Job 26
Legacy Standard Bible
Who Can Understand God?
26 Then Job answered and said,
2 “What a help you are to (A)the one without power!
How you have saved the arm (B)without strength!
3 What counsel you have given to one without wisdom!
What sound wisdom you have abundantly made known!
4 To whom have you declared words?
And whose breath comes out from you?
5 “The [a](C)departed spirits tremble
Under the waters and their inhabitants.
6 Naked is (D)Sheol before Him,
And [b](E)Abaddon has no covering.
7 He (F)stretches out the north over what is formless
And hangs the earth on nothing.
8 He (G)wraps up the waters in His clouds,
And the cloud does not break out under them.
9 He [c](H)obscures the face of His [d]throne
And spreads His cloud over it.
10 He has marked a (I)circle on the surface of the waters
At the (J)boundary of light and darkness.
11 The pillars of heaven tremble
And are astonished at His rebuke.
12 He (K)quieted the sea with His power,
And by His (L)understanding He crushed (M)Rahab.
13 By His breath the (N)heavens are made beautiful;
His hand has pierced (O)the fleeing serpent.
14 Behold, these are the fringes of His ways;
And how only with a whisper of (P)a word do we hear of Him!
But His mighty (Q)thunder, who can understand?”
Job 26
New Catholic Bible
Job’s Eighth Response
Chapter 26
How Profuse Is the Advice You Suggest![a] 1 Job then answered with these words:
2 “What a help you are to the helpless,
and what strength you are to the weak!
3 What good counsel you give to the ignorant!
How abundantly you have manifested wisdom!
4 Who has helped you utter those words?
And whose spirit issued forth from your mouth?
God’s Mighty Works
5 “The dead below tremble with fright,
as do the waters and all their inhabitants.
6 The netherworld[b] is laid bare before him,
and Abaddon lies uncovered.
7 “He stretches out the North[c] above the void
and suspends the earth on nothingness.
8 He encloses the waters in dense clouds,
yet the clouds are not torn asunder under their weight.
9 He veils the face of the full moon,
spreading his clouds beneath it.
10 “He has established the horizon on the surface of the waters
as the boundary between light and darkness.
11 The pillars of the heavens shake,
stunned by the thunder of his voice.
12 By his power he churns up the sea,
and by his skill he smites Rahab.[d]
13 By his breath the skies are cleared,
and by his hand he has pierced the fleeing serpent.[e]
14 “These deeds are only a sample of what he has done,
and how faint is the whisper that we hear of him,
but who can possibly comprehend the thunder of his power?”
Footnotes
- Job 26:1 Job appeals to irony once again in answer to Bildad: is it right to proclaim God’s power to a dying man?
- Job 26:6 Netherworld: see note on Ps 6:6. Abaddon: a Hebrew word meaning “a place of destruction,” which was used as another word for the netherworld (see Job 28:22; Rev 9:11).
- Job 26:7 The North: another word for the firmament (see note on Ps 48:3).
- Job 26:12 See the note on Job 7:12.
- Job 26:13 Fleeing serpent: i.e., Leviathan; see notes on Job 3:8; 7:12.
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