Bible Strands
Job 12:10
The life of every living thing is in His hand, as well as the breath of all mankind.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses his companions during a discourse on divine sovereignty, following his assertion that God alone orchestrates the natural order.
The words — נֶ֣פֶשׁ (Ne.fesh) denotes the vital principle or life of a creature, while ר֫וּחַ (Ru.ach) signifies the animating breath or spirit that sustains it.
The thread — This theme of God as the source of life and breath recurs in Job 33:4, Acts 17:25, and Acts 17:28.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that every creature's existence depends entirely on divine sustenance rather than autonomous power.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.
Cross-references
- Acts 17:28 ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’
- Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
- Acts 17:25 Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
- Numbers 16:22 But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with the whole congregation?”
- Job 27:3 as long as my breath is still within me and the breath of God remains in my nostrils,
- Daniel 5:23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you drank wine from them with your nobles, wives, and concubines, you praised your gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you have failed to glorify the God who holds in His hand your very breath and all your ways.
- Psalms 146:3 Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.
- Job 34:14 If He were to set His heart to it and withdraw His Spirit and breath,
- Psalms 104:29 When You hide Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die and return to dust.
- John 3:6 Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.