Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
- BSB What He tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man He imprisons cannot be released.
- NKJV If He breaks a thing down, it cannot be rebuilt; If He imprisons a man, there can be no release.
- NASB “Behold, He tears down, and it cannot be rebuilt; He imprisons a person, and there is no release.
- NLT What he destroys cannot be rebuilt. When he puts someone in prison, there is no escape.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
What God tears down cannot be rebuilt, and whom He imprisons cannot be freed. Job stresses the finality of God's sovereign acts.
Overview
Job affirms that God's actions to break down or confine are irreversible by human power. This underscores His absolute and unchallengeable authority over the affairs of men. The same sovereign power that none can resist is exercised by the risen Christ, who holds the keys of death and Hades and opens and shuts as He wills (Revelation 1:18; 3:7).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Rev 3:7And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
- Isa 22:22And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
- Mal 1:4Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.
- Job 11:10If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?
- Job 37:7He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work.
- 1 Sam 26:8Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time.
- 1 Sam 17:46This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
- Job 19:10He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.
- Job 9:12–13Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What doest thou?
- Jer 51:58Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.
- Job 16:11God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
- Isa 25:2For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
- Jer 51:64And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
- Rom 11:32For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
- Isa 14:23I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.
- 1 Sam 24:18And thou hast shewed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me: forasmuch as when the LORD had delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 12:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.