Job 26

Job 26:1-14 . JOB'S REPLY.

2, 3. without power . . . no strength . . . no wisdom--The negatives are used instead of the positives, powerlessness, &c., designedly (so Isaiah 31:8 , Deuteronomy 32:21 ). Granting I am, as you say ( Job 18:17 , 15:2 ), powerlessness itself, &c. How hast thou helped such a one?"
savest--supportest.

3. plentifully . . . the thing as it is--rather, "abundantly--wisdom." Bildad had made great pretensions to abundant wisdom. How has he shown it?

4. For whose instruction were thy words meant? If for me I know the subject (God's omnipotence) better than my instructor Job 26:5-14 is a sample of Job's knowledge of it.
whose spirit--not that of God ( Job 32:8 ); nay, rather, the borrowed sentiment of Eliphaz ( Job 4:17-19 , 15:14-16 ).

5-14. As before in the ninth and twelfth chapters, Job had shown himself not inferior to the friends' inability to describe God's greatness, so now he describes it as manifested in hell (the world of the dead), Job 26:5 Job 26:6 ; on earth, Job 26:7 ; in the sky, Job 26:8-11 ; the sea, Job 26:12 ; the heavens, Job 26:13 .
Dead things are formed--Rather, "The souls of the dead (Rephaim) tremble." Not only does God's power exist, as Bildad says ( Job 25:2 ), "in high places" (heaven), but reaches to the region of the dead. Rephaim here, and in Proverbs 21:16 and Isaiah 14:9 , is from a Hebrew root, meaning "to be weak," hence "deceased"; in Genesis 14:5 it is applied to the Canaanite giants; perhaps in derision, to express their weakness, in spite of their gigantic size, as compared with Jehovah [UMBREIT]; or, as the imagination of the living magnifies apparitions, the term originally was applied to ghosts, and then to giants in general [MAGEE].
from under--UMBREIT joins this with the previous word "tremble from beneath" (so Isaiah 14:9 ). But the Masoretic text joins it to "under the waters." Thus the place of the dead will be represented as "under the waters" ( Psalms 18:4 Psalms 18:5 ); and the waters as under the earth ( Psalms 24:2 ). MAGEE well translates thus: "The souls of the dead tremble; (the places) under the waters, and their inhabitants." Thus the Masoretic connection is retained; and at the same time the parallel clauses are evenly balanced. "The inhabitants of the places under the waters" are those in Gehenna, the lower of the two parts into which Sheol, according to the Jews, is divided; they answer to "destruction," that is, the place of the wicked in Job 26:6 , as "Rephaim" ( Job 26:5 ) to "Hell" (Sheol) ( Job 26:6 ). "Sheol" comes from a Hebrew root--"ask," because it is insatiable ( Proverbs 27:20 ); or "ask as a loan to be returned," implying Sheol is but a temporary abode, previous to the resurrection; so for English Version "formed," the Septuagint and Chaldee translate; shall be born, or born again, implying the dead are to be given back from Sheol and born again into a new state [MAGEE].

6. ( Job 38:17 , Psalms 139:8 , Proverbs 5:11 ).
destruction--the abode of destruction, that is, of lost souls. Hebrew, Abaddon ( Revelation 9:11 ).
no covering--from God's eyes.