Job - 40:13



13 Hide them in the dust together. Bind their faces in the hidden place.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Job 40:13.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret.
Hide them in the dust together; Bind their faces in the hidden place .
Hide them in the dust together, and plunge their faces into the pit.
Let them be covered together in the dust; let their faces be dark in the secret place of the underworld.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Hide them in the dust together; - compare Isaiah 2:10. The meaning seems to be, that God had power to prostrate the wicked in the dust of the earth, and he calls upon Job to show his power by doing the same thing.
And bind their faces in secret - The word "faces" here is probably used (like the Greek πρίσωπα prisōpa to denote "persons." The phrase" to bind them," is expressive of having them under control or subjection; and the phrase "in secret" may refer to some secret or safe place - as a dungeon or prison. The meaning of the whole is, that God had power to restrain and control the haughty and the wicked, and he appeals to Job to do the same.

Hide them in the dust together - Blend the high and the low, the rich and the poor, in one common ruin. Show them that thou art supreme, and canst do whatsoever thou pleasest.
Bind their faces in secret - This seems to refer to the custom of preserving mummies: the whole body is wrapped round with strong swathings of linen or cotton cloth. Not only the limbs, but the very head, face, and all, are rolled round with strong filleting, so that not one feature can be seen, not even the protuberance of the nose. On the outside of these involutions a human face is ordinarily painted; but as to the real face itself, it is emphatically bound in secret, for those rollers are never intended to be removed.

Hide them in the dust together; [and] bind (c) their faces in secret.
(c) Cause them to die if you can.

Hide them in the dust together,.... Either in the dust of death, that they may be seen no more in this world, in the same place and circumstances where they showed their pride and haughtiness; or in the dust of the grave, and let them have an inglorious burial, like that of malefactors thrown into some common pit together; as, when multitudes are slain in battle, a large pit is dug, and the bodies are cast in together without any order or decency; or it may be rendered "alike" (b), let them be treated equally alike, no preference given to one above another;
and bind their faces in secret; alluding, as it is thought, to malefactors when condemned and about to be executed, whose faces are then covered, as Haman's was, Esther 7:8; or to the dead when buried, whose faces are bound with napkins, as Lazarus's was, John 11:44; the meaning of all these expressions is, that Job would abase and destroy, if he could, every proud man he met with, as God does, in the course of his providence, sooner or later. There had been instances of divine power in this way before, or in the times of Job, which might come to his knowledge; as the casting down of the proud angels out of heaven, 2-Peter 2:4; and of casting proud Adam out of paradise, Genesis 3:24; the drowning the proud giants of the old world, Genesis 7:23; and of dispersing the proud builders of Babel, Genesis 11:8; and of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah by fire, Genesis 19:24, one of whose reigning sins was pride, Ezekiel 16:49; and of drowning proud Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea, Exodus 15:4, which last seems to have been done much about the time Job lived.
(b) "pariter", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Schultens.

(Isaiah 2:10). Abase and remove them out of the sight of men.
bind . . . faces--that is, shut up their persons [MAURER]. But it refers rather to the custom of binding a cloth over the faces of persons about to be executed (Job 9:24; Esther 7:8).
in secret--consign them to darkness.

Hide - Kill every one of them at one blow. Bind - Condemn or destroy them. He alludes to the manner of covering the faces of condemned persons, and of dead men. In secret - In a secret place, bury them in their graves.

*More commentary available at chapter level.


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