Job 26:4-14

4 To whom have your words been said? and whose spirit came out from you?

5 The shades in the underworld are shaking; the waters and those living in them.

6 The underworld is uncovered before him, and Destruction has no veil.

7 By his hand the north is stretched out in space, and the earth is hanging on nothing.

8 By him the waters are shut up in his thick clouds, and the cloud does not give way under them.

9 By him the face of his high seat is veiled, and his cloud stretched out over it.

10 By him a circle is marked out on the face of the waters, to the limits of the light and the dark.

11 The pillars of heaven are shaking, and are overcome by his sharp words.

12 By his power the sea was made quiet; and by his wisdom Rahab was wounded.

13 By his wind the heavens become bright: by his hand the quickly moving snake was cut through.

14 See, these are only the outskirts of his ways; and how small is that which comes to our ears about him! But the thunder of his acts of power is outside all knowledge.

Job 26:4-14 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 26

In this chapter Job, in a very sarcastic manner, rallies Bildad on the weakness and impertinence of his reply, and sets it in a very ridiculous light; showing it to be quite foolish and stupid, and not at all to the purpose, and besides was none of his own, but what he had borrowed from another, Job 26:1-4; and if it was of any avail in the controversy to speak of the greatness and majesty of God, of his perfections and attributes, of his ways and works, he could say greater and more glorious things of God than he had done, and as he does, Job 26:5-13; beginning at the lower parts of the creation, and gradually ascending to the superior and celestial ones; and concludes with observing, that, after all, it was but little that was known of God and his ways, by himself, by Bildad, or by any mortal creature, Job 26:14.