Job 26

Job’s Ninth Speech: A Response to Bildad

1. Then Job spoke again:

2. “How you have helped the powerless! 2 How you have saved the weak!

3. How you have enlightened my stupidity! 3 What wise advice you have offered!

4. Where have you gotten all these wise sayings? 4 Whose spirit speaks through you?

5. “The dead tremble— 5 those who live beneath the waters.

6. The underworld[a] is naked in God’s presence. 6 The place of destruction[b] is uncovered.

7. God stretches the northern sky over empty space 7 and hangs the earth on nothing.

8. He wraps the rain in his thick clouds, 8 and the clouds don’t burst with the weight.

9. He covers the face of the moon,[c] 9 shrouding it with his clouds.

10. He created the horizon when he separated the waters; 10 he set the boundary between day and night.

11. The foundations of heaven tremble; 11 they shudder at his rebuke.

12. By his power the sea grew calm. 12 By his skill he crushed the great sea monster.[d]

13. His Spirit made the heavens beautiful, 13 and his power pierced the gliding serpent.

14. These are just the beginning of all that he does, 14 merely a whisper of his power. 14 Who, then, can comprehend the thunder of his power?”

Footnotes:
a. 26:6a: Hebrew Sheol.
b. 26:6b: Hebrew Abaddon.
c. 26:9: Or covers his throne.
d. 26:12: Hebrew Rahab, the name of a mythical sea monster that represents chaos in ancient literature.