Job 12:10

In whose hand [is] the soul of every living thing,.... Of every animal, of every brute creature, as distinct from man, in the next clause: the life of everyone of them is from him, and it is

In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind. In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind. The soul - i:e., the animal life.

In whose hand, i.e. at whose absolute disposal, it is to give it, or take it away, when and how it seemeth good to him. The soul; the life, or the soul the principle of life. Of every living thing, i.e. of all unreasonable creatures, of which he spoke , opposed to man in the last words. The breath, or, the spirit, as that word is commonly used, i.e. the immortal soul; which is no less a creature, and in God’ s power to dispose of it, than the animal soul of unreasonable creatures.

Job 12:10 In whose hand [is] the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.Ver. 10. In whose hand is the soul of every living thing] That is, the life of every beast, flowing from a sensitive soul, Leviticus 17:10-11. This, God both giveth to the creature and conserveth it; he suffereth it not to be taken away from little sparrows, or the like, without order from him; much less befalleth any such thing to man without his singular providence, since our very hairs also are numbered, Matthew 9:30 Luke 12:7. The Jewish doctors do therefore offer manifest injury to Job when they say, that he held indeed that God created, and doth preserve, the several kinds of things, but permitteth the particulars and individuals to be hap hazard; whereas here he delivereth his judgment plainly to the contrary, when he saith, And the breath of all mankind] Heb. The spirit of all man’ s flesh (and so Broughton readeth it), that is, of every man’ s body: hence God is called the God of the spirits of all flesh, Numbers 16:22, and the Father of spirits, Hebrews 12:9, and the former of the spirit of man within him, Zechariah 12:1. "My times are in thy hand," saith David, Psalms 31:15. God preserves our lives as a light in a lantern, and we may be glad it is in so safe a hand; we should therefore honour him, as Daniel telleth Belshazzar, Daniel 5:23; yea, "let everything that hath breath praise the Lord," Psalms 150:6; or, as the Hebrew hath it, Let every breath praise the Lord: as oft as we breathe we are to breathe out the praise of God, and to make our breath like the smoke of the tabernacle; this we should do the rather because our breath is in our nostrils, Isaiah 2:22, every moment ready to puff out, and the grave cannot praise God, death cannot celebrate him, Isaiah 38:18.

Verse 10. In whose hand is the soul of every living thing] נפש כל חי nephesh col chai, "the soul of all life." And the breath of all mankind.] ורוח כל בשר veruach col besar, "and the spirit or breath of all flesh." Does not the first refer to the immortal soul, the principle of all intellectual life; and the latter to the breath, respiration, the grand means by which animal existence is continued? See Job 10:1.

10. This verse rounds off the statement in Job 12:7 seq. that God moves among the living creatures upon the earth, dispensing life and death, in a way absolute and uncontrolled.

In whose hand is the soul of every living thing - Margin, “Life.” The margin is the more correct rendering. The idea is, that all are under the control of God.

10. The breath of all mankind — Literally, the spirit of all the flesh of man.