He looses the bonds of kings and binds a waistcloth on their hips.
Job is replying to friends who insist that suffering always proves guilt. He points to a God who unties kings from their power and then binds them like prisoners — so what can anyone prove from a person's circumstances?
The argument Job is making
The three friends read God's verdict off a man's circumstances. One commentator shows how the changes in Job's list ruin that method:
William KellyThere are all kinds of change. There is nothing, therefore, that shows the settled judgment of God. Everything among people is in constant flow and change. So nothing could be more foolish than the ground the three friends stand on in their attack on Job.
Loosed and bound in one breath
The two halves of the verse are one event. God unties a king's rule, then ties a belt on the king himself. Kelly's own rendering sets that belt beside the same image a few lines later:
William KellyThe bond of kings He looses, and binds a belt around their waist... He pours contempt upon princes, and looses the belt of the mighty.
True, but only one side
Job has just outdone the speech of Zophar, one of his three friends. Commentators do not question the truth of his words, but the mood behind them:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinJob goes beyond Zophar's speech at every point. He is ahead in the argument... But what follows is true in itself, yet it is only one side of what God does. It is the darkest pessimism, the kind that suited his mind. God strips counsellors bare and makes judges fools. He looses the bonds of kings and leads priests away as plunder. He overthrows the mighty and pours contempt on princes. He increases the nations and destroys them.
The side Job passes over is whether these humbled rulers deserved it:
Samuel RidoutNone, no matter how exalted, can escape Him. He breaks down, and ruin is the result. He shuts, and none can open... This Almighty One holds them all up to contempt — judges, kings, princes and priests. That is right, of course, where they deserve it. But Job leaves that side out.
The same power, a different tone
Job's suffering colours how he sees God's greatness. Faith looks at the same power and answers without fear:
Samuel RidoutIn the same way, the nations rise and fall at His word. It is a great picture of unlimited power, but the darkest one possible. We can only shudder at the awful sight. Job's misery has cast a gloomy light over all God's greatness. How different is the language of faith: "God is our refuge and strength… therefore we will not fear… Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps. 46).
Daniel saw God take down one royal line and raise up another. His response was to bless God:
F. B. HoleHe was living in a time when God had been changing "the times and the seasons." God was also removing kings and setting up kings, showing that wisdom and might are His. Removing the kings of David's line and setting up Nebuchadnezzar had been acts of God. Daniel bowed to this and even blessed God as he acknowledged it.
A king bound, and not forgotten
Jehoiachin was a young king of Judah carried off to Babylon. One writer traces what became of him there:
C. KnappThe Babylonian captivity dates from Jehoiachin's reign. He never returned from his captivity. There he spent thirty-six years in prison until the death of Nebuchadnezzar... His son Evil-merodach succeeded him on the throne. His own father had once shut this son up in prison, where he probably got to know the royal Hebrew captive. He was not like the ungrateful cupbearer who, once out of prison, "forgot Joseph"; he remembered his old prison companion.
Summary
- Change. God unties kings from power and binds them as captives. So no one can read God's verdict off a person's circumstances.
- Collapse. That destroys the friends' rule that suffering proves sin. It was the whole ground of their attack on Job.
- Half-told. Job's words are true, but he tells only one side. He never adds that God is right to humble rulers who deserve it.
- Mood. The same power that looks terrifying through Job's misery is what faith calls refuge: "Be still, and know that I am God."
- Blessed. Daniel watched God remove kings and set up kings, and he blessed God for it. Job shudders at that same power; Daniel worships.