Old Testament
Job 26
Overview
Job answers Bildad with biting sarcasm — "How you have helped him who has no power!" — then out-praises his friend with a soaring meditation on God's cosmic power. He pictures God stretching the north over empty space, hanging the earth on nothing, binding up the waters in thick clouds, and rebuking the chaos-sea, concluding that these are but "the outer fringe" of His ways; we hear only a whisper of His thunder. Job thus proves he knows God's majesty as well as Bildad does, while insisting that majesty alone does not explain his suffering.
1Then Job answered,
2“How have you helped him who is without power! How have you saved the arm that has no strength!
3How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!
4To whom have you uttered words? Whose spirit came out of you?
5“The departed spirits tremble, those beneath the waters and all that live in them.
6Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.
7He stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing.
8He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not burst under them.
9He encloses the face of his throne, and spreads his cloud on it.
10He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters, and to the confines of light and darkness.
11The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his rebuke.
12He stirs up the sea with his power, and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab.
13By his Spirit the heavens are garnished. His hand has pierced the swift serpent.
14Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”