Job 5:12

He disappointeth the devices of the crafty,.... Or, "it disappointeth"; that is, the rain, as some Jewish commentators (m) interpret it, and the whole paragraph to this sense; the rain coming upon

He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. Enterprise - literally, realization.

Of the crafty; such as are cunning to work evil, and to cover it with fair pretences, as hypocrites use to do, and as Job’ s friends charged him with doing: God breaks the hopes and designs of such men; as he hath now blasted thy expectation, and taken away thy outward happiness, which was the thing thou didst design in taking up the profession of religion. Their enterprise; or, any thing; or, what is solid or substantial; or, wisdom, i.e. their wise counsel or crafty design. They cannot execute their cunning contrivances.

Job 5:12 He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform [their] enterprise.Ver. 12. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty] He vacateth and rendereth ineffectual the curious contrivances of the world’ s wizards, full of serpentine subtilty, and so setteth his people in safety by out plotting their enemies; served he not Pharaoh so (who dealt craftily with our fathers, κατασοφισαμενος, saith Stephen, Acts 7:19)? and Saul, that subtle tyrant? and Herod, that crafty fox? Luke 13:32; and all the primitive and modern persecutors, to whom the old dragon had lent his seven heads to plot, and his ten horns to push against the people of God, but all to no purpose? God disappointed the devices of those malignants: so the Vulgate rendereth this text, which the Chaldee appropriateth to Pharaoh and his counsellors, who said, Come, and let us deal wisely; when as (in laying hard tasks upon the Israelites to keep them from increasing) they never dealt more foolishly; for who knows not that your labouring men have the most and the lustiest children. So that their hands cannot perform their enterprise] They could not give their plots an actual being or subsistence. Their hands bring nothing soundly to pass, so Broughton rendereth it. Others thus, Their hands cannot perform their wisdom; that is, execute what they had projected. Perceive ye how we prevail nothing? said the Pharisees, John 12:19. Nomine Christianorum deleto qui Romp evertebant; the name of Christians being erased who Romp has destroyed. so those cruel crafties of the primitive times sounded the triumph beforehand, and engraved the victory upon the pillars of marble; but the Church may still sing as of old, "They are brought down and fallen; but we are risen, and stand upright." Charles V and the French king had covenanted the utter extirpation of the Lutheran faction throughout their dominions; but God found them other employment, and gave his Church a happy halcyon. And who knows not how God hath hitherto helped us of this nation against the power and policy of earth and of hell?

(12) So that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.—Or, so that their hands can do-nothing that is sound or of worth, can accomplish nothing effectual.

Verse 12. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty] All these sayings refer to God's particular providence, by which he is ever working for the good, and counterworking the plots of the wicked. And as various as are the contingent, capricious, and malevolent acts of men, so varied are his providential interferences; disappointing the devices, snares, and plots of the crafty, so that their plans being confounded, and their machinery broken in pieces, their hands cannot perform their enterprises.

8–27. Eliphaz, in Job’s place, would seek unto God, all whose ways are marked by one purpose, to do good, and whose chastisements, therefore, but open the way to a richer blessing The passage attaches itself to the picture of man’s evil nature just given, and suggests where man should find refuge from himself, even in God. Eliphaz in Job’s place would seek unto God for help—God who is so great in power, and wonderful in His ways (Job 5:8-9). His ways are not only surpassingly wonderful, but one purpose of goodness runs through them, for even the thirsty wilderness where no man dwells He satisfies with rain, and sets the humble on high (Job 5:10-11). So on the other hand He disappoints the devices of the crafty and delivers the poor from their hand, and the end is reached towards which all His working tends: the poor hath hope, and evil, ashamed, shuts her mouth (Job 5:12-16). And under this general purpose of universal goodness fall even the chastisements of God, and in this light happy should Job consider himself in being afflicted, for God afflicts only that He may be able the more richly to bless (Job 5:17-18). And, anticipating that his afflictions will “yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness,” Eliphaz draws a brilliant picture of Job’s restoration and happy future,—the divine protection (Job 5:18-19), the plenty and security (Job 5:20-23), the peaceful homestead (Job 5:24), the offspring numerous as the grass (Job 5:25), and the ripe and peaceful end of all (Job 5:26). The passage like the preceding section has two divisions, Job 5:8-16 describing the purpose of goodness running through all God’s ways; and Job 5:17-26 applying this to Job’s calamities and painting his restoration; to which is added a concluding verse, in which Eliphaz beseeches Job to ponder his words (Job 5:27).

He disappointeth the devices of the crafty - He foils them in their schemes, or makes their plans vain. This too was the result of close observation on the part of Eliphaz.

12. Crafty — From ςψν, to spin, twist. Furst cites three Hebrew words expressive of cunning or evil thought, (he might have added pathal, froward, Job 5:13,) whose roots give the same idea of spinning.