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Job 26

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Job Rejects Bildad's Weak Counsel 1–4

1
But Job answered and said, ​
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How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength? ​
3
How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?
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To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee? ​

God's Incomparable Power in Creation 5–14

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Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. ​
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Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. ​
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He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. ​
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He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them.
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He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it.
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He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end. ​
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The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof.
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He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud. ​
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By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent. ​
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Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand? ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Job 26

Verse 1

Job answered — The reply is to Bildad's six verses (25:1–6), which ended by calling man 'a worm'. Job's answer continues through the next chapter, which opens 'Moreover Job continued his parable' (27:1). The first four verses of this chapter are aimed at Bildad; the rest speak of God.

Verse 2

without power — Job turns a question on the speaker: 'helped' (azar) and 'savest' (yasha) ask what help Bildad's words gave a man with no 'power' (koach) and no strength in his 'arm', the limb that stands for strength. Eliphaz had said of Job himself, 'thou hast strengthened the weak hands' (Job 4:3).

Verse 4

whose spirit came from thee — 'Spirit' is neshamah, breath, the word rendered 'inspiration' in Job 32:8: 'the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding'. The question asks whose breath stood behind the words Bildad had uttered, and who had given him understanding.

Verse 5

Dead things — Rephaim, the dead below, in Job only here. The word is used in Ps 88:10, 'Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead?', in Prov 9:18, 'the dead are there… in the depths of hell', and in Isa 14:9. They tremble 'from under the waters', beneath the deepest sea; 'formed' is chul, a verb of writhing.

Verse 6

Hell is naked before him — 'Hell' is sheol, the place of the dead, and 'destruction' is abaddon, which the Old Testament uses six times; the two stand together in Prov 15:11, 'Hell and destruction are before the LORD'. The verse is echoed in Heb 4:13, 'all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do'.

Verse 7

hangeth the earth upon nothing — 'Nothing' is belimah, which occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament. 'The empty place' is tohu, the word rendered 'without form' in Gen 1:2. The same hand 'spreadeth out the heavens' alone (Job 9:8) and 'sitteth upon the circle of the earth' (Isa 40:22).

Verse 10

compassed the waters with bounds — 'Bounds' is choq, a decree or appointed limit, the word of Prov 8:29, 'he gave to the sea his decree', and of Job 38:10, 'brake up for it my decreed place'. The command at the shore, 'Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further' (Job 38:11), stands 'until the day and night come to an end'.

Verse 12

He divideth the sea — Raga is to stir the sea into waves; it is the verb of Isa 51:15, 'that divided the sea, whose waves roared', and of Jer 31:35. 'The proud' is rahab, as in Isa 51:9, 'Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab?', followed in v.10 by the sea dried 'a way for the ransomed to pass over'.

Verse 13

his spirit he hath garnished the heavens — 'Garnished' (shiphrah) is brightness, adornment, and the agent is his 'spirit' (ruach), the word of Gen 1:2, 'the Spirit of God moved'. 'The crooked serpent' (nachash bariach) is the same pair of Hebrew words as 'the piercing serpent' of Isa 27:1, where the LORD 'shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent'.

Verse 14

parts of his ways — 'Parts' (qatsah) are edges, the outer fringes; 'how little a portion' is shemets, an inkling, found only here and in Job 4:12, 'mine ear received a little thereof'. What has been heard is the whisper; 'the thunder of his power' (ra'am) lies beyond it, and none can understand it.