Job 26
Contemporary English Version
Job's Reply to Bildad
You Have Really Been Helpful
26 Job said:
2 You have really been helpful
to someone weak and weary.
3 You have given great advice
and wonderful wisdom
to someone truly in need.
4 How can anyone possibly speak
with such understanding?
5 Remember the terrible trembling
of those in the world of the dead
below the mighty ocean.
6 Nothing in that land
of death and destruction
is hidden from God,
7 who hung the northern sky
and suspended the earth
on empty space.
8 God stores water in clouds,
but they don't burst,
9 and he wraps them around
the face of the moon.
10 On the surface of the ocean,
God has drawn a boundary line
between light and darkness.
11 And columns supporting the sky
tremble at his command.
12 By his power and wisdom,
God conquered the force
of the mighty ocean.[a]
13 The heavens became bright
when he breathed,
and the escaping sea monster[b]
died at his hands.
14 These things are merely a whisper
of God's power at work.
How little we would understand
if this whisper
ever turned into thunder!
Footnotes
- 26.12 the force of the mighty ocean: The Hebrew text has “the ocean … Rahab.” In this passage the sea monster Rahab stands for the fearsome power of the ocean (see the notes at 3.8 and 9.13).
- 26.13 sea monster: The Hebrew text has “snake,” which probably stands for some kind of fearsome sea monster, such as Leviathan (see Isaiah 27.1).
Job 26
GOD’S WORD Translation
Job Speaks: My Friends Have Offered Useless Advice
26 Then Job replied ⌞to his friends⌟,
2 “You have helped the person who has no power
and saved the arm that isn’t strong.
3 You have advised the person who has no wisdom
and offered so much assistance.
4 To whom have you spoken ⌞these⌟ words,
and whose spirit has spoken through you?
God’s Power over Creation
5 “The souls of the dead tremble beneath the water,
and so do the creatures living there.
6 Sheol is naked in God’s presence,
and Abaddon has no clothing.
7 “He stretches out his heavens[a] over empty space.
He hangs the earth on nothing whatsoever.
8 He holds the water in his thick clouds,
and the clouds don’t ⌞even⌟ split under its ⌞weight⌟.
9 He covers his throne[b]
by spreading his cloud over it.
10 He marks the horizon on the surface of the water
at the boundary where light meets dark.
11 The pillars of heaven tremble
and are astonished when he yells at them.
12 With his power he calmed the sea.
With his insight he killed Rahab ⌞the sea monster⌟.
13 With his wind the sky was cleared.
With his hand he stabbed the fleeing snake.
14 “These are only glimpses of what he does.
We ⌞only⌟ hear a whisper of him!
Who can understand the thunder of his power?”
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