He pours contempt on princes and loosens the belt of the strong.
Job answers his friends by listing what God does to the great ones of the earth — counsellors, judges, kings, priests, and now princes. The picture is true, but commentators ask two things: is it the whole truth, and does Job ever apply it to himself?
Contempt poured on the high
The verse names two targets: those who hold dignity, and those who hold power. One writer takes them in turn, and notes that what happens to each is the reverse of what they would expect.
Leslie M. Grant"He pours contempt on princes, and disdains the mighty" (v.21). To princes (those in the place of dignity) God sees fit to show contempt, so contrary to what they might expect. The powerful He disarms, taking their power from them. If Job had stopped to think about what these things mean, he might not have sunk so low in his misery. He sees the facts, but fails to apply their lessons in his own case.
To loosen a strong man's belt is to disarm him. Older translations render the line "disdains the mighty."
Everything in flux
Job's list has a point. His friends read God's verdict on a man from his circumstances. If God keeps reversing the standing of the great, that reasoning has no floor under it.
William KellyThere are all kinds of change. There is nothing therefore 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 basis of the three friends' attack on Job… And that is what happens where people trust in men.
The side Job leaves out
Princes are not stripped at random. One commentator grants the facts and then points at the gap in Job's account of them.
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. This is right, if they deserve it, but Job leaves that side out (vers. 14-21).
Another writer traces the gloom to Job's own state of mind.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinWhat follows is true in itself. But it is only one side of what God does, and the darkest pessimism — which suited his state of mind. God strips counsellors and makes judges fools. He loosens the bonds of kings, leads priests away plundered, overthrows the mighty, and pours contempt on princes. He increases the nations and destroys them.
The same act seen from below
Pouring contempt on princes is not only loss. The same act that brings a prince down lifts the oppressed up.
Hamilton SmithGod takes up the cause of the oppressed. He pours contempt on princes, and sets the needy one "on high from affliction."
Not a theory but a record
This is not poetry about the past. God still brings rulers down, and He can do it in a night.
Frank WallaceKings may be powerful, mighty and strong. They boast in their strength, their armies and their wealth. But God can remove a king overnight and replace him with another, as He did in Daniel 5:30-31. Oh, how small man is in the presence of God! What power He has! We see in the Bible and in history how boastful man is. He sets himself up in all his arrogance and pride, saying he will do this and that. But God changes it overnight.
How faith says it differently
Commentators agree that Job's facts are right. They differ with him on the mood. A believer can speak of the same almighty power in a completely different key.
Samuel RidoutIt really is a great picture of God's almighty power, but a very gloomy one. We can only shudder at the dreadful sight. Job's misery has cast a grim light over all God's greatness. How different is the language of faith: "God is our refuge and strength… therefore will we not fear… Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps. 46).
Summary
- Disarmed. God strips dignity and takes away power. Princes get contempt, the strong lose their belt, and neither expected it.
- Unsettled. Human standing never stops changing. So a man's present fortune shows nothing of God's settled verdict on him. That destroys the friends' case against Job.
- Overnight. History repeats the verse: God can remove a ruler in a night and set up another, and man is small before Him.
- One-sided. Job states the facts but leaves out the moral side. The stripping is right when they deserve it. Leave that out, and true words come out as pure gloom.
- Refuge. The same power that pours contempt on princes lifts the needy out of affliction. Faith meets it not with a shudder but with "God is our refuge and strength."