He leads priests away stripped and overthrows the mighty.
Job is answering his friend Zophar, and he out-does him with a long list of what God does to people in power. Verse 19 sits in that list, where even priests lose everything — so the chapter asks whether describing God's power is the same as knowing Him.
Where the verse falls in Job's argument
The chapter moves from sarcasm against the friends to a survey of what God does with human power. One writer sums up this stretch, where not even priests escape, and marks what Job leaves out:
Samuel RidoutNo one, however high their position, can escape Him. He breaks down, and ruin is the result. He shuts, and no one can open; He withholds water and a drought follows, or releases it only to overwhelm in a flood. This Almighty One holds them all up to contempt — judges, kings, princes and priests. Truly this is right, if they deserve it, but Job leaves out that side.
Office and standing give no protection
These verses name the people a society leans on: advisers, judges, trusted speakers, elders. God empties each role of the thing that makes it valuable:
Leslie M. GrantHe deprives counsellors of the value of their counsel. So man's wisdom comes to nothing, and the judges become foolish. Man's authority becomes as useless as his wisdom. People everyone counted on lose their speech and their power to help others. Even elders known for their experience find their discernment taken away.
The same writer sees God disarming the strong, then turns the point back on Job:
Leslie M. GrantThe powerful He disarms, taking their power from them. If Job had taken time to consider what these things mean, he might not have sunk so low in his misery. He sees the facts, but fails to apply their lessons to his own case.
Why Job piles up these reversals
Job answers his friends by showing that nothing in human life stays put long enough to serve as a verdict:
William Kelly"He leads princes away stripped, and overthrows the mighty. He pours contempt on princes, and weakens the strength of the mighty." There are all kinds of change. There is nothing, then, that shows the settled judgment of God. Everything among men is in flux — a constant flow and change. So nothing could be more foolish than the foundation the three friends built on in their attack on Job.
Older translations read "princes" here, where the ESV reads "priests."
Another writer names the teaching the friends were built on:
J. N. DarbyThey push the teaching that God's government of the earth is a full measure and display of His righteousness — and of the righteousness in man that would match it. That teaching shows total ignorance of what God's righteousness is, and of His ways.
True words, but only one side
Job is not wrong about the facts. One writer weighs how he uses them:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinJob outstrips Zophar's speech in every way. He is ahead in the argument… he now declares that wisdom and might are with God; He has counsel and understanding. What follows is true in itself. But it is only one side of what God does, and the darkest pessimism, which suited his frame of mind. God spoils counsellors and makes judges fools. He loosens the bonds of kings, leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty. He pours contempt on princes; He increases the nations and destroys them.
What faith says instead
Ridout weighs the mood of Job's picture against the mood of a psalm:
Samuel RidoutIt is indeed a great but very sombre picture of omnipotence. We can only shudder at the awful sight. Job's misery has cast a gloomy light upon 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).
Summary
- Stripped. Job names priests, counsellors, judges, elders and the mighty. God empties each one of what made it useful — wisdom, authority, speech, discernment, strength.
- Unsettled. Everything among men keeps changing, so no one's rise or fall proves God's settled verdict on them.
- Refuted. That constant change destroys the friends' foundation. They taught that God's rule on earth fully displays His righteousness.
- One-sided. Job's words are true in themselves, but they give only one side of what God does, and he tells it in the darkest pessimism.
- Unapplied. He sees the facts and misses the lesson for himself; faith looks at the same power and says, "God is our refuge and strength."