Bible Strands
Job 12:19
He leads priests away barefoot and overthrows the established.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses his friends, asserting God’s absolute authority over human institutions at a moment when they are defending conventional views of divine justice.
The words — מוֹלִ֣יךְ (mo.Likh) means "[he is] leading away" and שׁוֹלָ֑ל (sho.Lal) means "barefoot," describing the stripping of dignity and status from priests.
The thread — This pattern of God dismantling human power structures appears in Isaiah 37:36, Isaiah 45:1, and Joshua 10:24.
Why it lands — It demands that readers acknowledge God’s sovereign right to remove religious and political authority, regardless of human stability or tradition.
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
He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
- Isaiah 45:1 This is what the LORD says to Cyrus His anointed, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him, to disarm kings, to open the doors before him, so that the gates will not be shut:
- Joshua 10:24 When they had brought the kings to Joshua, he summoned all the men of Israel and said to the army commanders who had accompanied him, “Come here and put your feet on the necks of these kings.” So the commanders came forward and put their feet on their necks.
- Joshua 10:42 And because the LORD, the God of Israel, fought for Israel, Joshua captured all these kings and their land in one campaign.
- 1 Samuel 17:45 But David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
- Job 24:22 Yet by His power, God drags away the mighty; though rising up, they have no assurance of life.
- Job 34:28 They caused the cry of the poor to come before Him, and He heard the outcry of the afflicted.
- Job 35:9 Men cry out under great oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty.
- Revelation 17:14 They will make war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will triumph over them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and He will be accompanied by His called and chosen and faithful ones.”
- Revelation 19:19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies assembled to wage war against the One seated on the horse, and against His army.