Political Government

The machinery of political government:
[Job 12:23] He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again.
[He increased the nations - A number of the tribal names mentioned in Job are first encountered in the table of nations in Gen. 10, which listed the seventy nations that evidently resulted from the Babel dispersion.
Uz in Gen. 10:23 and in Job 1:1
Sheba in Gen. 10:7 and in Job 6:19
Ophir in Gen. 10:29 and in Job 28:16
Ethiopia, same as Cush, in Gen. 10:6 and in Job 28:19
Seba, same as Sabaeans, in Gen. 10:7 and in Job 1:15
This comparison further emphasizes the antiquity of Job. The Chaldeans in Job 1:17 are first mentioned in connection with Abraham’s boyhood home in Ur of Gen. 11:28, but Ur may originally have been Uruk, or Erech in Gen. 10:10.
Other tribal names in Job may include Tema, son of Ishmael in Gen. 25:15 and Job 6:19, Teman, grandson of Esau in Gen. 36:15 and Job 2:11; Shuah, son of Abraham by Keturah, as listed in Gen. 25:2, and probably ancestor of Bildad, the Shuhite in Job 2:22; and Buz nephew of Abraham in Gen. 22:21, an ancestor of Elihu, as suggested in Job 32:2. All of these long predate Moses.
In addition to the tribes and nations named in the early chapters of Genesis and those known from ancient secular history could not compete successfully and eventually died out. These most likely include ‘cave men’ and others now identified only by fragmentary fossils and crude artifacts and often mistakenly classed as evolving hominids or ‘ape-men.’
And destroyeth them - He lets the nations grow licentious. Pride, fullness of bread, with extensive trade and commerce, produce luxury; and this is ever accompanied with wastefulness of manners. When, then, the cup of this iniquity is full, G-d destroys the nation, by bringing or permitting to come against it a nation less pampered, more necessitous, and inured to toil.
He enlargeth the nations - Often permits a nation to acquire an accession of territory, and afterwards shuts them up within their ancient boundaries, and often contracts even those. All these things seem to occur as natural events, and the consequences of state intrigues, and such like causes. But when Divine inspiration comes to pronounce upon them, they are shown to be the consequence of G-d's acting in His judgment and mercy; for it is by Him that kings reign; it is He who putts down one and raises up another.]
[24] He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
[Job is the oldest book in the Bible and there are so many references to discoveries or problems of modern science plus containing many allusions to the systems and processes of nature. Fifteen or more facts of science are suggested in this book that scientist did not discover until recent centuries. This indicates either the divine inspiration of the book or the remarkably up-to-date scientific knowledge of those ancient nations and tribes.
The heart of the chief - Suddenly deprives the leaders of great counsels, or mighty armies of courage; so that, panic-struck, they flee when none pursuits, or are confounded when about to enter on the accomplishment of important designs.]
[25] They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.
[Job and his contemporaries evidently were aware of some of these degenerate peoples, still barely surviving. Those he noted as wanderers in the wilderness or as those groping the dark without light were likely those living in deserts, jungles, or caves. See 30:3-8.
They grope in the dark - apply also to the state of wicked nations under judicial blindness, they are brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow.
The entire passage has a reference to the machinery of a regular and political government; and that its general drift is to imprint on the mind of the hearer the important doctrine that the whole of the constituent principles of such a government, its officers and institutions. Its monarchs and princes; its privy-counselors, judges, and ministers of state, its chieftains, public orators, and assembly of elders; its nobles, or men of hereditary rank; and its stout robust peasantry, as we should express it in the present day. The deep designing villains that plot in secret its destruction;-that the nations themselves, and the heads or sovereigns of the nations, are all and equally in the hands of the Almighty: that with him human pomp is poverty; human excellence, turpitude; human judgment, error; human wisdom, folly; human dignity, contempt; human strength, weakness.]
G-d can soon nonplus the deepest politicians and bring the greatest wits to their wits' end, to show that wherein they deal proudly He is above them.
Thus are the revolutions of kingdoms brought about by an overruling providence. Heaven and earth are shaken: but the L-rd remains the King forever and with Him we look for a kingdom that cannot be shaken.