איוב, פרק ל״ד, פסוק כ״ד

God governs the world with absolute authority and flawless justice, holding the power to effortlessly bring down mighty rulers and replace them according to His will. The primary approach among commentators is that God actively breaks and shatters the powerful, forceful, and great figures of the world [רלב״ג, שטיינזלץ]. The scope of this downfall is immense. It strikes either an unquantifiable number of these powerful individuals or targets those whose greatness is so vast it defies measurement [רמב״ן, תקות אנוש].

Once these formidable leaders collapse, God places new individuals on their vacant thrones [רש״י, מצודת דוד]. These successors might be newly rising powerful figures, or they could simply be ordinary, everyday people who were never previously considered great [תקות אנוש]. This shifting of power is never arbitrary. It serves as a direct expression of God's personal providence and justice. By breaking the wicked and elevating those who are not, God ensures that the entire world witnesses the downfall of evildoers, making the stark contrast between the righteous and the wicked undeniable [מלבי״ם].

Sometimes, the individuals God brings down appear outwardly good and respectable. However, because He searches the deepest parts of the human heart, He acts upon the evil deeds they commit in secret [רמב״ן]. Ultimately, God shapes the human landscape exactly as He desires, cycling through rulers and subjects as one generation passes and another arrives [רמב״ן, תקות אנוש].

While this reflects a general truth about how God guides humanity, an alternative perspective views these events as a specific historical reference to the departure from Egypt. In this light, the shattered powers are the Egyptians who ruthlessly enslaved the Israelites without limits. The subsequent shift in power is directly tied to the Plague of the Firstborn, which finally brought the Egyptian empire to its knees [אלשיך].