Job 12:23 - Exposition

He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them . God's providence concerns itself, not only with the fate of individual men, bet also with that of nations. With Israel, his "peculiar people" ( Deuteronomy 14:2 ), he especially concerned himself, but not with Israel only. Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Elam, Edom, Ammon, Moab, were likewise objects of his attention, of his guidance, of his chastening hand, of his avenging rod. Particular nations were consigned by God to the charge of particular angels ( Daniel 10:13 , Daniel 10:20 ). At his pleasure he can "increase" nations by blessing them with extraordinary fecundity ( Exodus 1:7-12 ), or "destroy" them by internal decay, by civil wars, or by the swords of their neighbours. He enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again ; i.e. "enlarges their bounds, or diminishes them." In Western Asia, where Job lived, empires were continually starting up, growing and expanding, increasing to vast dimensions, and then after a while shrinking back again to their original narrow limits Egypt, Elam, Babylon, and the Hittite nation were eases in point.