Job 12:25

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

They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man. They grope in the dark without light. "Thou shalt grope at, noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness" (Deuteronomy 28:29). Psalms 107:27.

They grope, like men that cannot see their way. In the dark without light; two phrases expressing the same thing, emphatically to express their profound darkness. Like a drunken man, who reels hither and thither without any certainty. So they sometimes take one course, and sometimes another, as resolving to try all experiments, and indeed not knowing what to do.

Job 12:25 They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like [a] drunken [man].Ver. 25. They grope in the dark without light] This is the second simile, setting forth this judiciary act of God in taking away the heart of the heads of the earth; grope they do, and would fain find out a way by feeling, but they feel darkness, and not light (so the Hebrew); they try to help themselves and their people out of misery, as the last Greek emperor did notably; but it would not be (Turk. Hist. 345). And he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man] Who, having lost the use of reason, knoweth neither where he is nor what he was, but reeleth and falleth oft, and cannot rise again, much less go forward. So fareth it with evil rulers when God smiteth them with a spirit of giddiness and of slumber. See Isaiah 19:24; Isaiah 40:20.

Verse 25. They grope in the dark] The writer seems to have had his eye on those words of Moses, Deuteronomy 28:28-29: The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart; and thou shalt GROPE AT NOONDAY, as the BLIND GROPETH IN DARKNESS. And this also may refer to the unaccountable errors, transgressions, and judicial blindness of the Israelites in their journeying to the promised land: but it will apply also to the state of wicked nations under judicial blindness. The writer is principally indebted for his imagery, and indeed for the chief expressions used here, to Psalms 107:27: They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man. Psalms 107:39-40: Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. He POURETH CONTEMPT UPON PRINCES, and CAUSETH THEM TO WONDER IN THE WILDERNESS, where there is NO WAY. Mr. Good has some judicious reflections on this chapter, particularly on Job 12:13-22: "It should be observed," says he, "that the entire passage has a reference to the machinery of a regular and political government; and that its general drift is to imprint on the mind of the hearer the important doctrine that the whole of the constituent principles of such a government, its officers and institutions; its monarchs and princes; its privy-counsellors, judges, and ministers of state; its chieftains, public orators, and assembly of elders; its nobles, or men of hereditary rank; and its stout robust peasantry, as we should express it in the present day; nay, the deep designing villains that plot in secret its destruction; - that the nations themselves, and the heads or sovereigns of the nations, are all and equally in the hands of the Almighty: that with him human pomp is poverty; human excellence, turpitude; human judgment, error; human wisdom, folly; human dignity, contempt; human strength, weakness."

25. Further description of their perplexity. Cf. ch. Job 5:14. maketh them to stagger] Or, to wander. Cf. Isaiah 19:14; Psalms 107:27; Psalms 107:40.

They grope in the dark - They are like persons who attempt to feel their way along in the dark; compare the notes at Isaiah 59:10.

25. They grope, etc. — They feel the darkness and not light. — Gesenius. The reading of the Septuagint is nearly the same. Their blindness must be intense, when the sense of feeling is their sight.