, Schultens.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. De 28:29; Ps 107:27 again quote Job, but in a different connection.

Job 12:25 Parallel Commentaries

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Job's Response to Zophar
…23He increases the nations, and destroys them: he enlarges the nations, and straitens them again. 24He takes away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. 25They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them to stagger like a drunken man.

Job 5:14 Darkness comes upon them in the daytime; at noon they grope as in the night.
Job 18:6 The light in his tent becomes dark; the lamp beside him goes out.
Psalm 107:27 They reeled and staggered like drunkards; they were at their wits' end.
Isaiah 24:20 The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls--never to rise again.