John Trapp on Job 12:23

Verſe 23. Hee encreaſeth the Nations, and destroyeth them] It is all one with God, whether againſt a ſingle man, or a whole Nation, Job 34.29. when he once taketh them to do. The wicked ſhall be turned into hell, and (that they may not hope to eſcape becauſe a multitude) all the nations that forget God, Pſalm 9.17. Soon after the flood, the Babel-builders were ſcattered, Sedom and her ſiſters were not only conſumed with fire from heaven, Gen, 19. but thrown forth for an example ſuffering the vengeance of eternal fire, Jude 7. ſome Nations were ejected, and others ſubſtituted, Deut, 2.10, 12, 20. Some utterly waſted and rooted out, as the Edomites, Ammonites Moabites, &c. that live by fame only; others not ſo much as by fame, their very names being blotted out from under heaven. The cities be waſted without inhabitant, and the houſes without man, and the land is utterly deſolate, Iſai. 6.11. Now all this is the Lords own doing, and ſhould be marvellous in our eyes. Hee plants and plucks up, hee builds and breakes downe, Jerem. 31.28.

He enlargeth the Nations, and ſtraitneth them again] Or That he may ſtraiten them again, ſo in the former clauſe, That he may deſtroy them: This if he may juſtly do to whole nations, why ſhould it ſeem ſo ſtrange, that he ſuffereth particular perſons though wicked, to proſper for a ſeaſon; and though righteous for a while, to ſuffer hardſhip?